The role of Quaker women in the struggle for equal rights was impressive.

1. The Fourth Annual Quaker Genealogy & History Conference “ A Woman’s Place . . . Southwest Ohio Quaker Women & Reform Movements, 1800-1860 ” Thursday ~ Sunday April 24, 25, 26, & 27, 2008 Report of the Research Committee This project has been supported by the OHIO HUMANITIES COUNCIL: A state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities © The Mary L. Cook Public Library

2. Sponsored by the Quaker Heritage Center , Wilmington College , Wilmington, Ohio & The Mary L. Cook Public Library , Waynesville, Ohio, a member of the Freedom Station Affiliate Program of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Meriam R. Hare Quaker Heritage Center

3. Compiled and Written by Karen S. Campbell, Genealogy Librarian The Mary L. Cook Public Library The Ohioana Room 381 Old Stage Road Waynesville, Ohio 45068 http:// www.mlcook.lib.oh.us

4. To understand the motivations of people involved in reform work during the antebellum period, one must examine a little bit of theology and church history. Bright expectations, but also great fears, for the future filled the antebellum world and the lives of the American people. Those expectations were rooted in and enlightened by faith. In the majority of cases, motivations for women to become involved in reform work were religious, whether they were Orthodox Evangelical Christians or more Liberal Christians. How far and how long a woman could participate in the reform movements depended on her church or religious community as well as her own feeling of a call to service. Some women remained churched, other “ came out ” of their churches to find greater spiritual freedom.

5. Where is a Woman’s Place? What did men think? “ Observing woman's agency, devotion and efficiency in pleading the cause of the slave, gratitude for this high service early moved me to give favorable attention to the subject of what is called ‘woman's rights’ and caused me to be denominated a woman's rights man. I am glad to say I have never been ashamed to be thus designated .” [ Life and Times of Frederick Douglass , 1881] “ Woman, however, like the colored man, will never be taken by her brother and lifted to a position. What she desires, she must fight for .”

6. Charles Dickens: American Notes BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS. February 1842. Public Meeting Places for Women of Society. “ The tone of society in Boston is one of perfect politeness, courtesy, and good breeding. The ladies are unquestionably very beautiful-in face: but there I am compelled to stop. Their education is much as with us; neither better nor worse. I had heard some very marvelous stories in this respect; but not believing them, was not disappointed. Blue ladies there are, in Boston; but like philosophers of that colour and sex in most other latitudes, they rather desire to be thought superior than to be so. Evangelical ladies there are, likewise, whose attachment to the forms of religion, and horror of theatrical entertainments, are most exemplary. Ladies who have a passion for attending lectures are to be found among all classes and all conditions. In the kind of provincial life which prevails in cities such as this, the Pulpit has great influence. The peculiar province of the Pulpit in New England (always excepting the Unitarian Ministry) would appear to be the denouncement of all innocent and rational amusements. The church, the chapel, and the lecture-room, are the only means of excitement excepted; and to the church, the chapel, and the lecture-room, the ladies resort in crowds .”

8. often useful and a qualification not to be neglected in one who is to become a mother and an instructor. Dancing is a healthy and elegant exercise, a specific against social awkwardness, but an accomplishment of short use , for the French rule is wise, that no lady dances after marriage... gestation and nursing leaving little time to a married lady when this exercise can be either safe or innocent ." He wrote to his daughter Martha on her marriage: " The happiness of your life now depends on the continuing to please a single person. To this all other objects must be secondary, even your love for me.” Thomas Jefferson’s comments on girls and women reading novels: " The result is a bloated imagination, sickly judgment and disgust towards all the real business of life. For like reason, much poetry should not be indulged. Some is useful for forming taste and style. French is indispensable. Music is invaluable where a person has an ear. Drawing is an innocent and engaging amusement,

9. Jean-Jacques Rousseau " The education of women should always be relative to that of men. To please, to be useful to us, to make us love and esteem them, to educate us when young, to take care of us when grown up, to advise, to console us, to render our lives easy and agreeable; these are the duties of women at all times, and what they should be taught in their infancy ."

10. CURIOSITY, n. An objectionable quality of the female mind. The desire to know whether or not a woman is cursed with curiosity is one of the most active and insatiable passions of the masculine soul. EXCEPTION, n. A thing which takes the liberty to differ from other things of its class, as an honest man, a truthful woman, etc. The Devil's Dictionary , 1911. Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) US journalist, short-story writer

11. “ Only a man who has loved a woman of genius can appreciate what happiness there is in loving a fool. ~~” Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand (1754-1838) French statesman

12. St. Paul 33 For God is not a God of disorder but of peace. As in all the congregations of the saints , 34 women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. 35 If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. 1 Corinthians 14:33-36

13. Fox wrote in his 1656 treatise, “ The Woman Learning in Silence, or, The Mystery of the Woman’s Subjection to Her Husband ”: “ If Christ be in the Female as well as in the Male, is not he the same? And may not the Spirit of Christ speak in the Female as well as in the Male? Is he there to be limited? Who is it that dare limit the Holy One of Israel? For the Light is the same in the Male, and in the Female, which cometh from Christ .” George Fox (1624 – 1691) Founder of The Society of Friends

14. What did women think? 1614 Birth of Margaret Askew Fell. Her second husband was George Fox , the founder of The Society of Friends . Margaret was born in Dalton-in-Furness, Lancashire, England. She is known as the “ Nursing Mother of Quakerism ” and was one of the “ Valiant Sixty ”, the earliest group of Quaker preachers and missionaries. Her home, Swarthmore Hall , became a haven for traveling Quaker ministers. She wrote many treatises on Quakerism, and founded the Kendal Fund to help Friends who were in jail or were being persecuted in some way. She worked for the release of those imprisoned and was imprisoned herself. During her own imprisonment (1664-1668) she wrote, “ Women’s Speaking Justified ”. She was a Quaker minister. Swarthmore Hall

15. Margaret Fell warned that people should not ridicule God’s chosen “ instruments ” to proclaim the Good News : “ Mark this, you that despise and oppose the message of the Lord God that He sends by women; what had become of the redemption of the whole body of mankind if they had not cause to believe the message that the Lord Jesus sent by these women, of and concerning His resurrection?” ( Womens Speaking Justified by Margaret Fell, 4.9.11.16) She argued that if Mary the mother of Jesus, the “ woman at Samaria ”, Martha, and “ the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her hair ,” and Mary Magdalene were trusted with the Good News , why can’t other women also be so trusted? If Mary’s Magnificat ( Luke 1:46-55), one of the most beautiful expressions of inspired faith, is used in the Book of Common Prayer , why can not other inspired women speak in meeting for worship?

16. My soul doth magnify the Lord / and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded / the lowliness of his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth / all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath magnified me / and holy is his Name. And his mercy is on them that fear him / throughout all generations. He hath shewed strength with his arm / he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seat / and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things / and the rich he hath sent empty away. He remembering his mercy hath helped his servant Israel / as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed for ever. The Magnificat is the prayer of a woman who has been “ magnified ,” praised by God and is inspired to “ magnify the Lord .” She is the archetypal “ Mother of Israel, ” a prophet who speaks the Truth.

