«E3813

mvensnv LIBRARIES

Illlllllu‘lllllllll me u |

1293 0089

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 l

This is to certify that the
dissertation entitled
SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHIES OF RELIGIOUS ACTIVISM
BY BLACK WOMEN
IN THE ANTEBELLUM ERA

presented by

Thelma Mar 1e Townsend

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

English

 

Ph ' D ' degree in

/

iiaézWM

I Major professor

Date August 28, 1992

 

MSU is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution 0-12771

 

 

 

 

LIBRARY
Mlchlgan State
Untverslty

 

 

 

PLACE IN RETURN BOX to remove this checkout from your record.
TO AVOID FINES return on or before date due.

DATE DUE DATE DUE DATE DUE

m5

 

 

 

 

 

uqsfiw:

 

 

 

 

 

R
I, , ‘ , _ m
”'32". 5 ' U’i’t/
, ‘
’1!- rrr A ,
.r t;
7 so?
E.
\

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

E
MSU I. An Affirmative ActiorVEqual Opportunity Institution
awaits-9.1

_\

SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHIES OF RELIGIOUS ACTIVISM
BY BLACK WOMEN
IN THE ANTEBELLUM ERA
BY

Thelma Marie Townsend

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
. Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of English

1993

ABSTRACT

SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHIES OF RELIGIOUS ACTIVISM
BY BLACK WOMEN
IN THE ANTEBELLUM ERA

BY

Thelma Marie Townsend

Nineteenth-century American life witnessed the black
woman's quest for public voice in theological and secular
debates. Through the autobiographical genre, many black women
left records of their triumphant quests in these arenas. These
women also left records of their transcendence of the socio-
political forces of nineteenth-century society which often
relegated them to an inferior and subordinate place. This

dissertation analyzes black women' s autobiographies as _a means

-w-—_- o—u.

 

of participating in the ongoing scholarly efforts to recover

*‘Wh' '- p.-. "-c—‘om—v I'd-rod...“

black women's literary history and heritage.
Chapter<33é>provides a historical foundation and an

analysis of black women' s struggles against racism, sexism and

-M
on -._.—-.-_..r.. -n...‘ ..,,._ _. _ mo.‘ ~- g.-

cgssism in ningteenthth Chapteréo/Jtraces the

 

 

 

 

 

_development of the African-American autobiographical genre and

 

 

 

 

serves as an introduction to the subsequent chapters of the
dissertation.
Chapters Three through Five provide specific readingsWof

autobiographies by black women who wrote in the antebellum

 

period of the nineteenth century //These are Maria W. Stewart' 5

 

WWW; Jarena tree‘s W
E 1' . E l E H I I l J l I I

Giyinc an Acccnnc cf her call :9 Breach the Gcspcl; Zilpha

x“

13W
gclcnz; Rebecca Congackson's journals, compiled and arranged
in Jean McMahon Humez's Gifcs_cf_£cucr; Harriet E. Wilson's Q3;
fin. .- .- .u .- '-. - --:- . '..,,,,. er
flh11c_flcncc‘_nczch; and Harriet A. Jacobs' 1ncidcn15_in_the
Lifc_cf_a_filaxc_fii;l. Each of these autobiographies is
grounded in the blaci‘wgmanlsflquest for freedom and literacy,¥a

theme central to African-American autobiographies.

Analyses of these six texts focus on the black womaan

 

)4 a reimaging of the Divine for personal power. Furthermore,
specific readings in these texts demonstrate the authors'
significant(Eontributions to the African-American

autobiographical genre)

Copyright by
THELMA MARIE TOWNSEND
1993

FOR MY PARENTS
JOHN AND ARCIE TOWNSEND

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ' 1
AIMS AND METHODOLOGIES _ 9

CHAPTER ONE OVERVIEW: RELIGION AND EQfilIlyE’
SELF-DEFI IO FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMEN 15

AMERICAN PURITANISM AND ITS EFFECT ON
AMERICAN LIVES 19

WHITE WOMEN'S ROLES AS THE ANTITHESIS OF BLACK
WOMEN'S ROLES IN COLONIAL AMERICAN HISTORY 21

AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN COLONIAL AND PRE-COLONIAL

AMERICAN HISTORY 3O
AFRICAN SLAVES AND RACIAL PREJUDICE 36
BLACK WOMEN RESIST OPPRESSION 43’

THE FOUNDING OF THE FIRST ORGANIZED BLACK CHURCH 45’

CHRISTIANITY AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN SURVIVAL 53
THE SUBORDINATION OF WOMEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY 55/
THE CULT OF "TRUE WOMANHOOD" 60

BLACK WOMEN SEEK TO SELF-DEFINE POSITIVELY
IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA 65’

WOMEN'S QUEST OF PUBLIC VOICE IN THEOLOGICAL
DEBATES IS REALIZED (gig

TRAINING GROUNDS FOR THE PUBLIC VOICE OF
BLACK WOMEN IN PUBLIC RELIGIOUS MEETINGS Cééf

CHAPTER TWO AUTOBIOGRAPHY: THE GENRE 91

vi

CHAPTER THREE MARIA W. STEWABI'S TRANSCENDENCE OF
CLERICAL SILENCING OF WOMEN AND THE
NINETEENTH-CENTURY CULT OF "TRUE WOMANHOOD"

CHAPTER FOUR SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHIES OF RELIGIOUS
ACTIVISM BY FREE BLACK WOMEN IN THE NORTH: "ON MY
MASTER'S ERRAND"
THE SPIRITUAL NARRATIVES OF LEE, JACKSON, AND ELAW
THE SPIRITUAL NARRATIVE OF JARENA LEE
THE SPIRITUAL NARRATIVE OF REBECCA COX JACKSON
THE MEMOIRS OF ZILPHA ELAW
CHAPTER FIVE PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION AND

RELIGIOUS ACTIVISM IN SECULAR AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL
WRITINGS OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN FEMALES

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

125

174

183

189

202

237

241

INTRODUCTION

In recent years literary historians, white and black
feminist historians and feminist_theglggiens have all been
engaged in recovering the history and literature of American
women. Among other things, these scholars are attempting to

record the development of American women's politic§l_§gd_

 

 

religious consciousness.1 Efforts in this recovery process

 

 

center on nineteenth—century American culture and politics, as
some feminist historians and feminist theologians believe that

nineteenth-century America fostered the initial development of

 

 

 

a fully organized feminist ggnsciousness and feminist

.—-....—.~ .. -

 

 

 

 

 

theological consciousness.
The nineteenth century was an important era in American
women's political history. The early decades helped to develop

not only the organized and successful quest by women for public

 

voice in theological debates in mainstream American churches,

but also the birth of an organized women's rights

 

consciousnes§;//These efforts continued to develop throughout

 

the nineteenth century. African-American women were
significantly involved in this quest for public voice in
theological realms as well as for political voice in secular

areas. Many black women left records of that triumphant

2
quest. Their records exist in the form of spiritual

 

 

autobiographieswcfmreligious activism and provide first-hand
evidence of black women's involvement in America's politicelm

and religious histcgy. Such documents are especially vital if

 

 

scholars are to succeed in their efforts to reconstruct the

historical and literary past of American women.

 

This dissertation focuses on the antebellum‘

autobiographies of religious activism written by African—

 

 

 

 

 

American women between the 18303 and the 1862; These works

provide a means of understanding how a number of black women

 

 

were able to forge significant and XE3P1EME§§EQFSIQP§PEP9 the

 

almost overwhelmingly impossible Odds of racism, sexism and

 

classism in the nineteenth century. As early as 1835, black

women liberation theologians began publishing their

- ‘W .....F. -M .‘.~M~. .

 

.w._,’.

contributions to the black queSt fer liberation and freedom.

*mn wmuwmu— -n.——-r.p Nw'v hmdm-o.-~n W‘—

 

 

( _.....--. .—..—~-

These black women were also contributing to the quest for

u——— H... —.—-‘.d¢‘.

 

 

. female equality In.mainstream spiritual and secular realms.

'"M' wwwbmwmo g.

 

In order to establish independent careers in itinerant_

ministries, as most of the women studied here did, it was

*,¢>¢rmfl «*V—Ah—vv‘ Inn-R“ Huww ”7"— .-

 

 

 

 

particularly necessary for them to reject the ideologies of
"true womanhood" as well as thefltraditicnalmrcleshfg£_wgmen of
nineteenth-century society. Black women who published
autobiographies also had to define themselves positively

against the negative stereotypes foisted upon the majority of

 

 

 

black women by nineteenth-century culture and society. Some
representative women who published spiritual autobiographies
are studied here, including/Raria W. Stewargilauthor of The I

BMW... W (1835); JarenaiLee/author Q

0f 0‘ . ‘ '1. R‘ .00. .0‘ ‘0 ‘ 0 - ‘9’. “ 1" 0 0- ‘9.

Lady (1836 and 1849); Rebecca CoxiJacksony/author of Giftc_cf

mm- M"

Ecucr (posthumous publication by Jean McMahon Humez, 1981); and
/Zilph{§15?/ author of WW:

U
.Q.‘ ‘0 ‘ V O ‘ ‘. - - ‘ -!° .00 0 U ‘,A 4.

 

(1849). Black women also wrote

 

secular autobiographies which contained sub-texts of liberation

u -.-.- . w... ”He-w

 

 

 

 

 

theologies and religiouemeeeivism Secular authors who are

.
Mr WM,W_,‘
__—

 

examined here include//Harriet E. Wileeny/author of an_Nig EEHLUAGF
(1859) and/Harriet A. Jacobs//author of Incidents_in_the_Life
cj_a_filayc_fiizl (1861))//With the exception of Rebecca Cox‘

Jackson, all of the women included here for study publisheg

 

 

 

autobiographies of spiritual and religious activism_in the

 

antebellum era of the nineteenth century. While a number of

black women wrote autobiographies of religious activism in the

postbellum era, this dissertation is limited to a discussion of
[‘particular texts written in the antebellum era. The works

studied here eet precedents and establiehegwefllieegery vehicle

 

 

 

to enable black women inthllumeraltgmcnnstructma.

det However, as Sue

 

consciousness of religious self-

L- V'

E. Houchins notes:

   

The goal of black autobiography had never been just an
attempt at an 'objective reconstruction of an individual's
past or a public demonstration of the qualities of
selfhood or a private meditation on the meaning Of a life

of struggle.‘ It had also sought to be discursive by
initiating a dialogue with those who doubted the very

existence of black folks' souls -- not to mention the
possibility of their redemption.2 ,

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. states: "writing...was the millennial

instrument of transformation through which the African would

4
become ... the human being.n3 In order to preeeh in the

nineteenth century, black women had to define themeelyee

 

 

positively and to transcend the all-pervasive social codes of

 

”true womanhood" which relegated even privileged white women to

’t-ML-Ha.~(.s ... v 5 ~Ms w .Ma.‘ mm

subordinate places vis a vis white men but which excluded bleeg

 

 

--—- -—.——'._—.—~ war-9......"

 

women entirely due to race and,class?//Their need for a

 

#—

 

 

<positive self-definition>came at a time when millions of

enslaved blacks were<Iegally considered only t2£§§:£§§£h§19£;é.

 

 

human being )

The socio-political climate of early- and mid-nineteenth-
Century America was a post-Revolutionary era of political
ferment as many factions simultaneously vied for national
attention to their particular concerns. Described by Ralph
Waldo Emerson as the era of social reform//the cultural climate l

of nineteenthgcegtgrymAmegicembegan with a dissatisfaction with

J

In
ax
the organized cleggy. In 1844 Emerson wrote:

Whoever has had opportunity of acquaintance with society
in New England during the last twenty-five years, with
those leading sections that may constitute any just
representation of the character or aim of the community
will have been struck with the great activity of thought
and experimenting. His attention must be commanded by the
signs that the church, or religious party, is falling from
the church nominal, and is appearing in temperance and
non-temperance societies, in the movement of abolitionists
and of socialists; and in very significant assemblies
called Sabbath and Bible conventions; ... Of seekers, of
all the soul of the soldiery of dissent, of the
priesthood, and of the church. In these movements,
nothing was more remarkable than the discontent they begot
in the movers.4

Black women were committed to theypineteenth-ceptury "harvest

 

 

 

 

 

of reform"5, which was to have a lasting impactyon the socio-g
W» J— ..._________ WU"

. w—.—.—--- ...—o

 

political nature of the era. For black women, this struggle

W

 

 

 

is“...

5
(geeleded the struggleeagainst sexism and racism. Stewart, Lee,
Jackson, Elaw, Wilson and Jacobs, women who found public voice
in theological and secular debates in nineteenth-century
America, were participants in this struggle.

As had famous late-eighteenth-century African-American
poet Phillis Wheatley, black women found public voice through
what Sue E. Houchins calls a "reader-audience."5 However, for
nineteenth-century black women religious and political

activists, avenues for their oratorical and lieerary telegee

 

 

 

- fl_meQ——aau~—-.—w «-..-u... ”w-’

* I‘d-HA -— MM

 

opened in ganueeyhéggglgjwhen William Eleye garrison (1805-‘-’

1879) Published theLESEJEPPPWPI...PBPIM- With '—

...—‘40”

 

 

 

publication of the Liberatcr, the national antislavery crusade
began. The publication of the Libcxatc; and the national
organization of the antislavery crusade helped make possible
the black woman's quest for public voice in theological debates

as well as in the political realm. Publication of the

 

‘EAEEEEEEErgave America's first black women's rights activist

 

 

 

and abolitionist/theologian, Maria W. Stewart, aewavenue for

 

 

 

 

 

 

her particular oratorical and literary talents. Stewart

 

 

published her first article in the October, 1831 issue of the
Libczatcr and followed Garrison's advice as she began a public
speaking career.

This dissertation is an attempt to participate in the
ongoing efforts to recover a feminist theological history and
heritage. The accomplishments of black women enhance that
quest. The black woman's_quest for equality in theologicel

‘eebates with men_continee9 throygEeeg the nineteenthmcentuey

 

 

and even into the twentieph, Feminist theologians Amanda Berry

6
Smith and.Virginia Broughton and feminist Anna Julia Cooper

participated in women's efforts for equality in religious and_

 

 

secular spheres:
As feminist theologians and feminist scholars seek to

discover the origin of an Organized feminiet consciousneee,

 

 

they frequently turn to the nineteenth-century female
antislavery organizations as a heritage and resource. Many
historians insist that white women's efforts in their
particular abolitionist organizations helped them to develop
the valuable skills necessary to sustain an organized women's
rights effort which promoted the development of an organized
feminist consciousness.

In most cases, the efforts by black women in the

antebellum era are overleoked. As Rosalyn TEEEEEEIEPPn and

 

 

Sharon Harley note, much of the history of the black woman

consists of the struggle against sexism, an experience common

 

to all women. The struggle has also consisted of the struggle
against racism, experienced by black women and black me37//’
However, as black womenmhave fought for equality,wbe£riers te_

their success haye_been erected by white women as welleeewby

 

 

white men. Black women were the first American women to

 

organize female antislavery organizations. In 1833 white

 

 

 

women, excluded from male abolitionist societies, created their
own. These were the Female Antislavery Society of
Philadelphia and the Boston Female Antislavery Society. These
societies were not open to all black women. Both of these
organizations included only a few select black female members.

Four black charter members of the Female Antislavery Society of

y 7
Philadelphia were Sarah Mapps Douglass, and the daughters of

wealthy businessman James Forten; Sr.: Harriet, Margaretta,
and Sarah.7 It must be noted that the black women mentioned
above were elite members of black society. Discrimination in
these organizations was also based upon degree of color. Fair
complected black women were more likely to be accepted. Many
black women, already members of their own literary societies,
self-help groups, mutual improvement organizations and
antislavery organizations, channeled their energies into
advancing the efforts of their own antislavery organizations or
into joining those already established by men.8 Rosalyn
(Terborg-Pené)writes://$Discrimination against black women in 2
abolitionist societies organized by white women appears ironic
when one considers that white women complained Of

discrimination by white men."7/ ,_J

The current quest to recover women's history and heritage

 

 

oftentimes does not include black women. Such an oversight

—'

 

results from myopic vision. Whether excluded from organized
rights movement in nineteenth-century America. In capturing
the essence of a century of struggle for women, Eleanor Flexner
dismisses Maria Stewart as a public lecturer who neither opened
the way to public speaking for women, nor had any significant
impact on women's rights.‘° Flexner does admit, however, that
Stewart preceded the Grimke sisters (Sarah Weld and Angelina
Grimke Weld) on the lecture circuit, and in fact "heralded"
similar arguments on women's rights to those the Grimke sisters

would later present.11 Flexner suggests that Stewart was more

8
specifically concerned with religious matters and black

disenfranchisement than with women's rights.

As will be demonstrated in this dissertation, quite a few

 

black women in the antebellum ega campaigned foregemean righte

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

end blackrrightemerimarily through their stguggle for equality

 

with the clergy./’Yet their struggle was conducted in isolation
due to the fact that they faced disggiminatignflor_had_a

eeparate agenda. They often found fulfillment in their

 

 

individual_guests_and were quite successful.

_Black intellectuais, such as Maria W. StewarEP/EEO

‘h

 

/

.. -

preaching womee! such as Jaren§:Lee:3Rebecca Cox Jackseg) and_

 

 

ZilphaKEIaSE demonstrated courage, fortitude and creative
vision. They fought against black disenfranchisement, and they
fought for women's rights. Using their own voices and their
best talents, these pioneers were triumphant. As late as 1861,
after a twenty-year Struggle to write her autobiography at
night, while spending her days at the beck and call of her
employers, ex-slave Harriet A. qeeeEE)developed, in Incidencc
in_thc_Lifc_cf_a_Slaxc_fiirl, a liEeration theology for the
abolition of slavery in her own voice,//Sacobs steadfastly
refused to give her history to an amanuensis or to submit her
Story to Harriet Beecher Stowe for that "key" to unclc_Icm;a
Cabin. She recognized that the voice of the female slave must

be heard in efforts to abolish slavery. Jeeobs also understood

 

 

 

 

_ _ H...
o www-mfldfi ha: ..-

the necessityflgfflchallengingfltraditional readings of Scripture

 

which silenced womeefler promoted the enslavement of Blacks.

 

 

While Jacobs was a participant in the mid-nineteenth-century

9
abolitionist crusades, she still felt that the voice Of a

former female slave must be asserted in literature.

Efforts to recover women's recorded heritage for an
American feminist theological consciousness should examine the
achievements of the women included in this dissertation. Black

female spiritual autobioggaphcca_inciyigual1y campaigned for

black rights and female righte. The primary focus of this

 

study is an examination of the spi;igualmaugobioggaphies which

contain liberation theologies of black women in the antebellum

. an» ‘W 1m ' w-v—wm

 

era)//Its aim is to ascertain the means by which black women

forged successful religious and secular careers despite racial

 

 

 

 

and sexual Oppression in the nineteenth century.,//While it has

 

been frequently noted by historians that the religion of black .33

Christians helped foster their survival in both free and slave

“m ‘h-‘t-e H—u- Hmmm M

 

states in the antebellum and postbellum era, it is important to
understand the specific religious faith employed by African- \_3

American women for their survival. It is hoped, therefore,

 

that this study will participate in the ongoing discussions
begun by William Andrews, Marilyn Richardson, and Nellie McKay

to chart the birth of spiritual self-empowerment in black

 

women's autobiographies in the antebellum era. A study of this
nature requires exploration of the spiritual autobiographers'
thoughts, words and feelings as incorporated in their

narratives.

AIMS AND METHODOLOGIES

To appreciate fully the ohallenge bleck women made to all-

 

 

male bastions of authority in religious Spheree, an examination

 

10
of women's history must be included. anpter(6;;jexamines the

development of a sebordinate sphere for women in America and

 

charts as well the development of American racism to

 

demonstrate the Overwhelming struggle black women faced in the
qeest for equality infighemeleigy.

Chapter.examines the black autobiographical genre as
an introduction to the texts examined in this work. Its aim is

also to trace the development of spiritual autobiographies by

black women.

 

Chapter(Th}e'e‘>xamines the epiritual autobiographical
writings of Ma;i; W. Stewart; It is a demonstration Of
Stewart's importance in women's literature. This chapter
provides as well a eeeovery of women's history in a feminiet

theological heritageZ/IChapter Three also focuses on Stewart's
__ ...-M...“ W ________________

 

radical defiance of the ideologies of "_£ggflwcmanhgggf and her

transcendence of the barriers of race, gender and class through

 

the lecture Circuit and the autobiographical genre.

Citing the importance of preserving the arts and letters
of black women, twentieth-century author and literary critic
Alice Walker asks, "What did it mean for a black woman to be an
artist in our grandmother's time? It is a question with an
answer cruel enough to stop the blood."312 Walker continues:
"But when, you will ask, did my overworked mother have time to
know or to care about feeding the creative Spirit?“13 Walker
has a foremother in the nineteenth century who shared Similar
concerns. Maria W. Stewart bemoans the loss Of black women's

literary and scientific talents. Stewart writes:

11

0, ye fairer sisters, whose hands are never soiled, whose
nerves and muscles are never strained, go learn by
experience! Had we the opportunity that you have had, to
improve our moral and mental faculties, what would have
hindered our intellects from being as bright, and our
manners from being as dignified as yours? ... Owing to the
disadvantages under which we labor, there are many flowers

’M

I among us that are
I

f? I " born to bloom unseen, And waste
1 their fragrance on the dfss rt air."14
L'“ C

Stewart's appropriate use of lines from Thomas Gray's "Elegy in
a Country Churchyard" indicates her sense that there were many
extraordinary black women of exceptional artistic skills. For

this reason, Stewart challengedihlack wom e le acies

_for future generations: "0, ye daughters of Africa! What have

 

ye done to immortalize your names beyond the grave? What
examples have ye set before the rising generations? What
foundations have ye laid for generations yet unborn?"15
Seewart explogee_the history of women in biblical timesc_e§_
ancient Grecce_and Rome and_in the Middle_§ge§ to provide her

audience with exemplary foremothers of outstanding intellectual

 

 

gifts and abilities. Stewart's reclamation of women's heritage

introduces oppressed black women in her audiences to the worlg

 

of possibilitieeg

Chapter(FO;;ZiS a comparative analysis of the Spiritual
_,_, \\“/, -——————-
autobiographies of three free black women in the_antebellum erae

,pvw-A HI.- -.-—...-., w:’W-w

 

 
   

...—.4

 

who follow Maria Stewagt infiereating autobio r hieS of

 

 

religious activism. These are Jarena ee, Rebecca Cox Jacksonfi
w— # \ J

 

and ZilphaKEIE§> The autobiographical writings of these women

present black female liberation theologies which advocate

 

 

k—i “...—.-—.-- 1w

 

 

women's eqpalitymig‘theuelergy?//The works capture womenle

12
religious heritage through the revival era under the impact o£_

 

 

Méthodism, which swept the nation in the nineteenthcentury.
“##Chapterwfive)examines the sentimental narrative of Harriet

_ V
B.<§ilso§?and the slave autobiography of Harriet A. {acobs)to

observe first-hand the enslaved_blaekwwomeg{sweyakening to

‘—

 

their ownmindividnel theologies. Examination of these
autobiographies will illustrate that "black women writers had a
literature of their own previously hidden by patriarchal [and
racist values]."16 'The works included in this diSsertation

demonstrate that, as Henry Louis Gates, Jr. argues:

Literary works configure in a tradition not because of
some mystical collective unconsciousness determined by the
biology of race or gender, but because writers read other
writers and ground their representation of experience in
models of language provided by other writers to whom they
feel akin. It is through this mode of literary revision,
amply evident in the texts themselves--in formal echoes,
recast metaphors, even in parody--that a 'tradition'
emerges and defines itself.17

The analysis that this dissertation undertakes is governed

by William Andrews assertion that:

The problem with too much of the criticism that has been
written on black autobiography is that it pays too little
attention to the social, historical, or ideological
significance of the forms of black narrating that have
evolved since the mid-eighteenth century. To put it
simply, we have read too many black autobiographies as
works not as texts.18

This dissertation examines the texts of spiritual
autobiographers and secular autobiographers in their social,

historical, and ideological contexts to better oneerstang_ggy

_‘

black women developed a self-reliant and an empowered

v fi—w

 

consciousness in nineteenth-century society.

«om...
.... .__._,. _.,_.-II~

NOTES

1 William L. Andrews, ed.,

E1111 'EII' ]' EIIII'I I13!
(Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1986); Marilyn Richardson, ed.,

 

 

Hr1te11__EssaxS_and_Sneeches (Bloomington: Indiana UP. 1987)-
Nellie McKay, "Nineteenth-Century Black Women's Spiritual

Autobiographies Of Religious Faith and Self-Empowerment,"
I | I' H , I' . E . . I I] I E J
Narrarixes, ed. Personal Narratives Group (Bloomington:
Indiana UP, 1989)///Rosemary Radford Ruether, "Feminist
Theology and Spirituality, " - ' ‘
Nen_flnmanity, ed. Judith L. Weidman (San Francisco: Harper,
1984); Carol P. Christ, Wemananirit_3iaing (San Francisco:
Harper, 1979); Martha Tomhave Blauvelt, "Women and Revivalism,"
HOmen_and_Bel1g1On_1n_Amer1Ca1__Ihe_uineteenth_gentury, eds.
Rosemary Radford Ruether and Rosemary Skinner Keller, vol. 1
(San Francisco: Harper, 1981); Gerda Lerner, Black Wcmen in
Hh1Ie_Amer1ca1__A_Documen1ar¥_flistorx (New York: Vintage.

1973); Davida Foy Crabtree, "Women' s Liberation and the
~e»Church " HOmen_S_L1beration_and_the_§hurch ed Sarah Bently
Doely, (New York: Association, 1970); and Elisabeth Schussler
Fiorenza, "Emerging Issues in Feminist Biblical
Interpretation." Christian Eem1n1sm1_!1sions_of_a_Neu
Humanity, ed. Judith L. Weidman (San Francisco: Harper, 1984).
Fiorenza recovers the feminist liberation theology of Anna
Julia Cooper. See also Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, In_Memcry
cf_fler (New York. Crossroad, 1983). In this work Fiorenza
traces the evolution of Elizabeth Cady Stanton' S Ine_flcman_e
Bible. See Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ihe__cman_e_Bibie, Parts I
_ and II (New York: European, 1883; New York: Arno, 1972);
Jacquelyn Grant, "A Black Response to Feminist Theology,"
Wcmanie_fipiriL_Bcnding, eds. Janet Kalven and Mary I. Buckley
(New York. Pilgrim, 1985); Letha Dawson Scanzoni and Nancy A.
Hardesty, All_fle_re_MeanL_rc_Be (Nashville. Abingdon, 1986);

Phyllis Trible, GOd_and_the_BhetoriC_of_Sexualit¥
(Philadelphia. Fortress, 1978); Delores S. Williams,

 

+

x

13

14

[:"Womanist Theology: Black Women's Voices," Wearing_che
W (San Franciscoz
Harper, 1989); and Nancy F. Cott, Ihe_Grcnndinc_cf_Mcdern
Feminism (New Haven: Yale UP, 1987).
2 Sue E. Houchins, introduction, Sniritnai_uarrariyee,
ed. Houchins (New York: Oxford UP, 1988) xxix.
3 Henry Louis Gates, Jr. ed., " " '
Difference (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1985) 11-12.
4 Ralph Waldo Emerson, "New England Reformers," Selected

Hritings_of;Emerscn, ed. Donald McQuade (New York: Modern
Library, 1981) 433.

5 Emerson 434.

5 Houchins xxix.

7 Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, "Discrimination Against Afro—
American Women in the Woman's Movement, 1830-1920," Ihe_Afrc;

Amer1can_Woman1__StrnsgleS_and_Imaces ed Sharon Harley and
vRosalyn Terborg- Penn (Port- Washington, NY: Kennikat, 1978) 18.

8 Terborg-Penn l8.
9 Terborg—Penn 18.

10 Eleanor Flexner, W

W (New York: Atheneum,
1973) 44-45.

