Rosabel Nelson

Rosabel Edith Nelson (September 1889 – June 1959) was a Samoan independence activist. She was the wife of Ta'isi Olaf Frederick Nelson, a founding leader of the Samoan anti-colonial Mau movement.

She was Rosabel Edith Moors on September 1889, the second daughter of Harry Jay Moors, a wealthy American businessman, and his Samoan wife Fa’animonimo. Harry Moors was one of the most successful businessmen in colonial Samoa and befriended Robert Louis Stevenson during the author's five years in Samoa. Rosabel Moore was educated at St. Mary's in Apia and Mills College in San Francisco. In July 1909, she married Nelson, the son of a Swedish businessman and his Samoan wife. O. F. Nelson was one of the wealthiest men in the Pacific islands, especially after the combination of his father's business and Moors' in 1922 as O. F. Nelson and Son Ltd.

As a result of his activities in the Mau movement, O. F. Nelson was exiled from Samoa in 1927, leaving Rosabel to oversee the business. In was later called the Black Saturday Massacre on December 28, 1929, nine Samoans were killed by colonial police, including Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III. Following the event, male Mau leaders were targeted for arrest and prosecution. Rosabel Nelson and three other prominent women formed a Women's Mau to continue agitating against the colonial government, who responded with character assassination, police raids, and charges of sedition against Rosabel and her sister Priscilla. They were convicted of sedition in April 1930, bur received suspended sentences.

Rosabel Nelson died on June 1959 in Papauta, Apia.