17. Before the Protestant Reformation , the Cult of Mary in the Roman Catholic Church and Tradition was the archetypical image of the good woman and helped to define women’s place in Catholic society. That image developed into a passive although powerful image of an obedient woman who said “ yes ” to God and became the New Eve, The Mother of God (Jesus), the mother of a newly redeemed humanity due to Jesus’ redemptive act, “ the first apostle ” of her son, the Queen of Heaven, and the first among saints. Mary the mother of Jesus was understood to be the “ woman in the wilderness ”, “ the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet ”, mentioned in Revelation 12.

18. Then a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and on her head was a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was screaming in labor pains, struggling to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon that had seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadem crowns. Now the dragon’s tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and hurled them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. So the woman gave birth to a son, a male child, who is going to rule over all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was suddenly caught up to God and to his throne, and she fled into the wilderness where a place had been prepared for her by God, so she could be taken care of for 1,260 days. ~~ The Book of Revelation 12:1-6

19. Even with such a strong female figure as Mary, the Mother of Jesus, a woman who had been rescued from the faults and sins of the “ First Eve ”, the image of Mary, and then through her, the image of women in general, was passive and it emphasized obedience. Mary had obeyed God and now, according to The Book of Revelation , she now has “ a place” which had been prepared for her by God in the wilderness. Luther and other Protestant reformers emphasized the importance of the moral role of women in the home and the sanctity of marriage. Holiness would be able to be attained in everyday life. Tremendous importance was placed on the family. Clerical power, of course, was still only for men. For a short time within the radical Anabaptist tradition, women were allowed some prophetic roles but that came to an end with the inevitable institutionalization of the movement. Consequently, throughout the Protestant tradition women’s moral authority is definitely deposited in domesticity. “ A Woman’s place ” is in the home.

20. “ A woman’s place ” is defined in Scripture in both conventionally limiting and liberating ways. Whoever controls doctrinal development and scriptural interpretation in a church has held the power to define “ a woman’s place ” in both the church and society. Those in control were traditionally men. However, the “ horse was out of the barn .” The Christian experience of unity & oneness with Christ is one of turning away from the old to the new and is genderless. New wine skins are needed for new wine ( Matthew 9: 17). St. Paul wrote in Galatians , his great treatise on Christian freedom, “ There is no longer Jew nor Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus ” ( Galatians 3:28). Many women today see the world’s religions as archaic oppressors of women. Within Christian Scripture and Tradition the story is a mixed bag.

21. Within Protestant history, the millennial expectations of the various churches also impacted the role of women. The innately liberating aspects of Christianity, those that are freeing for women are associated with predictions concerning the “ eschaton ” and the millennium. Millennial expectations would dictate whether a group would believe whether the “ age of prophecy ” associated with the end-time had arrived or if it was still closed off and far away. The closer the “ age of prophecy ”, the greater is the possibility of freedom for women. No matter if a woman had found her individual church “ liberating ” in relation to preaching or being involved in moral reform, most established churches struggled over the issue of “ women’s place ” in the public sphere of society. The courage and commitment of a true prophet would be needed for women to break forth from the comfortable but binding legal cords of the traditional woman’s sphere of domesticity, which included church and benevolent work. Women in the American “ wilderness ” would begin a long three-hundred year journey to a “ place ” of greater freedom and civil rights.

22. “ Then Afterward I will pour out my spirit on All flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall Prophesy, Your old men shall dream Dreams, And your young men shall See visions. Even on the male and female Slaves, In those days, I will pour out My spirit ” ~~ Joel 2: 28-29 Many people believed that they were nearing or were in the “ eschaton ”, the end-time, because a mighty Spirit was blowing, men and women were prophesying, and even slaves were inspired to seek their freedom from the bondage of sin and from physical enslavement as well. An African-American woman preacher, Mrs. Juliann Jane Tillman, Preacher of the AME Church, P.S. Duval, 1844.

23. Many end-time scenarios have been broached throughout Christian history based on interpretations of the last book of the New Testament , the apocalyptic Book of Revelation . There are three traditional theories within the study of Eschatology , the study of the end-time, to explain the possible nature of the Millennium , the thousand year reign promised in Revelation 20. The first two scenarios associated with conservative Christianity will help shed light on the millennial expectations that populated the antebellum world in the United States, a time when the definition of “ a woman’s place ” was radically challenged and changed in a way that is still influencing us today. These two eschatological constructs are rooted in opposite views of the goodness or badness of human nature and the extent of the brokenness of the world within conservative Christianity. The third scenario can be interpreted conservatively but is usually identify with the more Liberal Christian tradition.

24. Pre-Millennial Eschatology ~ This theory is rooted in a pessimistic Calvinist view of human nature that claims that human beings can not do anything morally good. Since there is no real free will, human beings can only do evil, even when they don’t intend to do so. Human beings are utterly incapable of helping themselves morally, nor can they affect anything good on the unredeemed earth which is broken asunder by sin. Only the supernatural intervention of God through the return of Jesus Christ can make all things right and usher in the 1000 year reign before the final judgment by the triumphant Christ. New sectarian groups are usually pre-millennial in attitude expecting the immediate return of Christ followed by the Millennium and they resist involvement in reform groups and in politics within the larger society. After all, all secular governments and societies will be wiped away during Christ’s millennial reign. Under this scenario, and in a limited manner, women can be judged within the faith community to be prophets proclaiming the quickly approaching Lord.

25. Post-Millennial Eschatology ~ This theory is rooted in a more optimistic view of God’s grace and of human nature which embraces free will. Human nature is fallen but it is not unredeemable. Human beings can cooperate with God’s redeeming grace. The world is not totally unredeemable. It is a mixed bag, just as human beings are a complex combination of good and bad. Regenerated human beings can choose to cooperate with God’s grace to regenerate the world through the reform of the world’s institutions. Human beings can help to pave the way for the Lord and strengthen the present “ millennium ”, the dispensation of the church militant on earth. God works his will through human instrumentality and human institutions such as the churches and extra-church organizations slowly but surely. After this millennial time of renewal and purification, the Triumphant Christ will return and judge all and rule.

26. The “ place for women ” in this scenario is usually conventional even when involved with benevolent work in society because they are limited by a conservative or literal interpretation of St. Paul’s comments on the role of women in the New Testament . The Post-Millennial point of view also emphasizes that a person must go beyond “ conversion ” and be “ sanctified. ” “ Sanctification ” is a life-long experience of living one’s faith with benevolence. Evangelical women and men felt compelled to practice, and display too, their benevolence by participating in the “ sisterhood ” of moral reform movements that were trans-denominational in the “ Evangelical Empire .”

27. Nunc-Millennial (Also known as Realized-Millennial) Eschatology ~ This theory has been conservatively interpreted to mean that the age of the church(es) is the Millennium and so since the first Pentecost, human beings have been living in the Millennium (similar to the explanation above under Post-Millennial). However, another more liberal explanation of this theory emphasizes that the eschatological longed-for Millennium has already arrived and can be lived in a comprehensive way by individuals and communities who aspire to moral perfection in their spiritual lives. The Children of God, in this scenario have already been revealed., i.e. the Quakers, other groups of the radical reformation, and religious groups that embrace an utopian ideal.

