Elizabeth Hart Thwaites

Elizabeth Hart Thwaites (1772–1833) was an Antiguan writer of biographies and Methodist histories, religious leader, and abolitionist who worked closely with her sister, Anne Hart Gilbert. The two women, working within the Methodist church became two of the first female African Caribbean writers and the first educators of slaves and free blacks in the Caribbean. In 1815, they established the Female Refugee Society, which gave instruction and moral education to enslaved women. The sisters were outspoken opponents of slavery and supporters of women's education and total emancipation, and chose in 1786 to break societal norm by becoming baptized Methodists, renouncing their life of comfort, and marrying Methodist missionaries.