11 Flexner 44-45.

12 Alice Walker, In Search Qf_Qur_MQLherL§_§a£d£D§i
Hemaniac_2rcae (San Diego: Harcourt, 1983) 233.

13 Walker 233.

14 Maria W. Stewart, Ercductinns_Q£_Mrsi_Maxia_fl1_SL§flaLLp

Sniritnal_Narratiyes, ed. Sue E. Houchins (Boston: Friends of
Freedom and Virtue, 1835; New York: Oxford UP, 1988) 55.

15 Stewart 6.

16 Hazel V Carby. BeConStrusting_flomanhoodi__1he

W (New York:
Oxford UP, 1987) 16.

17 Henry Louis Gates, Jr., "Foreword: In Her Own Write,"

Spiritna1_Narratixes, ed. Sue E. Houchins (New York: Oxford
UP, 1988) xviii.

18 William L. Andrews, "Toward a Poetics of Afro— American
Autobiography " AfrO;Amer1can_L1IeraL¥_Studx_1n_the_lflflfls.
-eds. , Houston A. Baker, Jr. and Patricia Redmond (Chicago: U
Of Chicago P, 1989) 80.

CHAPTER ONE
OVERVIEW:
RELIGION AND POSITIVE SELF-DEFINITION
FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMEN

Many scholars in black literary and historical studies
have frequently cited the importance of religion and literature

as weapons in the survival of the black communiEyu}//Literary

 

 

historian James H. Evans, Jr. notes that religion and
literature "have been--and still are--two chief means of_
_£esisting oppression and affirming self worth."2 Evans also
notes that the central theme of these two very important facets
of black expression is the quest for liberatien, a primary
feature of the African-American historical experience. Evans
further insists on the importance of religion and literature in
African-American existence because 13 is through religion and
literature that African-Americans "preserved their collective
identities" and redefined themselves for self:preservation in a
predominantly hostile American culture. 3

African-American autobiographies provide important first—
hand accounts of that struggle for liberation in the black
community. Historian John W. Blassingame's and literary
theorist Albert E. Stone's validations of autobiographies as
history and literature paved the way for the use of

autobiographies as raw data for scholarly research in a variety

15

16
of fields.4 These works are valuable tools in the discovery

process of black womehiewperticipetionmin black American

religious histogy and in the servival of the black community,//

 

 

(:Yet until the 19708 and early 19803, the autobiographies of
black women were even overlooked in African-American historical
and literary studies > Nellie McKay suggests that while the
black female's contribution to the survival of the black
community has been well-documented, her contributions to the
religious heritage of that community have often been
overlooked.5 It is only in recent years that scholars have
begun to explore black women's spiritual autobiographies and

secular autobiographies with a subtext of women's liberation I
__ f t.

theology as a way of fostering better understanding of how

 

black women participated in that development while maintaining_’

their own particular and separate religious ideologies.6

w u—1w—A—p ...-...

 

 

 

Such autobiographies illustrate further that not all black

———-—3

women passively accepted traditional readings of Biblical texts

 

 

which promoted sexism, described by feminist theologian
Rosemary Radford Ruether as an "historical reality ... in human
societies and which further resulted in the exclusion of women
from social development in the valued sphere of cultural
formation and leadership." 7 Their personal Biblical exegesis
fostered the development of the first extant black liberation
theologies in American literature. As authors of liberation
theologies which included the liberation of all in equivalent

personhood, without regard to race or gender, nineteenth—

 

century black female liberation theologians in the spiritual

W“

 

 

WV“! I “—

autobiographical tradition radically_re-imaged the Divine.8 For

17
these females, the Divine was a Deity in favor of the complete

liberatiOh of the black female so that she might become

 

spiritual leader, teacher or guide to white males and white

 

females or black males and black females in all possible walks

_4_‘

of life. In order to carry out their chosen career, some black

 

female liberation theologians struggled for viable_preaching

engagements in what is commonly known as promiscuous

 

assemblies.9
Documenting the struggle for the right to preach by
black female liberation theologians, authors of spirituel

autobiographies of religious activism reveai,pioneering

 

incidents of_h£avery and courage4//The struggle for the right
to preach was a struggle against the pelitical, culturai_and.
eeeial forceg in nineteenth-century America. Many nineteenth-
century organized church bodies considered the female
preacher's struggle for equal opportunity in the pulpit

ministry to be at odds with traditional Biblical hermeneutics

 

regarding women's subordinate place. However, the Spiritual

autobiographies of religious activism by black females indicate
that some black females overcame the odds and indeed were able
to preach publicly. The success of their quest has far-reaching
consequences. Antebellum America was presented a public view,
not seen or heard before, of the black female, a figure of

_._-

political authority in the black community and a spiritual
1 ‘*i-1_1_1—”u———-

 

 

 

leader, teacher, and guide in predominantly white or racially

. -—-—-a—.-'.-w—-¢u.—. . -‘- ... «.

 

k

mixed religious meetings.

 

In a larger socio-historical context then, black female

liberation theologians developed ideologies concerning_32m§nis

 

18
roles which were not in heeping with nineteenth—century socio:

 

 

cultural politics of the "cult of true womanhood:L_the "cult of

r1

domesticity", and the tradition of all-male authority in

W

 

 

 

American churchee which permeated society. With an examination
of the autobiographical writings of black female liberation
theologians, any previous notions by historians of a monolithic

black female attitude or theology is shattered. Nineteenth-

 

_eentury black female theologians approached life from different

 

economic situations and developed unique personal theologies.

 

However, their theologies share the eommon grounding of a_
belief in women's innate equality with men and their right he
preach publicly,

Black preaching women in the spiritual autobiographical
tradition and black female autobiographers of secular
narratives with spiritual subtexts developed personal

theologies of female liberation which enabled them to resist

 

nineteenth-century definitions of women's prescribed place and
hhhs to experience degrees of liberation and freedoh: Their
religious ideologies were not always in agreement with the
religious precepts of other black females or black males, nor

were they always in agreement with those of white females and

white males. The black women included in this dissertation

 

-..-..nd-i' _-..._ - ..

 

found it necessary to explicitiy or implicitly address American

Mum—m. "’ —~—-._ap..ou-—— ..-

concepts of the "true womah: and redefine this term as a means

-;~au_-aw - -#m‘w~~_—'

of fostering survival and self-esteem for black women. Without
redefinition of notions of "true womanhood," the authors' quest
for freedom and liberation within the black community and in

society at large might not even have been attempted.

19
The spiritual and secular narratives chosen for discussion

in this dissertation reveal that the authors of these
narratives resisted nineteenth-century definitions at "true

womanhood" which not only excluded them from such an ideal
of”...

 

because of race and Class, but which also limited their

M 7'

potential for f humanit/)//N1neteenth-century black female

 

liberation theologians (authors of spiritual autobiographies)
struggled against these exclusions and the narrow definitions
of women that limited them in the socio-political realm. Their

struggle for the right to preach was a struggle against WOTEEL§

 

 

subordination and against public perceptions of the "true

 

woman". In order to understand fully the necessity of that

 

struggle and the black woman's need to redefine "true woman" in

order to eggyiye_and_achieye_§elfhoog, it will be helpful to

begin with a brief examination of black women's history and

 

heritage from colonial times on, along with a parallel
examination of American white women's history and heritage.
This first chapter begins with an examination of women's
religious and secular roles in colonial America, as this era
has had a large impact on the development of women's roles

throughout American history.

AMERICAN PURITANISM AND ITS EFFECT ON AMERICAN LIVES

New England Puritanism fostered the development of
traditional religious beliefs in mainstream American culture.
Landing one year after the arrival of African Slaves in 1619

colonial Virginia, the Puritan settlers in New England

20
developed religious views which were quite influential until

the mid-nineteenth century. Perry Miller writes:

Because their societies were tightly organized, and above
all because they were a highly articulate people, the New
Englanders established Puritanism --for better or worse--
as one of the continuous factors in American life and
thought.10

Religious conformity was the key to survival within the

 

early Puritan communities; deviation meant societal

 

 

banishment;9/As Benjamin W. Labaree notes, the Puritan goal
was for a perfect community of Ehristians, which would serve as
a model for other Christian communities to follow.”’ Benjamin
W. Labaree notes further:

Unity meant well-organized towns and congregations and
families, but unity also required that individuals
‘subordinate their own interests and values tg_

_those of the whole. Failure to do so would result in

a weakening of church and society, perhaps even its
total disintegration.13

In early Puritan New England, clergymen had great power and
__“‘5‘~_*___mv__fl__ -

 

authority. They were the "first citizens" and leaders. The
political and social life was centered in various settlements,
formally organized into congregations. Magistrates settled
some disputes, but the clergy had veritable power and;

authority.14

 

If the Puritan influence was great in terms of political
and cultural values in American life and thought, this
influence was also great in establishing roles for women.

Women's subordination to males and to religious authority was
6 - mm M

 

m“.

firmly established with the arrival of the early Puritan

settlers.

Ch

21

WHITE WOMEN'S ROLES AS THE ANTITHESIS OF BLACK WOMEN'S ROLES IN
COLONIAL AMERICAN HISTORY

Gerda Lerner's study in women's roles from colonial to
nineteenth-century America indicates the significant changes in
roles played by American white women. White women in the early
colonial era enjoyed a kind of freedom which the majority of
black women throughout American history did not.15 The
majority of white women came to colonial America as free women,
an opportunity which was never offered a black female.16 The
unusual privileges that white women enjoyed resulted from the
need of unmarried Puritan males for more white women in the
Puritan communityd17 Puritans considered themselves a special
people chosen by God to set up a new world order in the
American wilderness. Their destiny was to preserve and to
cultivate America for themselves and their descendants. In the
Puritan oligarchy, procreation was both a religious and civic

duty. However, there was a shortage of white women in the early

 

 

Puritan settlements. In the 1650's, advertisements were sent to
England asking single women and widows to come to the newly
established colonies to be the wives of single Puritan males.
These messages included offers of acres of land as inducement
to becoming a settlerfi18 Even women who came as indentured
servants were assured of economic security once their tenure
ended. In Puritan society, marriage was a very important
institution. Marriage was highly valued because it produced
white offspring who were vital to the Puritan community and its

heritage of racial superiority and religious precepts.

 

22
Marriage was also important because many Puritan males

needed wives to perform specific tasks. Women made shoes,
cloth, clothes, candles, furniture, dishes, and preserves.

They grew and cultivated much of the family's food. Without
the women's help in making household goods, early Puritan males
would not have had the time to do the work they had defined for
themselves. Despite their continual and essential
contributions to Puritan households, wives were primarily

considered men's chief, yet subordinate, assistants in the

Fri

 

 

 

domestic sphere.19 iNevertheless, white colonial women enjoyed.

 

self-fulfillment to a significant degree. Despite their

__———

 

 

primary roles as wives, a number of women held an interesting

 

_variety of jobs during the colonial era, including such
occupations as silversmiths, butchers, upholsterers, and
gunsmiths. Women also managed mills and plantations. In
addition, they served as jail keepers, journalists, printers
and sextons.2°

It was a duty of both men and women to work during the
Puritan era, and women were, more or less, expected to be self-
supporting. Women practiced forms of medicine, especially
midwifery. Men were excluded from this occupation since it was

considered women's domain. However, the professionalization of

 

American medicine in 1765 closed the practice to women.”- Most
of the valued skills in Puritan and colonial society underwent
professionalization after 1765,‘glosing the doors to women, who

were not allowed in colleges and universities.22

As much as women exercised unusual privileges in the

 

Puritan communities, they were not given the ability to!
_____flfl,,_

23
exercise a public voice in theological debates; The

seventeenth-century New World settlers brought with them the
English model that woman was "politically, socially and legally
subordinate to man."23'Traditional Biblical exegesis giving

sanction to_§§2;:§W§§Q§orship of women's public voice and his

‘f-J

 

denial of women's leadership in traditionally male-dominated
spheres was eagerly embraced by the strict Puritan clergy. For
the Puritan clergy, woman was inherently inferior to man, an
ideology rooted in Christian tradition: "The first is, to
submit herselféito her husband; and to reverence him as her
head in all things.““ "In the Puritan hierarchy as men were
subordinate to God, so were women subordinate to men."25 This
was based on 1 Corinthians 11:3 which reads, "... the head of
every man is Christ: and the head of the woman is the man: and
the head of Christ is God." John Robinson, pastor of the
Pilgrim Fathers, advised the settlers in Plymouth,
Massachusetts, that: "... more especially the Lord requires in
the man love and wisdom; and in the woman subjection. Eph.v.
22-25.... In the wife is specially required a reverend
subjection in all lawful things to her husband. Eph. v. 22,

'7c."26 Women were thus restricted from theological 93.95.332-399

W

 

degi§i92;making. These religious restrictions were also
politicalflrgstrigtigns,in the Puritan oligarchy.27

The first female to openly challenge religious conformity
and the silencing of women's voice in the early Puritan

settlement was Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643), a major participant

 

 

in the Antinomian controversy which took place between 1636 and

1638 in Boston, Massachusetts. Hutchinson's activities

24
indicate that American women hadwbeen fighting for

 

participation in theological debateswas well as the right to

”WI"

 

 

 

mod-.1 9v ...—-..m ””9“

 

 

rm “a“

leadership roles in religious assemblies since the earLy

 

colonial era. Hutchinson, a follower of Puritan elder John
Cotton had heard him preach in Lincolnshire, England, before he
left for America. Cotton had preached a "covenant of grace"
which advocated that knowledge of Jesus was more essential than
strict adherence to Biblical law. Hutchinson embraced Cotton's
teaching and became an active believer in his doctrines. While
Cotton's theology matured and conformed more to the theology in
his Puritan community, Hutchinson, along with her husband Will
and six children, continued in the belief Cotton had earlier
advocated. In 1634 they arrived in Boston seeking to practice
freely the religious practices and precepts they had developed
in England.

In America, Hutchinson led religious meetings in her own

home with males in attendance. Meetings of this sort were

permissible for women because home-based religious meetings

———-—

 

were not in conflict with current interpretations of_Pauline

 

 

 

theology. According to canonical scripture, women could hold

 

private religious meetings in their homes.528 Neither Hutchinson
nor any other Puritan female could openly address a church

religious assembly; however, they could address mixed audiences
of males and females in at-home religious meetings. One of her
more visible followers in these meetings was Henry Vane, a man
who had formerly been a Royal Counselor in England. Vane

arrived at the Boston Colony at the time that colonists sought

to relieve John Winthrop of his governorship. Vane was elected

25
governor and became a follower of Hutchinson. Vane's

visibility and political power helped to draw more converts to
Hutchinson's religious philosophy than might have otherwise
come.29

Another visible follower of Hutchinson was John
Wheelwright, a teacher in the Boston church. Wheelwright
asserted Hutchinson's theology publicly. As the Hutchinsonians
increased in number, many Puritan elders felt that not only the
purpose but the peace of the entire American Puritan settlement
was threatened.

The Hutchinsonians were considered antinomian, people who
developed 'doctrines against the law'. A major tenant of
Hutchinson's theology was that "the moral law is not binding
upon Christians, who are under the law of grace." 3° .Anything
that fell short of an experience of union with God was
considered by the Hutchinsonians as a covenant of works. 31
The Puritans were not a tolerant group. Rowland H. Allen

writes: "Religion and laws were closely intertwined in the

\__'—— _

 

 

 

 

Puritan community. The government felt itself bound to

k;

expatriate every disorderly person...."332 Allen continues:

"They knew nothing of toleration. They had not thought of

“' "“H-"I now-...“ .- —....... “ml."

 

that..."33

Winthrop and other members of the organized Puritan
establishment believed in exacting methods of sanctification.
They had an established concept of preparation. Upon admission
to the Puritan church, believers seeking membership were
expected to pass before a tribunal and to give correct answers

to religious questions. These questions centered primarily

26
upon the steps by which the believer had come to his or her

conversion. Depending upon the answers, believers were either
admitted or not admitted to the Puritan church.
As a perceived_threat to Puritan government, Hutchinson

v... .._. r._~_,__ ._ _ _ _,.. . m __ ...-Le.” _.(_.‘.'I“-Ma. -.-4—~.-. -—. ...—

was tried for heresy.‘34 At this time, Hutchinson participated

at ‘Md‘lw

 

 

 

———

in public theological debates, but only as a result of her
trial. Hutchinson was found guilty of preaching a false
doctrine and, as a consequence, was excommunicated and banished
from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637.335 After her
banishment, Hutchinson initially moved to Aquidneck,352Rhode
Island, and later to Pelham, New York. She was subsequently
"killed by the Indians“37 in 1643.

For all of her efforts, Huchinson was never granted the
opportunity to conduct lay religious meetings publicly or to
participate in public theological debates (except, of course,
at her trial for heresy which she could never have hoped to
win). Historian Thomas Hutchinson laments the fact that Mrs.
Hutchinson is "known in posterity" because "confusion in the
colony" was heard in Englandd38 However, recovery of Anne
Hutchinson's quest for equality in public theological debates
is important for American women's history.

After a temporary "aberration," the*Pu£itanflgglony once

again became a thriving community of religious conformity in

 

h.“ HMW pm‘w .
. an...” H“ -

which women's views were not given public hearing. This was

\_ u—Am—s‘x

applicable as well to women's desire for church membership.

 

 

The Puritan elders passed an ordinance in 1648 stipulating
that: "Thereupon the party, if it be a man, speaketh himselfe;

but if it be a woman, her confession made before the Elders in

27
private is most usually...read by the Pastor, who registers the

same."39 In this important era of preindustrial America,
Puritan women were secondary citizens--whether orthodox or
unorthodox. Although under the Puritan oligarchy women could
achieve salvation equally with men, since God was no respecter
of persons, this potential was not seen as applicable to the
earthly realm where women were considered of inferior social
and physical status.40

In Puritan economy, male and female roles were considered

...-“-...w ,_ _ .y . . ,. — “...-.-
A‘. a... ...-1 .... -—. «...-u. ’- --N—w-—.~_, ,5 __ I ..______..

as "complementary Parts of one whsle.3:11.---¥92thezmszs.r29p.

 

 

equal. Complementary parts of one whole meant that male and

 

female must become united to create life. With the creation of
life, the Old Testament sanctions regarding women's ordained
place as being dependent and subordinate to her husband were
thought to be applicable to Puritan women.

Elder Cotton Mather wres w' ’ ' hat some

 

women were the spiritual and intellectual equals of men. In

R

1692, the New England elder published his highly influential

.jfi/fiMather was quite

progressive in his theology in that he affirmed that God

 

 

 

 

inspired women to write Holy Scripture. Mather stated:

...that precious Bible... the curious Workmanship

whereof, the Hand of a Wbman has contributed? How ready
should WOmen be to read the pages upon which they may see
transcribed, the heavenly discoveries made by the God of
Heaven to an Holy Woman.... We have not only the Song of
Deborah, the Song of Hannah, the Song of Mary, and the
Prophecy of Huldah in this matchless Book of God; but the
Instructions of Bathshebah too, are entered in the blessed
Registers. The thirty first Chapter of Proverbs contains a
direction of Bathshebah to her darling Solomon.43

28
While Mather asserts that: "...divers women have been the

Writers of his Declarative Word," he ultimately believed in

 

woman's prescribed place as subordinate to men.

 

Churches in the colonial era preached (following the New
Testament) that women might be saved_by_performing their most

important wifely duty--bearing children. White women in the

 

colonial era, although frightened of dying in childbirth,
embraced childbirth as a means of earning a place in heaveg,44
An economic system which demanded large families so that many
hands could help on farms, societal belief in the
multiplication command of Genesis 1:28, and the lack of
adequate birth control, resulted in many women bearing a large
number of children. Due to the astronomical rate of
stillbirths and infant mortality, and the large numbers of
pregnancies resulting in the death of the mother, women had
extreme and ambivalent feelings about childbirth.45

Ministers, as a consequence, preached Pauline theology

which insisted that Eve's curse_was the cause of difficult or

 

fatal pregnancies; yet these pregnancies were the possible
geteway to blessed immortality: For Cotton Mather, salvation
through childbirth was conditional. Only if women were
virtuous could they expect to experience the gift of God's
saving grace. Women embraced the theology that death through
childbirth would allow them entrance into heaven if they were
obedient to their husbands (respecting the natural authority of

males) and lived holy lives. Mather states:

Now as concerning the Wives Duty, What shall become
her? Shall she abuse the gentleness and humanity of her

29

Husband, and at her pleasure turn all things upside down?
Now ... that is far repugnant against God's Commandment;
for thus doth St. Peter preach to them, "To Wives, be ye
in subjection to obey your own Husbands ..... Holy Matrons
did in former time...[put] their whole hope in God, and in
obeying their Husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling
him Lord.... they refused not from Marriage for the
business thereof, for the gifts and perils thereof.45

For the naturally barren woman, Mather made provisions. Such a
woman might have the:

Occassion of her eternal Happiness, by the Spiritual
Fulness whereto she is thereby excited and afflicted; it
causes her to be more fruitful in all the good works of
Piety and Charity; more fruitful in her Endeavours
otherwise to serve her Generation after the Will of God.“'7

Consequently, the traditional sphere for men and women in early
American society remained intact to a large extent, with women
end men becoming equal only in death:48

While it has been argued that throughout the history of
America, white women's lives have been similar to those of
black female slaves,“’historical evidence proves that this is
an oversimplification. Nancy F. Cott writes: "The analogy
between white women, and black slaves, vis-a-vis their white
masters--their common treatment as property rather than human
beings, their dependent status, etc.--has been noted by
critical observers in America...." Cott continues: "This

analogy sheds light on the status of women, though it somewhat

obscures the larger ramifications of slave status and

M

 

 

racism."5°

_________l
White women in the colonial era were given many privileges
WH---- m%*_~m,~_ ..mv-Wv‘_"‘_"hw“.“v " “a ' - ‘wm~-H‘M‘WD~»OQM

not enjoyed by black women. Even indentured women had a more

W“

h

privileged role than black women: The white female indentured

servant might have complained of her lot and that she toiled

30
"almost Day and Night, and very often in the Horses

druggery,... and then tied up and whipp'd to that Degree that
you'd not serve an Animal, scare any thing but Indian Corn and
Salt to eat and that even begrudged...."51 But the indentured
servant could serve for an appointed time and gain her freedom
at the end of her tenure while the black woman was a slave for

-.P

life.

,_.__._

AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN COLONIAL AND PRE-COLONIAL AMERICAN HISTORY
The condition of privileged and lower-class white women in

the colonial era was decidedly different from that of the black

female. Although in the socio-political sphere the free white

woman was accorded subordinate and inferior status to the male,

she was still accorded a fully human statue in the eyes of the

 

church and society in the colonial era.

This was not so with black females. Forcibly brought in
chains to colonial Virginia in 1619, black males and females
were not accorded fully human status. From that time on along
with black males, black women were involved in a struggle for

survival, a struggle to use positive self-identification and

 

 

*—

communal solidarity in order to withstand racial discrimination

and oppression in_Am£zi§a. Their etruggle for self-esteem and

self-affirmatign began in the colonial era with their initial

 

arrival as slaves. A brief examination of colonial history

might provide some explanation.

 
 
    

As early as the sixteenth century, Western Europeans ha

”’4'.

 

   

begun to define Africans as inhumaanbeastly, immoral and
V,_,,,lmw.wwwiwwmlflw -WW.anwwhW-n_

_incapable of civilization and Christianization. American

---._

 

31
colonists had heard these criticisms of the supposed immorality

of Africans before encountering the Africans themselves. Many
rumors were spread through sixteenth-century Western European
travel narratives, published in the mid-sixteenth century.
Western Europeans had a healthy appetite for travel narratives
and read them avidly hoping for any bit of information about
people in different countries. These narratives and journals
provided entertainment for those who could not travel to those
far-off places. 52

The kind of entertainment these narratives provided is
explained by historian Winthrop D. Jordan. Jordan states that
the earliest English descriptions of West Africa and West
Africans were written by "adventurous" English travelers
searching for profitable trading experiences around 1550. These

travelers were affronted by what they considered "differences"

 

 

in West African people, culture and society. The most striking

‘-M”~.-m 1w .

 

 

 

"difference" for the mid-sixteenth century English traveler was
that of appearance, notably the dark skin color of the West

African. For the English traveler, the derkness in skin color

 

constituted an anomaly and possible disfigurement. "Travelers

 

rarely failed to comment upon it; indeed when describing
Africans they frequently began with complexion and then moved
on to dress (or, as they saw it, lack of it) and manners."53

For Europeans, blackness had many intense and negative

 

 

 

 

gggggtations, Blackness as a concept was the direct opposite

m..—

 

 

of whiteneee, "White and black connotated purity and
filthiness, virginity and sin, virtue and baseness, beauty and

ugliness, beneficence and evil, God and the devil. Whiteness,

I

32
moreover, carried a special significance... it was, ... when

complemented by red, the color of perfect human beauty,
especially female beauty."54 It is not surprising, then, that
ethnocentric Englishmen with a concept of white supremacy

considered West Africans ugly by reason of "color", "hair" and

 

"disfigured lips and nose."55

The concept of blackness as an_§nom§ly persisted even a
century later. Jordan writes: "It was important, if
incalculably so, that the English discovery of black Africa
came at a time when the accepted English standard of ideal
beauty was a fair complexion of rose and white. Negroes seemed
the very picture of perverse negation." 55

European ethnocentricity rendered West Africans seyege.
Jordan writes: "... savagery--the failure to be civilized - set
Negroes apart from Englishmen in an ill-defined but crucial
fashion. Africans were different from Englishmen in so many
ways in their clothing, housing, farming, warfare, language,
government, morals."57

A further distinction which set West Africans apart from

the Englishmen was the lack of a Christian religion.

 

 

 

Christianity, according to the sixteenth-century English mind,
was the only religion of merit. The sixteenth-century English
global "yardstick“58 found any overtly "unchristian" country
heathen, uncivilized, immoral, savage, and significantly
inferior. This factor enhanced the English concept that West
Africans were uncivilized.59

This notion, however, demonstrates the reductive nature of

racial marginalization, illustrating that notions of "other"

33
Flead to misunderstanding of a ragi§l_group_and are a

contributing factor in both scholarly and socio-political

dismissal of a race's heritage;

The most important aspect of the English reaction to
African heathenism was that Englishmen evidently did not
regard it as separable from the Negroes' other attributes.
Heathenism was treated not so much as a specifically
religious defect but as one manifestation of a general
refusal to measure up to proper standards, as a failure to
be English or even civilized.60

These differences were emphasized in order to "condemn

deviation§_from the English norm."51

 

In fairness to colonial African-American female slaves, as
well as to point out the fallacy of the "English yardstick,"

attention must be given to Henry Mitchell's research in African

-

and African-American religions_andmgnlture§. Mitchell

 

convincingly argues that any historical theory which suggests
that all Africans became "Christian' only after 'enlightenment'
in America is deficient. Mitchell's research indicates that
Christianity penetrated Western Africa long before European

Christianity existed.

The Greek roots of Euro-American Christianity are, via
Egypt, largely from Africa. The African commonality with
Old Testament tradition is well-documented, along with
the early land bridge between East Africa and Asia Minor.
Thus shared prehistoric cultural roots, combined with the
shared issues of all human experience, easily explain the
similarities between the world view of late-blooming
Northern Europe and early-blooming West Africa.62

Mitchell continues:

The sustaining power and effectiveness of the Black
American adaptation of West African reading of reality was
at work prior to evangelization by whites, and its
strength was so great that it has been constantly used and

34

carefully preserved ever since the first gathering of
slaves in the United States managed to communicate with
each other. The process was... more folk cultural than
consciously intellectual, and often more unconsciously
than consciously religious. But it sustained Black
survival.63

European Christians in the seventeenth and eighteenth

 

centuries had strict codes governing sexual behavio£,//When

English travelers venturing to the African continent recounted

———.——

what they considered "relaxed" sexual practigee of the native

 

 

Africans, European Christians were horrified. The Europeans'

concept of racial superiority made them quick to consider

 

inferior any nation with different racial characteristics,
modes of behavior, mores and customs. This, combined with

European concepts of sexual monogamy, made them consider native

 

Africans savage and incapable of civilization.

