She wrote firsthand about the Great Hunger in Ireland in the 1840s, documenting life both before and during the famine caused by crop failures, as she traveled the country distributing Bibles, food, and clothing.

Her family belonged to the Protestant Congregation Church and she was named after the biblical Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah and wife of Joseph.

She trained and became a successful teacher in her hometown before she married Norman Nicholson, a widower with three children, and went to live in New York.

She had a sharp eye for inequality and exploitation - exploring the grounds of Clifden Castle in Connemara she wrote of a grotto she discovered: Now appeared a fairy castle, a house with variegated pillars and open door, made of shells of the most delicate shades, arranged in stars and circles of beautiful workmanship.

She returned in 1846 during the second of the five annual crop failures of the potatoes on which the poor of Ireland depended, which, together with high unemployment, was creating a national disaster.

Nicholson was concerned that she would just have to witness the suffering but she wrote to the New-York Tribune and The Emancipator in New York and assistance from their readers was organised.

[7] Nicholson stated that "good bread, pure water, ripe fruit, and vegetables are my meat and drink exclusively."