28. In this scenario of nunc-eschatology women are usually encouraged to fulfill their calling from God to preach and prophesy. A full lay ministry is supported. Human beings are being transfigured and transformed. It is believed that now in the present moment, from moment to moment, the old is being made new, the old creation is being renewed, and incorruptibility is replacing corruptibility. Reform is a deep-seated re-creation and restoration of God’s creation that is on-going in individuals and spreads outwardly to the larger creation and society. Benevolence by these sectarian communities is also integral to the transformation from the old creation to the new. The membership in the sect’s benevolent reform oriented groups are, however, usually exclusive to the sect’s members, although the work is aimed not only at sect members but also at the people of the “ world ”.

29. TWO DIFFERENT VISIONS OF UTOPIA IN AMERICA The Puritans ~” A City On The Hill ” The first religious utopian endeavor in America was attempted by the Puritans of New England in the 17th century. They were intent on building a society based on a covenant that rigorously demanded absolute obedience to the Laws of God as they interpreted them. Their society permeated with moral purity was to be a City on a Hill , a Light to all the nations as would befit the predestined Elect, the visible saints of God. Calvinist orthodoxy is summed up in the five doctrines of Dort, known as “ The Tulip ”: T otal depravity of human nature U nconditional election (No free will) L imited atonement (Christ only died for the Elect) I rresistibility of Grace (Can’t turn away God’s gift) P erseverance of the Saints (Those who are saved must remain sinless.)

30. The Puritan oligarchy in New England was able to keep control of doctrine, virtue, and law in most towns. They created a close-knit community wherein there was a stifling lack of privacy and personal freedom; where the Elect watched each other for signs of reprobation and where the saints could display their elected-ness. Outsiders were not welcomed and apostates were expelled. Puritan dissenters were many. Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson were compelled to leave the commonwealth. Quaker men and women ministers who dared to preach in Massachusetts were persecuted and a number hanged, one of whom was Friend Mary Dyer.

31. October 19th, 1658 ~ The Puritan authorities in the Massachusetts Bay Colony again strengthen the law against “ invading ” Quakers: “ . . . being too weak a defense against their impetuous frantick fury necessitated us to endeavor our security, and upon serious consideration, after the former experiments by their incessant assaults, a law was made that such persons should be banished on the pain of death.” Late 1658 ~ Quakers descend on Boston to challenge the unjust death penalty: William Robinson , Marmaduke Stephenson , Mary Dyer , Mary Scott , and Hope Clifton . Alice Cowland came from Newport, Rhode Island carrying linen in which to wrap the martyrs. October 27th, 1659 ~ Dyer , Robinson , and Stephenson were sentenced to hang. There is a last minute reprieve for Mary Dyer came and she was taken to Rhode Island June 1st, 1660 ~ Friend Mary Dyer is hanged on Boston Common by Puritan authorities for trying to re-enter the Massachusetts Bay Colony after being banished for preaching the message of Quakerism.

32. Mary Dyer "I came to keep bloodguiltiness from you, desiring you to repeal the unrighteous and unjust law made against the innocent servants of the Lord." " Nay, man, I am not now to repent ."

33. THE LAMB’S WAR ~ A QUAKER UTOPIA IN PENNSYLVANIA “ And whilst I was in my travails and sufferings I saw the state of the city New Jerusalem, which comes out of heaven . . . which the professors had looked up onto be like an outward city or some town that had come out of the elements. . . The spiritual reign of Christ Jesus in this great city, is within the light, the city of the living God . . . so there is a city within the light (where) there is no place or language, but there his voice may be heard. The gate stands open night and day that all may come in here. . . Without the city are dogs (Rev. 22:15). . . within this city, here is light, here is the heavenly bread and blood of the Lamb to eat and drink of. . . I am just in the city. Oh, the heavenly Jerusalem, the bride is comedown, the marriage of the Lamb that must go over all the false cities that have gotten up since the apostles' days . . . This true . . . city is come down since the apostles' days and is coming down from God. . . All that are within the light of Christ and his faith . . . and within the Spirit and the Holy Ghost that Christ and the prophets and apostles were in. . . . all that come to this heavenly city, New Jerusalem, that is above the old (and) which is the mother of all true Christians. . . . must come to the truth and light in their hearts . . .” ~~ George Fox (The Journal of George Fox, p. 433) George Fox’s Nunc-Millennialsim

34. The Quaker faith in the “ Inner Light ” rejected most of the five Calvinistic doctrines of Dort. The Calvinistic belief is stated first and then the Quaker response: T otal depravity of human nature ~ Even good people have an inevitable tendency to sin and will sin. U nconditional election (No free will) ~ People can freely choose to refuse their salvation. There is such a thing as free will. L imited atonement (The historical Christ only died for the Elect. Salvation is imputed and so there is no real inward change in the person.) ~ The coming of the Christ Spirit is for the atonement of all. A person has a free choice to accept it or reject it. Quaker emphasis is place on the saving power of the Inner Christ . The person does inwardly change and continually grows morally and spiritually. I rresistibility of Grace (Can’t turn away God’s gift) ~ People can resist grace if they so choose. P erseverance of the Saints (Those who are saved must remain sinless.) ~ People can backslide but they can regain grace and sanctification again through the revealing “ Inner Light of Christ, ” that “ Seed ” out of which the person’s repentance will grow again. There is always hope. The Quakers were perfectionists who defined sanctification as a slow life-long process of transformation.

35. Just as the Puritans had sought a refuge in the New World, so too did the Quakers seek a place away from persecution in England. Would their intensely internal understanding of the “ Lamb’s War ” be transferable to the outer reality of colonial politics? How would the Quaker Testimonies of Simplicity, Integrity, Equality, and Peace manifest themselves in the political sphere? Unlike the Puritans of New England whose community was exclusive and intolerant of people of other faiths, Friends were determined to establish a province based on tolerance and the dictates of a rational humane way of life and government. They wanted to have a place of their own in the new world that would be safe from persecution for themselves and for all people. They wanted to witness to the Peace they experienced in their hearts. They also wanted a place where human rights would be extended to everyone. The challenge was to bring the “ Gospel Order ” of their spiritual lives into the public sphere. Instead of calling his newly founded town “ New Jerusalem ”, a spiritual reality that was inward in the hearts of individual Quakers and within their meetings for worship and business, William Penn would name his town “ Philadelphia ”, the City of Brotherly Love , the outward expression of the inward “ New Jerusalem ”. William Penn Philadelphia in 1683

36. The “ Holy Experiment ” came to an end with the outbreak of the transatlantic war known as the “ French and Indian War” in America. It was also known in Europe as “ The Seven Years War ”. In 1756 the Quakers relinquished political control of Pennsylvania following the outbreak of “ Seven Years War ” as a demonstration of their confidence in the Quaker Peace Testimony. In 1755 the governor had asked the Pennsylvania assembly to raise a militia and fund it to protect settlers on the frontier from Indian raids. The Quakers in the assembly compromised and did pass a militia bill with the stipulation that anyone who opposed the war for religious reasons was exempt from serving. Many “ weighty Friends ” were concerned that Quakers were being inconsistent about the Peace Testimony. In April 1756 the governor declared war on the Lenape Indians. All of the Quaker assemblymen resigned in protest. Presbyterians then took over the assembly. The treaty with the Lenape was signed under an elm tree at Shackamaxon, a Delaware Indian town once located near present-day Kensington, Pennsylvania. The tree was known as the “ Treaty Elm .” The Tree blew down in a storm in 1810.

