The Life and Labors of David Livingstone

David Livingstone, perhaps the best known missionary and explorer of the Victorian period, was born in 1813 to parents Neil and Agnes Livingstone. He began life in Blantyre, a small town near Glasgow on the river Clyde where the cotton mill was the major employer. Like many locals, Livingstone entered the factory when he was ten years old, working as a piecer with the job of repairing threads broken during cotton spinning.

In 1838 Livingstone joined the London Missionary Society (LMS), a predominantly congregationalist organisation. He would later claim that it was the society’s non-denominational and “perfectly unsectarian character” that appealed to him (Livingstone 1857b:6). Following theological training in Chipping Ongar, Essex, and further medical studies in London, Livingstone was ready to enter the mission field.

He initially intended to go to China, but was prevented from doing so by the outbreak of the Opium Wars in 1839. Instead, he changed course to South Africa, having been enticed by the words of the celebrated missionary, Robert Moffat, who described the “smoke of a thousand villages” yet to be visited (Blaikie 1880:28).

In 1841, Livingstone arrived in South Africa where he would spend eleven years at various inland stations, chiefly as missionary to the BaKwena under the leadership of Sechele. Sechele later became an influential figure in the Christianisation of southern Africa, seeking to reconcile the new religion with various traditional practices and beliefs (Parsons 1998:39-40).

(https://livingstoneonline.org/life-and-times/livingstone-s-life-expeditions)