Louisa Anderson was a Presbyterian missionary in Jamaica and Nigeria. Probably born a free woman of color in Jamaica, Louisa Peterswald was teaching at the mission school at Carron Hall when she met William Anderson, a newly arrived Scottish missionary in January 1840. They were married in 1841, and Louisa continued to teach until they left Jamaica to join the United Presbyterian mission at Calabar, Nigeria. There she worked extensively among the free women. She also ran a home for orphans and other children given into her charge. In 1866 she had sixteen children in her care. Beside regular school teaching, the girls learned household arts, including knitting, sewing, and crochet work. Because of her extraordinary energy and competence, Anderson was known in Calabar as “de best man for de mission.” She died in Calabar.

Geoffrey Johnston

Bibliography

W. Marwick, William and Louisa Anderson: A Record of their Life and Work in Old Calabar (1897).

See also Geoffrey Johnston, Of God and Maxim Guns: Presbyterianism in Nigeria, 1846-1966 (1988).

This article is reproduced, with permission, from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, copyright © 1998, by Gerald H. Anderson, W. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan. All rights reserved.