"People in Africa unlike their European contemporaries
practiced pragmatic approaches to human sexuality, such as
arranging for the fulfillment of sexual needs 'in absentia'
when spouses were deceased or otherwise away." ‘4 jgflugfimug
practiced by African slaves further impressed upon white
Christian minds the belief that Africans were immoral. Some
tribes in Africa subscribed to the practice of "levirate"--a
widow being "inherited" by her brother-in-law as a means of
providing the children of the deceased with an inheritance.
Levirate custom as continually practiced in African countries

such as Tanzania and Kenya is stated as follows:

When a husband dies his widow may either: (A) continue to
live in her deceased husband's home in which case she may
cohabit with either (1) one of her dead husband's brothers
(2) one of her husband's male relatives or (3) any man who
has been adopted into the deceased husband's clan..." 55

35
This practice further solidified stereotypes abougflblggk_ugmeg_

in the Western European racial conceptual framework. When
black women came to America, the impression of blacks given in
travel narratives became the standard by which all black women
and men were judged. The "relaxed" sexual practices of the
Africans which were different from the "strict" sexual codes of
European Christians further enlarged negative concepts about
“I

African women. European ethnocentrism rendered the social

 

 

behavior and religious practices of most members of the

Mwflaqufl is

 

 

*7 W.—

 

 

'darker' races as immoral and inferior. Considering the _,J

#—

European concept of beauty as the only true standard of beauty,

 

Western Europeans saw no redeeming value in the physical
features of Africans which contrasted in large part with those
of Western Europeans. This European standard of beauty

contributed to concepts of black women and men by white

¢MMW

 

 

 

 

colonials as a marginal sub-standard version of humanity.

¥

 

One might argue that the colonial American yardstick

measuring moral behavior and civilized practice was at best

 

flawed. Indeed colonial Americans, while frowning on the

7'7

sexual behavior of others, themselves engaged in relaxed sexual

‘in-aw“) bfl‘ wmwfirum- I
“fi‘ -ol.--~-.‘,.~

‘5'“ mg“~fi_r‘—l-w-'- »*-—‘.._.____ ___

behavior. Page Smith argues that although colonial Puritan
W

Christians seemed to embrace the strictest codes concerning

sexual practices, this was not always the case. Smith writes:

Since lovers had often to delay their marriages, the
Plymouth Colony instituted a religious practice known as
pre-contract. Under its terms a couple might appear
before two witnesses and declare their intention of
marrying. Thus betrothed, they were allowed a remarkable
degree of privacy and liberty. Pre-contract was in fact,
a kind of semi-or trial marriage, and sexual intercourse
"in time of contract" was clearly distinguished from

36

fornication.... The frequency of premarital intercourse is
astonishing to the modern mind, but the important fact is
that by far the majority of such incidents took place
under the pre-contract or between the couples whose
intention it was to marry and who considered themselves
betrothed." ‘5

Again, it may be asserted that the English yardstick employed
to measure difference or to point out "failure" to be English

was at least "adjustable".

AFRICAN SLAVES AND RACIAL PREJUDICE

Historian John B. Boles notes that as early as 1619 racial
prejudice against blacks was evident.“’ Historian Alden T.
Vaughn also notes in his research concerning the years between
1619 and 1629 that black women and men brought to colonial
Virginia had a rather debased status in the eyes of white
settlers.68 ‘The errival of African slaves was documented by
white settler John Rolfe in 1620. Rolfe reported the arrival
of a Dutch man of war and incidentally the arrival of African

slaves.

"About the last of August [1619] came in a dutch man of
warre that sold vs twenty Negars [this was the first
introduction of Negro slavery into Virginia]: and Iapazous
King of Patawomeck came to Iames towne to desire two ships
to come trade in his Riuer, for a mere plentifull yeere of
Corne had not been in a long time, yet very contagious,
and by the treachery of one Poule, in a manner turned
heather wee were very iealous the Saluages would surprize
v3.59

The "twenty Negars" received only brief mention as so much
produce from harvest. No attempt was made to accord the slaves
any further regard.

The census of 1624-1625 of colonial Virginia presents

evidence that a profound prejudice against ElEEEEWY§§ elreedy

 

 

37
in existence. John Boles notes that the census contains the

full names of living white persons, but full names of blacks
are not recorded.70 Blacks are simply listed as "one Negor",
or a "Negors woman". In "Lists of the Livinge and the Dead" in

Virginia blacks were listed in like manner:

negors
negors
negors
negors
negors
negors

a Negors woman.71
Very few names of the living and dead are incomplete for white
settlers, but blacks are only partially named or not at all.
If names were listed of blacks, the list appeared in the manner

described below:

Anthony

William Negors Men
John

Anthony 72

Such a list denoted the inferior place of blacks.

John Winthrop's revision of the neoclassical Great Chain
of Being might help illustrate why concepts of racial
superiority were predominant in the Puritan and Colonial
society. Winthrop's famous sermon, "A Model of Christian
Charity," was delivered in 1630 in the middle of the Atlantic
Ocean while he was onboard a ship destined for America. In this
sermon, Winthrop presented the model of a successful and
cooperative Christian community. Winthrop told his listeners

that they would be the "city on the Hill", the Christian

38
community that the entire civilized world would come to

emulate. Winthrop also told his listeners that partiality was
demonstrated in God's creation of humanity. The Deity, Winthrop

continued, made some humans inferior whgsewstation in life wae.

 

to serve others:

 

God Almightie in his most holy and wise providence
hath soe disposed of the Condicion of mankinde, as in all
times some must be rich, some poore, some highe and
eminent in power and dignitie; others meane and in
subieccion.

First, to hold conformity with the rest of his
workes, being delighted to shewe forthe the glory of his
wisdome in the variety and difference of the Creatures and
the glory of his power, in ordering all these differences
for the preservacion and good of the whole, and the glory
of his greatness....

Secondly, That he might haue the more occasion to
manifest the works of his Spirit; first, vpon the wicked
in moderateing and restraining them; soe that the riche
and mighty should not eate vpp the poore, nor the poore,
and dispised rise vpp against their superiours, and shake
off their yoake; 21y in the regenerate in exerciseing his
graces in them, as in the greate ones, their loue mercy,
gentlenes, temperance etc., in the poore and inferiour
sorte, their faithe patience, obedience etc.73

Although seemingly powerless before a white majority,

American black women demonstrated both the will to resist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

negative definitions imposed upon them by the white power

’1

structure and the desire to transcend oppression. For example,
A ~w-m

N-uuw—w.

 

 

 

 

in 1655, Elizabeth Key, the illegitimate daughter of Thomas
Key and an unmarried slave, brought suit for her freedom on the
grounds that her father was a freeman. Her attorney was
William Greensted. In 1636, at the age of five, Key had been
enslaved to Humphrey Higginson, a tenure which lasted for nine

years. In 1655, Key was passed into the possession of Colonel

 

 

39
John Mottrom, a Northumberland justice of the peace. When

Mottrom died in 1655, Key brought suit for her freedom.

American common law in 1655 held that children inherited
their father's condition. Key also brought suit on other
grounds. Having been baptized a Christian, Key felt she could
not be held in slavery for life.

Key initially lost her case, but her attorney filed an
appeal before the General Assembly. The assembly, in turn,
appointed a committee of burgesses to study the matter further.
In the ensuing interval George Colelough, overseer of Mottrom's
estate, gained permission from Governor Edward Digges to rehear
the case before the General Court. Colelough, however, decided
not to pursue the matter further. Key's attorney was granted
an order for nonsuit against Colelough and Key subsequently
achieved a victory.74

Throughout colonial history blacks embraced a version of

 

Christianity geared to black survival. In the chattel system of

fi

 

.——_.'

slavery, black children were either placed on the market like
cattle or included in existing plantation accounts as

additional slaves. One of t_he important reasons African women

—‘—‘"‘-- -‘—rl . ""‘"-"'""""-

 

became Christians during the early colonial era was to gain

‘e- 4...

MM

 

 

u..... P..._......-

hope for themselves and their children. In 1660, in colonial

....v-w - ...-“v;

 

 

 

W—

Virginia, a newly Christianized slave could apply for freedom
and be granted it under the new statute of redemption.
Christianization normally led to freedom from slavery. For this
___,__fl._lrl,.._ln- _"._wn,_flllfl_flflu 11---- _. -11. 1--..mrli.l- ._,_mfl_w, .

reason, many slave holders opposed any doctrine meant to t_each

x... -..—fin— .......

the slaves about their humanity and their ability to become

“ha“.m MW

 

..14.-—-——
’i

rightful heirs to salvation Yet black women along with black

.___, . v—u- -.. --.-'o.
_. .... ‘MF ...—~-

40

men embraced Christianity. Becoming Christian, many slave women
felt, would be one way of oyercoming negatixe_definitign§, The
public acceptance of American Christianity would enable them to
elevate their "dehumanized" status slightly. However, freedom
(upon public acceptance of Christianity) was experienced by
only a few blacks. Initially, black church attendance was not
allowed by many slave holders for fear that Christian slaves
would be freed. By the late 16605 Massachusetts, Virginia and
other English colonies had taken steps to make sure that
slavery was a self-perpetuating institution. In 1667, Virginia
legislated that baptism does not alter slave status. _cher

states followed suit, ensuring that baptism did not alter slave

v\...~. M-vv wn~vquuv~a~ma vu-p- Aur-

 

statusfi75 Masters then realized they could Christianize slaves

to.-

 

without fear of losing property. "5 This resulted in much time

“.5. p—n—ni mini—«nun.

 

.—f

spent in slave religious instruction. Slaveholders did much to
insure that property would not be lost because of the slave's
acquisition of self-esteem, which the Christian doctrine, if
appropriately taught or read, might possibly result in.

Therefore, religious instruction for the slaves was a slanted

M-mww—W‘i_“ Mug-W.-.
Hm ,s.qn—.-—~—-M~"” a”. .— »,_' -4

‘ -.-—.._

.5

...-..“
’m “...—..—

version of the Christian doctrine, which emphasized loyal

0m yawn—”“- M‘-

 

*‘m-m'

 

NA“ --

W i” ' ' ' ‘""’11: x -A...‘ n»; v *1

servitude. Literacy for slavesw was against the law and a

”Rawumcmsng-v

 

 

punishable offense, so slaves usually did not have access to
the written language.

The common brotherhood and sisterhood of the humanflrace.

W———v-.~W .

 

 

was not emphasized in Biblical exegesis given the slave by

”MW-rm-

others. Rather, emphasis was placed on the slaves' loyalty and
blind obedience to an earthly master. Slaves were taught that

God had made them servants to whites and that they would gain a

F

 

41
reward in heaven for loyal service. Slaves were admonished to

be obedient to their masters in all areas of life or reap not
only earthly punishment but punishment in the afterlife as
well.

Other factors might account for the almost overwhelming
acceptance of Christianity by slaves in the colonial era. With
the gradual acceptance throughout the colonies of slavery as a
legal institution, blacks looked to religion for hope and

7f

redefined their religion so that it would meet their neede_.77
Christianity was the religious belief chosen by the majority of
slaves in the New World as a means of providing hope and group
‘eelidarity.79 It also provided indiyigual and collective self-

esteem and self-worth. Slaves who could read shared uplifting

 

and psychologically helpful Biblical passages with other slaves
who could not read. Many black women in America were involyed

in this aggressiveness to pass on a redemptive version of

 

 

 

Christianity for blacks. n the nineteenth century, Harriet A.

 

w I

(:EEEEE§>continued the tradition of imparting knowledge of "true
Christianity"--a tradition defined by early African-American
slaves as a Christian gospel which does not teach the inherent

inferiority of Africans and their descendants. It was

————‘

 

 

 

 

 

 

frequently necessary that black women and black men undertake
responsibility for introduction to the Christian faith as some
black and white preachers were agents of slave masters who
delivered biased versions of scripture.79

Slave women and men also sought Christianity as a solace

g;- 7. “~-

 

gflwh—u—r—u. r ...-~—

against negative definition and oppreseion. By the late 16005,

 

 

 

chattel slavery was deeply entrenched in colonial American

42
history and consciousness and had become a self-perpetuating

institution. In 1688, the Germantown Friends felt compelled to

 

publish the first religious testimony against slavery ever to

“..."...- vn—n mu“.

 

be printed in America. Members of the Society of Friends

,,.,-..-m “‘M"' ‘
"..th “' .

 

declared: "... to bring men hither or to rob and sell them
against their will, we stand against." 3° In 1693, Quaker
George Keith published "Pamphlet Against Slavery" arguing that
"perpetual Bondage and Slavery" was "intollerable Punishment."
Using Biblical exegesis, Keith argued that as it was wrong to
buy "stollen Goods", it was also wrong to buy "stollen slaves;
neither should such as have them keep them and their Prosperity
in Perpetual Bondage and slavery, as is usually done, to the
great scandal of the Christian profession." 81
In addition to the Friends listed above, many other

Friends attacked slavery. In 1754, John Woolman, tailor and
shopkeeper, attacked slavery in his publication some
Considerations W5.” In 1762. Anthony
Benezet attacked the slave trade as being based on greed and
avarice and denounced slavery as "an evil of so deep a Dye." 33

Yet as eloquent as these voices were, they were "futile"84

in abolishing slavery. Many black#menflengmwgmen foundweomfort

 

 

in a political religious vision thetmgffered not only_a futu£e_

w

 

 

and a hope, but also a beliefflinuliberetion from the
W ..

___-—--I-

 

 

 

dehumanizing and self-perpetuatin g institution of American

hing-I -..-v.5

 

 

 

slavery for themselves and thei_r descendants. Throughout the
Wm ...-M..-

 

tha— mmwmafl'm

early colonial era, African-Americans struggled to survive and

find liberation from slavery.

43
BLACK WOMEN RESIST OPPRESSION

The history of black women in the eelonial era supports

the theory that quite a fewmblegkflwemen resisted negatiye

fl- gun» I...”

definitions, stereotypes, and oppression. In 1745, Elizabeth

punk -r—u-I-‘l

 

Hood and her husband filed a lawsuit against Adam Jourdan for
slander, seeking payment for damages done to her reputation in
the black community:

...Whereas the said Elizabeth is a good true faithful

and honest...Subject of our Lord, the King... herself...
of good name fame creditt and reputation as well amongst
her neighbours.. with whom [she] always hath bee free from
all manner of Incontinence adultery or the Suspicion
thereof.... Nevertheless the said Adam not being ignorant
of the promises but well knowing the same and envying the
happy state and condition of her the said Elizabeth but
Contriving and Intending... her good name,fame, Creditt
and Reputation to hurt, and to bring her into the hate and
Evil opinion of all her Neighbours...Subjects of our said
Lord the King falsly Scandously & publickly did say and
with a loud voice publish malitiously to the said William
Hood of the said Elizabeth his wife these false,
Scandalous & Defamatory

English Words Viz, Take your damned Negro whore.. home
with you,..upon which the said Adam then and there in the
hearing of the Subjects aforesaid Said & replied "you...

Sent your damned Negro whore of a Wife,... to abuse my
folks - go you son of a whore, ... with her...to Maryland
and bring the negro bastard home with [you],....85

Although not all black women had access to the tools of
vindication and justice available to Elizabeth Hood, another
black women filed a petition against injustice done to her in
slavery. In 1782, an outraged slave woman named Belinda made
known her anger about her permanent slave status. Court
documents indicate that Belinda came to America as a child and
was made a slave in the United States for the rest of her life.

Belinda's petition presents a first-hand account of the seizure

44
and capture of a slave girl. For fifty years Belinda toiled as

a slave:

She [came to] know that her doom was slavery from which
death alone was to emancipate [her]. The laws rendered
her incapable of receiving property: and though she was a
free moral agent, accountable for own actions, yet never
she had a moment of her own disposal! Fifty years her
faithful hands have been compelled to ignoble servitude
for the benefit of an Issac Royall....86

While Belinda's petition indicates the tremendous outrage she
felt resulting from her slave-status, Belinda remained a slave.
As chattel slaves, black women were victims of exploitation in
other areas. They worked alongside black males clearing
fields, chopping trees or planting crops. Initially black men
outnumbered black women in colonial Virginia and in many other
Southern and Northern colonies. This was due in large part to
the fact that black females were considered a less desirable
purchase.“ This attitude began to change with the breeding

practices of Slaveholders. Breeding was a less expensive

*»‘aw~-\._‘wfl - Ma-w~n.nn~._flfl_.-¢.h_

 

method of expanding the slave population. This form of sexual

‘ . WWW ...flpr-‘I S-Jtuvu. q. 4.... y.-- H...

 

 

 

exploitation convinced whites that black women were immoral and

 

impure. Breeding practices informed by attitudes that the black

 

woman was immoral thus helped to support those attitudes. While
breeding was a form of sexual exploitation, it also caused many
enslaved black women to suffer another form of loss-ethe loss

of the right to their bodies and the right to their children.

.— v-u- um.- H .. as n.-. ‘ -w .4 a — ......- M~wvnm

_“

Rape and breeding practices were conducted with impunity as

“A.” ..om- m

 

 

 

' ——-—-w~—--V4‘_.w-~u “.../v»-

white males, for the most part, were rarely held accountable
for impregnating black females in early colonial America. In

the case of sexual exploitation of a white indentured servant,

\

45
however, the perpetrator was forced to pay for the resulting

loss of service or was reprimanded publicly.

THE FOUNDING OF THE FIRST ORGANIZED BLACK CHURCH

The WQLWW within slavery.
The faith of the black American community originated in this
institution, yet the original black church was an invisible
institution-- informal and secret meetings held usually at
night on a far section of the plantation for prayer and
deliverance from slavery. These meetings remained secret so
that the survival of blacks in slavery could be realized. In

these secret meetings, blacks adopted a Christian doctrine that

W

 

 

 

 

would meet their special needs in slavery. This Christianity

”as-noun ... I“: M hH-aMm I”

 

*f *u

was a synthesis of their masters' versions of Christianity and

..‘- b-_....n.- knew—-

 

 

 

 

the West African beliefs of their native lands. In this

invisible institution, Blacks affirmed themselves and provided

 

 

inner resistance against the onslaught of brutal oppression of

 

the slave master.

In the invisible institution of the black church, blacks

M

learned to re-image God as a Deity of black liberation. Blacks

«rm-“Hm“. ”W Owwflw "M... “

 

 

re-imaged themselves as not worthless, but as God‘s chosen

'—

 

people. By linking themselves to the 400-year enslavement of

N‘“--w._

 

 

the Biblical Jews; blacks saw similarities between their own

 

condition and that described in the Exodus. God was a Deity of
black liberation. The situation was similar. Working for a
harsh taskmaster with scant nourishment, under brutal
conditions and under a harsh sun, they experienced conditions

which were parallel to those of Jews. The teachings of the

46
black church suggested that God would deliver and punish the

oppressor for the wrongs done to God's chosen people.
For this reason, black theologian and religious historian
01in P. Moyd defines the black Christian tradition as an oral

tradition, kerygmatic in nature, used to spread the 'good !

 

news': the gospel of hope for enslaved Africans. Moyd argues

 

that the black religious tradition was necessarily kerygmatic
because blacks were not permitted literacy; it was also a
resistance to some white interpretations of Christianity which
taught blacks that they were inferior and created by God
particularly and specifically to serve slave masters.88

The slave master taught the slaves an abusive version gf_

f

Christ as a suffering savior who was meek and mild, willing

,..~.-~—-I

i

also to give his life for his enemies. This conception of

thI .-- ”M’s-r“

Jesus was held out to the slaves as a model of obedience////

Slaves once again adapted this image to meet their needs and

 

embraced Jesus as a Saviour who would provide them hope,

HI—Nn- ..uul'!‘

 

 

‘_ ' MOW

redemption and an escape from the midst of oppression. Their

¥

 

”'JM‘F’vr'U-“fimk— 1.” pm“ ‘r—r-v

Christology helped them survive an evil institution that would

 

 

have extinguished many racial groups. 99

Yet Christianity was also attractive to the Africans

‘wv-v-

 

 

 

..h, mun—M

because of the "life after death" tenet In their original

 

belief systems, West African slaves thought that after death
they would join African ancestors in their homeland, and, not
surprisingly, they found this concept appealing.90 The
Christian religion had other belief patterns that were familiar

to original African beliefs, for instance, the idea of one God,

 

an all-powerful, omniscient, and omnipresent creator of the

47
universe. Likewise, Yoruba religign contained concepts usually

associated with Christianity. Intercession, repentance, pardon,

 

faith, and adoption were concepts familiar to Americans of

 

African descent.91

1640 marked the beginning of an era in which some
religious whites in the colonial era were organized in an
effort to Christianize all blacks. American Indians and African
slaves were seen as fertile soil for the harvesting of souls to

Christianity. Roman Catholic churches in Western colonies were

 

the first reli iouswgrganizationsItggteach Christianity to_

 

 

blacks. In the American Western colonies, black males were

‘11—- —. u» .5»..

 

 

 

given recognition by the Catholic clergy}2

' - l w nus-A“. msmgmnfihtnzw-M

 

Some African slaves in America found inner freedom in the
Catholic Church and were taught the doctrine of equality of all

men. In pre-industrial western America colonies, blacks were

_.

recognized by the Catholic clergy §s_having the potential to

mfl-u «... ‘t'wwfi’ufi“ "'

 

become members of the clergy. Xavier de Lung Victoria, son of

 

 

a freedman, became a priest after his conversion to
Catholicism.93 Even so, the opposition against preaching to
all people regardless of color was rampant throughout the
colonies. The opposition meant that Maryland was the only state
where blacks could be taught by Roman Catholics. However,
relaxation of these strictures meant that "evangelicalism" of
blacks soon took root in all the colonies.94

The efforts of the Catholic church paved the way for the
introduction of African slaves to Christianity. However, once
the door was open, Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian

religious sects seized the opportunity to introduce slaves to

f——- ...—- ”...—-...-.v—ii «“-."_——meag.m~

48
their beliefs. The campaign to Christianize all blacks became

 

the norm in many colonial Protestant churches by the 17405.95

Another important era in which some whites sought to

 

 

Christianize blacks was the Great Awakening (1739 to 1743),

which centered on two religious sects jockeying for power.

 

They were the Baptist and MethOdiSt religious denominations'(:j:>

both of which had great appeal for the underprivileged and

 

 

 

working classes.96 .American Methodism thrived in the Great

 

r ‘

Awakening. Black people found this religion very appealing:

"...through its unconventional revivals, its challenge to

 

social norms and its appeal to the lower and middle classes, it
_fi_,._i.i..

encouraged alienated blacksgto believe that society was on the

.———-

 

verge of a major transformation that would hasten their
liberation."”’While the Presbyterian religious sect also
participated in the effort to Christianize blacks, their
efforts were not as successful as those of the Methodist and
Baptist sects.
During the Great Awakening (1739-1743), churches attracteg__
black women in large numbers; The movement initiated (Ea)

"Christianity for all!"99 regardless of race, color, or social

 

status, in many denominations. The Methodist church, however,

fl—__r__._.___.—

 

had the largest increase in blackwmembership,due to its»

 

__ . -..—H.“-

ideology that any unsaved soul was fertile soil for instruction

/ MM... i _- _ --- WW.

...—.9,

 

in Methodist theology. The Great Awakening, which swept over

“M n‘

all the colonies with great rapidity, was largely responsible

 

for the conversion of many black women in the colonial era to

American Christianity.99

49
Even during the Great Awakening, most Slaveholders were

still hesitant about the unsupervised teaching of Christianity
to their slaves despite the 1667 legislation that baptism would
not alter slave status. There was concern that slaves taught
about the common brotherhood and sisterhood of all humanity
would begin to sue for their rights and privileges as a part of
humanity and further recognize that slavery was against 'true'
Christian theology. Even so, many members of the Baptist,
Methodist and Presbyterian religious sects were convincing in
their argument that slaves needed religious instruction. For
this reason, large numbers of Southern blacks in the 17405
received Christian instruction.

Methodist and Baptist religious sects rose to prominence
in the black population.100 This is testified to in modern
times by the fact that most blacks are either Methodists or
Baptists.101 While white members of most Methodist
congregations did not feel that slaves should be freed, the
General Conference (the governing body of the Methodist
churches) was antislavery.

Blacks were drawn‘to the Methodist and Baptist churches

 

 

during the first great Awakening in large part due to the

antiglaverz messages_preached in these churches//§owever, these (£3)
' 7"

churches did not offer full membership to black members. In

 

 

the Methodist churches in the North, blacks and whites
generally worshipped together, albeit in separate sections.
Although black membership increased in the Methodist churches,

blacks were not given the same rights and privileges as white

w“... -u——o‘

 

 

 

..———

members. They left the church in anger and displeasure over

1 "' ._"_ -,_.~_._.-.—. -..--
m -

50
the inequitable treatment they received. Although blacks could

attend the church, they were frequently relegated to separate

sections of the church. As a result, the African Methodist

 

Episcopal Church was formed in 1787, and the African Methodist

 

 

 

Episcopal gign churchmwas formed ten years later. This movement

gradually led to the formation of other black churches

......an a .-

 

 

u...—....

The e$3194.15»mentiaqéifequiag“.93_thehfflgsfi--bfietFQQESF

 

Episcopal Church is important in black women' 3 religious

... . ...... \- d- 0W" "V” “ 7'Wm‘wm._ ‘.

u—f —“-"‘-I‘M~—»..4 _ . hw‘ a Anmq~w

history because the first black female minister in mainstream 1

n- n‘.-_.—.-... .M.’ Lmlvaffm“W-n-' _

 

W—vw .- -- u. ......om- v1n§~ .4 v ..

 

—-——-

black Methodism was Jarena\Lee, who achieved religious

w' -———-‘- ut -.

conversion under its founder Reverend Richard Allenz//In 1787jwj

 

 

“ an" #51

 

L.___ I," '

 

_ ,__W—- .. ...,” , . ._

 

_-————-

in Philadelphia, Richard Allen, with the help of Absalom Jones,
William White, and Darins Jinnings, founded the first organized
black church in America, the African Methodist Episcopal
Church. Heretofore, members of the black community in the
North, who also attended white churches, felt the need to hold
secret meetings because of discrimination.102 They, like
enslaved blacks, also felt a need to re-image the Divine"

because of the racial discrimination, segregation, and

'i—ifih- wa—

 

 

disenfranchisement they suffered in the North. In these secret

 

meetings, blacks rebelled against notions by a white majority
that they lacked souls or fully human status.

Open rebellion came to pass in an historical moment when
Allen and other blacks, former members of the St. George
Methodist Church in 1787, walked out of a religious service in
protest against the segregation of blacks from whites in the
church. Black communicants had formerly been permitted to sit

with whites in the church assembly. However, with the passage

51
of Jim Crow laws, blacks were restricted to a gallery of the

church apart from the white members. Allen, Jones, White and
Jinnings refused to abide by Jim Crow laws because they
considered them inhumane to black members of the church. Since
blacks and whites had previously worshipped together in
Philadelphia, these members found Jim Crow laws hypocritical
and not in keeping with Christian traditions.103

The founding member§19fmtheiearliestiblackiQQQLQhME§£§_~_

former slaves, illiterate yet possessing a strong_sensem of

guy-n.4,. .wL.‘ ”w m-I-W

 

 

”...-z “w

self-worth and dignity. In fact, Richard Allen had preached

‘ 1.0-. 'Ifi“ ’m‘- l. "w u .

before white congregations in the church. The founding

institution--born in political resistance “against inhumane

...-t. -..-......“-

 

 

treatment of free blacks in the North--began a tradition that

urn—m _-o.~.. ”Hip-MM In bwnfi-«m’.