38. The Two Great Evangelical Spiritual Awakenings 1730s-1760s ~ A religious revival known as the First Great Awakening begins to burn an enthusiastic path through New England, and the Mid-Atlantic States and the South. The influence of the revival is also felt in Canada and in England and Europe. In the American Colonies it began in the Presbyterian/Congregational churches of New England, but the intensity of the revival would affect almost everyone, north and south. The charismatic and emotional preaching of George Whitefield , a Methodist minister from England who embraced Calvinistic doctrine, was extremely popular. George Whitefield is considered one of the primary founders of the Evangelical Movement. First Great Awakening (1730-1760)

40. Dr. Squintum's Exaltation or the Reformation, 1763 (previous slide) The extraordinarily popular missionary tours of the Reverend George Whitefield triggered a trans-Atlantic Great Awakening of religion in the mid-eighteenth century. He was often called " Dr. Squintum ," the name of an enthusiastic preacher in a popular play satirizing some of the more extreme elements in Methodist revivals. The play criticized the evangelical appeal to passions. For Whitefield, true religion was a matter of the heart--an emotional embrace of Christ--rather than a rational assent to a body of dogma. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, #C-USZ62-108255. A more conventional view of Rev. Whitefield.

41. Whitefield preaching

42. November 29th, 1752 ~ Birth of utopian leader Jemima Wilkinson , known as “ Second descent of the Spirit of Life from God ”, the “ Publick Universal Friend ”, the “ Universal Friend of Mankind ”, and the “ All Friend ” in Cumberland, Rhode Island. Suffering from a disease that produced either coma or seizures, she would prophesize when unconscious and often would appear to be dead. Once she was placed in a coffin, which was nailed shut, but, she regained consciousness and was rescued from her burial. She immediately claimed to be Christ and preached a strict celibacy for her followers. Some believed her to be the second coming of Christ in the guise of the apocryphal Woman in the Wilderness , the Woman Clothed with the Sun (Rev. 12). She attempted to live an androgynous life, always dressing in men clothing. Jemima Wilkinson was born into a traditional Quaker family in Rhode Island. Her followers, known as “ The Society of United Friends ”, separated from mainline Quakerism. She and her followers attempted to establish a “ New Jerusalem ”, a utopia based on a non-dogmatic, a non-doctrinaire and a practical theological and loosely organized community in New York State. Jemima Wilkinson

43. A “ Phrenologica l” portrait of Mother Ann Lee August 6, 1774 ~ Mother Ann Lee and a small group of “ Shakers ” land in New York City. Like her contemporary, Jemima Wilkinson , Mother Ann Lee , thought of herself as that “ woman in the Wilderness ” mentioned in the Book of Revelation and was determined to create Shaker Villages, Zions on earth. She did not preach about the resurrection of the body, however. She preached that sex was evil and to live the “ higher life ” one must remain celibate. She preached that God was a duality, not a trinity; equally male and female.

44. 1792 ~ Joanna Southcott , and erstwhile Methodist, in England proclaims herself the pregnant lady of The Book of Revelations , “ the woman in the wilderness .” “ Shiloh ” was supposedly born on October 19th, 1814. Some of her followers believed that the child was born before her death in 1814, but was taken out of this world into heaven. Joanna Southcott was born into a poor farming family in East Devon in 1750. She was a domestic servant and upholsterer. When she turned forty-two she began to prophesy and interpreted the chaotic social changes in industrial England as a sign of God’s displeasure. During the 1790s she began to write down her many visions and warnings and solutions and published her first book The Strange Effects of Faith in 1801. She had thousands of followers and she published sixty-five books before her death in 1814. Her religious movement continued after her death. It has been estimated that there were during the 19th century approximately 100,000 followers in her prophecies, Southcottians. Her “ box ” of sealed prophecies, whereabouts unclear, is to be open during a national crisis according to her present followers.

45. August 1801 ~ The Cane Ridge Revival , part of the Great Kentucky Revival (part of the Second Great Awakening ) takes place in northern Kentucky. 25,000 attend and are deeply affected by the experience. The Christian Church of Barton Stone and the Disciples of Christ of Alexander Campbell grow out of this “ American Pentecost ”. Early adherents to the“ Restoration Movement ” went by a variety of names: “ New Lights ”, “ Campbellites ”, “ Restorationers ”, “ Christadelphias ”, “ Primitive Christians ”, “ Church of God ”, and so on. Both Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell were ex-Presbyterian ministers and southerners who owned slaves. They freed their slaves. Second Great Awakening (1790-1840) Cane Ridge Meetinghouse, Paris, Kentucky

46. Camp Meeting. Color lithograph by Kennedy and Lucas, after a painting by A. Rider, ca. 1835, negative number 26275. Collection of the New York Historical Society, New York City.

47. In her book Memoirs of the Life, Religious Experience, Ministerial Travels and Labours of Mrs. Zilpha Elaw , an African-American women preacher, she describes a camp meeting which was held in the back woods of the interior: “ In the space before the platform, seats are placed sufficient to seat four or five thousand persons ; and at night the woods are illuminated; there are generally four large mounds of earth constructed, and on them large piles of pine knots are collected and ignited, which make a wonderful blaze and burn a long time; there are also candles and lamps hung about in the trees, together with a light in every tent, and the minister’s stand is brilliantly lighted up; so that the illumination attendant upon a camp-meeting, is a magnificently solemn scene. The worship commences in the morning before sunrise; the watchmen proceed round the enclosure, blowing with trumpets to awaken every inhabitants of this City of the Lord : they then proceed again round the camp, to summon the inmates of every tent to their family devotions; after which they partake of breakfast, and are again summoned by sound of trumpet to public prayer meeting at the altar which is placed in front of the preaching stand. Many precious souls are on these occasions introduced into the liberty of the children of God ; at the close of the prayer meeting the grove is teeming with life and activity; the numberless private conference, the salutations of old friend again meeting in the flesh, the earnest inquires of sinners, the pressing exhortations of anxious saints, the concourse of pedestrians, the arrival of horses and carriages of all descriptions render the scene portentously interesting and intensely surprising.

48. At ten 0’clock, the trumpets sound again to summon the people to public worship; the seats are all speedily filled and as perfect a silence reigns throughout the place as in a Church or Chapel; presently the high praises of God sound melodiously from this consecrated spot, and nothing seems wanting but local elevation to render the place a heaven indeed . It is like God’s ancient and holy hill of Zion on her brightest festival days, when the priests conducted the processions of people to the glorious temple of Jehovah .”

51. Presbyterian minister Richard McNemar is also influenced by the Second Great Awakening and he will eventually leave the New Light Presbyterians and become one of the founders of Shaker Union Village in Warren County, Ohio. The ecstatic dancing of Shakers.

52. In Between the Two Great Awakening Revivals was the American Revolution and the Establishment of the United States. The two Awakenings are like bookends to the Revolution.

