The Annals of the Poor—Rural and Conversion Narratives: Elizabeth Campbell, Christian Watt, Elizabeth Oakley, Mrs. Collier, Jane Andrew, and Barbara Farquhar

Abstract

In this chapter I consider the autobiographies of women of largely rural or provincial backgrounds, marginal incomes, or precarious health. The first section is devoted to the reminiscences of Elizabeth Oakley, a servant and farmer’s wife; Elizabeth Campbell, a servant, factory worker, and modestly published poet; and Christian Watt, a widowed fishwife who wrote her diary while institutionalized after a nervous breakdown left her unable to feed her large family. Though all of the autobiographers discussed in this chapter were religious, spiritual experiences or views provided the main impetus for the memoirs of those discussed in the second section: Jane Andrew, an invalided orphan; Barbara Farquhar, a “Labourer’s Daughter” and author of a treatise promoting Sundays as a day of rest; and A. Collier, a “Bible-Woman” who sought divine help in her struggles to cope with the sporadic hunger and physical violence she endured.