 

 

 

 

 

continued to be realized in the black church. Even before the

Civil Rights era of the 19603, the black church was not

 

specifically just a place for worship. It was also a place

-»wv-m-.-

which developed leadership in religious and secular areas as

 

 

well as marketable skills for blacks through educational or

 

vocational training.104

The black church, historically created as a political
”VI-m

”......- ’71..- h..- n 3.1 _“.___" ~_

 

institution, has thus always been a means for _blacks as a group

—" "NIH- nun-...». WWs-v.

_( ......

vi

to resist oppression Historically a haven against oppression

M. ...».me awn- ‘

and hostility, it was a social place for blacks to meet and to

confirm their humanity. It is not surpriSing that a_ church

“‘10.qu

.—~.-_.____

 

 

born in a political spirit of rebellion and guest for freedom

shortly after the American Revolution would sponsor_ the_

 

 

"Jan-u- -— «rm-e

 

..., -w
‘_' . n— ..w’ q‘r W"
“...—:w- - ,

political religious quest for public voice by Jarena Lee and a
. .. “wflmmfli -.

number of black Methodist women who followed Lee in the quest

. _-.-\
‘ ‘ID-l ~v—u-.. ...._. ._-._ up-

 

 

 

@

/{

t: 2

52
for public voice and who also left records as to that

acquisition. As Jean McMahon Humez notes, the institution of

 

 

black Methodism amass???,..ths,.g9es.,t._._;o:. pupiis:._s.r.s>_i<_=s..2y__.pl.agk ‘5

 

women . 105
Almost since its inception in America, white Methodism as
a religious sect has been recognized for its vehement
opposition to slavery, though not all church members have
upheld this view. Northern Methodism was appealing to blacks (2;
because it offered slaves equality withfighgwclergy. As noted

earlier, Reverend Richard Allen was one of the few black men

 

who were preachers in the Methodist church. Freedmen eagerly
responded to the ideologies of equality in heaven.106 However,
the large number of African-American members caused problems
for the Methodist churches in both the North and South, more
specifically so in the Southern Methodist churches. When the
Methodist church established revivals in the South, white
Southern members could not countenance sharing church worship
with black members. In addition, Southern blacks did not trust
Southern Methodists. The overwhelming conception was that
Southern Methodists were desirous of sending free blacks back
into slavery.107 Ex-slave Frederick Douglass and nineteenth-
century spiritual autobiographer Amanda Berry Smith recounted
the hypocritical practices of Methodist teachers who held

slaves as a means of gaining wealth.108

53
CHRISTIANITY AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN SURVIVAL

Christianity must never be ridiculed as an opiate in the

black religious experience. Christianity promoted racial

u "mmfimnovu. ...-Ar “A ’--'»-v u. - s.” -

survival that should not have been possible during four hundred

 

years of oppression against African-Americans. By focusing on

future hope of deliverance from the evils of racism, poverty,

um!- "34’

 

y‘, H!”

 

 

injustice, and even the later nineteenth-century Jim Crow laws

during Reconstruction, African—Americans were able to distance

 

themselves from the horrors of daily existence peculiar to

—f

oppressed Americans. Survival under such hostile circumstances

 

 

would have been otherwise impossible. Although acceptance of
Christianity no longer provided escape from slavery for all
blacks, it did provide escape for some. For most blacks,
however, religion provided hope in the future by giving them

the means to escape mentally from oppressive circumstances. By

 

focusing on the future hope of freedom, blacks were able to
withstand remarkably the oppressive forces in their lives.

Despite acceptance of Christianity, the slaves continued

“" mmmmfiflwfiw

 

to embrace their old rituals and customs brought over from

their homelands, to the horror of leaders in the religious

 

sects. Slaves continued to enjoy "dancing, feasting and

 

various forms of merriment"109 not sanctioned as proper behavior
by church laws. Dancing, in particular, was seen as sinful.110
Because of this fact, the Reverend Francis Le Jau, a
missionary to Goose Creek Parish Anglican Church in South
Carolina between 1706 and 1717, felt that slaves did not

completely understand the moral precepts of Christianity. Le

Jau felt the slaves continued to indulge in what he considered

54
immoral behavior and other sins which were not befitting a

"Christian." In a letter dated September 15, 1708, Le Jau

writes:

The evil I complain of is the constant and promiscuous
cohabiting of slaves of different Sexes and Nations
together; when a Man or Woman's fancy does alter about his
Party they.grow up one another & take others which they
also change when they please this is a General Sin...111

Reverend Le Jau continues this argument in another letter which
is dated October 10, 1709: "One of the most scandalous and

common crimes of our slaves is their perpetual changing wives

-..-”.....-

 

and husbands which occasions great disorders." There may be

 

reasons that the slaves failed to accept Le Jau's version of
Christianity. Le Jau gained permission to preach to the slaves
on the condition that he would not teach the slaves any version
of Christianity that would jeopardize the master/slave
relationship. In his baptismal sermons Le Jau sought to:
"remove all pretense from the Adult Slaves I shall baptise of
their being free upon that account."112

However, Le Jau's beliefs about the sinful nature of
slaves were echoed by many slave holders in Northern states. In
some instances, guilt stricken slave holders forced African
slaves to receive religious instruction so that whites would
not be held responsible for their sins.

In New York in October 1705, Elias Neau kept a tally of
slave masters and mistresses along with their male and female
slaves who attended catechism classes. As slaves, blacks had
to have permission to attend these classes. Neau's report

indicates that black women outnumbered black males in

Jun-”— run. ..u-u‘r-v- 53.5 Inf...
.—

55
attendance; Subdivisions of the tally suggest that black male

slaves were not sent to catechism classes with the frequency
that black females were. One instance in Neau's tally
indicates twenty-seven African-American females to fifteen
African-American males.113

Immediately after the American colonies' fight for
freedom, racism and slavery were deeply entrenched in the
American way of life. In his 1784 "Notes on Virginia,"
American statesman Thomas Jefferson wrote: "I advance it.. as
a suspicion only that the blacks whether originally a distinct
race, or made distinct by time and circumstances are inferior
to whites in the endowments both of body and mind." “A The
struggle to overcome racism and acquire freedom, as well as the
struggle of black women to redefine themselves positively!

continued into the nineteenth century.

THE SUBORDINATION OF WOMEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY

In the nineteenth century, a few black women left extant
autobiographies chronicling their struggle for the right'to
preach. These autobiographies depicted the black woman's
struggle to find voice, to acquire literacy, and to transcend
the multiple jeopardies of race, class and gender. These

autobiographies were also centered in the struggles of these

 

 

 

women to redefine themselves against the negative definitions

 

 

forced upon black women by the dominant culture. These works

\__

present the success of some black women in overcoming barriers

 

to their desires to be_migiflt rs; In order to understand why
#_’__flw,,i

w

 

 

this struggle to preach was necessary, we must turn now to an

56
examination of the societal perception of women's roles in the

church as well as in the larger society.

From the colonial era until the nineteenth-century,

 

mainstream Protestant women remained consistently silent in

Protestant mainstream church meetings which had males in

 

attendance. In these meetings, women were not permitted to

w

speak with authority. Strictures against women having voice

——i w—.

 

originated in Scripture and were used to suppress and

 

subordinate women. 1 Timothy 2:11-15 (KJV) was often used in

support of these strictures:

Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I
suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over
the man but to be in silence. For Adam was not deceived,
but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if
they continue in faith and charity and holiness with
sobriety.

In American religious history, despite the fact that women

comprised the majority in membership in religious services,

 

 

 

they could not set policy or sit on the church-governing
bodies. Even so, many church board decisions affected their
lives and the lives of their children.

HoweverL in,tRefinineteenthicentnryiimanyiwnmgaiflg£3 able, 1

~.. _.omv-'

 

to "define their faith in their own terms and declare
M ....

theological independence from male systematic categories."115

 

 

 

 

 

 

This declaration of theological independence led women to

 

 

 

challenge all-male bastions of religious authority which ?*

7-m- - ...-q-..‘

 

 

 

silenced women and restricted their activities to subordinate

A J
r‘.’

Wflafih- WM

equality in ekklg§iai (defined by Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza 4V

J—

57
as "the public assembly of free citizens who gather in order to

determine their own will and their children's... political and [T
spiritual well-being")nj, equality in pulpit ministry, and

equal participation in church governing boards.

 

 

 

 

While these early efforts to implement changes in church
roles for women were not always successful, they were indeed

significant for three important reasons. These efforts had_

 

some influence on the socialegultural, and political climate jg

in nineteenth-century Americaqgflf/Secondly, these efforts gave
J a--.» .w’

‘w- —¢-- M

 

birth to an organized American feminist consciousness,118 the

 

 

 

roots of which lay in sectarian and mainstream nineteenth-

...
...,
.g

century American churches.“~ {Third;}they were significant in

\_ . , ....-.n-z-

that twentieth-century religious feminists have continued the

 

fight for ecclesiastical equality begun in the earlier period.

 

Current leading feminist theologians credit the birth of the
twentieth-century feminist critique of male-centered theologies
to the organized women's theological critique in the mid-and
late nineteenth century. k
From the colonial era to the mid-nineteenth century,
traditional societal and cultural roles had relegated women to
primarily subordinate status in mainstream American churches.
Women were expected to defer to the authority of males and to
willingly carry out tasks appointed by male leaders. Women
were not allowed to achieve leadership roles in lay meetings
or to conduct class meetings with males in attendance, as this
was in violation of males' natural leadership in all cultural

and social areas. Preconceived ideas concerning women's

 

 

traditional sphere permeated all aspects of American society.

‘— ‘——...- r . ......l- . u— -

58
The church was both_i££9£mgg_by and significantly contributeg_

 

 

to cultural norms and thus upheld traditional notions with

 

fl

regard to women's ordained sphere.

For middle-and upper-class women, societal guidelines
prescribed a place for women. Societal expectations relegating
women to specific social roles grew out of the Puritan order120
and continued through the American Victorian er§///These roles

7.
usually revolved around the home and its domestic duties.

.4.—

 

Certain characteristics were used to designate ideal womanhood:

 

the ideal woman was beautiful, pure, delicate, fragile, and
submissive to her husband; she gladly and unselfishly placed
the needs of her husband and family before her own. Nancy F.
Cott suggests that the ideal woman's greatest assets were

"decorative and supportive ones."Ln' The ideal woman preserved

 

a "cultivated gentility and a respectable piety, making her
company and her home a place of refreshment and harmony."122 The
most important duties of the ideal woman were diligently making

the home comfortable for her family and regularly attending

mun ._ "..., ...-uni ..

 

 

 

church. Through church attendance, the ideal woman might

 

continue the influence of her particular church in the home.
For American society, such outward manifestations of virtue
provided further evidence as to whether or not a woman achieved
societal and cultural ideals.

The church upheld Victorian views about woman's assigned

 

place. For this reason, the fact that women made up the
majority in American churches comes as no surprise to social
historian Ann Douglas or feminist theologians and historians

Rosemary Radford Ruether, Rosemary Skinner Keller and Martha

59
Tomhave Blauvelt. Douglas writes: "Throughout the ante-bellum

and Civil War period, liberal ministers were preoccupied with

establishing and fixing the correct feminine role; equally

 

important, they defined it in terms which strongly suggested
‘Elerical aspirations and anxjgtjes,"fln

Barbara Welter in Dimity_§gnyigtign§ captures the social

and domestic consciousness of nineteenth—century America:

"Religion or piety was the corg_of woman's virtue, the source

 

of her strength. Young men looking for a mate were cautioned to
search first for piety, for if that were there, all else would
follow. Religion belonged_to woman by divine right, a gift_of
God and nature."124 fl
According to Welter, the feminization of American religion
occurred between 1800 and 1860. This was due in large_part to

the decline in the power of the church and_to the decline of

"mm .1 A“. ‘1‘

 

 

the clergy as leaders in American society and culture. Secular

_____-n
’—

politics was a more effective arena for influencing American_

 

society, and this captured the time and attention of American

 

 

males. Welter writes: *‘J

 

American churches had regarded it as their solemn
duty to lead in building a godly culture, and the 'city on
the hill' which symbolized American aspiration had
clusters of church steeples as its tallest structure. In
the nineteenth century the skyscraper would replace the
steeple as a symbol of the American dream, and the
ministers of God fought against this displacement.
Politics captured the zeal and the time once reserved to
religion, and the pulpits thundered against those men who
mistakenly served power itself and not the Source of
Power. The women's magazines and books of advice also
warned against politics as a destroyer of the home. ”5

60
Women were excluded from politics as it would "sully" them.

 

For similar reasons the church was excluded;126
Thus, femininity and religion become increasinglyw

connected in American society. Interestingly enough, many

.—_——

 

women, in the mid-nineteenth century, agreed with societal
views about women's roles and wrote treatises in support and

defense of notions of "true womanhood."

THE CULT OF "TRUE WOMANHOOD"

By the nineteenth century, piety was considered the "true
i_~_______~__d

 

nature" of a woman. Any deviation from a pious character
indicated deviance in woman's nature. Martha Tomhave Blauvelt
states that irreligiosity in a woman did not bear
contemplation. Therefore, most women craving social acceptance
attended church frequently. Since religion was a vital part of
womanly duties in the nineteenth-century's cult of domesticity,

women continued the trend begun in the colonial period.

...Female church members had vastly outnumbered males
during most of the colonial period. Even during revivals,
which were particularly effective in recruiting male
converts, men had not always equaled the number of women
going. During the First Great Awakening (1739-1743), for
example, the proportion of women admitted to Connecticut
churches averaged about 56 percent. The proportion of
women going during non revival years was much higher.
America's late eighteenth century declaration that women
were naturally religious, was in one sense a factual
observation.”7

The nineteenth century (circa 1830) heralded the emphasis by

leading social authorities on class distinctions among women.
"‘ m-V-omw.-.‘_.. --.~-.....__._._a.\

 

Gerda Lerner writes:

The image of "the lady" was elevated to the accepted
ideal of femininity toward which all women would strive.

 

61

Iin this f0rm_€.!I-.i.<3In..o1.§....3..I...a_l..u.esw warplass wpmen were '
ignored. The actual lady was, of course,“nothing new on
the American scene; she had been present ever since
colonial days. What was new in the 18303 was the cult of
the lady, her elevation to a status symbol. The advancing
prosperity of the early nineteenth century made it
possible for middle class women to aspire to the status
formerly reserved for upper class women. The "cult of
true womanhood" of the 18305 became a vehicle for such
aspirations: Mass circulation newspapers and magazines
'made it possible to teach every woman how to elevate the
status of her family by setting "proper" standards of
behavior, dress and literary tastes.... Innumerable
giftbooks and tracts of the period all preach the same
gospel of "true womanhood", ~piety, purity, domesticity.
Those unable to reach the goal of becoming‘ladies_were to_
be satisfied with the lesser go§l33§gggptangg_gfntngig

"proper place" infirt'he home . 129

w) . mus-Ja'n-Aua‘zm “an”

 

 

Barbara Welter described the nineteenth century as "the cult of
true womanhood" which was essentially a cult to which only_
white women could belong; "It was a fearful obligation, a
solemn responsibility which the nineteenth-century American
woman had - to uphold the pillars of the temple with her frail
white hand"129 (italics mine). Her chief occupation in life was

to display as ostentatiously as possible her husband's wealth.

 

 

Idleness (considered a sin in Puritan society) became a status
symbol for the upper classes.

The cult of domesticity during the mid-nineteenth century
permeated society, yet definitions of "true womanhood" were

exclusionary to black women: Given the economic and socio—

 

political climate of nineteenth-century American society, black
women could never have entered the cult of "true womanhood" or
have achieved its ideal. Inequities in employment practices
forced black women to work as domestics outside their homes in

order to eke out a mere subsistence. Racism meant the vast

62
majority of black males could only attain jobs with very low

wages; thus, many married black women were still forced to_
work.
_,_____

The destiny for many white women was again very different
from black women. Numerous articles concerning "women's

,_______

sphere" proliferated in nineteenth century society. Newspapers
and magazines taught women the proper way a lady should behave
and dress and the proper literary tastes she should acquire.
Black and lower class women were ignored because they were not

thought to be fit for the appellation of lady or true woman.

Gerda Lerner writes that "conspicuous consumption" became

 

the ideal woman's chief occupation. Much time, care, and
attention was spent in acquirin those particular_good3 that

wguld indicate social status and membership in the leisure

 

 

class. Another indication of social status was ample leisure

time. Lerner adds: "It is no accident that the slogan,

 

'woman's place is in the home' took on a certain aggressiveness
and shrillness precisely at the time when increasing numbers of
poorer women left their homes to becgma_fiagtgry_warkers."L”

As noted earlier in this chapter, white women in the
colonial era were given freedom to enjoy traditional male
occupations as incentives in attracting white women of
marriageable age to the colonies. Such freedom for women ended

around 1765 with the professionalization of most occupation;{///

 

Lerner notes, however, that in the nineteenth century, after

industrialization, positive changes in employment opportunities

far white women materialized. In the decades between the 18003

 

 

and the 18403, middle-class white women entered the work force.
/" r'

 

 

 

63
Factory work for middle-class women was a means for postponing

the responsibilitie§_of marriage and motherhood until a later

period in their lives. The term "mill girl:_acquired a

 

relatively high status as middle-class white women enjoyed
freedom in the work place.

The work environment was not the same for white women of
lower or poorer class status. These women, along with wives
and daughters of newly arrived European immigrants, performed
tasks not unlike those they performed at home such as sewing on
buttons or mending hems, yet their destiny in the work place
was better than that of black women. Since many white women

refused to work beside black women in the factories, most jobs

 

obtained by black women were those purely of a domestic or very

 

menial nature that white women of all classes refused to do.

l,—-——

Free black women desiring economic opportunities in the work-

 

place encountered the same prejudice that free black males who

 

sought apprenticeships or equitable working conditions in
nineteenth-century America had long endured.

Most women craved upper class status. Those women who
could not aspire to those ranks could accept the "lesser goal"
of their "'proper place' in the home."1131 Again, such an ideal
was an impossible aim for most black women. Inequitable
treatment in hiring practices for black men meant that the
majority of free blacks would toil at very low paying jobs.
Quite a few black women would be forced to toil as domestics in
order to help feed their families and to help them to survive.

Many free and all enslaved black women in nineteenth-century

64
society could not, if they had a desire to do so, have secured

a "proper place" in the home.

The socio-political concepts of "true womanhood" had a
tremendous impact on nineteenth-century society. Evidence of
this is demonstrated in the fact that, even as late as 1903,
debates were still flourishing about societal concepts of the
ideal woman. In American society, women were considered the
most influential members of society, at least in the domestic
arena. Americangpublic opinion placed amgreat deal of emphaeiafi

on a woman's character. It_wa§_le£gely held by societal

'—

 

experts that the women of a particularmraeeuembodiedmthe moral

\"‘" '
'“hfi’hw -m. .n. . .JI-

 

Why.v‘.u~i

fiber of that race. Upper and middle class white women were
expected to be pious and pure. By example or soft words of
admonishment, they were to hold their husband's natural
proclivity to sin at bay through virtuous influence. Women in
these social classes were also expected to pass on to the youth

of the family moral and social values. However, if a white \1

 

woman was sullied or a fallen woman, her race did not fall in

 

 

social stature with her. On the contrary, as noted by Guy- 7(

————

 

Sheftall, if the morality of even one black woman was called

into questionziitareflected on the black race as a whole}:32 I

——7

65

BLACK WOMEN SEEK TO SELF-DEFINE POSITIVELY IN NINETEENTH-
CENTURY AMERICA

Because of the profound influence which the all-pervasive
Tcult of true womanhood" had on the socio-cultural politics in
American society, and also due to the fact that the definers of
"true woman" excluded black women, black women who wrote

spiritual autobiographies in the antebellum period found it

 

necessary to subvert the cultflin order to create a positive

 

self in literature and to create viable preaching careers.

 

Maria Stewart directly accuses the definers of being racist.
Stewart blamed the cult of domesticity in particular, and_
_racism in general, on the fact that an abnormally large

percentage of black women were:

compelled to bury their minds and talents beneath a load
of iron pots and kettles.... How long shall a mean set of
men flatter us with their smiles and enrich themselves
with our hard earnings; their wives' fingers sparkling
with rings, and they themselves laughing at our folly?1333

Stewart sought new roles for upman_in_theireligi223 sphere by ‘—1

fighting for women's equality in clerical and in secular

l

spheres. Stewart centered her fight on a women's liberation

theology. She offered different interpretations of traditional_

 

readings of scripture_in order to present God's will concerning

 

 

 

women's quest for equality. Stewart toured the lecture circuit
to convince men and women of God's will for human beings.

However, Stewart's tour on the lecture circuit was brief
____.-——-—"""-

 

because mempers of the black community were not ready to accegg
a woman in a leadership role. While the black community
embraced concepts of "mutual improvement," "race uplift", and

endorsed the education of women, the community alsoeempraced

66
traditional roles for women. Stewart's struggle for equality

with the clergy and leadership in the black community made her

a "hissing reproach" to the people she tried to reach.

 

History indicates why the struggle for the right to preach
was necessary for aspiring women in the nineteenth-century
socio-political sphere. Most men valued religion as a social
and spiritual outlet in their wives' lives since it was not a
threat to the smooth running of the home. Society leaders
cautioned women in newspapers and magazines to temper their
religious activities so that their deeds would not take their
aptention away from their primary duties as wives and mothegs,
However, seme Southern males were opposed to feminine piety
because they saw it as a threat to their authority. Some of
them were outraged at the influence ministers had on their
wives and daughters. Some ministers were threatened by
Southern males who accused them of improprieties with female
members of their congregations. In 1857, powerful evangelist
Peter Cartwright recalled such an incident: "This
enraged...husband and father of these... females... not only
threatened to whip me, but to kill me. He said I must be a
very bad man, for all the women in the country were falling in
love with me; and that I moved on their passions and took them
into the church with bad intentions."1“

The rise in female attendance in American churches during

 

the early and mid-nineteenth century is due mainly to_£eligious

 

revivals which brought people to the church in very large

 

numbers. In the New EnglandflGreat Awakenipge(1739-l7432, women

 

"flocked to churches, repopulating them."1335 However, it was in

 

67
the revival meetings of the second Great Awakening (1820-1845 6;)

under Methodist influence), that women found public voige in

 

the church.

F—

 

WOMEN'S QUEST FOR PUBLIC VOICE IN THEOLOGICAL DEBATES IS
REALIZED
With the arrival of religious revivals under Methodist

influence, women's roles in the ohurchesmghanged considerably.

 

The usual routine at these revival meetings was that those who
were saved would share their religious experiences with others
and possibly influence the unsaved to give their lives to
God.1536 Wemen's participation_at revival meetings helped save
souls and eenvinced women ofmaaeir importanaa_a§_spirippal E?)
leaders . 137

Consequently, strictures against women speaking in chureh
were relaxed as some members of the clergy permitted women to

y !‘

speak before promiscuous assemblies at revival . Women were

27"—

 

 

 

allowed to pray publicly for the souls of those seeking to come

 

 

to Chris§//Ehe relaxation of strictures against women having
voice in the churches stemmed, in large part, from the
Methodist belief that the individual alone was responsible for
his or her acceptance of God. Souls were received by God

7__ii_
equally. This theology taught that there was no mediator

 

 

 

 

"cu-Hr...» .qn.

between the human and the Divine. The only route to salvation

wan-r! ~..———

was a personal knowledge of God within. In this regard men and

 

 

women were equals.
Charles Grandison Finney also helped make it possible for

women to have significant voice in the church. He is normally

 

68
credited with instituting the practice of women speaking in

religious meetings. Ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian
Church in 1824, Finney began to preach and to conduct revivals.
At one of his revivals during the years of 1825-26, Theodore

'fiaeIdjwas converted. Shortly after his conversion, Weld spoke of

I‘m --

his new experience in a public meeting and encouraged females

...-...”..- “MFR—...“...

present to both speak and pray if they so desired. In a

 

letter to Sarah and Angeline Grimke dated August 26, 1837, Weld
spoke of his efforts to encourage women to pray and to speak in

religious meetings:

..I was converted to Christ in the city of Utica during a
powerful revival of religion under brother Finney and the
first time I ever spoke in a religious meeting--I urged
females both to pray and speak if they felt deeply enough
to do it and not to be restrained from it by the fact that
they were females. I made these remarks at a meeting when
not less than two hundred persons were present of both
sexes, and five ministers of the gospel at least. The
result was that seven _females, a number of them the most

-....— WW

influential Christians in the city, confe33ed their sin in

Mum. - _ _-

bei_g restrained by their sex _and prayed publicIy 1“?"“I‘

 

 

 

Finney both accepted and encouraged the practice of women
speaking publicly which subsequently led to a great split in
the church. East Coast revivalists considered such a practice
sinful. Meetings were held to decide the appropriate course of
action in the matter. Among the ministers present arguing
against the propriety of these acts were Boston preacher, Lyman

Beecher, and Finney's good friend, Nathaniel Beman. Ministers

 

used Scripture to argue against such actions However, because
Wu - ___- _W . ...... mnn‘” “‘dwmmwn“¢ www.- min. -—— v ”...... - —- -— ....

no concensus of opinion could be reached, the matter was

...-...WW

 

uMM-RWM'
F7

allowed to drop after several days' discussion.1339 Finney

continued the practice on his reviyalmtpyrs. After a period of

69
time, and with some controversy, the practice of women's

speaking and praying in Methodist religious sects was accepted.

Of the six women included in this study, three, Jerena

 

gLssZRebegca Cox gsiisaniréhd .Z}.1?h§.~§£aflg§2 were “flamers of, 0.5

 

 

had a close associationwwith, the African Methodist Episcopal

KAMEX church, the first known independent black religious

 

organization in America. In addition, each of these women
explicitly or implicitly attributed her ministerial 'm
subsequent development of_public voig§_to the outgrowth of_the_
ffioliness" religious_reyiyalsnunder Methodismmthat swept
America from 1820 to 185§L
TRAINING GROUNDS FOR THE PUBLIC VOICE OF BLACK WOMEN IN PUBLIC
RELIGIOUS MEETINGS

A look at black women's church history is necessary and
might provide some understanding of the religious and political
climate in which AME spiritual autobiographers composed their
texts. However, any attempt at understanding the black woman's
history and heritage in the AME church proves difficult. Until

recently, studies of black American religious history rendered

 

the black woman's history invisible. The importance of black
religious heritage in studying any aspect of African-American
history and literature is noted by William E.B. DuBois who
argues: "The study of Negro religion is a vital part of the
history of the Negro in America.““° 'However, as DuBois traces
the positive and negative influences of African-American
religion on black American life, in Ihe_$gnls_gf_filagk_£glk, he

excludes any treatment of women's religious history. For

70
DuBois, apparently, the black American religious experience is

synonymouslv th§_black male experience,

Historian Henry A. Mitchell also traces the African-
American religious heritage. Mitchell argues that the retention
of African beliefs and culture in the religion of African-
Americans helped ensure African-American survival during black
American oppression. Mitchell writes: "No group or race
suffering the oppression and brutal treatment heaped on black
Americans could have remained sane."L“ Olin P. Moyd traces the
theme of "redemption" as a tool of empowerment in the black
American religious experience. In his study, black females are
again excluded. In like manner, historian Benjamin Mays
attempts an historical study of the superstructure of the black
American church, its religious philosophy and redefinition. In
a work spanning 154 years (1760-1914), Mays pays only brief
attention to the black woman's religious experience and
redefinition of God in literature and history.142

For this reason, the spiritual autobiographies of blag}:=
women theologians are a valuable resource in reconstructing;
black women's religious history and heritagey//In addition,
more recent literary and historical studies attempt to address
the multi-faceted experiences of black women's involvement in
African-American religious history. Recent historical and
literary scholarship document the fact that many black females
helped ensure black survival in oppression throughout the black
historical presence in the United States.3143 Whereas
scholarship on black women's historical contributions in

religion had previously received little attention, many black

 

71

feminist scholars in historical disciplines are attempting to
fill the lacunae in black women's church history.