53. The beleaguered Americans during the darkest days of the Revolution were assured that “we have incontestable evidence, that God Almighty, with all the powers of heaven, are on our side. Great numbers of angels, no doubt, are encamping round our coast, for our defense and protection. Michael stands ready; with all the artillery of heaven, to encounter the dragon, and to vanquish this black host.” In-other-words, the revolution was a just, perhaps even a holy war; a war to defend civil and personal freedom and also to defend the newly found freedom of God’s church, the “ ecclesia ”, from the machinations of European politics and clerical control. Consequently, the Anti-Christ was no longer thought of as the classic embodiment of heresy, heterodoxy, or non-conventional beliefs. It became “ Tyranny ” itself, in this case, the oppression of England. According to American revolutionary political theology, the survival of the new Republic would play a role in the history of salvation as well as secular history During the Revolution the image of “the woman in the wilderness” from the Book of Revelation had taken on another, more political, meaning. Seeking religious liberty from the bondage and servitude of sin would take on an additional layer of meaning; liberty from civil tyranny. Congregational minister Samuel Sherwood (1730–1783) gave the most famous sermon of the revolutionary era concerning the millennial theme in politics, “The Church’s Flight into the Wilderness” in January of 1776.

54. Rev. Samuel Sherwood St. Michael defends “ ecclesia ” from the dragon, “ Tyranny .”

56. “ The expression of that principle, in our Declaration of Independence, was most happy, and fortunate. Without this, as well as with it, we could have declared our independence of Great Britain; but without it, we could not, I think, have secured our free government and consequent prosperity. The assertion of that principle , at that time, was the word "fitly spoken" which has proven an "apple of gold" to us. The Union and the Constitution, are the picture of silver, subsequently framed around it. The picture was made, not to conceal , or destroy the apple; but to adorn and preserve it. The picture was made for the apple -- not the apple for the picture. So let us act, that neither picture , nor apple shall ever be blurred, bruised or broken .” ~Abraham Lincoln, Fragmentary Writing, c. 1858, (" A Meditation on Proverbs 25:11 ") Lincoln quotes the Bible to help him phrase his political thought: “ A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver ”, Proverbs 25:11.

57. Abraham Lincoln’s masterful definition of the moral foundation of the nation and the role of the United States as the beacon of democracy and freedom to the world and as the advocate for universal human rights, which is known as the great American Civil Religion/Theology, is a moral theism devoid of sectarian conflict and anger and liberal in its all-inclusive embrace of religious diversity. It is a unique combination of religious and political faith that developed because of the Separation of Church and State in our culture.

59. THE FIRST GREAT AWAKENING (approximately 1730-1760) How it influenced American Quakerism: ~ The time of the first evangelical Great Awakening overlaps with the end of the Quaker “ Great Experiment ” in Pennsylvania (approximately 1681-1756). ~ Withdrawal from active politics; Quakers affirm their testimony of peace by non-participation in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution . Quakers retreat back into sectarianism; behind the “ hedge ”. The period is known as the “ Quietist ” Period (approximately 1700-1800). ~ There is a religious renewal movement within Quakerism lead by Quaker reformers and leaders like John Churchman and John Woolman. ~ Quakers come to a consensus about the evils of slavery and eliminate slavery from among themselves. The Quaker response to the reform movement to eradicate slavery outside of its own sectarian boundaries would be ambivalent and would manifest resistance to civic involvement in antebellum reform movements. The “ proper ” way to engage the world about the Quaker testimony against slavery would be an awful antebellum conundrum for American Quakers.

60. ~ Quakers embrace the English Enlightenment values of reason, emotional balance, humanitarianism, and social stability. ~ Quakers become “ enlightened bourgeois Quakers ” and experience great success and wealth. ~ Continual accommodation of the Evangelical theological point-of-view due to the Great Awakening and the influence of British Quakers who have adopted Evangelical beliefs (i.e. Friends Mary Dudley and Thomas Shillitoe).

61. THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING (approximately 1790-1850) How it influenced American Quakerism: ~ The Second Great Evangelical Awakening places emphasis on Post-millennialism , personal and societal reform , and on “ Perfectionism.” ~ The great migration of Quakers from Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia to the Northwest Territory to escape from slavery at the turn of the 19th century. Orthodox (Evangelical) ~ 1828- THE HICKSITE SEPARATION Conservative Hicksite (more Liberal) ~ 1838- THE GURNEY-WILBUR SCHISM WITHIN THE ORTHODOX QUAKERS - John Wilbur opposes the evangelistic methods of an English missionary, Joseph John Gurney and held to the more primitive Quaker practices and teachings. The main Orthodox body of The Society of Friends would eventually accept Gurney (Gurneyities) but the followers of John Wilbur (Wilburites) would set up their own Yearly Meetings in 1845.

63. The Evangelical women are very much influenced by the First and Second Great Awakening . Many, in different evangelical churches feel called to preach and take on a greater responsibility in church. However, it was a difficult struggle: 1741 ~ Congregational Bathsheba Kingsley is inspired by Spirit the First Great Awakening and steals her husband’s horse and begins traveling throughout her rural neighborhood preaching. She claims that she has received revelations immediately from heaven. Jonathan Edwards who met with her in 1743, declared that she was a “ brawling woman ” and could not any longer speak in public. She had forgotten her place in their society. She would be allowed to read her Bible and share her faith with other women but not publicly. Compare her with Quaker Minister Charity Wright Cook : Unknown Quaker Woman The most famous of the Quaker women ministers mentioned above is Charity Wright Cook. Charity Wright Cook, the daughter of John and Rachel Wells Wright, was born on November 17, 1745 near the Monocacy River a few miles south of Frederick, Maryland. The family, like many Mid-Atlantic Quakers, would eventually migrate south settling in Newberry County, South Carolina. Charity was one of sixteen siblings. The family was a healthy one, all sixteen children lived into their maturity and Charity and her sister Susan were described as strong and “ rotund .”

64. Her mother, Rachel Wells Wright, was a traveling minister. Charity’s younger sister, Susanna Wright Hollingsworth, would also become a Quaker minister and often accompanied her older sister. Although both sisters were married with many children, they travel widely in the ministry. Charity’s traveling was much more extensive than Susanna Hollingsworth’s, however, even though Charity and her husband Isaac had ten children. Charity and Susan were acknowledged ministers by Bush River Monthly Meeting in South Carolina early in their young lives. Charity had an unfortunately event happen to her when she was fifteen. She was accused of carnal behavior with a local boy, Jehu Stuart. She denied this accusation and claimed that Jehu raped her. Charity’s powerful mother Rachel Wright vehemently criticizes Cane Creek Meeting for their mismanagement of this situation. Charity was disowned from Cane Creek Meeting of North Carolina in 1760. She eventually was reinstated into the meeting when the young man in question began to accuse many women of the same behavior and was caught lying.

65. Although it is reported in some places that Charity was illiterate, we do have a few examples of her letters. In a letter to fellow minister Hannah Yarnall dated 29th 12th mo. 1811 from near Silver Creek, Indiana Charity wrote: “ . . .though I am a poor scribe, and what is worse, a poor speller, but what thou can’t read, thou must guess at, as dear Samuel Emlen told the first time I was in Philadelphia .” Although perhaps a weak writer, she must have been a powerful speaker. Her public testimonies were described as animating life and power. Her delivery was in the old sing-song style of Quaker ministers.

66. That same year of 1797 with Lydia Hoskins, Charity traveled to England. They traveled from New York and landed in Liverpool. In the letters that survive Charity expresses her concern for the time and distance away from her children and family at home. She asks her friends to write to her. She described her journey as a “ weighty undertaking ” and “ arduous .” She proceeded to visit Friends Meetings in Lancashire, some in Cheshire, and some in Westmoreland. She also visited the societies of non-Friends. Besides preaching during meetings for worship, traveling ministers would also visit each family in the meeting. In Liverpool she visited sixty families. In Kendall she visited nearly seventy families. While she was in England she reported the presence of other traveling ministers from America. She mentioned Phebe Speakman, Sarah Harrison and David Sands who were in Ireland, Sarah Talbot who was in Yorkshire, Thomas Scattergood who was near London, William Savery who was in London, and Mary Swett who would be one of her companions to the continent of Europe.

