Sarah Ann Gill (probably 1780 – 25 February 1866) was a social and religious leader in Barbados during the era of slavery. By an act of the Barbadian Parliament in 1998, she was named a National Hero of Barbados. Biography She was born of a black mother and a white father (Jordan), and baptised with the name Ann. The circumstances of her birth disqualified her from any meaningful participation in social and economic life, in a society which was based on racism. In Barbadian society, anyone with a taint of African ancestry, however distant, was considered the natural inferior of all persons of unmixed European descent. Sarah married Alexander George Gill, like her, of mixed ancestry, and inherited property from him at his death when she was 28 years old. The couple had one son who, apparently, died before reaching full adulthood. When the Methodist Church sent missionaries to Barbados early in the 19th century, Sarah embraced this faith and when white planters succeeded in ousting the missionaries from Barbados, she opened her home as a church and kept the faith going, against physical abuse — at one time shots were fired at her home. She donated the land on which the first Methodist Church was built in Barbados. For her exploits in standing firm against oppression in a society in which she was unlikely to find support firstly, as a non-white person, and, secondly, as a woman; she was named as a national heroine. The name Sarah was conferred on her by the Methodist Church in gratitude for her service and in recognition of the pivotal role she played, like Sarah of the Bible, in establishing an alternative to the white-dominated Church of England in Barbados. Like many whose lives and value to society are not always fully appreciated, the significance of Mrs. Sarah Ann Gill's contribution must be measured in terms of the context of the role played by Methodists at that time. That was her chosen faith, hence the focal point of hostility by powerful forces against its challenge to the existing social order. Methodism was brought to Barbados in 1788 by Dr Thomas Coke, a driving force behind early Methodist missionary activity. By 1793, Methodists were often viewed by the Barbadian upper classes as anti-slavery agitators and Methodist missionaries regarded as agents of the England-based Anti-Slavery Society. Gill was a Free Coloured and a member of