On this page
-
Text (1)
-
AMALIE SIEVEKINO-. 21
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
^ Amalie Wilheimine Sieyekin© Was Born I...
an association for the care of discharged prisoners _* with which was afterwards united a regular system of visitation of female prisoners .
As might be supposed , the terrible conflagration which laid waste so large a portion of Hamburg in 1842 , called forth all Miss Sieveking ' s
energies . In a letter to her royal friend at Copenhagen , she gives a _veTj vivid description of the calamity , as well as an account of
her own efforts , under the direction of a committee of gentlemen , not only to alleviate the vast amount of suffering It had caused , but
also to guard as much as possible against the demoralising influence to which the poor were exposed , by being necessarily for a time
entirely dependant on eleemosynary aid . "When the excitement had a little subsidedshe resumed her ordinary occupationsand as , since
, , her foster-mother ' s death , she had no domestic claims upon her time , she devoted herself entirely to her charitable labors . Rising at
halfpast four , she would look over her pupil ' s exercises , etc ., till it was time to go to her morning audience for the poorfrom seven till
, eight , at the Senate House ; then , till noon , she held her classes ; from twelve till half-past four the association business occupied her ,
and when she returned home about five o ' clock , a class of from sixteen to twenty poor children were awaiting her to receive religious
instruction . When they left , at six , she most frequently visited the poor until nine o ' clock , when she felt free to recreate herself by
calling on some friend . Thus in constant activity her days and years passed onvaried by an occasional holiday visit to England ,
where she had , become acquainted with Lord Ashley and other philanthropists ; by an excursion to Berlin and introduction to the
Queen of Prussia , and by several short summer sojourns with the now Dowager Queen of Denmark . Pier correspondence -with the latter
lady was of a most interesting character , as may be judged by _tiie following extract from , one of Miss Sieveking's letters to her , written in
the year 1849 : " The emancipation of women , in a Christian sense , seems to me one of the great questions of the age . I have long , long
borne it in my heart , but till now durst not speak of it openly , not thinking that the time was ripe for doing so . I feared the force of
the prejudice , which declares all other kinds of action in woman to be inconsistent with her peculiar household calling , careless whether
this calling really suffice to engage all her energies , to supply all her needs ; asafter most careful observationI am convinced that in
hundreds , and hundreds of cases it does , not . I feared that if I should speak out plainly on this point , I should lose the confidence
of the parents who had intrusted their children to me , and shut myself out of that employment which of all others I preferred .
And yet another thought restrained me : I knew not yet myself what answer to give to the question , how young girls and women
should occupy themselves * But now I have dared to give my opinion on the subjectand it is the signs of tlie times that have
emboldened me to do so , for after careful watching I think that I ,
can read in theni the promise of a new era for our sex . First , and
Amalie Sievekino-. 21
AMALIE _SIEVEKINO-. 21
-
-
Citation
-
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1860, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031860/page/21/
-