With a foreword by Eric Metaxas, best-selling author of Bonhoeffer and Amazing Grace.
The enthralling biography of the woman writer who helped end the slave trade, changed Britain’s upper classes, and taught a nation how to read.
The history-changing reforms of Hannah More affected every level of 18th-Century British society through her keen intellect, literary achievements, collaborative spirit, strong Christian principles, and colorful personality. A woman without connections or status, More took the world of British letters by storm when she arrived in London from Bristol, becoming a best-selling author and acclaimed playwright and quickly befriending the author Samuel Johnson, the politician Horace Walpole, and the actor David Garrick. Yet she was also a leader in the Evangelical movement, using her cultural position and her pen to support the growth of education for the poor, the reform of morals and manners, and the abolition of Britain’s slave trade.
Fierce Convictions weaves together world and personal history into a stirring story of life that intersected with Wesley and Whitefield’s Great Awakening, the rise and influence of Evangelicalism, and convulsive effects of the French Revolution. A woman of exceptional intellectual gifts and literary talent, Hannah More was above all a person whose faith compelled her both to engage her culture and to transform it.
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Summary
This is a well-written book about the life of Hannah More, and her contributions to not only British society, but to society in general. Miss Moore was a contemporary of William Wilberforce and joined him in the fight against slavery in the British kingdom. A much read and admired periodical of the time wrote of her, \"What Wilberforce was among men, Hannah More was among women.\" She was born into the lower classes to parents who, in contrast to popular belief, believed there was great value in providing a solid and useful education to their five daughters. Hannah, the fourth of the five, joined her sisters in opening a school for young ladies which taught subjects that prepared them to be good help meets to their future husbands and good managers of their homes--as opposed to some of the popular \"schools\" of the times which filled young ladies time with useless activities that in turn only created witless, mindless, silly females. Not in any way a radical feminist, More sought for a better education for women, yet stopped short of elevating them over men. In fact, she was a solid proponent of a woman living a life of biblical submission and being a help meet to her husband. Her other great battle was, as mentioned earlier, abolition of slavery. Despite being a female, she put her pen to good use and wrote many pamphlets and such against the evil practice of slavery. William Wilberforce was a close friend, and he looked to More often for support in various ways. Both fought their entire adult lives to see an end to slavery. One died shortly before slavery in the British kingdom was brought to an end; the other died shortly after. Other causes that Miss More gave herself to was teaching the lower classes to read which led to the opening of Sunday Schools, and the gentle and compassionate care of animals put in human stewardship. One of her first and life long causes was the calling of the upper class to living more morally righteous lives. Her premise was that the upper eschelon sets the tone for the morals and behaviors of the rest of the country. She specifically influenced the ruling class with her thoughts, and was successful in bringing about tremendous religious and moral revival. She lived well into her eighties putting her talent in influencing people for the better to good use. She herself asserted that, \"it is part of Christianity to convert every natural talent to a religious use.\" She was quite a woman of influence in a time when women were viewed as little more than bed warmers and bearers of heirs.