The lives of black Methodist 'preaching women", Lee,

Jackson, and Elaw_illustrate how black women formulated varied

 

methods and strategies to redefine black women's church roles.

~—-‘

/ With a liberation theology: a female-centered Biblical

I
I

 

 

...—_-

/ exegesis, and the development of a Biblical language, they_

*—

transcended sexism, racism, and th ' ' lass. Their

W

individual and collective efforts indicate that the black

 

female religious experience is not monolithic. Moreover, while

 

these three women share some similarities in life experiences
and personal theologies, their autobiographies provide
individual readings of Biblical texts.

The importance of black female religious heritage is
illustrated by Jualyne Dodson: "Black women, are, in a very
profound sense. the "sgmething_within" that shaped the "culture
of resistance", the patterns of ansciousness and self-
expression, and the social organizational framework of the

local and national expressions of community." Dodson

 

continues:

In a racist society, their battle against the color line
was heroic; in a sexist society their achievement against
so many odds was threatening and deviant... Armed with an
Afro-American imagination that included a justice-oriented
reading of the King James Bible, black women also became
the something within that banishes pain.L“

During the 18205 and 183Q§, many AME women became

 

believers in "'sanctification'; a second ex erience of divine

‘-

grace in the soul following conversion."1 According to the

Holiness trend in Methodist thought and practice, the

72
individual experienced "'justification' at conversion-~the

conviction that her sins were forgiven and she was made just
through Christ's love."146 In these parallel moments when
Holiness fervor swept early nineteenth-century America, black

women sought the special dispensation which would enable them

 

to redefine Holiness and Christian theologies in a manner

 

 

particular to the black female experience2//Holiness had a
.__ , limwvwmm.mnmm .w“-hwwl
special appeal to many free black women in the pre-civil war

Methodist churches because it enabled many of them to withsrand

 

 

the psychological effects of white racism.b“

 

The concerted effort among black Methodist females in the
development of public voice began in the 18203. Jean McMahon
Humez writes: "Predominantly or entirely female 'praying
begge' were an early and continuing phenomenon of black
Methodism in America and were the original unit of the Holiness
movements."1"8 AME spiritual autobiographers included in this

study indicate that:

testifying to a spiritual experience in these small groups
meegigg_geekly at the homes of their members encouraged
substantial numbers of devout black Methodist women to
think of preaching to larger audieneee. In these
fElatively intimate, highly participatory, democratic
religious gatherings, in the familiar private world of
women friends, spiritual talents and speaking skills were
develeped and protecteddu9

 

 

 

Nineteenth-century black female spiritual autobiographers
in the AME tradition fulfilled another important role: that of

redefining black women's church roles. Traditionally those

 

 

females seeking theological equality could become exhorters or
lead prayer meetings. Dissatisfied with their limited roles in

the church, free bleekewomen preachers established new rolee

 

73
for themselves. As trailblazers and pioneers they became

itirerant ministers traveling to distant cities and different

«Id-_-

countries, laboring to preach the gospel to blacks and whites.

r” 3

Cf JarenafLee,jperhaps the first female preacher in the
Y my '

 

history of black Methodism, began a public preaching career by
bypassing nineteenth-century restrictions on women's
ordination. Lee began an itinerant ministry by preaching in
various homes. In one year alone, Lee traveled 2,325 miles and
delivered 178 sermons.15°

Zilpha’Elaw:found relative success as a home minister.
Elaw later expanded this role through traveling preaching

engagements. "Urged... to take the pulpit,"151 Elaw transcended

sexist definitions of nineteenth-century woman's roles. Amanda

 

Berry Smith found fulfillment as a nineteenth-century preacher
by seizing the authority to found churches, schools, and
religious organizations in Africa and India.

Rebecca Coxegaekse§2>a free black Methodist woman, is a
radical point of departure for AME spiritual autobiographers.
Jackson left Methodism in order to develop an independent
personal theology which she later realized was similar in scope
and nature to the religious and social views of the Shakers.152
The Methodist tradition, with its patriarchal center, proved
too much for Jackson: "1 was buried too deep in the tradition
of my forefathers, I thought I would never be dug up." Jackson
left Methodism to seek community in the Shaker religious sect

which emphasized the dual nature of the Godhead and women's

equality in all areas of life.

74

' M“\
Julia Ar Foote_ ranscended nineteenth-century racism as
\a.

well as definitions of 'true womanhood' and developed a

 

liberation theology. Foote was able to visit both black and
white communities. Foote writes: "Having no children, I had a
good deal of leisure after my husband's departure, so I visited
many of the poor..., reading and talking to them of Jesus, the
Saviour . "153

Despite the relative success of black female itinerant //

‘-

preachers in the AME tradition, by the mid and late nineteenth

century, black women had not achieved licensing or ordination.

.———

AME religious organizations denied women the right to publie j

>/

 

 

 

 

voice in theological debateej/At the General Conference of
1852, Right Reverend William Paul Quinn delivered the bishop's
address on May 3rd and glossed over the subject of licensing

women to preach:

One more subject to which I would invite your attention,
and then I shall have done. The subject, will doubtless,
[sic] come before you in some form or other during your
session, as it occupied some of your attention during the
last General Conference. It is the licensing of women in
the church. I have given the subject some thought, but
not enough probably to warrant one to give an opinion in
the case. All that I ask is that something distinct may
be done that will be satisfactory to all, and the quest is
to be put to rest.154

However, the outcome of the impending discussion was not in
favor of women obtaining a preacher's license. AME church

historian Daniel A. Payne writes:

On Friday evening May 7th, the question of licensing
women to preach, alluded to in the Bishop's address,
was discussed with a great deal of judgment and spirit.
Rev. Thomas Lawrence moved that licenses should be
granted. The motion was put and lost by a majority.155

75
This decision was upheld throughout most of the nineteenth

century. As late as 1872, there were no ordainedewomen in AME.

 

 

 

Methodism. However _black womenwcontinued to struggle for the

, ..ya r.
*chwh-v ’

right to preac

W“flm‘ ”‘2'"
Harris, Marcy C. Palmer, Harriet A. Baker, Lena Dolin-Mason,

   
  
 

Black women such as Melinda M. Cotton, Mary L.

Charlotte S. Riley, Lillian Thurman, Margaret Wilson, Emma V.
Johnson and Mary L. Harris, among many others, were active AME

evangelists. "As the century drew to a close, they traveled and
preached as though the church's 1818 prehibition against_

women's ordination was meaningless."1556

k
——7

Many women, both black and white, who were active in the
mid and late nineteenth-century rights movement had been

members of the Holiness Movement. Women who were followers of

Charles/Finney/and who were later to become famous nineteenth-

Hun—“Wu“.— «1“: ”a Hun-...». mwg'KM

 

 

 

 

century suffragistsxwere Lucy Stone, Antoinette Brown,

 

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Caroline Severance
and Paulina Kellog Wright Davis were also members as was famous
preacher Frances Wright. Kellogg Wright Davis wanted to be a
missionary.“” In 1853, Antoinette Brown became the first fully
ordained woman in the Congregational church, a recoggized

American denomination . 15"

 

In the mid to late nineteenth century, the subject of
Holiness (or perfection) began to be addressed in every aspect
of American ecclesiastical life. Timothy Merrrtt in Ihg_finidg ,

Lg_chzisnian_2ngegtign asked female members of the Methodiet

Church who had achieved perfect holiness to write about it as

 

 

 

 

 

a means of leading others to Christ. Thus began the trend in \b

I M.—,~.¢-.-—.n—- -.. --.—.....- .-

 

76

which women began to recount their experiences in attaining ‘)
true perfection.159 k

The nineteenth century witnessed the struggle of numerous
women for the right to preach. While a few denominations
allowed women the opportunity to preach and lead worship in lay
meetings, gonservative churehes did not. According to Barbara
Brown Zikmund, churches which had a relaxed polity and
Christian groups which upheld the "power of the Holy Spirit"
advocated female leadership.160 Various Christiae
denominations allowed women to preaehy//The Unitariars,
Quakers, Universalists, and Congregationalists had a history of
"preaching women.j//The Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran and
Episcopalian religious groups relaxed strictures against women
preachers. Most conservative mainstream American churches
advocated and upheld traditional church leadership patterns.
Pauline texts indicating that women were neither to teach nor
to usurp authority over men (1 Timothy 3:12 KJV) were
frequently cited in arguments against women's having leadership
roles in the church.161

The issue of women's right to preach was argued throughout
the mid and late nineteenth century. This was usually a

controversial issue as many American males felt that allowing

 

women leadership roles in the ehurch would not only be

 

 

blasphemous but would also inspire women to seek equality in

 

governmental andgpublic sectors of American life.
By 1888 there were approximately five hundred women who
had experience as pulpit evangelists and about 350 Quaker

females who were religious leaders. Many denominations had

77
ordained women by 1888, including the Methodist, Baptist, Free

Baptist, Universalist, Congregational, and Unitarian
churches . 1‘2
Evangelist Margaret ("Maggie") Newton Van Cott became, in

1869, the first female to be granted a local preacher's license

in the MeEhggi§t_§pi§ggpal_§hg;nh. It appears this license was

only temporary. When many women sought ordination in 1880

within the denomination, the license was revoked.163
..IQQ.VLReligious revivals in both the firet and second Grear_

.ifi Awakening§_were important in bringing women to the realization

 

that they could play greater roles in the church. Both revival
movements encouraged women to expand their roles in the
churches. Women took it upon themselves to_fqundmseheel§ and to
form aelf-help groups. They organized groups to aid the poor,
aged and widowed; they also organized and founded church

schools for children. Doingflsg enabled thgmhtgwrealize their;

. nun-ouc—

 

potential as both decision makers and organizers. This

 

resulted in their having a significant voice in decision-making
in the church. Ann Douglas writes: "The liberal clergy faced a
difficult situation. Middle-class churchgoing and reading
women had genuine control, no matter how limited, over their
ministers, and some of them, moreover, were at least partly
aware of their power."164 Recognition of their skills in

teaching others motivated women with speeial gifts to join

 

 

churches which pemiéteiiqmsmshawésxslcp Sukill§.wi.n public
speaking. Women in national and local sectarian religious
"——-—-——-——- _HWM_M ’_______r ____.__c

groups such as the Shakers and Methodists gained political

_u—"au...

 

 

 

...—...—

w
rights before women in mainstream American ehurehee. Barbara

 

 

78
Brown Zikmund arguesgtgerrzhenhdeprivedof the freedom to
wprship the way they liked, women sought religious
organizations which allowed them opportunities to develop their
talents.

Aanh- ,

The autobiographies of Maria W. Stewart, Jarena Lee!

 

 

Rebecca Cox Jaekson, gglphamfilgy,<gs well as the secular
autobiographies of Harriet E. Wilson and Harriet A. Jacobi)
present important first-hand accounts of black woman's survival

strategies and their WWW A full

discussion of the means by which black women found the courage,

 

strength and will to become religious revolutionaries will be
conducted in subsequent chapters. The literature of these
nineteenth-century American women must be examined through the
larger context of their history. The subtext of their
narratives offers proof of their resistance to nineteenth-
century definitions of "true womanhood" which marginalized

black women. This study will demonstrate that black women made

 

important contributions to women's quest for equality in

 

religious and secular spheres in the nineteenth century.
Chapter two examines black women's place in the

autobiographical genre.

NOTES

1 For a few sources among many on the importance of
religion in the survival of the black community, see: William
E. B Dubois, WWW, W5,
ed. John Hope Franklin (New York. Avon, 1983); Albert
Raboteau, i ' " ‘ ' ' ' " '
Aooooollom_§ooth (New York: Oxford UP, 1978); Benjamin Elijah
Mays and Joseph William, Ih2_N§QLQ_§_th££h (New York. Negro
Universities P, 1933); Olin P. Moyd, Booomot1on_1o_31aok
Ihoolooy (Valley Forge: Jackson, 1979); Henry A. Mitchell,

E] 1 E J' E‘ E 1] E 1' E E E] 1 . E . I H |
A£L1oa (New York: Harper, 1975); Richard C. Wade, "Beyond
the Master's Eye, " Iho_Blaok_§hnroh_1n_Amorioa, eds. Hart M.
Nelsen, Raytha L. Yokely and Anne K. Nelsen (New York: Basic,
1971); John Brown Childs, WILL—A
Won (Boston: Hall,
1980); Charles V Hamilton. W (New
York: William and Morrow, 1972); Melvin Dixon, "Singing
Swords: The Literary Legacy of Slavery," Iho_§1oyo;o
Nazratiyo, eds. Charles T. Davis and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
(New York: Oxford UP, 1985); Carl F. Ellis, Jr., Beyond

1.] I' . I] E J . I] E] 1 E . E .

(Downers Grew, IL: Intervarsity, 1983).

For a few documents among many which discuss the legacy of
the slave narrative, see John F. Bayliss, ed. Blaok_$layo
Narrat1yoo (London: MacMillan, 1970); Robert Burns Stepto.
Erom_Boh1no_tho_yo11 (Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1979); William
L. Andrews, To Tell a Free Story (Urbana: U of Illinois P,
1986); Sidonie Smith, Where 1' m Bound; Patterns of Slavory an no
WWW (Westport, CN:
Greenwood, 1974); Houston A. Baker, Ihe_Journex_Back1__lssues
111W (Chicago= U of Chicago P.
1980); Houston A. Baker, Jr. and Patricia Redmond, Afro;
W (Chicago: U of Chicago
P. 1989); John Blassingame, WW
LifLinJhLAntehellmaonth (New York: Oxford UP. 1979);
Peter J Paris, SocialJeashinuLLhLBlacthumh
(Philadelphia. Fortress, 1985); Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,

Eionzoo_1n_filaok (New York: Oxford UP, 1987); Benjamin Mays,
l i ' ' r r (New York:

79

80
Atheneum, 1969); Charles T. Davis and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,

eds., Iho_Slayo;s_Narrat1yo (New York: Oxford UP, 1985).
For an examination of some valuable works which combine
studies of the religious and literary legacy of black feminist
studies see Nellie McKay, "Nineteenth Century Black Women's
Spiritual Autobiographies: Religious Faith and Self-
Empowerment, " lnL2InIeLina_flQmanLS_Li1a&1__EeminiSL_IheQI¥_and
Po;sonal_flarrat1yos, ed. Personal Narratives Group,
(Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1989); William L. Andrews, ed,
$1oto1§_o£_tho_§o111t (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1986);
Marilyn Richardson, Blook_flomon_ono_3o11o1on (Boston: Hall,
1980); Marilyn Richardson, ed W

. . . 10“-. ’0 - ‘ ' ._ 290. 9“ !‘
(Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1987); Sue E. Houchins,

introduction, Snixilnal.flarzani!ea, ed. Houchins (New York:
Oxford UP, 1988)

2 James H. Evans, Jr. W

ins ' -o ' ‘ 9 " ‘o‘ ° . |c_o 9 4‘9- . a . 09
E 1 I H 1' I E' l I H . 1! I I . H .
(Lewiston, NY: Mellen, 1987) l.

3 Evans 1.

4 See John W. Blassingame, Iho_&1ayo_£ommnn1ty (New York:
Oxford UP, 1979); see also, Albert E. Stone, Antob1ooraoh1oal

W (Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania
P, 1982).

5 McKay 139.

6 For a few scholars see William L. Andrews, S1otoro_1o
I] S . 'I' E I l' 1' El] 11. I I] C I
(Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1986); Nellie McKay, "Nineteenth—
Century Black Women's Spiritual Autobiographies: Religious

Faith and Self- Empowerment, " Intororot1no_flomon15_L1yoo1
MW, ed. Personal
Narratives Group (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1989); and Marilyn
Richardson, Blaok_flomon_ano_ao11o1on (Boston: Hall, 1980).

7 Rosemary Radford Ruether, "Feminist Theology and
Spirituality, " Wm
ed. Judith L. Weidman (San Francisco: Harper, 1984) 9-10.

8 Liberation for Christian women is defined by Letha
Dawson Scanzoni and Nancy Hardesty. They write that liberation
is not necessarily a movement or an organization, "but rather a
state of mind in which a woman comes to view herself as Jesus
Christ sees her--as a person created in God's image whom he
wants to make free to be whole, to grow, to learn to utilize
fully the talents and gifts God has given her as a unique
individual." See Letha Dawson Scanzoni and Nancy Hardesty, A11
flo11o_Mooo;_Lo_Bo (Nashville: Word, 1975) 11. Scanzoni and
Hardesty further add that: "It is a realization that men and
women alike may be freed from sex role stereotypes and
traditions which hinder the development into true humanness
that God intended when he created male and female in his own

81

image to delight in fellowship with him and with one another"
(Scanzoni and Hardesty 12).

9 "Promiscuous assemblies" is a term frequently used by
nineteenth century historians as a mixed audience of males and
females.

10 Perry Miller. ed. W
and EQBLIX (New York: Columbia UP, 1956) ix.

This influence can be demonstrated by an examination
of the American literary heritage. Until the nineteenth
century much of the literature read was written by the Puritans
and their descendants. The leading American institutions of
higher learning were founded by the Puritans who emphasized
learning, literature, and church government in their
curriculums. Richard Schlatter writes: "Nineteenth-century
American literature was mostly New England literature written
by Puritans and their descendants; American colleges were
mostly New England colleges founded by Puritans and their
descendants. See Richard Schlatter, "The Puritan Strain,"
Puritanism and the American Experience, ed. Michael McGiffert
(Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1969) 4-5.

11 Carl Holliday writes that church attendance was
enforced and even when not mandatory, was essential for those
who did not wish to be politically and socially ostracized.

See Carl Holliday, WomanlLListinJlolonialJays (New York:
Ungar, 1922) 19.

12 Benjamin W. Labaree. W
(New York: Kto, 1979) 47.

13 Labaree 47. Labaree further adds: "To maintain
social order the community relied on three institutions: the
church, the state, and the family" (73).

14 Herbert Wallace Schneider, Iho_Enr1Lan_M1no (Ann Arbor:
U of Michigan P, 1958) 17.

15 The following discussion focuses on white women known
as gentle-women or those of lower classes, rather than white
female indentured servants who regardless of working conditions
would have been able to gain not only freedom after service but
entry into mainstream American society if they so desired.

16 Eugenie Andruss Leonard writes that the first permanent
settlement in Jamestown, Virginia, in the fall of 1608
included a gentle-woman by the name of Mrs. Thomas Forrest who
journeyed to America with her maid Anne Burras. Other English
women who settled in America "were of the dissenter churches
such as the Puritans, Anabaptists and Quakers." Women of the
Catholic faith or women from alms houses, jails or orphanages
also came to America. They "brought with them skills to
produce the commodities needed by the colonists." Women from
various countries came as well. Women from France, Holland,
Sweden and Finland helped to settle America. Privileged white
women from various places such as Holland and France also

82

settled in South Carolinas or other southern states. However,
this dissertation focuses on those women involved in
settlements which fostered the stream of consciousness that had
the most lasting impact on American culture and thought. See

Eugenie Andruss Leonard The_Dear:Bought_Heritage
(Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1963) 24- 27, 47-61.

17 See Leonard 24-27.

18 See Eugenie Andruss Leonard's discussion of "maid
lotts" which were to be granted to single women as a measure to
attract women to the colonies. Leonard develops the argument
that a significant number of landowners in the early colonial
era were women (53-56). See also Gerda Lerner's discussion of
American Puritan women's landowners status in, "The Lady and
the Mill Girl: Changes in the Status of Women in the Age of
Jackson. 1800-1840." A_Her1Laga_of_Her_an1__Toward_a_New
Social_History_of_American_flomen. eds. Nancy F. Cott and
Elizabeth A. Pleck (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979)

19 Lerner 232- 233.

20 Lerner 183. See also Nancy F. Cott, Root_of_B1tLornoso1

Docnmants_of_ths_Social_History_of_American_flomen. (New York:
Dutton, 1972) 6-7. Cott further adds: "Women's accomplishments

in domestic crafts commanded the esteem that was due to all
necessary functions. Those nonagricultural, non domestic
occupations (such as trades, shopkeeping, innkeeping), which
were part of town life, were also frequently carried on by
members of a family working together."

21 Lerner 187.

22 As Lerner notes, by 1830 there were fewer women who
owned stores or other businesses (188).

23 Esther Katz and Anita Rapone, eds. , Womanls_onerience
in.Amerisa1_.An_flistorical_Anthology (New Brunswick:
Transaction, 1980) 11.

24 Rosemary Skinner Keller quotes extensively from William
Perkins. See Rosemary Skinner Keller, "New England Women.
Ideology and Experience in First- Generation Puritanism (1630-
1650)," Womon_and_Bol1o1on_1n_Amor1oa, eds. Rosemary Radford
Ruether and Rosemary Skinner Keller, vol. 2, (San Francisco:
Harper, 1983) 156.

25 Katz and Rapone 17.

26 Keller again quotes extensively from John Robinson.

See Keller, "New England Women," 161.

27 Robinson, 162. See also Moses Coit Tyler, A_fl1ooo;y_ofi
Amer1can_Literaturs_lfifll;1165 (1878; Ithaca. NY: n p-. 1966).
Tyler writes:

Above, all it was toward religion, as the one
supreme thing in life and in the universe, that all
this intellectuality of theirs and all this
earnestness, were directed.

83

Never were men more logical or self-consistent,
in theory and in practice. Religion, they said was
the chief thing; they meant it; they acted upon it.
They did not attempt to combine the sacred and the
secular; they simply abolished the secular and left
only the sacred. The state became the church; the
king, a priest; politics, a department of theology;
citizenship, the privilege of those only who had
received baptism and the Lord's Supper (Tyler, 88).

28 See Titus 2.
29 For further discussion see David D. Hall, Ibo
E I' . C I 1636-1638' E E | H' |
(Durham: Duke UP, 1990) and Norman Pettit, Iho_HoarL_Erooaroo1
Grace_and_Conyersion_in.2uritan_finiritnal_Life (New Yaven:
Yale UP, 1966).
30 Hall 3.
31 Pettit 141.

37“ Rowland H. Allen. W
(Boston: Nichols, 1869) 19.

33 Allen 19.

34 See Thomas Hutchinson, The_History_of_the_Colony_and

Erox1nce_of_Massashusstrs;Bay. ed. Lawrence Shaw Mayo, vol. 1
(Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1936) Hutchinson writes of Anne

Hutchinson: "Countenanced and encouraged by Mr. Vane and Mr.
Cotton, she advanced doctrines and opinions which involved the
colony in disputes and contentions; and being improved, to
civil as well as religious purposes, had like to have produced
ruin both to church and state." Hutchinson adds that because
of Mrs. Hutchinson, "the colony was soon divided into two
parties" (50).

35 Utilizing the historical notes of John Winthrop,
Puritan scholar Perry Miller writes that as soon as Mrs.
Hutchinson and Wheelwright had been banished, an account of the
precedings was "'sent into England to be published there.'"
Miller further notes that in order to uphold its model of
religious conformity, the Massachusetts settlement had to
"exterminate Antinomianism, and to do so quickly and

effectively." See Perry Miller. Qrthodoxy_1n_Massachusetts
1530:1650 (Gloucester, MA: Smith, 1965) 159.

36 Later known as Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

37 Hutchinson 62-63.

38 Hutchinson 64

39 Herbert Wallace Schneider, Iho_2o11tan_m1no (Ann Arbor:
U of Michigan P, 1958) 21.

40 In the American Quaker religious communities women's
roles in Quaker religious spheres were not so rigidly defined.
Women in these communities could hold religious meetings or
lead them publicly. This dissertation, however, focuses on

84

that religious strain which had the greatest impact on
mainstream American society and culture.

41 Cott, Boots_of_Bitterness 6.

42 Cotton Mather. Qrnaments_for_the_Danghters_of_Zion
115221 ed. Pattie Cowell (Delmar, NY: Scholars, 1978). This

text was very influential and underwent three editions--1692,
1694, 1741.

43 Mather, Qrnaments_for_the_Daughtsrs_of_Zion 4-5.

44 Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, "Vertuous Women Found. New
England Ministerial Literature, 1668- 1735, " Homon_1n_Amor1oan
Religion, ed. Janet Wilson James (U of Pennsylvania P, 1980)
78.

45 Ulrich 78.

46 Keller quotes extensively from a pamphlet from the
Church of England. See Keller, "New England Women," 151-152.

47 Mather, Qrnaments_for_the_Daughters_of_Zion 100.
48 Ulrich 73.

49 See Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, W1th1n_tho_£1oo;at1oo
Honooholo (Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1988).

50 Cott. Boot_of_Bitterness 14-15.

51 Cott quotes extensively from a letter written by
Elizabeth Sprigs to John Sprigs in 1736. See Cott, Boot_of
Bitterness 89.

52 Lilian Ashcraft Webb, "Black Women and Religion in the
Colonial Period, " Women_and_Beligion_in_Amsrica eds Rosemary

Radford Ruether and Rosemary Skinner Keller, vol. 2 (San
Francisco: Harper, 1983) 233.

53 Winthr0p D. Jordan, Ths_flhite_Manls_Bnrdeni

H1storical_Qrigins_of_Bacism_1n_America (New York: Oxford UP.
1974) 4.

54 Jordan 6.
55 Jordan 6.
56 Jordan 7.
57 Jordan 13.
58 Jordan 13.
59 Jordan 16.
50 Jordan 12.
61 Jordan 13.
62 Mitchell 21.
63 Mitchell 22.
64 Webb 234.

65 Webb quotes extensively from an African levirate
statement. See Webb, 245.

66 Page Smith, Daughters of the Promised Land; Womon1n
Amox1oon_fl1otory (Boston. Little Brown) 245.

85

67 John B. Boles, Black_Sonthernersi_1619;1819 (Lexington:
UP at Kentucky, 1985) 12.

63 Alden T. Vaughn, "Blacks in Virginia," W1lliam_and
Mar¥_Quarterly 3rd ser 29 (1972): 470
69 John Rolfe, "Letter to Captain John Smith, " Irayo1o_ano

florks_of_Cantain_John_Smith ed Edward Aber (Edinburgh: John
Grant, 1910) 541- 542.

70 Boles 12.
71 "Lists of the Livinge and the Dead in Virginia,"

Colonial_Becords_of_Mirginia (1874; Baltimore: Geneological,
1964) 40.

72 Colonial Records of Virginia 40.

73 John Winthrop, "A Model of Christian Charity," flinLhIQn
Raooro1_1623;1630, ed. Stewart Mitchell, vol.2 (New York:
Russell, 1931) 282-283.

74 Warren M. Billings, "The Cases of Fernando and
Elizabeth Key: A Note on the Status of Blacks in Seventeenth-
Century Virginia " Art1cles_on_American_Slaysryi__Colon1al
Southorn_SLayoLy, ed. Paul Finkelman, vol.3 (New York:
Garland, 1989) 1-3.

75 Webb 236.

76 Webb 3-4.

77 Henry Mitchell writes that the slave's openness to the
Christian faith "stemmed from his desire to follow his strong
religious bent in a manner both consistent with his heritage
and adequately related to the religious processes and practices
of his new home." Mitchell further adds that the slaves rather
than the masters initially translated their African beliefs
into "inescapably Christian terms." The slaves read the
Christian Bible and "selected the ideas useful to them in the
new slave experience." As Mitchell suggests, by the time the
slave masters decided that Christianity might be useful in
fostering submissive attitudes among the slaves, the slaves had
developed an "underground version of the true faith; and

.were well along in their own "invisible institution", or
underground church." See Henry A. Mitchell, Blook_Bo11o11
Eolk_Bs1iefs_of_B1acks_in_American_and_flest_Africa (New York:
Harper, 1975) 10.

78 See Mitchell 9-11

79 See Charles V. Hamilton. Ihe_Black_2reacher_1n_America
(New York: William and Morrow, 1972).

80 "Germantown Friends Protest Against Slavery, 1688," Am
I_Not_a_Man_and_a_Bro1heri__Ihe_Antislaysry_Crusade_of
Bsyolutignary_America_ll§§8;11&&). ed. Robert Bruns (New York:
Chelsea, 1977) 3. Although the Society of Friends as an
organization was against slavery, many Quakers were proslavery.
This discussion focuses on those who upheld the general
principles of the Quaker organization concerning slavery.

