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Unlikely Pilgrim: The English Journey Of Zilpha Elaw, Margaret Cullen

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Unlike Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists, African American Methodist preacher and fellow abolitionist Zilpha Elaw initiated her Atlantic crossing to England not as part of the anti-slavery initiative, but as a mission to bring authentic wisdom to English Christians whose pride, she asserted, corrupted real spirituality. When she met in London with the religious leaders who later lionised Douglass, they rejected her immediately. She, in turn, rebuked them for their arrogant assumptions of spiritual superiority. Like Douglass, though, Elaw’s wayfaring to England marked a turning point in her life. On her sacred venture, she became a critic of the very …