67. On 7th month 21st, 1798 Charity traveled from London with Mary Swett and Sarah Harris to Hamburg, Germany. During the course of this remarkable journey these three women visited forty-five meetings, visited almost all the families of Pyrmont Monthly Meeting and held a number of religious conferences. They distributed 675 books and traveled over 1600 miles by land and water. They began being only mildly successful in Hamburg but they moved on to Hanover where they held two meetings for worship on First Day. At their next stop in Pyrmont, where they spent ten days, they attended a number of meetings and visited many families. In Minden they begin to have problems with the local authorities who forbid the local Friends to have a meeting for worship. They went ahead with the meeting and Friends were arrested for not removing their hats in deference to the authorities. They traveled then to Rinteln and back to Pyrmont. They wanted to travel to France, but he way was not open and as they found out, the way was very dangerous.

68. Charity Cook, Sarah Harrison, and Mary Swett were imprisoned for many days in Friedberg in October of 1798 for attempting to hold a large Quaker Meeting of about one hundred persons. The authorities were at first incredulous about their religious mission. They were accused of being spies. The authorities were also taken by surprise that they were women ministers. While they were imprisoned they preached to their captors and distributed Quaker books. Eventually they were released and they embarked for England on the 14th of 11th mo., 1798. In 1799 Charity visited Ireland where she contracted smallpox. In 1801 Charity Cook and Mary Swett return home from Europe. In 1805, she and Isaac visited Philadelphia ( Dictionary of Quaker Biography , Haverford College ).

69. In 1806 Charity and her husband, Isaac, move to the area of Miami Monthly and Quarterly Meeting in Waynesville and establish themselves at Caesar’s Creek Meeting six miles to the northeast. They are part of the great tide of Friends who were moving from Bush River Monthly Meeting in South Carolina to the Waynesville area to escape the violence of slavery. Most of their children and grandchildren settled in the area around Waynesville; some in Indiana near Sliver Creek Meeting , near Liberty, Union County. Charity and Isaac lived in Indiana for a short time while he was dying of cancer, probably to be near some of their children and other kin. Isaac was buried in the Silver Creek Monthly Meeting cemetery. Charity moved back to the Caesar’s Creek area in Ohio to live near two of her daughters. On November 13th, 1822, Charity Wright Cook died at the age of 77 years and 9 months and is buried in Caesar’s Creek Monthly Meeting graveyard, six miles northeast of Waynesville, Ohio.

70. By the end of the 18th century, the radical Evangelical women preachers who had ministered in sectarian churches were almost totally forgotten as their churches moved from being sects to denominations. Evangelical women preaching had never been “ institutionalized ” as it had been with the Quakers. Preaching for Evangelical women, however, would open up again in the throws of the Second Great Awakening . By the turn of the 19 th century, more than half the ministers in the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of The Society of Friends are women ministers. Quakers had by this time become more middle-class and staid. Quaker women ministers were not the radicals they had been in the 17th century. They were no longer martyrs for the cause and their faith was shared in the meetinghouse not proclaimed to outsiders. A fiery and dynamic example of this is Harriet Livermore (1788-1868), the daughter and granddaughter of Congressmen, became the second woman to preach in the House of Representatives. (Evangelist Dorothy Ripley was the first in 1806.) She was invited four times to lead the U.S. Congress in prayer beginning in 1827. She was an apocalyptic Adventist. Livermore warned the politicians of the pending Apocalypse in a fire and brimstone address that lasted well over an hour. Many of the assembled politicians are brought to tears.

71. The antebellum moral reform movement was actually “a Sisterhood of Reform ”, a collection of reform issues that arose out of the tensions of the Jacksonian period before 1830. The most important and the most controversial cutting-edge member of the “ sisterhood of reform ” was abolition, which was viewed as radical and could lead its advocates into participation in Women’s Rights and Non-Resistance. Abolition reform would also be more open to women’s participation and would be the most interracial of all the reform movements. “ A SISTERHOOD OF REFORM ”

74. 1850 ~ Amelia Jenks Bloomer (right) launched the dress reform movement with a costume bearing her name. The “ Bloomer ” costume was actually first utilized by Fanny Wright (above) and other women at the Owenite New Harmony utopian community in Indiana. The Bloomer costume was later abandoned by many suffragists who feared it detracted attention from more serious women's rights issues. Left: Lucy Stone, women's rights activist & lecturer

75. Dress Reform Dress worn by Quaker Anne Bartlett Taylor who lived in Erie Co., N.Y. near Buffalo. Photographs used with permission of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum , Tejon, County Katie Gardner, Curator F.Y.I.: The Dress Reform Association had held its first meeting in Glen Haven, New York in 1856.

79. William Tuke & York Retreat Elizabeth Fry in Newgate Prison Co-Education Temperance John Woolman Quakers & Indians

80. Friend’s Asylum Eastern Penitentiary Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society Association of Friends for the Free Instruction of Adult Colored

81. Evangelical women and Liberal Christian women in the antebellum would work together in many of the reform movements such as Temperance and Abolition. However, they would take different paths defined by their understanding of the nature of their moral duty to be involved in reform movements. By being involved in benevolent societies they would expand the “ women’s domestic sphere ” into the “ informal public sphere ” where women could interact safely within the larger public with the approval of church and society. Women coming out of Christian liberalism, for example Hicksite Quakers and Unitarians, would find it easier to embrace the call to reform society. Women Friends would have experience speaking in meeting but they would have togo through another liberation from Quaker sectariansim to enter the “ public male sphere ” to work for equal rights, the right of critical public discourse, and the right to vote. The issue of “ a woman’s place ” would center on a lengthy public debate over whether the domestic sphere should alone be the critical and authentic sphere of female moral power, or whether women would find their voice and their “ place ” in an expanded more inclusive public sphere which would include them and minorities. “ The Cult of Domesticity ”

82. FRIENDS AND THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT Most conservative Friends, whether Orthodox or Hicksite, looked with great suspicion at the radical abolition movement, especially the members of William Lloyd Garrison’s American Anti-Slavery Society . They did not approve of Friends working in an ecumenical way with other reformers of other churches. Many conservative Friends also believed that “ abolitionism ” had become its own religion. A highly controversial event was the disownment of Isaac T. Hopper in 1841. It was shocking that such a “ weighty Friend ” would be disowned for his association with a political Abolitionist magazine. He was disowned because it attacked another Friends’ minister as soft on slavery. Isaac Hopper was a renowned Underground Railroad Conductor . He was an overseer of the Benezet School for African-American Children , and a volunteer teacher in a Free School for African-American Adults . He was one of the founders and the secretary of a Society for the Employment of the Poor ; volunteer prison inspector; member of a fire company, and guardian of abused apprentices. In New York City he ran a Hicksite Bookstore . He was the secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society .

