Charlotte John, Regent Town, Sierra Leone, 1843
Price: $, Sampler size: 12¾" x 11"

A handful of samplers are known to have been made at the missionary schools that were established in Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa. The Church Missionary Society, a Church of England institution, played a key role in bringing western-style education to the missionary villages populated with freed slaves, particularly children, in Freetown, Regent Town and other cities. By the 1820's close to 2500 African children were given English names and living in this colonial English manner.

In 1843, Charlotte John (note that she didn't spell her given name properly in her stitching) worked this sampler, which is very much in the English tradition. It is remarkably similar to the sampler made by Lucy Grant in 1840, also in Regent Town, which is part of the sampler collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum and published as plate 88 in Samplers from the Victoria and Albert Museum by Browne and Wearden. Lucy and Charlotte must have been taught by the same teacher; their samplers both feature alphabets, religious verse and the same baskets of flowers and crossed stems of flowers under the date. This teacher may have been a Mrs. Denton, who is sited in the published periodical, the Church Missionary Record of September 1846. While describing the daily activities of students at the Female Institution of Regent Town, the Record indicated that, after receiving instruction in arithmetic and reading, the girls "joined Mrs. Denton's Day school for sewing."

Worked in silk on wool, the sampler is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a black molded and painted frame.