Editing Philip Henry Gosse (section)

==Early life==
Philip Henry Gosse was born in [[Worcester, England|Worcester]] in 1810, second of four children of Thomas Gosse (1765–1844), a mezzotint engraver and itinerant painter of miniature portraits, and Hannah (née Best), a lady's maid before her marriage. He spent his childhood mostly in [[Poole]], Dorset, where his aunt, Susan Bell, taught him to draw and introduced him to zoology. She had similarly taught her own son, [[Thomas Bell (zoologist)|Thomas Bell]], who was 18 years older and later became a great friend to Gosse.{{sfnp|Thwaite|2002|pages=5-6}}<ref name="oxforddnb.com">{{cite ODNB |id=11114 |title=Gosse, Philip Henry (1810–1888) |first=L.R. |last=Croft}}</ref>

At 15, he began work as a clerk in the [[counting house]] of George Garland and Sons in [[Poole]]. In 1827 he sailed to [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]] to serve as a clerk in the [[Carbonear]] premises of Slade, Elson and Co. There he became a dedicated, self-taught student of Newfoundland [[entomology]], "the first person systematically to investigate and to record the entomology" of the island.<ref>{{cite DCB |first=Douglas |last=Wertheimer |title=Gosse, Philip Henry |volume=11 |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/gosse_philip_henry_11E.html}}</ref> While living in Carbonear, he wrote and illustrated an "exquisite" volume, never published, the "Entomologia Terra Novae".<ref>{{harvp|Thwaite|2002|pages=54-55}}</ref> In 1832 Gosse experienced a [[religious conversion]] and, as he described it, "solemnly, deliberately and uprightly, took God for my God."<ref>Quoted in {{harvp|Thwaite|2002|p=50}}</ref>

In 1835 he left Newfoundland for [[Compton County, Quebec|Compton]], [[Lower Canada]] (Quebec), where he farmed unsuccessfully for three years. He originally tried to establish a [[Commune (intentional community)|commune]] with two of his religious friends. The experience deepened his love for natural history, and locals referred to him as "that crazy Englishman who goes about picking up bugs."{{sfnp|Thwaite|2002|pages=58, 67}} During this time he became a member of the [[Natural History Society of Montreal]] and submitted specimens to its museum.<ref>
{{cite book|title=The Life of Philip Henry Gosse|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofphiliphenr00goss_0|author=Edmund Gosse|year=1890}}</ref>

In 1838 Gosse taught for eight months for Reuben Saffold, the owner of [[Belvoir (Saffold Plantation)|Belvoir]] [[plantations in the American South|plantation]], near [[Pleasant Hill, Dallas County, Alabama|Pleasant Hill, Alabama]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Letters from Alabama, (U.S.) chiefly relating to natural history |last=Gosse |first=Philip Henry |year=1993 |orig-year=1859 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |location=Tuscaloosa |isbn=0-585-32308-9|edition=Annotated |pages=7–21 }}</ref> In this period, planters often hired private tutors to teach their children. Gosse also studied the local flora and fauna, and drew illustrations of insects in a notebook titled ''Entomologia Alabamensis'', not published until 2010.<ref>Mullen, Gary R. and Taylor D. Littleton (2010) ''Philip Henry Gosse: Science and Art in ''Letters from Alabama'' and ''Entomologia Alabamensis''.'' Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8173-1708-9}}</ref> The cotton plantation was in the Black Belt of Alabama, and Saffold held numerous enslaved labourers. Gosse recorded his negative impressions of [[slavery]], later published as ''Letters from Alabama'' (1859).{{sfnp|Thwaite|2002|page=87}}