Sarah E. Gorham (1832–1894) was the first woman to be sent out as a

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

from the

African Methodist Episcopal Church The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Methodist denomination based in the United States. It adheres to Wesleyan theology, Wesleyan–Arminian theology and has a connexionalism, connexional polity. It ...

.Lindley, Susan Hill, Eleanor J. Stebner, eds. ''The Westminster Handbook to Women in American Religious History'', p. 91. She has been described as a "missionary, church leaders, social worker". Gorham was born in either Maryland or Virginia, but her life is not documented until 1880, when she visited family members who had moved to

Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...

, presumably via the

American Colonization Society The American Colonization Society (ACS), initially the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America, was an American organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to encourage and support the repatriation of freeborn peop ...

. While there, she became interested in the people of the area and the programs of the missionaries. After this visit, she returned to the United States and was involved at the Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1888, at the age of 56, she joined AME missionary John Frederick in Sierra Leone, travelling to the Magbelle mission in

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

(about 75 miles from

Freetown Freetown () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, e ...

), as the AME's first woman foreign missionary. At Magbele she established a school, now kown as the Sarah Gorham Mission School, which gave both religious and industrial training. Ecumenical Life website, ''Twenty-Eight Saints: February 11 and 12''
/ref> In July 1894 she was bedridden with

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...

and died the next month. She was buried in the Kissy Road Cemetery in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

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''A History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church: Being a Volume Supplemental to A History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, by Daniel Alexander Payne, D.D., LL.D., Late One of Its Bishops: Chronicling the Principal Events in the Advance of the African Methodist Episcopal Church from 1856 to 1922'', by Smith, C. S. (Charles Spencer) 1832 births 1894 deaths Female Christian missionaries Methodist missionaries in Sierra Leone African-American missionaries American Methodist missionaries American expatriates in Sierra Leone 19th-century African-American women 19th-century African-American people {{US-reli-bio-stub

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