John and Elizabeth Freeman - Executed in India, 1857

The "Mutiny of India" in 1857 was an uprising of Muslims and Brahmins (high caste Hindus) against the British government and particularly Christianity. It took the lives of all eight American missionaries of the Mission at Futtehgurh, including John Edgar Freeman and his wife, Elizabeth.

The Mission at Futtehgurh began 20 years earlier and included an orphanage and a Christian school. As more and more Indians came to Christ over the years, the area around the mission became a Christian village.

John Freeman manage the tent-making ministry of the mission. During his first years in India, he suffered the personal loss of two daughters and soon afterwards, his first wife. A colleague writes that John's "ministering consolation and calmness" during the dark time, was to "show the excellency and power of an inner life, fed and sustained from above."

John Freeman met his second wife, Elizabeth, while on furlough in America. Her letters from India reveal a sense of humor and an exceptional ability to evangelize and teach. Elizabeth was encouraged that the orphans to whom she taught Scripture would grow up to marry and settle in the Christian village of the mission.

In the last months before their martyrdom, the Freemans heard various reports about the "Mutiny" in other parts of India; entire congregations were being massacred. They feared for their own native Christians, but constantly renewed their hopes in the Lord. At the last possible moment, the group of eight Futtehguhr missionaries fled by boat down the Ganges River, encountering hostile villagers and military on both banks. Finally, low water prevented them from travelling further, and they slid into an island at Cawnpore.

For four days, they survived on the island until they were captured by Muslims. They were then bound and marched past exhaustion to a nearby village. June 13, 1857, they were shot at 7 a.m., execution style.

Clearly, these Christians were prepared to "part with life for Christ and His cause" if necessary, and had already counted the cost. In her last letter, Elizabeth Freeman wrote, "I sometimes think our deaths would do more good than we would do in all our lives; if so, 'His will be done.' Should I be called to lay down my life, do not grieve, dear sister, that I came here, for most joyfully will I die for Him who laid down His life for me."