83. George F. White, whom Lucretia Mott sarcastically referred to as “‘ the notable ‘Hicksite Priest,’ who ‘in season and out of season’ assails Abolitionists, Non-Resistants and Temperance men ” had many times tried to mobilize Hicksites Friends to disown Lucretia due to her reform activities. In one of her letter’s Lucretia describes the dissension within the Hicksite fold concerning abolition and efforts to collaborate with non-Quakers in any kind of reform. She had traveled through Chester County, Pennsylvania, speaking from meeting to meeting, to encourage Friends to involve themselves in the anti-slavery movement. G. F. White followed after her to discourage Friends from doing so. The ridicule of the Garrisonian non-resistants and all “ hirelings ” (Protestant ministers who are paid for there services) made by George F. White during meeting is shocking to most modern ears. It is its inconsistency in light of the Quaker tradition of pacifism, temperance, women’s equality in the “ light of Christ ”, and anti-slavery that gives pause. He and many others, however, believed “ hirelings ” to be infidels and freethinkers. White was an anti-slavery person, refusing to buy anything produced by slaves. He believed, however, in a high hedge around his faith to protect the sectarian community. He wanted that sectarian boundary . Quaker Minister Lucretia Mott

85. Quaker women had a head start within their religious Society that had “ institutionalized ” lay ministry for both men and women. However, Quaker women, both Orthodox and Hicksite, had to “ jump the fence ,” the sectarian hedge around Quakerism, to be leaders like the early “ Mothers of Israel .” They had to “ come out ” from a comfortable “ place ,” their meetings for worship, to follow where the “ Light ” was leading them into abolition and woman’s rights. The place they came out to was often not too pleasant. Like so many antebellum women, Sarah and Angelina Grimké undertook remarkable spiritual journeys by “ coming out ” to their churches to find their “ place ” of morality and justice.

86. Angelina Grimké had been a follower of William Miller during the pre-millennial Millerite excitement in 1843, as well as a member of the Episcopalian Church, the Orthodox Quakers, and then finally the “ ultra ” Garrisonians. She would eventually marry Theodore Weld, a liberal Congregational minister. A public and critical dialogue in print began in 1836 and lasted till 1838 between Angelina Grimké and Catharine Beecher. In 1836 Angelina published her controversial Appeal to the Christian Women of the South . Both of the Grimké sisters justified their anti-slavery and women’s rights work as heroic dissent; a battle to overcome unjust suppression of black slaves. By leaving their womanly “ sphere ” of private publication and speaking before “ promiscuous ” crowds of men and women, they were creating a more authentic Christianity and world. Angelina cast herself and all women who dare to speak out in public about the injustices of slavery in the role of Esther (Hadassah) of the Old Testament and in so doing she links the injustice of black slavery with the injustice of benign chauvinism towards the female “ sphere.” Catherine Beecher 1848 Catherine always had one of her brothers read her speeches in public. A true believer in the “ cult of domesticity ” and the wisdom of maintaining the “woman’s sphere.”

87. Even within the same denomination, women would respond differently to what they heard as God’s call to action as moral individuals. One of the greatest examples of this among Evangelical women were the three Beecher sisters, Catharine Beecher, Harriett Beecher Stowe, and Isabella Beecher Hooker, three of the daughters of the famous Calvinist, Reverend Lyman Beecher; members of the most famous Evangelical family of all. All three, representing three different generations, would contribute to defining “ a woman’s place ”: Catharine Beecher (1800-1878) ~ Catharine, who never married, was a teacher, and an author that advocated the higher education of women so they could fulfill the moral obligations within their own domestic sphere. Women were to be devoted to the moral development of their children and to their homes. Two of her books are The Moral Instructor for Schools and Families: Containing Lessons on the Duties of Life (1838) and A Treatise on Domestic Economy for the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School (1841). She was the founder of the Hartford Female College in Hartford, Connecticut, the Western Female Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio, and three other women’s colleges in the west. She also encouraged the hiring of women as teachers. Although encouraging women to be educated, Catharine still counseled them to stay within their “sphere” and be content with “the cult of domesticity”.

88. Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811- 1896) ~ Harriet is, of course, famous for being the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and an advocate of anti-slavery. She was a prolific author. One of her other books was Woman in Sacred History . Harriett as well as her two famous brothers, Charles and Henry Ward Beecher, was fascinated by the image of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Most of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s female heroines are Marian figures. She took the Catholic image of Mary the Mother of God and transfigured it from the almost goddess like Virgin image into a figure of heroic, active, and realistic motherhood. She rejected the Catholic “ cult of Mary ” rooted in unscriptural legends, iconography, and pagan associations. Stowe’s image of Mary was not of a submissive woman. Her portrayal, for example, of Eliza in Uncle Tom’s Cabin is one of a woman of faith and deep maternal love who in a frenzy of activity saves herself and her child. By using the female image of Mary, Stowe attempted to inject a balance in the male dominated Calvinistic faith of her father and may be seen as an educated woman’s attempt to control doctrine and with scripture to re-configure Biblical images of women for healthier role models.

89. Isabella Beecher Hooker (1822-1907) ~ Isabella was a suffragette and a spiritualist. Isabella was the step-sister of Catharine and Harriett. In 1868 she founded the Connecticut Women’s suffrage Association and was its president for 19 years. She also that same year published “ Mother's Letters to a Daughter on Woman's Suffrage ” anonymously in Putnam's Magazine. She was one of the primary speakers at the 1870 convention of the National Woman Suffrage Association in Washington, D.C. She was instrumental in writing a federal constitutional suffrage amendment which she promoted for several years. Towards the end of her life she came to believe through her belief in Spiritualism that she had an important role in a forthcoming matriarchal revolution. When she died, the funeral service was Unitarian.

90. Jumping the Sectarian “ Hedge ” Not always so easy to do!

91. Abby Kelley Foster The controversy surrounding the anti-slavery and women’s right career of Abby Kelley Foster, whom William Lloyd Garrison called the “ most persevering, most self-sacrificing, most energetic, most meritorious ” abolitionist, and “ the moral Joan of Arc of the world ,” is an example of Quaker ambiguity concerning the role of women in abolition. Like so many activist women of her generation, to do what she wanted she had to “ come out of ” The Society of Friends ( Orthodox ). She had moved beyond them and her “ place ” was with Garrison and the American Anti-Slavery Society . She disowned herself because The Society of Friends was no longer in the forefront of the abolitionist movement. Many Quaker women would take that route to the freedom to practice their faith, to follow their calling. Her Garrisonian convictions were seen as a defection from The Society of Friends . Many conservative Friends believed that abolitionism, especially entwined with spiritualism, had turned into a rival religion

92. As an anti-slavery lecturer Abby was entirely successful, drawing large crowds. Her manner of speaking was indeed quite different in style from the intellectual Grimké sisters and the quiet charismatic style of Lucretia Mott. Abby Kelley Foster was a classic prophet, a female confrontational Jeremiah. On June 5th, 1845, five hundred men and women, mostly Quakers, came to listen to her at New Lisbon, Ohio during a convention of the Ohio American Anti-Slavery Society . She came to see quickly that the eastern anti-slavery newspapers took ten to two weeks to be delivered to eastern Ohio. She was instrumental in the founding of the “ Anti-Slavery Bugle ” newspaper, which issued its first edition two weeks after her arrival. Through her extraordinary efforts, the “ Bugle ,” the Garrisonian newspaper for the “ Old Northwest, ” would publish for the next fifteen years.

