Ester Jerman was born in Marlton, NJ in 1840, the daughter of a minister. She received a top notch education, and went to work as a teacher of higher mathematics, Latin, and French at a Virginia Seminary just before the Civil War.
But being a Northerner, she left once the war started and went home. She soon met Reverend Stephen Livingston Baldwin. They were married in 1862 and set off together to return to his job… as a missionary in China. After a five month sailing trip, they arrived at the Foochow Mission. She was quickly given a job supervising several local schools and teaching a Bible class. Later, she would do a lot of translation work of religious literature.
But Ester was an observant person, who familiarized herself with the Chinese culture, particularly that of women and children. She saw a need for “educated women physicians” in particular, and put all call out for one from US to come to China and help train local women. This led to the creation of a hospital for women and children at Foochow, the first of its kind in China, which she spent much time supporting.
But after 18 years in China (in between her other work there, she’d also become the mother of six children), she became seriously ill and was told she needed to change climates to survive. So her family went home to America. Ester fully recovered her health.
But once in America, she was not content to ease into retirement. She became involved with the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society and served as the president of the New York branch for two decades. She was active in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, which called for a ban on alcohol as a way to improve family life (alcoholism and abuse that stemmed from it were big issues at the time). She was an outspoken advocate of equality for women, not just in state matters, but also within the church.
But her finest work was done in the defense of the Chinese. Anti-Chinese racism was rampant in the United States during the period. Local, regional, and national Anti-Chinese Leagues pressured Congress as well as states like California to pass unfair laws affecting Chinese Americans in an attempt to “solve” the “Chinese question”. Mountains of literature and speeches spread misinformation about and heaped abuse on the Chinese and Chinese Americans. Ester Baldwin was infuriated by this, and sprang into action. She wrote articles, gave speeches, and eventually wrote a book called “Must the Chinese Go?”. This book was a direct, forceful attack on anti-Chinese sentiment, alternating between well researched and thought out facts and arguments and biting satire and ridicule of her opponents. While she was billed as the “Chinese Champion” in America, the nation went on to pass a series of repressive laws between 1882 and 1892, such as the Geary Act, that all but eliminated Chinese immigration and severely restricted their rights in the United States. The national laws were not eliminated until 1965.
Ester Baldwin passed away in Brooklyn in 1910.
Trails open dawn to dusk. Please park in the lots, parking along the side of the road is no longer allowed.