Zilpha Elaw

Zilpha Elaw ( 1790 – 1873) was an African-American preacher and spiritual autobiographer. She has been cited as "one of the first outspoken black women in the United States."

Biography Elaw was born in Pennsylvania, a free woman. Brought up in Philadelphia by a black and deeply religious family, after the death of her mother in 1802, she was sent to live with a Quaker family, Pierson and Rebecca Mitchell; her father died just two years later. After seeing a vision of Jesus, she joined a Methodist society in 1808, marrying Joseph Elaw and moving to Burlington, New Jersey, in 1811. The couple had a daughter, Rebecca, In 1817, Elaw attended a revival camp for a week, and after falling into a trance, she gave her first ever public speech. During the period of 1827 to 1840, she ministered as an itinerant preacher in the United States,

Elaw moved to England, preaching in the summer of 1840. The 1841 census for England shows Elaw as living in Addingham, Yorkshire, states her occupation as Itinerant Preacher and that she is from foreign parts. Records show a Zilpha Elaw married a Ralph Bressey Shum at St Mary Stratford Church, Bow, Tower Hamlets, East London, England on 9 December 1850. The record shows Zilpha Elaw as a widow, her father as Sancho Pancost and his profession as a butcher. The 1861 England census shows a Zilpha Shum as living in Turner Street, Tower Hamlets and her place of birth as America. The 1871 census for England shows a Zilpha Shum as living in Turner Street and having been born in Pennsylvania Bretton, U.S.. She lived there and preached at least into the 1860s,