93. In the late summer of 1845, Abby Kelley Foster attended Ohio Yearly Meeting (Orthodox) at Mt. Pleasant, Ohio. She knew that the Orthodox Friends would not be receptive of her or her message. They didn’t even recognize the ministry of mild mannered Lucretia Mott. She sat for almost one day before rising to remind Friends of their historic commitment to anti-slavery. Three different Elders asked her to keep quiet but, of course, she wouldn’t. She reminded the gathered Friends that George Fox himself often disrupted church services when felt called to speak a word to the gathered worshipers. She was bodily carried from the meeting and placed soundly on the ground outside. As embarrassing as this treatment is for Friends to admit, they were kind compared to most, who, during her early years of lecturing hurled “ unsavory eggs, the contents of stables and out-houses ” at her and ministers called her “ Jezebel ” and “ fornicator .” Although the Quakers had disowned her, almost everyone else thought of her as a Quaker since she lived simply and wore gray and would fall back into the plain language.

95. Antoinette Brown Blackwell an Evangelical “ come outer ” An example of a liberal Evangelical woman and her journey of many turns out of the domestic “ sphere ” and the “ informal public ” of her church was Antionette (“ Nettie ”) Brown Blackwell (May 20, 1825-November 5, 1921) who was the first American woman to be ordained as minister by a congregation. She was born in Henrietta, New York into a loving family of liberal Congregationalists. Her initial experiences with religion were positive; her image of God loving. Her grandmother would read with her and the other children from the Bible and from Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress . When she was eight years old a visiting minister came to their church and challenged members to dedicate themselves more to Christ, and so she did. The family was very much influenced by the revival preaching of Charles Grandison Finney. Young Antionette proclaimed that she wanted to be a minister. Although this was not possible, her mother always supported her in her dream.

96. Antionette grew up to be a teacher and then in 1846 she entered Oberlin College. On the completion of her studies in “ the literary course ” she asked to enter the Theology Department of Oberlin . Her application was resisted for a while even though Oberlin encouraged the education of women as well as African-Americans. While at Oberlin she became actively involved in the abolition movement, temperance, and women’s rights. In 1850 she completed the theology program but was denied a degree and ordination. The Congregational Church eventually allowed her to preach but refused to ordain her. Much later in life Oberlin College would eventually grant her a Masters and a Doctorate degree. When she would speak publicly for abolition, temperance, and women’s rights, she was routinely shouted down by male ministers who were appalled at her audacity to speak to “ promiscuous ” crowds. She attended and spoke at a number of the early women’s rights conventions.

97. In 1852 she accepted a call from the Congregational Church of South Butler, New York. The Congregational clergy would not ordain a woman; she was ordained there in 1853 by a Methodist minister. Antionette was also shocked by the negative reaction of many of the women in her congregation to her as a minister. They were against her. A few women’s rights advocates were also against her becoming a minister, although for another reason. Elizabeth Cady Stanton thought she was wasting her time with the church. Specifically, Antionette and Elizabeth disagreed on divorce; Antionette against divorce to strengthen the family, and Stanton for divorce in unhealthy situations for women. Struggling against male chauvinism in general and the surprising opposition of many women, led to a spiritual crisis. The death of un-baptized children in her church led her directly to the crisis since she found it impossible to declare that these children were damned. She resigned her position and with the help of her new husband, Samuel Charles Blackwell, she moved further away from Congregational orthodoxy being drawn to Unitarianism as was her friend and fellow Oberlin alumni and activist, Lucy Stone.

98. Antoinette continued to lecture and write. She eventually published eight books and many essays. She was a supporter of the women’s rights movement even though her more conservative religious ideas were disapproved of by Stanton and by Susan B. Anthony. She, none-the-less, worked with both for the advancement of women. Antoinette was a religious leader throughout her life. In addition to preaching, she established the All Souls Unitarian Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey. There, she served as pastor emeritus from 1908 until she died. Of the early advocates of Women’s Rights, she survived to be able to vote on November 2nd, 1920 at the age of 95.

100. JOURNEY OF EVANGELICAL WOMEN (PRESBYTERIAN & CONGREGATIONAL) ORTHODOX EVANGELICAL SUPPORTERS OF ESTABLISHED CHURCH INSTITUTIONS (“ Old Lights ” and a few “ New Lights ”). Have conservative abolition ideas such as “ gradual emancipation and colonization ”. Women are to stay within their “ sphere .” Believe in Original Sin. OBERLIN COLLEGE EVANGELICAL PERFECTIONISM (“ New Lights ”) Are reformist abolitionists who believe they can Christianize politics and institutions as well as people. They are post-Millennialists. Many left their original church, “ secession and reorganization .” Some of the “ come-outer ” churches were Wesleyan Methodist Connection , Union Churches , Anti-Slavery Congregational Churches , Free-Will Baptist , and the generic Abolition Churches . Quaker Progressives and Anti-slavery Friends are also “ come-outers ”. Women “ perfectionists ” are expanding the “ women’s sphere ”. Supportive of the “ Liberty Party .” Many Evangelical women eventually became Unitarians . Garrison’s American Anti-Slavery Society Tappan’s American & Foreign Anti-Slavery Society WOMEN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT ~ SENECA FALLS, 1848

101. Garrisonian Abolitionists Religious liberals of the antebellum period, the followers of William Lloyd Garrison, were a relatively small group of abolitionists whose approach was based on radically liberal interpretations of Christianity. Persons involved in the Garrisonian movement believed that the redemption of the United States and the world depended on the eradication of the horrendous sin of slavery everywhere and quickly. They agreed that America was at an eschatological crossroads and the dire situation would not brook any compromises. Garrisonians responded with a radical Christian perfectionism and an urgent form of millennialism.

103. Spiritualism On March 31st, 1848, just about three months before the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, there was a report of supernatural rapping in the home of the Fox sisters of Hydesville near Rochester, New York. It is not surprising that the rapping phenomenon spread quickly and widely throughout the United States. Some of the earliest adherents were men and women involved in the radical reform movements, especially abolition and women’s rights. Among these early advocates were Quakers who had “ come out ” of their Hicksite meetings and had formed the Progressive Friends..

104. Radical Friends Amy Post and Isaac Post of Rochester, New York, who had founded the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society and who were devoted conductors on the Underground Railroad , were members of Waterloo Progressive Friends . They knew the Fox sisters and were their earliest supporters. The Posts took the Fox sisters into their own home and introduced them to the multitude of Progressive Friends and other abolitions who constantly passed through their house. Most of the Progressive Friends that participated in the Seneca Falls women’s rights convention were supportive of the Fox sisters and embraced Spiritualism. Amy Post

105. The Progressive Friends took a great interest in Spiritualism because they believed that the unbroken chain of communication between this world and the next in séance was an affirmation of their radical belief in the “ Inner Light ”, the direct communication, which is unmediated, of the divine with the human being.It seemed that the dreams and visionary experiences of the early Quaker ministers were being renewed in the phenomenon of Spiritualism. Isaac Post became an acknowledged medium and published a book entitled Voices From the Spirit World, Being Communications From Many Spirits in 1852. It is also true that many of the radical participants in the intellectual utopian experiments of the antebellum period (i.e. Hopedale, New Harmony, and Prairie Home) embraced Spiritualism.