Sarah Ann Gill

Sarah Ann Gill was born in Bridgetown in 1795 to a black mother and a white father. A devoted Methodist in a colonial society dominated by the planter-class Anglican plantocracy, Gill opened her private home as a chapel and sanctuary when white rioters burned down the Bridgetown Methodist chapel in October 1823.

Undeterred by violent threats, arson attempts, and repeated criminal prosecutions by colonial magistrates, Gill boldly continued holding prayer services and literacy sessions for enslaved and free Black Barbadians. Her persistence brought parliamentary condemnation in London against the colonial magistrates, establishing freedom of religion on the island.