86

81 George Keith, "Pamphlet Against Slavery, 1693," Bruns
6-7.
82 John Woolman, "Some Considerations on the Keeping of

Negroes," The_An11§laM£L¥_Axgnment, eds. William A. Pease and
Jane H. Pease (Indianapolis: Bobbs, 1965) 295-296.

83 Anthony Benezet, "Pamphlet on Negroes in Africa, 1762,"
Bruns 80.

84 Bruns 81.

85 Webb quotes extensively from a document that contains
this court case. See Webb 251.

86 Belinda, "The Cruelty of Men Whose Faces Were Like the
Moon," Bruns 4.

87 Joan Bezner Gundersen, "The Double Bonds of Race and
Sex: Black and White Women in a Colonial Virginia Parish,"

. A." I 0 4“ -0 v 0N 0 .0 «- H O 0 ..I 0‘

N1notoonth_gontnry, ed. Darlene Clark Hine, (Brooklyn:
Carlson, 1990) 59.

88 Olin P. Moyd, Bsdemotion_in_Black_Iheology (Valley
Forge, PA.: Jackson, 1979) 9.

39 Blassingame

90 Henry H. Mitchell writes: "The folk religion of the
masses of blackamericans is clearly an adaptation of the
African--traditional--religious base brought over by the
various West Africans who were pressed into slavery. Black
Religion today is quite properly understood to be profoundly
Christian, but it is also still deeply influenced by its
African roots." See Mitchell 9.

91 Blassingame 72-73.

92 J-Beverly F. Shaw, Ihs_Negro_in_the_flistory_of
Mothoo1om. (Nashville: Parthenon, 1954),

93 Shaw 21.

94 Shaw 21.

95 Shaw 21.
96 Carol v. R. George, W

1 ‘0 .00 o- u- 0-0 s o 00‘0‘00-0 - . . o t‘ .0- 3‘.
(New York: Oxford UP, 1973) 14.

97 George 14.

98 Catharine C. Cleveland. Ihe_Great_Beyiyal_1n_Lhe_flest
(Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1916) 40.

99 For further reading see Cleveland. See also William G.
McLaughlin, Bey1yalsi_Auaken1ngs_and_Beform (Chicago: U of
Chicago P), 1978.

100 These two religious sects had the greatest appeal
among African-American communities in America.

101 See John Hepe Franklin, Erom_Slayery_to_Ereedomi__A
H1story_of_American_Negroes (New York: KnOPf. 1948) 224-225.

See also Gunnar Mrydal, Richard Sterner and Arnold Rose, An

87

:u‘ ' -9 l' Han-fl 0‘ 1‘0. 0 0.0 ‘u .90. we.“ 9 0‘11. .o. (New
York: Harper, 1944) 863-864. Gunnar Mrydal writes: "The
great majority of Negroes belong to the Baptist and Methodist
churches or to small sects which have branched out from
them...." (864).

102 Blacks were segregated to specific church pews, apart
from the white members of the congregations. They were also
denied all of the advantages of being full-fledged members of
the church. See Harry V. Richardson, Qa;k_§o1yo;1oo (Garden
City: Anchor, 1976) 65.

103 Richardson 65— 82.

104 Richardson 84- 92. See also Daniel Payne, HiSLQI¥_Q£
the_Afr1can_Methodist_Enisconal_Church (New York: Arno, 1969).

105 Jean MaMahon Humez, ed., G1fts_of_Powsri__Ihe_Writings

o {‘9‘ ._ 0. .7 . 01‘ 3 - ' oo- 9...: o -
(Boston: U of Massachusetts P,1981) 1-7.

106 Ralph 3: Morrow, Northern_Methodism_and_Beconstruction
(East Lansing: Michigan State UP, 1956) 35-46.

107 See Morrow. See also Richardson, 56-58.

108 See Frederick Douglass, Narratiye_of_the_Life_of

Ereder1ck_Douglassi_An_Amsrican_Slaye, ed Houston A Baker,
Jr. (New York: Penguin, 1982) and Amanda Berry Smith, An

4. 09'09 2’. ' .9- o o 9‘ o 0' l‘. '90 . o y,

Amanda_Sm1th_the_Colored_Eyangelist, ed. Jualynne Dodson (New
York: Oxford UP, 1988).

109 Raboteau 66.
110 Raboteau 66.

111 Webb quotes extensively from Le Jau's missionary
letters. See Webb 250.

112 Milton C. Sernett quotes extensively from Francis Le
Jau's letters written during Le Jau's tenure as a preacher in
South Carolina. Le Jau had the slaves make the following
declaration: "You declare in the presence of God and before
this Congregation that you do not ask for the holy baptism out
of any design to ffree [sic] yourself from the Duty and
Obedience you owe to your Master while you live, but meerly for
the good of your Soul and to partake of the Graces and
Blessings promised to the Members of the Church of Jesus
Christ. " See Milton C. Sernett, Afro;Amor1oan_Ro11o1ous
Historyi__A_Docnmentary_flitness (Durham: Duke UP, 1985) 25.

113 Webb quotes extensively from Elias Neau's tally
conducted in New York, October 1705. See Webb 248.

114 Thomas Jefferson, "Notes on Virginia," The Writings of
Ibomao_1offo;oon, ed. Robert L. Lipscomb, vol. 2 (Washington,
D.C.: n.p., 1903) 201.

115 Barbara Brown Zikmund, "The Feminist Thrust of

SeCtarian ChriStianity," Women_of_Sniriti__Eemale_Leadersh1n
1n_Jen1sh_and_Christian_Iraditions, eds. Rosemary Radford

88

Ruether and Eleanor McLaughlin (New York: Simon and Schuster)
215.
116 Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Bread_Not_Stone;__Ihe

Cha11enge_ef_Eem1n1st_B1hl1ea1_1ntereretat1en (Boston: Beacon,
1984) xiv.

117 Nancy Hardesty, Lucille Sider Dayton and Donald W.
Dayton, "Women in the Holiness Movements: Feminism in the

Evangelical Tradition " Hemen_ef_Sn1r1t1_Eemale_Leadersh1n_1n
the_Jew1eh_and_9hrist1an_lrad1tene eds Rosemary Radford

Ruether and Eleanor McLaughlin (New York: Simon and Schuster)
225.

113 Blauvelt, "Women and Revivalism," eds. Ruether and

Skinner, vol. 1; Barbara Welter, Dimity_£gnyigtigns (Athens:
Ohio UP, 1976), 21-41; Cott, Boot_gfi_Bitterness 24; Zikmund,
"The Feminist Thrust of Sectarian Christianity" 216.

119 Zikmund, "The Feminist Thrust of Sectarian
Christianity" 216.

120 Nancy F. Cott acknowledges that Puritan society
granted positive positions in the work force to women; she
indicates while it was assumed "that women's souls were capable
of being chosen by God, and their earthly roles were necessary
to a community of saints, [these assumptions] did not diminish
the assumption that they were secondary." See Cott, Boot_gf
Bitterness 6

121 Cott, Beet_ef_Bittetness 10.

122 Cott, Beet_ef_B1tterness 10.

123 Douglas 45

124 Welter 22-23

125 Welter 84-85

125 Welter 85.

127 Blauvelt 2.

123 Lerner 190.

129 Welter 93.

130 Lerner 190.

131 Lerner 190.

132 Guy-Sheftall 41.

133 Maria W Stewart Preduet1ens_Qf_Mrst_Mar1a_flt

Stewart Snir1tnal_Narrat11es ed Sue E Houchins (New York:
Oxford UP, 1985) 16.

134 Blauvelt quotes extensively from the Rev. Peter
Cartwright. See Blauvelt 23.

135 Cott,.sonds_o£_Womanhood 132.

136 Hardesty et a1. 226-254.

137 Hardesty et al. 229-230.

138 Theodore Weld, "Weld to Sarah and Angelina Grimke, New
York, August 16. 1837." Lettere_ef_Theodore_Dw1eht_Weld_and
Anee11na_Qr1mke_Weld_and_Satah_fir1mke_11£24218441, eds. Gilbert

89

H. Barnes and Dwight L. Dumond (New York: Appleton—Century,
1934) 229-230.

139 Weld 229—230.

140 William E. B. Dubois. Ihe_Senls_ef_Blaek_Eelk1_Ihree
Negrg_glassigs, ed. John Hope Franklin. (New York: Avon,
1965) 340.

141 Mitchell 220.

142 Benjamin Mays, The Negroes' ggd; As BefJegted jn His
Literature (New York: Atheneum, 1969)

143 Deborah Gray White, ' ' 2 v
the_Blantat1en_Seuth (New York: Norton. 1985)

144 Jualyne E. Dodson and Cheryl Townsend Gilkes,
"'Something Within'" Social Change and Collective Endurance in
the Sacred World of Black Christian Women, Women_and_Beligign
1n_America, eds. Ruether and Keller, vol. 3 81.

145 Jean McMahon Humez, ed G1fts_ef_Pewer1__Ihe_flrit1ngs

ef_Bebeeea_Cex_Jaeksen1__B1ack1Y1s1ena1115haker_Eldtess (1882,
Boston: U of Massachusetts P, 1987) 5.

146 Humez 5
147 Humez 5.
148 Humez 6.
149 Humez 6
150 Bert James Lowenberg and Ruth Bogin, Blatk_flemen_1n

N1neteenth1Centtr¥_Ame11ean_Life (University Park:
Pennsylvania State UP, 1976) 135.

151 Zilpha Elaw, Memo1rs_o1_tne1111e1_8e11o1ons

.0- ‘0 e u... e .- - - .00 -00 0 U -. :0

Amer1ean1Eema1e_ef_Celenr1.S1eters_ef_the_Sn111t, ed. William
L. Andrews, (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1988) 108.

152 Humez 26.

153 Julia A Foote, A_Btand_Elueked_Erem_the_E11e

Sisters_o£_the_fipirit, ed. William L. Andrews (Bloomington:
Indiana UP, 1986) 162.

154 Daniel A- Payne, H1stetx_e11the11Afr1tan_Methed1st
, (New York: Arno, 1969) 273.

155 Payne 273.
156 Jualynne Dodson, "Introduction" An_Antehieeraeh¥,

xxxvi.
157 Hardesty et al. 235.
158 Barbara Brown Zikmund, "The Struggle for the Right to

Preach " Wemen_and_Be11gien_1n_Ametiea eds Ruether and
Keller, vol. 1, 214.

159 Zikmund, "Struggle" 214.
160 Zikmund, "Struggle" 214.
161 Zikmund, "Struggle" 214,
162 Zikmund, "Struggle" 208.
163 Blauvelt 10.

90

164 Douglas 103—104.
165 See Richardson, B1aek.flemen.and.Belie1_on xv.

CHAPTER TWO
AUTOBIOGRAPHY:
THE GENRE

In publishing their spiritual autobiographies and

autobiographical writings, African-American women in the

antebellum era claimed the authority to ' and
simultaneously seized their rights as Americans.1 In so doing,

Maria W. Stewart,2 Jarena Lee,3 Zilpha Elaw,‘ Harriet E.

 

 

Wilson,5 and Harriet A. Jacobs6 radically transcended

nineteenth-century cultural and political definitions of

 

_“““"‘W"' "‘ —v ' pm «A»... urn-ems“...- fi-wa-u.--p~'¢""‘.

woman's prescribed place. By participating in the

.-
.. ...... w— '1
F

intellectual, exegetical examination of canonical Biblical
texts, black female spiritual autobiographers defined
themselves as theologians and carved a place for themselves as
the progenitors of a Christian theology of black liberation
based in female experience;/4While Shaker Eldress Mother

' [\ Rebecca Cox Jackson, founder of the first black Shaker
religious sect and cult, did not publish her posthumous journal
in this time period, her careful attention to dates and places,
in addition to her asides to the reader in her text, suggest
that Jackson, too, may have intended to publish her journal.
Importantly, Jackson's radical religious faith and exegesis of
Scripture in the direction of a black female liberation

theology, along with her participation in the black woman's

91

92
effort to surpass nineteenth-century cultural roles, make her

crucial to any discussion of black women's social activism
through religious autobiography.7
Like the earliest African—American spiritual
autobiographers of the late-eighteenth century, James
Gronniosaw, John Marrant and George White,8 the women :tudied_““\

in this dissertation were convinced that the autoblfigr p hical

- wAb-v H“.-

 

genre was an appropriate and logical literary mode in which to

I’m-“0v“ “H “W . . ‘n-av

portray their spiritual awakening, subsequent religious

mum ”WW-mm“

 

 

”UH-13“

 

 

conversion and consequent freedom from sin. It was a useful ‘

 

 

 

"- ‘_—1m, ‘A wxw'v-teu. ; “mwrkflt‘b‘ FW‘ _‘

-mw. ..- ya

tool in guiding others to a similar experience of spiritual i

 

 

w fi-. -54 541* 1‘...__.1 -._. ...—... 2.11..

 

 

..--_,,1. .1- ..111.1. \
perfection.9 The black spiritual autobiographer, whether \
— (,9
female or male, chronicled the journey from enslavement to ’7
freedom:

back to the acquisition of some sort of saving knowledge
and to an awareness within. The recognition of one's
true identity, unfettered by either the slavery of sin
or the sin of slavery, set in motion a process by which
early black Christians, and later, black slaves, attained
spiritual as well as secular freedom.

On reaching their goals both the spiritual and the
slave autobiographer felt obliged to proclaim their
respective gospels.1°

Autobiography was a useful tool for persuasion, guidance, and

 

 

the charting of spiritual aroflth‘for the female revivalist

 

 

testifiers of the Second Great Awakening (1820-1845). In the

—_————

same manner, autobiography was useful for the women evangelists

F—f —--- II- “a...

of the Holiness Movement (1835-19305). For the female

M
~MM_ .... N __, ......o g 1,. -.. ‘ w~«H-1»M—n

 

 

 

 

 

 

spiritual autobiographers mentioned earlierflh the task was

complicated by the need to revise public views concerning
—\ 11.111- —-—~ -.....

ecclesiastical doctrine based on a particular Scriptural

nc—u—. .1-

 

 

93
hermeneutics about women's right to clerical statugx//The

k

 

.....1, .-.—1.5””...

u mM-uw— 1Mme—M "

spiritual autobiographers studied here offered radical readings

 

 

 

 

of Biblical passages which supported their right to preach////

Pf

Doing so involved not only a competent knowledge of the Bible

mn-wH—v- .—o mun-o”. anW

....mh

 

 

 

 

and Biblical history but a reexamination of ondrocentric

w

Biblical language which marginalized women' s pivotal roles in

 

 

 

 

the formation of the Christian religion. //§r;ditlonal readings

 

of Scripture have rendered women' 3 activity and power in
canonical Biblical history invisible; Female evangelists
necessarily attempted to recover this history_1n support of
their r ach.

The task for the black female spiritual autobiographer was
further complicated. Her humanity as well as her right to
preach had to be proven. By demonstrating a personal,
intimate, reciprocal relationship with God, black women could
refute nineteenth-century views of blacks as non-humon,
soulless beinggiincapable of experiencing God's saving grace.
Courageously taking on the public role of preacher, spiritual
leader, and counselor in the development of strategies for both
secular and spiritual survival, the black women discussed in
this study challenged women' s subordinotionwioumalooflio_
religious and politigalflgggations. Spiritual autobiography,

which incorporates the journey motif, is the symbolic

 

manifestation of the aforementioned individua ' ission

 

from the slavery of sin and from the oppression of clerical

.—-1. “1“,“-
“11% wflwfl‘.

 

 

silencin . Through the literary testimony of their
autobiographical works, these black women acquired public voice

and simultaneously CO“§E£BEE§§_P°SitiV9 self-identities. Social

 

94
and legal restrictions denied black women the right to literacy

 

 

 

 

in some states. Hence the recreation of a self in literature

became a political act which challenged the oppression of black

 

 

women. African-American spiritual autobiography is a valuable

resource in exploring black women's transcendence and survival

 

of hostile socio-political forces in nineteenth—century

 

society. It is useful as well for black women's positive

redefinition_apart from the nineteenth-century definitions of

 

 

"true womanhood" which sought to repress and limit their
potential for personal growth.

African-American spiritual autobiography (useful to males
and females in the creation of a selfhood) is the progenitor
for many of the secular slave narratives adapted by African
American males and females in the antebellum and postbellum
era. The spiritual narratives by black female liberation

theologians, and their indictment of the socio-political and

 

religious framework of American society (which limited blacks

and women), provided a vehicle for other African-American women

H,“ w”. v

 

_ - - . ~.pwgp-‘--'- -
W. “ "" ____‘7
/-’

to make similar indictments: Harriet E.KWilson:Kca. 1808-1870)

1--....—

and Harriet A. Jacob§f11813-1897) wrote antebellum secular

narratives revealing the awakening of the inner courage of

black women through a reappropriation of the Divine as a Deity {

favoring the black woman's liberation from oppression. Between,_J

 

 

 

 

1835 and 1861, these women, conscious of their unique and
special individuality in a collective human experience, used a
variety of literary modes to redefine and construct a self. In

her autobiographical writings, Maria W. Stewart makes use of

the American jeremiad to launch an indictment of the

95
inequitable circumstances blacks faced in America. America's

"first black woman political writermu’and first

 

indicts the

WM.

"feminist/theologian abolitionist,"14

1.1 -—I~.fl"l ""me-‘fl‘n

 

 

 

WV- “Mi-WW - h-F‘v

"corruption" of the American clergy which she insists has

W

withheld the "truth" from black men and women that might foster

_‘ “yoga/1hr» ,m ...v-na. y)1~..-\-1w ”bu-1.714

 

.w-y-(u rm mflmrma- Ir Ms- CW Mus-«.2 “Wu-H a. H- —'|-_;MMF'I I,

 

"Iv‘ ”id-‘7' '1-

 

 

h Pv’p-v I'M-

their liberation. Stewart feels that she has been appointed by

 

 

 

 

 

 

.——-

God to present the "truth"---the gospel of salvation and

”a “aunt—n.” mm

 

liberation from the spiritual, mental, and physical oppression
of African—Americans. Yet Stewart's message is radical for a
M
nineteenth-century audience. Influenced by William Lloyd
Garrison, publisher of the Liberator, Stewart's message is one

of "immediate emancipation" for blacks. A disciple of David

 

Walker, author of the inflammatory pamphlet, Dayid_flalkez;§
Appeal (1829), Stewart adopts Walker's style and language in

order to incite her "promiscuousf;audienge of readers and

listeners to life-a1tg;igg_agtion.

”

Jarena‘Lee makes use of the Puritan Conversion narrative

 

 

to chart her religious experience. Like Jonathan Edwards
(1703-1758), Lee records her spiritual awakening, conversion,

and commitment to a life of following God's wil RebecCa Cox
/

 

 

-¥Jackson makes use of the Puritan journal as she takes up the

pen to examine and to historicize her life. Her journals are a
means of charting her personal growth and journey toward union
with the Divine. Jackson's attempt at historicism results from

her belief that she also has been chosen by God as a vessel to

 

provide divine truth. Jackson writes: "I am a pen in His

 

m...

hand."15

96
Zilpha Elaw historicizes her life through the use of

memoirs;_ A proud American female of color, Elaw makes use of
the form utilized by Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) and Thomas
Jefferson (1703-1758) to record her accomplishments in
itigggagt_ministry, Elaw writes: "... these humble memoirs
will doubtless continue to be read long after I shall have
ceased from my earthly labours and existence."16

As mentioned earlier in this chapter, the spiritual

autobiographies listed above make a possible vehicle for other

 

African-American females to develop personal theologies of

‘Annvnmh ho‘m‘ Im-rflauprrw ”...-.1

 

 

.-——~ ,w —v . v._f

liberation in a black woman's mode. Just prior to the outbreak

 

m
/' ‘-'—~ ___

of the American Civil War, Harriet E.;Wilson>and Harriet A.
”Jacobs/penned autob1ograph1es conta1n1ng such theologies uS1ng
the perspective of slavery. Although the texts are primarily
secular, they contain a religious undercurrent. Harriet E.

#:WEEEEE:adopts the format of the sentimental novel to compose

 

autobiographical fiction. Although she is not a slave in fact,
Wilson's life and the life of her protagonist Prado parallel
the chattel enslavement of many black women in the antebellum

era. Wilson's text attacks not only hypocritical Christianity

 

but also issues pertaining to racism and classism. In

addition, Wilson indicts the nineteenth-century cult of "true_

 

womanhood."

.r—V

z/J/“fix‘.
The autobiography of Harriet A.(Jacob§/is one of the few
extant slave autobiographies written by a black female. The

text is also an American jeremiad and a pulpit from which a

 

"fallen" woman preaches a gospel of good news for women. With

#‘
A-

the Biblical precedent established by the "Woman of Samaria",

4 \ \\
Q \R‘
9 “

Jacobs is comfortable in her role of "fallen" woman revising;

 

traditional readings of the Bible.17

Black female spiritual and secular autobiographers'
theologies of black liberation are defined by their individual
and personal experience in a country which oppresses and
silences the majority of blacks and women. Yet the narratives
illustrate triumph. These autobiographers defined themselves
personally, significantly, individually, collectively. In the
decades spanning the 18308 and 18603, black women, conscious of
their unique and special individuality in a collective human
experience, used a variety of literary modes to redefine and

construct a self. While the authors listed above have

different foci, they share in common several beliefs Each (

 

author supports the black womagL§m£ight to create a self in_

 

 

 

literature and her right to equality and freedom from

is

oppression: Finally, whether explicitly or implicitly stated,

 

each author supports_a;woman's right to engage in public
theolggical debates.18

The tradition of American black women writing spiritual
and secular autobiographies simultaneously begins with @252?
xSESEQEEL§Xi§§§;publication of her autobiographical writings and ‘é"
meditations . The Wm
constitute political commentary as well as feminist Biblical

exegesis, a personal theology of black liberation and women's

 

 

 

 

 

 

equality, and an argument for abolishing slavery. Stewart's

m
M ‘- .. l..- ‘aw e .. . d- ~vn~ ~«In-urwx-usv—r- warn-..nmll‘

understanding of the political and cultural climate of early
nineteenth-century America prompts her to write her own

spiritual autobiography with the intent of arousing African-

[f

 

 

98
American males and females to courageous exertion for

"knowledge and improvement." Still, Stewart's rhetorical aim
is similar to the rhetorical aim of all African-American
autobiography: to form a bridge of communication betweenga
white and blagk_world in order to revise the prevailing and
often negative attitudes about African-Americans for a dominant
white American public.

Stewart, concerned that black women were not leaving

enough evidence of their artistic and creative genius, urged

black women to bequeath legacies of their personal achievements

1....

 

 

to inspire future_generations of black males and females yet
unborn. Stewart writes: "0, ye daughters of Africa! What

have ye done to immortalize your names beyond the grave? What
examples have ye set before the rising generations? What
foundations have ye laid for generations yet unborn?"19

Stewart's challenge to black women to immortalize themselves, a
challenge Stewart herself undertakes, makes her the first
American-born black female to write an autobiography

incorporating both political and spiritual content. Her F_-?
religious autobiography of social activism based on a political

—__

theology of black liberation anticipates the development of

 

 

black, feminist, spiritual and secular autobiographies %K’

4

throughout the nineteenth century and continuing into the

 

 

twentieth century;//fhe tradition begun by Stewart was carried ~r4

on by a number of itinerant women preachers, who left their own

 

legacies by writing religious autobiographies of activism,

based on a political theology of black liberation: Jarena Lee,§?‘

 

 

99

-~~~ r
(1836)2"/Rebecca Cox) Jacksongh gm;

(published posthumously in 1981, but composed between 1830-

1864)?)(/§1lphaiElawg
.0‘ ‘0 ‘ v 0' ‘ '

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

. . - -90 -oo o y -, ;.

 

(1846) .2%ther itinerant preachers

 

Vi

 

must be included///For instance: Julia A. Foote A_B;ene _-

(18'79),23 Amanda Berry Sm41_t_h, An ....

 

 

 

 

 

Autobiogranhx. '
(1893).24 Virginia -——
Broughton, ' ' ' ' (1907),?5

 

continue the tradition begun by Stewart.
To this tradition also belong two other women who write

narratives that are primarily secular, but contain a religious

 

undercurrent: Harriet E..Wilson's
Life_nf_a_£rse_hlack (1859) and Harriet A. JacobS4, Incidents
in_the_Life_of_a_Slaxe_fiirl (1861). Qur_nig utilizes the

format of the sentimental narrative in order to discuss racism
in the North. Wilson achieves personal freedom when she
unlearns a passive version of Christianity, taught by her
oppressors. Jacobs' Incidents is a secular slave autobiography
which incorporates both religious and philosophical arguments
against slavery. Frances Smith Foster says that the
publication of Jacobs' text indicates significant changes in
the evolution of slave narratives published between 1840 and

1861. While

100

demonstrations of philosophical and religious
contradictions continued to be important, ... there was an
increased emphasis on the violence and brutality of the
institution. The presentation of slavery from the
perspective of the slave became even more important.26

In many instances nineteenth-century black females publish
their own autobiographies in a conscious effort to preserve
black women's achievements in a country which promotes their
oppression. Each black female adopts a mode to best meet her
own form of expression. Her autobiography becomes a tool for
revising the history of African-American women and for
_celebrating the potential for new being; In the mid-nineteenth
century Jarena Lee celebrates her spiritual position as "the
first female preacher of the First African Methodist Church."27

Studies in black women's spiritual and personal histories
indicate that the philosophical and religious currents apparent
throughout the classic, black, female slave narratives like Qnr
Hie and.lneidente_in,the_Li£e_e£_a_$lexe_Gizl are heightened in
works by spiritual autobiographers. For quite a few black
women in the early nineteenth century, religion is a tool of
survival, enabling them to transcend the socio-political forces
in nineteenth-century society. The balance of this
dissertation will examine the antebellum spiritual and secular
autobiographies written by Maria W. Stewart, Jarena Lee, Zilpha
Elaw, Harriet E. Wilson and Harriet A. Jacobs, in an effort to
understand better the valuable contributions black women make
to literature and history. Each of these autobiographies

"illustrates the emergence of new forms, modes and styles from

101
the particular confrontations of nineteenth-century black women

in the United States."28
The reading of primary texts included in this dissertation

is motivated by theories similar to Albert E. Stone's that:

we must not only look more closely at particular texts
than some critics in pursuit of an overarching thesis have
done, but also compare synchronically works which deal
with similar themes, social situations, or strategiesggf
self-constgugtien, In the process we may be able to throw
light on cultural context§_which both unite and separate
one lifejstory and another. 29

The spiritual and slave autobiographies of black women included

in this study have in common a belief in "true" readings of

Biblical texts which support the humanity of all. Marilyn

‘w4 m. v—wm 1"- m— J. ......—

 

 

Richardson writes: "Religious faith_gave these women strength,

courage, comfort, and above all, vision--a vision that was at

 

*—

once creative, intellectual and pragmatic.:;V// The narratives

illustrate the variety of experiences and life styles of blach

 

 

 

 

 

 

women in the nineteenth century and their specific and

 

particular ways of addressing these experiences. All of these

women construct, in various ways, and develop their own

 

particular theologies.

Building on their knowledge of Biblical and historical
feminist precedent, or on their analyses of their
immediate circumstances if no other information was
available to them, these women constructed a philosophy of
religion, social justice, and feminism which gave shape
and purpose to their lives. And they left records. They
wrote, they published, they kept journals, they composed
songs. 31

Until quite recently, texts by nineteenth-century black
women had been overlooked in favor of texts composed by males.

For this reason, the important roles that black women have

102
played in African-American life and culture, and the successful

strategies they have fostered for the survival of the African-
American community have only recently been given in-depth
discussion in literary and historical works.

