From Slave to Schoolteacher: The Life of Betsy Stockton
Written by Hilo History Club: David Freund, Kepa Revelle, Lilliana Galarneau, Donovan Wolford, Alex Aguirre
Photo of Betsy Stockton circa 1863
When Betsey Stockton disembarked the Thames when it arrived in Honolulu Harbor on April 27, 1823, she never realized that she’d made history.
Betsey was born into slavery in Princeton, New Jersey around 1798. Betsy’s owner, Robert Stockton, gave Betsey to his daughter, Elizabeth Stockton. After Elizabeth Stockton married Reverend Ashbel Green of Philadelphia, Betsey served the Green household as a child slave. Betsey continued serving Green well after the passing of Mrs. Green; first while the Reverend served as pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, and then later in her hometown of Princeton when Green took up the presidency of the College of New Jersey. In 1817, Betsey was formally freed after becoming a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Princeton and took the surname “Stockton.” She continued to serve the Green household as a paid domestic servant.
Betsey became interested in missionary work after reading books in the Green family’s home library, initially desiring to go to Africa. However, as fate would have it, Betsey did not end up there. After hearing word that a close friend of the Green family, Charles Samuel Stewart, wanted to go to Hawaiʻi to perform missionary work, Betsey expressed interest in coming along. To fulfill her request, Green and Betsey’s Sabbath schoolteacher recommended her to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) where she was commissioned by the Board as a missionary.
Betsey departed New Haven, Connecticut on November 19, 1822 as part of the second company of missionaries sent to Hawaiʻi. Her ABCFM Contract stated that she was to be regarded and treated “neither as an equal nor as a servant, but as a humble Christian friend.” By the time of her arrival after more than 130 days at sea, Betsey Stockton became the first single American woman to journey overseas as a missionary, and the first African-American woman to arrive in Hawaiʻi.
Despite the terms of her contract that denigrated her in the eyes of the ABCFM, Betsey was well received by the royalty in Hawaiʻi. Upon arrival, her documentation was met with elicitations of approval by the king and chiefs, uttering “aloha” and “maikai [sic].” King Liholiho, as a way of showing his gratitude to the skipper that brought Betsey and her fellow missionaries, waived the harbor fee, saying:
Capt. Clasby—love to you. This is my communication to you. You have done well in bringing hither the new teachers. You shall pay nothing on account of the harbor—nothing at all. Grateful affection to you.
For the next two years in Hawaiʻi, Betsey resumed the role of a domestic servant in the Stewart household, but also developed her role as a teacher. Soon after arriving in Honolulu, Stewart moved from Honolulu to a new mission station at Lahaina, Maui. Here, Betsey began teaching the first school open to commoners in Hawaiʻi. Although Betsey possessed no formal training in education, she possessed considerable aptitude for the job and her school began to flourish. She prided herself in educating the children of ordinary people, undoubtedly influenced by her own upbringing as a slave. She also taught native Hawaiian teachers, who continued her work after she departed for the mainland in 1825, on account of Mrs. Stewart’s poor health. Betsey continued her desire to educate well after her departure from Hawaiʻi. She briefly taught at an infant school in Philadelphia, established a school for Indigenous Canadians at Grape Island, Canada, and returned to Princeton to teach in its school for people of color until her death on October 24, 1865.
Although short-lived, Betsey’s two years in Hawaiʻi had a significant impact on herself, Hawaiʻi, and history. She honed her skills as a teacher in Lahaina, where she educated poor children, and then carried her skillset to the mainland where she continued to serve until her very last breath. For Betsey Stockton, her importance in women’s and African-American history is matched only by her commitment to education.