ELIZABETH FRY

  When the Quaker Elizabeth married Joseph Fry,it seemed as if her life would be comfortable and peaceful.However,Elizabeth was not content with her easy life and her growing family.She saw many poor people living near her and she wanted to help them.

  One day she was asked to visit a prison.At first the prison officers did not want to let her visit the women prisoners because they feared the prisoners would attack her,but Elizabeth was not afraid.She realized that the prisoners behaved badly because they were being treated like animals.They had no beds,clean clothes,food or heating.Any child born in prison had to stay there and had no chance of an education.This meant they would probably have to beg or steal when they grew up and then would return to prison.So the first thing Elizabeth did was to provide food,clean clothes and straw for beds.Later she began a prison school for the children and taught the women to sew,knit and make goods to sell.In this way they were able to make a little money for themselves and they began to try to improve their conditions for themselves.Later Elizabeth was asked to go to the leaders of Britian to discuss how to improve the conditions for prisoners.

  Of course she did not do all the work on her own.Other Quaker women helped her and went around the country raising money for her work.Some people did not like her ideas and quarrelled with her.They said that she should spend more time with her family.Other people said the enjoyed being famous too much.However,her husband,Joseph,supported and encouraged her,so she continued working to help improve the lives of poor prisoners till she died.Her ideas did not disappear after her death and her work was remembered in 1947 when the Quakers were given the Nobel Peace Prize.