During the antebellum period, when black females first
began publishing spiritual autobiographies, the abolitionist
crusade was operating in full force. January 1, 1831 marks the
official inauguration of the national antislavery crusade with
the publication of the Liberate; by its editor William Lloyd

Garrison. Garrison called for articles and essays protesting

slavery with the goal of putting an end to slavery.l Garrison 3

also visited the black female literary societies around Boston

#7

and invited papers f9; publication in the_Lihe;ete§/(§aria W.

SStewartzanswered the call and published an essay in the

October, 1831 issue, launching herself into literary history as

 

 

America's first black woman political write; Stewart visited
Garrison at his office seeking advice on how best to serve her
people. Garrison recognized that Stewart possessed unique
talents and suggested that she use her literary and oratorical
skills to lead her people in the fight against slavery.
Stewart's brief career as a political/spiritual lecturer
made up, in large part, the core focus of her spiritual
autobiography. In publishing her spiritual autobiography which

subverted the cult of {true womanhhgd," and which also indicted

 

hypocritical Christianity and the exploitation of black women

w

and men Stewart provided the literary_vehicle for other >é
_______. .1

African-American females to address such concggns.

103
Yet literacy was inaccessible for the majority of black
______————-———

women. Lowenberg and Bogin explain circumstances which may have

prevented a large number of black women from publishing:

Literacy itself was exceptional. While this was
particularly true in the antebellum South, opportunities
for education in the North as well were minimal. If the
black male's words,...were recorded only spasmodically,
those of the black female were still less frequently set
down on paper and the more that black communities reared
churches, schools, and institutions of family life on
white American models, the more it was the men, not the
women, who gave expression to their history, their
strivings, and their innermost feelings.32

Although a few black women wrote personal narratives in the

antebellum era. _131_ack malesiagmairedMWW
arena with_greate;"f;eqneney. Charles Nichols points out that

 

the narratives of Olaudah Equiano, Moses Roper, Josiah Henson,
and Frederick Douglass underwent many editions.33

Efforts to recover black female literary history are
extremely important. Even during the regent sixties, as
scholars recovered the slave narratives as resource and

heritage, texts written by female authors were sometimes

 

ignored, dismissed, misread. or only given brief ment19h_by a

 

scholar. On a more positive note, Charles Nichols' Many
Ineneang_§ene (1963):34 provided a brief but valuable
examination of Harriet A. Jacobs' 1neidenta_in_the_Life_efi_a
Slage_fiirl. On the other hand, in 1973, social historian John
W. Blassingame dismissed Jacobs' text as incredible.

Blassingame asserted:

In the first Place, WA

(1861) is too orderly; too many of the characters meet
providentially after years of separation. Then too, the
story is too melodramatic: miscegenation and cruelty,

104

outraged virtue, unrequited love and planter
licentiousness appear on every page. The virtuous Harriet
sympathizes with her wretched mistress who has to look on
all of the mulattoes fathered by her
husband...[Harriet]...bears two children for another white
man and then runs away and hides in a garret in her
grandmother's cabin for seven years until she is able to
escape to New York. In the meantime, her white lover has
acknowledged his paternity of her children, purchased
their freedom and been elected to Congress.35

Blassingame ends his attack on Jacobs' autobiography with a
classic example of the misreading of a woman's text: "In the
end all live happily ever after."536 On the contrary, Harriet
A. Jacobs' text does not conclude with a typical happy ending,
but rather, it ends, as Jean Fagan Yellin argues, in mixed
triumph.37

Many texts written by women suffered perhaps a worse fate

 

 

with no mention at all; Even as late as the 1960s many texts

 

written by black females in the antebellum era had not been
rediscovered due to the privileging of male texts and
narratives written by ex-fugitive male slaves. The exclusion
of black women's literature from literary canons has also

contributed to a skewed version of American women's experience.

 

Francis Smith Foster writes:

The study of personal narratives has been limited to
studies [of black males]. Focusing upon the restrictions
that women encountered in the nineteenth century, scholars
frequently argue that the auction block and the pedestal
are similar in form and function. The personal narratives
of many nineteenth-century white women contribute to this
tendency....38

Recent research in black women's history by scholars such as
Deborah Gray White, Angela Davis, and Jacqueline Jones

indicates that theories which construct similarities between

105
the auction block and the pedestal are the results of an

incomplete knowledge of black and white women's history.
However, reclamation efforts by black feminist scholars in the
early 19805 made possible the validation of black women's
history, literature and experience and corrected this skewed
version of history and literature. In fact, ideologies of
similarities between the auction block and pedestal buried "the
larger ramifications of slave status and racism."39 Efforts
in reclaiming the history of the antebellum and postbellum
freed and enslaved females helped prove how misleading such
hastily drawn similarities could be. These efforts also
unearthed spiritual autobiographies and slave autobiographies

”t.

by black women. These reclaimed mpersonal narratives provide a

m“""‘~' awn-m)... gum nmvn— m .- aw aim 1M

   

 

valuable contribution to women's religious history,

cr— .—

 

 

—‘-' -v w in. .....- A! Wit" l‘m‘l‘N—Mx \hw

specifically African-American women's religious history, as

well as American history. Albert E. Stone writes:

 

For history and the human sciences, as well as for
literature and philosophy, the recorded perceptions of
specifically located individuals of the meanings they
themselves attach to past experiences may prove
indispensable. Not what an event actually was (which may
often prove impossible or extremely difficult to
establish) but what it has since come to mean to a
participant or observer looking back in light of
accumulated experience and altered perspective -- that is
the special province and promise of autobiography as
social document. 4°

Readings in black women's spiritual and slave
autobiographies provide prose portraits and add contour and
color to the experiences of women in the nineteenth century.
"These works present a spectrum of classes and geographies

sufficient to challenge popular notions of a monolithic slave

106
experience and to remind us that all maidens were not blond,

nor, in fact, did all Afro-Americans live in the South." 41
Black women's spiritual and slave autobiographies )
significantly enhance understanding of African-American and

American history. Black women write from a variety of social

 

 

ranks and geographic locations over succeeding generations.

,7

Their autobiographical writings indicate that 923 all black

 

.1...-
mn A ...—...“..-

 

females were slaves or economically depressed. Yet all

E

spiritual autobiographies of black women grounded in a context

’1

of great personal determination, depict mainly the quest for

. wan-w rwmflw ...“,Wwwwq .... “...-....v .M_ «0 mil,“ wy-r-‘Vr. wuwmmm

 

 

 

_- n «m, nun-A a...” nu
In...

spiritual perfection, freedom, and literacy. Although primarily

 

spiritual in focus, these works, like the antebellum and
postbellum slave narratives which follow them in evolution of

the genre, provide gommentaries on American history, life, and

 

the major political issues of their given eras which most

r

affected blacks and women. The self-portraits of these

 

autobiographies make more and more visible the invisible

American woman. ,

Autobiography, a story in which the self has central

 

focus, is written when the author surmises that his or her life

is not only worth remembering but is of such special

 

significance and value that it ought to be shared)//It is
written normally for people separated by distance and often by
time from personal experience and knowledge of the author's
circumstances. Spiritual autobiography is more than a self-
portrait; it is "a book written as a testimony and inspiration
to other Christians to comfort one another and to save

souls."42 .As profound believers in Christianity, cognizant of

107
its value in transforming their lives, African-American

spiritual autobiographers write also to persuade non-Christians

that the Christian religion will be of especial psychological

 

and physical value in transforming everyday lives,//The sense

7* -' *W-V-nu’mmn-nnvhl WWI. .fl,mw. , . )- . ,. J m¢mwni~ can”

that they are chosen by God for a special and unique mission

 

 

that is both ground-breaking and revolutionary prompts the
female spiritual autobiographers to relate their life stories.

In a manner similar to the medieval mystics of Europe,
such as Margery Kempe, author of the first autobiography in
English, the religious vocation of black women included in this
study required physical travel. As Sue E. Houchins notes,
journeys and travels made by black women to various states and
foreign countries provided perhaps the most reliable physical
manifestation of freedom in the lives of antebellum black
women.

The fact that they were chosen and commissioned by the
transcendent Logos of Being, God, also affirmed a sense of_

uniqueness for these women. This attitude of specialness

 

 

illustrated why Zilpha Elaw saw herself rising above her fellow

human beings, to lead, to stand apart, to be unique.

Whether I was in the body, or whether I was out of the
body, on that auspicious day, I cannot say; but this I do
know...I became so overpowered with the presence of God
that I sank down upon the ground, and laid there for a
considerable time; and while I was thus prostrate on the
earth, my spirit seemed to ascend up into the clear circle
of the sun's disc; and, surrounded and engulfed in the
glorious effulgence of his rays, I distinctly heard a
voice speak unto me, which said, "Now thou are sanctified;
and I will show thee what thou must do....I [was] far
above those spreading trees, beneath whose

shady and verdant bowers I was then reclined.“3

108
Amanda Berry Smith, one of the most famous preachers of the

nineteenth century, experienced a similar sense of uniqueness

 

which, for her, affirms her as one chosen and set apart for a

great vocationh

 

 

Then, it seemed, I went to a great Camp meeting and there
seemed to be thousands of people, and I was to preach and
the platform I had to stand on was up high above the
people. It seemed it was erected between two trees, but
near the tops. How I got on it I don't know, but I was on
this platform with a large Bible opened and I was
preaching from these words: And if I be lifted up will
draw all men unto me." 0, how I preached, and the people
were slain right and left.44

merely a reconstruction of past events in the personal "chain
of feelings and experience," or merely a depiction of the
"painful and advantageous experiences transformed into the
substance of the personality," or even the "interplay between
the past and the present.“5 Rather, it has most often had the
rhetorical aim of changing_the prevailing views of the African:_
‘hmerican held by a hostile and dominant white American public.
In speaking of her parents' conversion and subsequent joining
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Julia AJEEEEEijrites of
their earlier experiences: "They were not treated as
Christian believers, but as poor lepers. They were obliged to
occupy certain seats in one corner of the gallery and dared not
come down to partake of the Holy Communion until the last white

communicant had left the table.m“ Foote adds:

This was one of the fruits of slavery. Although
professing to love the same God, members of the same
church, and expecting to find the same heaven at last,
they could not partake of the Lord's Supper until the
lowest of the whites had been served. Were they led by

109

the Holy Spirit? Who shall say? The Spirit of Truth can
never be mistaken, nor can he inspire anything unholy. How
many at the present day profess great spirituality, and
even holiness, and yet are deluded by a spirit of error,
which leads them to say to the poor and the colored ones
among them, [sic] "Stand back a little--I am holier than
thou."47

For the African-American spiritual autobiographer, "seizing
God's word for his or her self-determinatioh_was an especially

bold form of self-authorization."‘48 As Nellie McKay notes:

 

"Escaped slaves who condemned the 'peculiar' institution by
indicting its atrocities in writing and spiritual narrators who

claimed equal access to the love and forgiveness of a black-

 

appropriated Christian God_could not be nonpersons in the eyes
4;; a white world.”9

Early American spiritual autobiographies were written for
a white audience to prove the humanity of blacks (later, as
the genre evolved, it included a black audience as well). The
narratives argued in a world which doubted the humanhood of the
African-American that blacks were equal recipients of God's
saving grace as well as equal-heirs to divine salvation. For
this reason, while the spiritual autobiographer was primarily
concerned with acquiring spiritual perfection, implicit in the

African-American spiritual autobiography were discussions of

the major, timely political issues. Zilpha Elaw writes:

I started off for the southern territories of the United
States, where slavery is established and enforced by law.
When I arrived in the slave states, Satan much worried and
distressed my soul with the fear of being arrested and
sold for a slave, which their laws would have warranted,
on account of my complexion and features...I inquired
within myself, "from whence cometh all this fear?" My
faith then rallied and my confidence in the Lord returned,

110

and I said, "get thee behind me Satan, for my Jesus hath
made me free."50

Through the attainment of literacy individual African—Americans

attained personhood and simultaneously demonstrated the ability

to acquire written language. In £1gnrea_in_Blaek, Henry Louis
Jr. writes: "The command of a written language was a

decisive political ach;" fi-Tracing the development of an

r—

African-American literary tradition and heritage, Gates argues

 

that, since 1773, the acquisition of literacy for African-
Americans was the "international antislavery movement's most

salient argument for the African's innate equalihy."52 Gates

explores this concept further in Ihe_$ignifying Mnnkey.

 

After Descartes, reason was privileged or valorized, over
all other human characteristics. Writing, especially
after the printing press became so widespread, was taken
to be the visible sign of reason. Blacks were reasonable
and hence "men" if--and only if--they demonstrated mastery
of the arts and sciences. The eighteenth century's
formula for writing...the urge toward the systematization
of all human knowledge by which we characterize the
Enlightenment, in other words led directly to the
relegation of black people to a lower rung on the Great
Chain of Being, an eighteenth century metaphor that
arranged all of creation on the vertical scale from
animals and plants...through men to the angels and God
himself. By 1760, the chain had become individualized;
the human scale rose from the lowest "Hottentot" (black
South African) to "glorious Milton and Newton."53

Through writing and publishing literature which required a
creative imagination, blacks could elevate themselves on the
chain of Beinga54'2q. literacy, the very literacy of the
printed book stood as the ultimate_parameter by which to

measure the humanity of authors struggling to define an African

 

 

 

self in Western letters."55

111
Autobiography is the proper form for depiction of the

 

evolution of the self. In language, the author "creates a self_
and recreates a self-1n-experience."56 Beginning with
childhood and youth, selected facts and experiences in the
author's past are reconstructed to produce a coherent story.
"The best autobiographies seem to suggest a certain power of
the personality over circumstance...."57 .Autobiography as a
genre may include writings such as journals, memoirs, letters,
personal novels, autobiographical poems, or diaries.58 In
other words, all of the above classifications might be
considered in large part autobiography. In the memoir, the
events in the primary character's life are given central focus,
while the character remains in the background. However,

autobiography proper occurs when the author and narrator, or

principal character and protagonist are one. Autobiography is

 

”mainly a narrative" and "mainly retrospectivei" The subjectis

 

the individual life, denoting the beginning of personality.59

 

 

 

Critical theorist Albert E. Stone has explored the value
autobiography might have for historians, psychologists,
sociologists, linguists and authors. Literary historians Jean
Fagan Yellin, William Andrews, and Frances Smith Foster have
explored the genre in an effort to understand the social,
political, and cultural contexts in which African-American
literature was created. Literary critic Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
has utilized African-American autobiography to uncover the
theoretical origins of African-American literary tradition as

well as to understand African-American literature. Historians

112
John Blassingame, Albert J. Raboteau, Jacqueline Jones, and

Deborah Gray White found autobiography important in the
collection of facts and data useful in rendering a correction
and revision of the history of the African American presence in
the United States.

Autobiography is both discourse and histogyf/Stone writes
that autobiography is a complex genre which can be classified
in a variety of ways. In compiling a list of possible uses for
the genre, Stone says that because of its links to rather
diverse areas of "public life and private consciousness"
autobiography lends itself to a psychological examinatioh.

Yet, any narrowed psychological perspective would prove
inadequate for the genre. As a life history, autobiography
might be regarded as perhaps a skewed "version of history;"

The goal of autobiography is to persuade; therefore, the author
manipulates language in order to inspire sympathetic readings.
Autobiography might also be considered a "case history" and

"spiritual confession" as the narrator relates his or her past

A
_—

and present actions along with the impulses which inspired

them. Finally, Stone writes, "autobiography is the linguistic

 

bridge between one self or soul and others."60 .Autobiography

 

recreates a replica of the culture and the society which

 

sponsored the personality development of the narrator. In this

manner, the author draws upon the collggtiyenhgmaflmBKRQEiEEE?

 

and community is established.“-

 

The development of African-American spiritual
autobiography by Gronniosaw, Marrant and White“?in the mid-

eighteenth century made possible the development of the slave

113
narrative and also made most effective the arguments supporting

the civil rights of fugitive slave autobiographers in the mid-
nineteenth centuryu53 The genre became an important vehicle in

which the slave autobiographer could protest the "peculiar"

 

institution_ofhchattelmslayeryu“ Early American slave

F—

autobiography is primarily an abolitionist genre and may be

 

classified as protest literature. The genre was written

 

primarily to prhye the humanhohd of enslaved blacks and to

 

 

 

 

argue against the evils of slavery. The content of slave

autobiography was phimarily secular, yet the genre employed

 

Biblical exegesis, along with philosophical argumehts
challenging the Scriptural and philosophical arguments of
slavery apologists.

Early American slave autobiographers, like the early
American spiritual autobiographers shared the common_

"rhetorical aim" of revising the prevailing views of the

 

African-American by a hostile and predominantly white American

public. Their autobiographies were never written without
consciousness of those who remained enslaved or those suffering
from the evils of racism and discrimination in free states. In
the slave autobiographers' attempt to revise white American
assumptions about black Americans as non-human, untrustworthy
and immoral characters, African-American autobiographers had to

become "eye-witness historians" whose integrity could not be

 

challenged as they spoke on behalf of members of their race.65
While Harriet Aanacobs' Incidents has been one of the
more famous female narratives to be recently rediscovered,

Jacobs' rhetorical model may be found in the works of Maria W.

114
_Shgfiarg? JarenaLLeEIand ZilphaiElawL, Henry Louis Gates cites

Mary Prince as the immediate literary foremother who made
possible Jacobs' ability to discuss the slave female's sexual
violation "along with the enforced severance of a mother's
natural relation to her children and lover of her choice."66
Yet, the ground breaking spiritual autobiographies of Maria W.
Stewart, Jarena Lee, Zilpha Elaw provide Jacobs with the
vehicle to make an explosive indictment of hypocritical

Christianity,/<3acobsh text argues that institutional

 

Christianity is corrupt and used in support of black
disenfranchisement as well as what is commonly known as the
"peculiar institution"--chattel American slavery, a charge
MariaQStewart‘had made twenty-six years earlie . The spiritual
narratives of JarenagLeESand Zilphatfilawegive Jacobs the

vehicle to ihdict Christianity as a religion that does not

 

favor black liberation. The silence of many American churches'

#

on the question of slavery is a great evil to Jacobs. These

narratives also provide Japohs with the vehicle for

1‘—

 

establishing her theology of black liberation. By taking on

 

the rhle of spiritual guide for an audienge of Northern white

 

women, Jacobs' challenges the silencing of females by the

‘—

 

 

clergy.

While Jacobs identifies herself as an outraged slave
mother, the autobiographies of other black females included in
this study indicate less concern for the traditional roles of
motherhood. Jarenaf§§§;>z11phaigl§9, Amanda Berry Smgthf‘

' hip—p”—

Virginia W. Broughton.leave their children with others while

 

they fulfill ministerialwduties. Amanda Berry Smith arranges

.—-——u_._.~.
...”. ..-.”

 

115
boarding for her daughter in order to pursue her ministerial

duties. After the death and burial of her daughter, Selena,
Virginia Broughton immediately continues her missionary duties.
Her detractors find such action inappropriate. Yet Broughton
writes: "So mightily did God use her on that occasion that her
bitterest opposers said: 'Let that woman alone, God is truly
with her.‘ She has ever since been enabled to trust God for
the care of her home and her children; nothing has been allowed
to hinder her from doing her Master's bidding when sufficient
light has been given her to direct her course."67

Though works by black female spiritual and slave
autobiographers are grounded in an historical and political‘
context, they are subject to the compositional impulses
._____a-
familiar to any other works of literary production. All slave
narratives are fictions of factual represenpation simply
because facts are usually distorted in a deliberately plotted
presentation no matter how careful the narrator is to deliver

truthful discourse.68 Autobiography is "literary convention

and cultural activity, imagination and history."59

 

Nineteenth-century African-American autobiography is a
distinctive genre that is separate in some degree from white
autobiography, mainly as a result of the political context of
arguments against racism and slavery. The signal distinguishing
characteristic between African-American autobiography and white
autobiography is the inclusion of a reading of African-American
experience as a component of the collective American
experience. There are various modes for the genre: letters,

journals, dairies, oral histories, meditations, spiritual,

116
conversion or confessional narratives, as well as slave

narratives. Each of these forms addresses certain critical
issues, which must be examined according to each one's own
particular literary form. Examination of the cultural contexts
in which the autobiographies are written is important, as well,
in the study of the genre.70

William Andrews also examines autobiography as discourse
and history. Andrews argues that autobiography is not simply a
function of its rhetorical situation. When political or social
events present problems which cannot be altered or solved
through the use of persuasive discourse to change someone's
thoughts or actions, then a "rhetorical situation comes into

being."'71 African-American autobiography is specifically

 

 

confrontationaly//Faced with the urgency of finding a solution

/’
to the evils of slavery and the refusal of a dominant white

 

America to see African-Americans as fully human, or believable,
black spiritual autobiographers and the slave autobiographers
who followed them in the evolution of the genre "naturally
realized that theirs was a rhetorical situation.”72 To present
"simply" an "objective reconstruction of the individual past or
a public demonstration of the qualities of selfhood or a
private manifestation of a life of struggle", would not be

sufficient for the purposes of the spiritual autobiographer or

the slave autobiographer. "The writing of autobiography became
an attempt to open an intercour§e with the white world.n73

 

 

According to Robert Stepto, the genre of African-American
autobiography is shaped by the "'pregeneric myth' for Afro-

Americans", the quest for freedom_and_literé21- These "authors

117
and texts collectively seek their own literary forms--their own

admixture of genre-—bound to a shared pregeneric myth."74

However, Henry Louis Gates offers a different perspective.
Gates insists that "literary works" develop into a tradition
"not because of some mystical collective unconscious determined
by the biology of race or gender." Rather, "writers read other
writers and ground their representation of experience in models
of language provided by other writers to whom they feel akin."
Gates further asserts that "it is through this mode of literary
revision, amply evident in the texts--in formal echoes, recast
metaphors, even in parody--that a 'tradition' emerges and
defines itself.Wn'Gates also writes in Ine_fiignifiying_Menkeyz
"Afro-American literary history is characterized by...tertiary
formal revision, by which I mean its authors seem to revise at
least two antecedent texts, often taken from different
[generations or periods within the tradition.... Black writers
read and critique other Black texts as an act of rhetorical
self-definition. Our literary tradition exists because of
these precisely chartable formal literary relationships, of
signifying."76

Elizabeth Fox-Genovese writes that black women's
autobiography is primarily and necessarily self-referential,
necessarily so because the genre demands a political reading of
which the self is the centerf77 Elack female autobiography ngt
only discusses the black woman's experience in America but also

r1

uses that individual discussion to explore the collective

 

 

experience of African-Americans and white Americans.

 

Elizabeth Fox-Genovese writes:

118

Autobiographies of black women, each of which is
necessarily personal and unique, constitute a running
commentary on the collective experience of black women in
the United States. These writings are inescapably
grounded in the experience of slavery and the literary
tradition of slave narratives. Their common denominator,
which establishes their integrity as a sub-genre, derives
not from the general categories of race or sex, but from
the historical experience of being black and female in a
specific society at a specific moment and over succeeding
generations. Black women's autobiographies...include some
autobiographical fiction as well as formal autobiographies
both streams of which have rich sources in a rich oral ,_1,
Afro-American culture://Black women's autobiography 4
resists reduction to either political or critical pieties
and resists even more firmly reduction to mindless
empiricism. In short, it commands an attention to theory
and method that respects its distinctiveness as a
discourse.78 .__j

Because the political, socio-economic and personal nature of

black women is different from that of white women, the

 

political and self-referential nature of black female

g M

 

_autobiography requires different readings than do

autobiographies of black males or white females}///

 

Black women, like others who write autobiography, construct
"prose portraits of themselves as histories of their lives."
Still, Fox-Genovese insists, any completely informed reading
includes a political reading. However, "to read well, to read
fully is inescapably to read_politically, but to foreground the
politics, as if it could somehow be distinguished from the
reading itself, is to render the reading suspect."79

The underlying principle in African-American autobiography
is that authors revise earlier works they have read to suit
their rhetorical needs and historical circumstances.80 The

following chapters will examine the spiritual autobiographies

119
of African-American females in order to understand the

revisions black women have made in American literature and the
running commentaries they have presented about African-American

life.

NOTES

1 Sue E. Houchins, introduction, Snixitnal_flatratixsa, ed.
Houchins (New York: Oxford UP, 1988).

2 Maria W Stewart Ernduttinns_nf_Mrsi_Maria_fl1 Stewart
Spiritnai_uarratiyes, ed. Sue E. Houchins (Boston: Friends of
Freedom and Virtue, 1835; New York: Oxford UP, 1988).

3 Jarena Lee. Ihe_Life_and_Rel1aious_Exneriences_nf_larena
I E C J i I i 3' . E | E l C J] | 1
the Gespel, Sisters Qf the Spirit, ed. William L. Andrews
(1836; Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1986).

4 Zilpha Elaw, Memn1rs_nf_the_L1fe_Beligious_Exnerieneei
”. . | . J I J i I l E H E] E E .

Eemale.nf.£nlour, Sisters.nf1the.§nirit. ed. William L.
Andrews (1846; Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1986).

5 Harriet E. Wilson. Qur_Nig1_or_Sketches.£rom_the_Lifs_nf
a_Eree_Biaek, ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (1859; New York:

Vintage, 1983).

6 Harriet A. Jacobs, Tntidents_1n_the_Life_nf_a_Slaye
Girir_flritten_hy_flerseif, ed. Jean Fagan Yellin (1861;
Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1987).

7 Jean McMahon Humez, Gifts_nf_Rnuer1__1he_flritings_of
Bebecca_Cox_Jacksnn1_Blatk_yisionar¥1_Shaker_Eldress (Boston.

U of Massachusetts P, 1981).

8 Gronniosaw published in 1770, Marrant published in 1785

and George White published in 1810. See William L. Andrews,

Sisters_ef_the_§pirit (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1986) 1.

9 Houchins xxix.

1° Andrews, W 1.

11 Houchins, xxix. See also Pheobe Palmer, Premise Qt_the
Father (Boston: Degen, 1859).

12 See also the following post-bellum spiritual
autobiographies: Julia A. Foote, aLjfi:uutjflnuflgai;fire__the
Eire, fiisters_et_the_§pirit, ed. William L. Andrews (1879,
Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1986); Amanda Smith, An
E I I. l I] S! E I] I i' E J' 'I] H
Amanda_Sm1th1_the_£nlored_Eyangelist, ed. Jualynne Dodson
(Chicago: Meyer, 1893; New York: Oxford UP, 1988); and
Baptist missionary Virginia W. Broughton, Infint¥_1&arsl

120

121

Exnerience_of_a_M1ss1onar¥. Spiritual_uarrat1xes. ed Sue E.

Houchins (Chicago: Pony P, 1907; New York: Oxford UP, 1988).
13 See Marilyn Richardson' 3 edition of Stewart's

Ereduetiene. See also Marilyn Richardson, Ied. Maria_fl1

A - D . - o
9 : 0 s A.“'. . A O

and_Speeehee (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1987).

14 Andrews, Sister§_of_the_finirit 22.
15 Humez 107.

16 Elaw 160.

17 599 39“ Witherington, III. Women_1n_the_M1nistry_of
£9535 (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1984) for a discussion of the

first female evangelist. See also John 4: 1-42.

