Page - 117 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/01

“As i cannot write I put this down simply and freely” | 117www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/1, 95–122 sampler there are at least two levels of material meaning-making to address. The first level to consider includes the production of the sampler after 1829. This level highlights the meaning the text conveys and the implication of nee- dlework and embroidery as a privileged practice used for educating girls and shaping the skills, behaviours, and thoughts of women in the early 19th-cen- tury English historical context. The second level of material meaning-making includes considerations of the sampler as a piece exhibited in the textile collection of the V&A museum. This piece of needlework attracted my attention during a visit to the collection in 2009. On this second level, meaning-making arises out of the encounter between the material object and a scholarly interpretation that aims to fill a gap within the European history of religion and, more generally, the study of religion. The analysis of the sampler opens a window on the religious practices and worldviews of women who did not have access to more formal forms of storing their ideas, thoughts, sufferings, and hopes, such as printed books or personal, well-written journals. Embedded in a Victorian ideal of girls’ education, the sampler highlights the adaption to mainstream values and behaviours as well as the opening of a space in which to express “simply and freely” an intimate desire to resist self-destruction through the expression of forbidden plans. The ambiguity of this female space is mirrored in the function of the Bible: on the one hand the sacred text legitimises gender differences that relegate women to a domestic role, while on the other hand it functions as a source of hope and resilience for a young woman facing violence, depression, and the temptation of suicide. This exemplum highlights the effects that neglected sources may have on what we define as the history of religion, which, in fact, should always be pluralised. There are many histories about people, communities, belief sys- tems, and traditional processes that have yet to be told in a way which takes seriously material objects and the practices related to them. Appendix 1 As i cannot write I put this down simply and freely as I might speak to a per- son to whose intimacy and tenderness I can fully intrust myself and who I know will bear with all my weaknesses 2 I was born at Ashburnham in the county of Susƨex in the year 1813 of poor but pious parents my fathers occupation was a labourer for the Rt Hon. the Earl of A. my Mother kept the Rt. Hon.