18 An insertion needs to be made here. While other
nineteenth-century black females wrote their slave narratives
or dictated them to an amaneusis, these are not included for
in- -depth discussion in this study. These narratives include:
Mary Prince. Ihe_H1stQrx_of_Marx_Er1naeL_A_West_lndian_Sla1e
(1831); Nancy Prince. A_Narratixe_of_the_Life_and_Iraxels_of
Mr31_Nans¥_Pr1nce (1853); Aunt Sally. Annt_Salle_or_the_£ross

“0.0“ \o. - ‘ o 0‘ 10. '_ no. ‘
of_Mother_of_Bex1_Issa2_W1111ams_of_netroit_M1sh1gan (1858);
Jane Brown. Narra112e_of_1he_L1fe_of_lane_Broun_and_fler_Ino
Children, (1860); Rev. H. Mattison, A.M., Louisa Piquet, The
Qctaroon1__A_Iale_of_Southern_Life (1861); Elizabeth. Memoirs
of_Qld_E11zaheth1_A_§Qlonred_floman_(1863); Dr. L.S. Thompson,
Ihe_Stor¥_of_Matt1e_Jl_Jackson_(1866); Kate Drummgold. A_Slare
Girlls_Stor¥ (1878); Lucy A. Delaney, Eer_the_Darkness_Cometh
the_L1ah11_or_Strnggles_for_Ereedom, (c.1891); Bethaney Veney,
Ihe_Narrat1xe_of_Bethane¥_¥ene¥1_A_Slaxe_floman_(1899); Susie
King Taylor, Reminiscences of My Life in Camp (1902); Annie L.
Burton, Memor1es_of_Childhoodls_Slaxer¥_Da¥s.(1909). This
study, however, is limited to a discussion of women who used
biblical exegesis to critique male androcentric biases against
women's empowerment.

Elizabeth Keckley. Beh1nd_the_Ssenes1_or_1_1h1r11_xears
a_Slaxe1_and_Eour_Iears_1n_the_flhite_fionse_(1868), will have
brief mention in this dissertation. The following texts will
also have a brief inclusion: Julia A. Foote, A_Brahd_Eineked

Erom_the_E1re (1879); Amanda Smith An_Autobiogranh¥1_lhe_5tor¥
Qf_the_LQrd_s_Deal1ngs_n1th_Mrs1_Amanda_Sm1th1_the_Colored
Eyahgeiiet (1893); and Virginia Broughton, Inehty_xeerei
Exnerience_of_a_Missionar¥ (1907).

Stewart 6.

20 See Lee.

21 See Gifts.

22 See Elaw.

23 See Foote.

24 See Smith.

25 See Broughton.

122

26 Francis Smith Foster, Witnessina_Slayer¥1__Ihe
Deye1onment_of_Ante:bellum_Slaye_Narrat11es (Westport. CN:
Greenwood P, 1979) 59.

27 Jarena Lee, Be11g1ous_Exper1ence_and_lournal_of_Mrs1

Spirithei_Narratiges, ed. Sue E. Houchins (1849; New York:
Oxford UP, 1988) 97.

28 Foster. Witnessing_Slayer¥ 59.

29 Stone 19.

30 Marilyn Richardson, Bieek_flemeh_end_fieiigigh (Boston:
Hall, 1980) xv.

31 Richardson xv.

32 Bert James Lowenberg and Ruth Bogin, eds. , Bieek_flemen
1n_N1neteenth:Centurx_Amer1can_Life1__Iheir_Words1_Ihe1r
Thenghtei_1heir_zeeiihgs (University Park: Pennsylvania State
UP, 1976) 5.

33 Charles Nichols, Manx_Ihousand_Gone1__Ihe_Bx:Slaxes
AccQnnt_of_their_Bondage_and_Ereedom (Bloomington: Indiana UP.
1963) xiv.

34 See Nichols 17—23.

35 John W- Blassingame, The_S1aye_Communit¥1__Elantation
Liie_ih_the_Ahteheiinm_$enth (New York: Oxford UP, 1979) 373.

36 Blassingame 373.

37 Fagan Yellin xxiv.

38 Francis Smith Foster, "Adding Color and Contour to
Early American Self-Portraitures: Autobiographical Writings of
Afro-American Women," Black_Women_1n_American_Histor¥1__Erom
Co1on1a1_I1mes_Ihronah_the_N1neteenth_Centur¥. ed. Darlene
Clark Hine vol. 2 (Brooklyn: Carlson, 1990) 396.

39 Nancy F Cott Boots_of_B1tterness1__Documents_of_the

Soc1a1_Histor¥_of_Amer1can_flomen (New York: Dutton.1972) 14-
15.

: I

.40 Albert E Stone, Autob1ogranhical_Qccasions_and

O ' ‘ on o .u- ' -0 0‘0. on .‘o :0-"
te_Nete_$hen_ (Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1982) 7.

41 Foster, "Adding Color and Contour" 396.

42 Clarissa W Atkinson, Mxst1c.1nd1311911m1__lhe_Book
end_the_flgriQ_Q£_Mergery_Kempe (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1983) 24.

43 Elaw 66-67.

44 Smith 42-43.

45 ROY Pascal. Des1gn_and_Iruth_1n_Autobiogranhx-
(Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1960) 11.

46 Foote 167.
47 Foote 167.
48 Andrews, Sisters Qfi the Spjrj: 1.

49 Nellie McKay, "Nineteenth-Century Black Women's
Spiritual Autobiographies: Religious Faith, and Self-

123
Empowerment," ' ' ' - ° ' h r n

Personal_Narratiyee, ed. Personal Narratives Group
(Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1989) 140.

50 Elaw 90-91.

51 Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Figures in Black; Words.
Sign&_and_the_13eeiei_fiei£1 (New York: Oxford UP, 1987) 4.

52 Gates. W 5.

53 Henry Louis Gates, Jr.. Ihe_Signifying_Monkey1__A

Iheory_of_AfrozAmerican_Literary_£riticism (New York: oxford
UP, 1988) 130- 131.

54 Gates. Signifyina_Monkey 131.

55 Gates. W 131.
56 McKay 140.

57 Pascal 11.

58 Phillippe Lejeune, Qh_Athhiegrephy (Minneapolis: U of
Minnesota P, 1989) 4.

59 Lejeune 4.

60 Stone 5

61 Stone 5.

62 AndrewS. Sisters_of_the_finirit l.

63 Andrews. W 2.

64 William L. Andrews, IQ_Ieii_e_Eree_Stery (Urbana: U of
Chicago P, 1986) 17.

65 Andrews, To_Tell_a_Eree_Story 17

66 Henry Louis Gates, Six_gieeeie_Nerretiyee. (New York:

New American Library, 1989) xv.
57 Broughton,
68 Andrews, To_Iell_a__Eree_Story 17.
69 McKay 140.
70 Sandra Pouchet Pacquet, "Response: "Toward A Poetics

of Afro-American Autobiography " Afro:American_Literary_Study
ih_the_12905, eds. Houston A. Baker, Jr. and Patricia Redmond

(Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1989) 91.
71 Andrews, IQ Iell a Eree Stery 17.
72 Andrews, IQ Tell a Free Stgry 17.
73 Andrews, IQ Tell a Eree Stgry 17.

74 Robert B Stepto. Wm:
AfrozAmerican_Narratiye (Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1979) ix.
75 Henry Louis Gates, "Foreword: In her Own Write,"

Spiritna1_Narratiyee ed. Sue E. Houchins (New York: Oxford UP,
1988) xviii.

76 Henry Louis Gates, "The Signifying Monkey," Bieek
Literature_end_1heery (New York: Methuen, 1984) 290.

77 Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, "To Write My Self: The
Autobiographies of Afro-American Women," Biaek_flemenie

124

W. ed. Darlene Clark Hine, vol. 1
(Brooklyn: Carlson, 1990) 155.

78 Fox-Genovese 155.
79 Fox-Genovese 157.
80 Fox-Genovese 155.

. CHAPTER THREE
MARIA w. STEWART'S TRANSCENDENCE or CLERICAL SILENCING OF WOMEN
AND THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY CULT or "TRUE WOMANHOOD"

The recent unearthing of autobiographies by nineteenth-
century black women-~especially spiritual and secular
autobiographies with a religious context--provides us with
first-hand accounts of some of the strategies of survival
utilized by black women in the nineteenth century.
Autobiographical writings in these two streams--those that
indicate black women's religious activism--reveal that free
black women in the North who faced the hostility of racism, and
female autobiographers who experienced Southern slavery, were
neither passive in their religious faith nor acquiescent in
their particular circumstances and situations. Rather, many
black women demonstrated the courage and will to chart their
own destinies and transcend the socio-political codes of
nineteenth-century society which oppressed a large number of
African-Americans. The autobiographies written by such women

reveal not only black women's selfzdeterminism but also a

Biblical, critical theology of liberation\in a black woman's

 

 

mode that helped themm£iflgwinner wholeness in nineteenth-

h

century society.

125

126
These autobiographies reveal that black women were proto-

black liberation theologians as well as proto-feminist

_
fl.

liberation theologians

 

 

nf/Current black liberation theologians

have asserted that theology must start from the view of the

 

oppressed black male.1 Thus, current black feminist liberation
theologians are challenging_not only the exclusion of black
women's experience from black liberation theologies but the
_subordination of black women's needs to those of black meB,////
Black feminist liberation theologians insist that black —~ fl.]
liberation theologies which support the suppression and
I at

"sin of oppression" as any oppressor in the power structure. I

oppression of black women in the church are as guilty of the

Black spiritual autobiographers who penned narratives of

religious activism made similar challenges in the antebellum

 

 

era of the nineteenth century///As proto-feminist liberation ~—J
theologians, black women sought to include themselves in
women's quest for equality with the clergy and the quest for
transcendence of chauvinist oppression. Female spiritual
autobiographers in the antebellum era who sought equality with
the clergy encountered racism from white women and white men as
well as sexism from black men as they struggled for the right
to preach.

As progenitors of a liberation theology in a black woman's

mode, they sought the liberation of all human beings, not just

 

the liberation of white females and black males. Black women
liberation theologians also sought to liberate white males and

black males from thgfifisiggwgfmgexism. To black female

rum—Hm

 

 

 

 

spiritual autobiographers, sexism in clerical spheres silenced

127
women who heard the "call", preventing them from fulfilling the

4

 

Divine will. Clerical silencing, therefore, they felt, not

 

 

only interfered with the highest orders of God but also

 

 

 

prevented many human beings from being enlightened about God's

 

will for their lives.

Sexism is defined by feminist theologian Rosemary Radford
Ruether as "an expression of broken mutuality between the
genders, the subjugation of women to men."2 Ruether further

adds:

Sexism results in the exclusion of women from social
development in the valued spheres of cultural formation
and leadership. Religion plays a key role here both in

Ibeihg_shaped~hy__and in sacralizing the social patterns of

pct-5.4..- 'W

sexism. ‘Beligignw makes sexism appear théwgormatiye_
nature of human relations, the order” of creation, and the
relation of God to humanity and history. 3

For black women theologians, the religious arena was the
appropriate place to begin a political transcendence of
cultural oppression and religious silencing. The quest to

liberate white and black males from the sin of sexism in order

___—

 

 

to preach the gospel was an almost overwhelming.challenge. As

Ruether notes:

W—~—w-—.—.
-..—1T cv—

from the shaping of the public culture of religion as both
theology and cult. It also means that the religious
codes, cult and symbolic patterns, especially in the
Judeo-Christian tradition have been shaped bya

ideological bias against women. 4

The challenge black women made to the Clerical silencing of
women was a most appropriate place to begin the quest for

women's rights.

128
i§§§¥§Ft'5‘EUtODiography: entitled Erodnctions_of_ursl
Maria_fl1_Stenart,5 effectively blurs the lines between the

secular and the sacred and makes a significant contribution to

 

 

understanding the role religion played in black women's

 

 

 

r3£i9iQQ§ angmpolitical activism, as well as the contributions

m...
.....W- luv ..Hfl- .nv-F'

black women made to the social reform era of nineteenth-century
America. Through creative—vision and a Biblical, critical-
historical hermeneutics of suspicion,6 black women found the
courage to fight for women's equality within clerical and
secular spheres. Their positive redefinition apart from the
nineteenth-century definitions of "true womanhood," which
repressed and limited their potential for personal growth, is
also recorded in these valuable documents. Black women's roles
are often overlooked in discussions relating to women's
contributions to significant changes in American society.
Through examination of specific autobiographies, this
dissertation seeks to fill the lacunae concerning black women's
political and religious efforts in the antebellum era.

m

The autobiographical writings of Maria Wiigtewarfi are

-
-...mi—Mm -

 

Facts about Stewart's personal life are relegated to minor

 

importance as Stewart focuses on those religious and political
concerns that affected blacks and women. In the introduction
to her autobiography, Stewart informs her primarily black
audience of her reasons for publishing her autobiography.

Stewart writes:

Feeling a deep solemnity of soul, in view of our
wretched and degraded situation, and sensible of the gross

129

ignorance that prevails among us, I have thought proper
thus publicly to express my sentiments before you.
(Stewart 3)

Stewart's desire is to "arouse" her readers to "exertion and to

 

enforce upon [their] minds the great necessity of turning

 

[their] attention to_knowledge_and;improyemgpt" (Stewart 3).

a? ...—.... r-r—Il—w

Stewart proclaims that, from the moment she experienced

religious conversion in 1831, she felt a "desire" to "devote

 

her life to a pious and virtuous existence." Possessing a
"spirit" of independence, Stewart felt ready to "willingly

sacrifice" her life for the "cause of God and [her] brethren"

..r ' «gunk a‘r' m ._,....,--

 

M

(Stewart 4).

Stewart focuses her autobiography primarily on the
sermons, prayers, religious meditations, lectures, addresses,
songs and poems she wrote and delivered over her three-year
career as a political activist. The content of these outwardly
directed pieces meant to inspire nineteenth-century blacks to
life-altering action presents a prose portrait of Stewart.

By gleaning the biographical facts from her text and the
biographical sketches available in a few historical works,
Stewart's life history can be obtained. [€EEEEEE:(1803-1879)
was born in Hartford, Connecticut and was orphaned at the age
of five. Shortly thereafter she was indentured to service in a
clergyman's family. In 1826 the former Maria Miller married
James W. Stewart, a veteran of the war of 1812. Upon her
marriage, she became an active member of the black middle class
of Boston. James W. Stewart, described as a "light-bright
mulatto,"7 was quite a few years older than his wife. He was

prosperously employed as an outfitter for whaling and fishing

130
vessels. Upon his insistence, Maria Stewart added W to her

name as "part of her own signature."° When her husband died on
December 17, 1829, he left Stewart with a "substantial

inheritance.9" However, Stewart was defrauded of her

 

inheritance by unscrupulous lawyer§.1°

_—-—.—

 

In 1831 Stewart experienced religious conversion and

 

embarked on a career as a religious and political activist.

 

After a brief career on the lecture circuit, a period spanning

f

 

three years, Stewart dedicated her life to teaching as a means
of earning a living. 11
Stewart's text charts the development of a black woman's

liberation theology which could lead to her self-realization in

g;
“yv_‘, \I-u-r ‘ 1.,- “tau-u.” ‘ ---,r _ w. , wan, , ..me 3m3-1\~uompmhmm,w~l -‘

the Divine; the autobiography simultaneously discusses those

-——

major religious and political issues of early nineteenth-

 

~' " “fins "a. an

 

century America which most affected blacks and women. The text
provides later black women theologians with the literary
framework in which to defy socio-political structures in
nineteenth-century America. Through autobiography, they indict
and overcome those socio-political structures relegating blacks
and women to a prescribed and limited place.

The post-revolutionary era of nineteenth—century America
was highly charged with impulses which created significant
changes in American life and thought. These impulses included
the quest by free blacks in the North for equality and civil
rights, the birth of the national organization of the
abolitionist crusade, the efforts of female preachers to assure
women's right to participate publicly in religious and

theological debates, and their quest for equality in the

131
clergy. Maria W. Stewart's autobiographical writings address

each of these social reform effort§///The qpests by_nineteenthj

century femalsjigaugyplic vqi_9?,_,inmythgmreiigieursl arena: as

 

well as women's efforts in abolitionist organizations, paved

the way for the development of women' s suffragist organizations

1. Hmfifim-ur “a...“
"h-M-Muflo... nykf‘WWWWI-v ”..-.an "' i“"“"'

which sought equal opportunities for women in all areas of
life.

There are at least two factors that might account for
Stewart's venture into political activism. Stewart had long
been interested in being "useful" in furthering the cause of
her people. As an advocate of "mutual improvement" and "race
uplift," Stewart felt that the acquisition of education might

help blacks carve useful and rewarding careers for themselves

 

and aid their fellow human beings. Tnterested in elevating both

herself and her race in the area of education and intellectua1

.. ...‘Mr- N

 

...-. w...- .-
“fish—w" "......MM“ ‘ ”w... _flraww «E

...-w v1 .1;
-wM‘-"

 

pursuits, Stewart was a member of a black female literary

 

society in Boston. At one of these meetings, Stewart saw a
notice asking black women to contribute literary pieces on
current topics to the newly published weekly magazine, the
Liberator.u’ Stewart composed religious meditations and an
essay for publication entitled "Religion and the Pure
Principles of Morality, the Sure Foundation on which we Must
Build," and visited the publishing headquarters of Garrison and
Knapp in hopes of getting her religious meditations published.
Garrison published Stewart's essay in the October 1831 issue of
the Liberator and later pnblished.Stewart!s-meditatigns in th§_

form of tracts.13 Stewart also sought Garrison's guidance in

 

carving out a suitable and "useful" career that might advance

132
the liberation efforts of black people. Garrison felt that

Stewart's intellect and talents as a writer might serve her
well as an orator in the abolitionist movement. His advice
enabled Stewart to carve out a career path that propelled her
from obscurity to the blazing light of public eye.

Stewart prepared herself for this public tour by

appropriating the language of the Book of Books to support her

WamA-J'flmmu wwwhm q--u.-- *

 

 

\- u“...

actions; Placing herself on an equal footing with male

’— wr—v

preachers and theologians, Stewart insisted that she had been

annual-Ur. 1.4-1"

 

 

 

 

Mun want—Da—

sanctioned by God to engage in Biblical hermeneutics and to

...pg—‘Wam‘hq

 

 

 

a“

 

“Wme-w- MI» 7 ~

preach and lead members of the black community to an

-‘-d' ”7“! -"_ ,MF-wqu‘..." ,m .

understanding of God's will for human beingsy/gales, the

___r

 

 

 

 

traditional holders, interpreters and defenders of the Word,

found this stance offensive and a threat to their leadership

W

positions in the black community. Public hostility did not

 

 

deter Stewart. Stewart's message to the black community

demonstrated that fact:

I am sensible of exposing myself to calumny and
reproach; but shall I, for fear of feeble man who shall
die, hold my peace? shall I for fear of scoffs and
frowns, refrain my tongue? Ah, no! I speak as one that
must give an account at the awful bar of God; I speak as a
dying mortal, to dying mortals. (Stewart 6)

Stewart further offended black males by attacking their lack of.

 

 

initiative and ambition to correct the economic and racia1_

problems blacks faced in America. Stewart writes: "All the

 

nations of the earth are crying out for Liberty and Equality.
Away, away with tyranny and oppression! And shall Afric's sons

be silent any longer?" (Stewart 4)

133
In "Feminist Theology and Spirituality", Rosemary Radford

Ruether defines theology as "reflection of human experience in
light of our relation to God. By 'God' I mean the transcendent
matrix of Being that underlies and supports both our own
existence and our continual potential for new being." Ruether
adds further that this "relation to God provides
humanity...over against the historical deformation of that
potential by systems "which give rise to..."social structures
of social alienation and oppression: sexism, racism,
classism..."14 J. Deotis Roberts states, "theology has to do
with divine revelation.... Theology involves our reflection
upon the divine-human personal encounter."15 Supporting these
definitions is James H. Cone, who states that "theology is
human speech formed by historical and theological traditions
and written for particular times and places."16 Paul
Acthemeier participates in this discussion by arguing that
theology grows out of any community's attempt to understand

God.17 Theology is particularly revelatory since it must

 

continue to inform both history and new traditions as human

#4

 

 

beings struggle to understand the world and God. If theology

’———' m.» ...... ...“... .. fi—

does not continue to meet the needs of the individuals, it is,

 

 

 

at best, unnecessary in any given era or epoch.
If theology is informed by the experiences of the

theologian, then the racial and sexist climate of nineteenth-

 

century America, which Maria Stewart identifies as extremely

problematic, must figure prominently in her theological

 

perspective. Although radical in her efforts to become a

leader to the black community, Stewart goes a step further and

 

134
attempts to empower black women. Stewart writes: "0, ye

 

 

 

daughters of Africa, Awake! Awake! Arise! No longer sleep nor
slumber but distinguish yourselves. Show... the world [your]
noble and exalted faculties" (Stewart 6). Her theology is

particularly confrontational, addressing issues which result

 

from experiences of what we would call the multiple jeopardy of

 

 

 

sexism, racism, and classism. James Cone argues that theology

- ...-s" van-1W
r-

must go beyond theory and meet the needsmof the oppressed if it

 

thq1;.w.~w 1

is to be effective}8 Stewart formulates a liberation theology

 

 

which attempts to improve the lives of African—American women

M «an... M
. I'm-'woman‘s” -.---"'M« 1...;- nl'EWIA -—-s--~-—M

and men. Stewart writes:
\———§.

Truly my heart's desire and prayer is, that Ethiopia might
stretch forth her hands to God. But we have a great work
to do. Never, no, never will the chains of ignorance
burst, till we become united as one, and cultivate among
ourselves, the pure principles of piety, morality and
virtue. I am sensible of my ignorance; but such knowledge
as God has given to me, I impart to you. (Stewart 5-6)

While Stewart's autobiographical religious meditations are
written to blacks as well as members of the First African
Baptist Church and Society, she remains in a broader black
woman's religious tradition that includes Methodist ministers
Jarena Lee, Zilpha Elaw, Julia A. Foote, Amanda Berry Smith as
well as Shaker Eldress Rebecca Cox Jackson and late nineteenth-
and early-twentieth century black Baptist liberation theologian
Virginia A. Broughton. Stewart!s perspective, as well as the

perspective of the other women listed above, is informed by the

 

 

 

quest for black liberation, the quest for literacy, and the

 

 

 

struggle for women's equality and the right to preach. Each of

 

'_—i _—

these women uses a Biblical critical exegesis which upports

 

 

135
the right of women's full personhggg_in_all_a£eas of humanity. ’

fl' --.‘ma-t“

 

An examination of the critical Biblical exegesis utilized by
these women will be conducted in subsequent chapters of this
dissertation. However, because this work is limited to an
examination of the Biblical critical exegesis of antebellum
autobiographers, the theologies of Julia A. Foote and Amanda
Berry Smith will be examined by this author in a different
work. While Harriet A.<§E§§E§:and Harriet E<ié£i§onrdo not
define themselves as ministers or theologians, their

autobiographies includea liberation theology. Their

 

 

theological precepts must be examined because their voices add

to the richness of the black woman's religious tradition in the

‘I— q Jn-fiwns—‘nuffl

 

Mr” 1.4”:- --~ -~ -~1- r; - «. nl—d—uv'u-h'mhi.-r- r... m. ‘P‘I—u‘dlmuu “'5

 

...—_—

antebellum era, as well as women's religious tradition in

" I» “I‘m;

 

WI'WL"- W 7"“ 'I‘Ivl'u.~'€oh‘w 9‘01 "’

American history. Their writing moves the oral tradition of

 

black religion into the realm of literacy, thereby providing
legacies for black women or men who write theology.

Stewartfs theology comes directly out of the cultural and
social situation of black Americans. Stewart argues that

blacks are bound in drudgery and servitude by the chains of

 

ignorance which stem from a lack of spiritual knowledge, and

W—‘“" "‘th .

especially by the loss of a personal relationship WithrG°d°

-. v”... mm- _s—‘wrmu‘ .__..._

 

 

Stewart's theology is a point of departure from other
traditional eschatological theologies which teach blacks to be
passive and to wait on God for a reward in the afterlife.19

Stewart stresses that a strong individual focus on mental

 

 

 

1

improvement and the organization of women's self-help groups

—-—---—

 

will lead blacks to markedly improved lives. The steps toward

improvement in the material existence of African-Americans lie

136
within each individual, who must first devotewgnergies to self-

wm~.r-

improvement if any Ceflective ,émrzzovemeng rising«tastings.e-

Addressing an audience of women, Stewart states, "It is of no
use for us to sit with hands folded" (Stewart 13) If black men

and women take the initiative toward self-improvement,

MW“~‘ - ‘Aflnw—n in . ...-,..~,.-. damn—“...”.h.

 

descendants of Africans will once again be known as a race
which made great contributions to the arts and sciences.

On September 21,\1§325)in Boston Massachusetts, Maria W.
Stewart became the firstwgmericanmbornmfemale of any race to

begin a public lecture tour BREEEISQQQEESQWFGliQiOUS and_

political topics.?,9’/ With this revolutionary step, Stewart

 

violated early nineteenth-century socio-political codes of
propriety for "women's realm," and transcended the nineteenth-

century Northern American "cult of domesticity" and "true

__,_ VW—

 

womanhood." At her first public lecture in Franklin Hall,
Stewart took the podium before a "promiscuous assembly," then

commonly referred to as a mixed audience of males and females,

”_— - n—--*

and presented a political argument for the abolition of

enslaved blacks in the South and the empowerment of blacks in

W....._.___._...- I'Qu- w-—

the North.

Courageous and fearless, Stewart made no apologies for

 

gender as she presented herself as a religious and political

wh~nr

 

 

leader to a nation of blacks. Stewart told her audience of

males and females:

Methinks I heard a spiritual interrogation-- "Who
shall go forward and take off the reproach that is cast
upon the people of color? Shall it be a woman?" And my
heart made this reply-- "If it is thy will, be it even
so, Lord Jesus!" (Stewart 51)

137
In this lecture at Franklin Hall, Stewart introduced the

political and religious themes she would develop later in her
1835 autobiography. This first lecture had an immediate focus,
in that it centered on some of the major political arguments
current in the late 18205 and 18303 which affected black males

and females. Stewart addressed the colonization efforts £9.

 

send American blacks toyLiberia. Like her mentor, William

 

Lloyd Garrison, Stewart suspected that the colonization effort

Mo.-~‘.‘u_. \-
_7
“"5“.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

begun by white proponents was hypocritical; she considered its

. "..-—mm.-.
_;. “warn-I'm '9‘": 14" "W'§‘D_fi1m\~'wvfl “...--4 w

W

true design to rid America of the black presence. Asserting
that blacks were lazy and idle, and were a drain on the
resources of American cities, colonizationists hoped to
strengthen their political campaigns. Garrison felt that the
colonizationists were not truly concerned with finding viable
solutions for black economic and racial problems, and attacked
their political campaigns in numerous speeches and essays.21
In her first public lecture, Stewart also felt the need to

attack their propaganda efforts. Stewart stated:

I observed a piece in the Liberator a few months
since, stating that the colonizationists had published a
work respecting us asserting that we were lazy and idle. I
confute them on that point. Take us generally as a
people, we are neither lazy nor idle; and considering how
little we have to excite or stimulate us, I am almost
astonished that there are so many industrious and
ambitious ones to be found.... (Stewart 53)

Yet Stewart acknowledged "with extreme sorrow that there are
some who never were and never will be serviceable to society"
(Stewart 53). Still, Stewart considered this argument by
colonizationists extremely flawed. If their endeavor to indict

and to exile an entire race on this issue was sound, then why

138
did they not direct the same attack at members of their own

race? Addressing whites, Stewart asked: "And have you not a
similar class among yourselves?" (Stewart 51)
Stewart also addressed the question of American slavery,

and racism and discrimination against blacks in the North (that

...-H .....-fi.-- .’

 

reduced blacks to a similar form of limitation to the slavery
that the majority of Southern blacks endured). Speaking to an

audience of free blacks, Stewart stated:

I have heard much respecting the horrors of slavery;
but may Heaven forbid that the generality of my color
throughout these United States should experience any more
of its horrors than to be a servant of servants,hewers of
wood and drawers of water! (Stewart 51)

Stewart asserted as well that she considered the "condition" of
blacks to be ”little better than that" of Southern slaves
(Stewart 51-52). In addition, Stewart felt it was imperative

that blacks define themselves as American citizens, with the

—r

 

 

 

.. ‘W ..‘m"... “- munch. ”w
u- uni-«Mg... _— - ...-u- |

rights and privileges that white Americans enjoyed. Stewart

“a. lw— “QM-H... -

 

 

49'"

told the men in her audience to pray the "Legislature" to grant
them "all the rights and privileges of free citizens that
[their] daughters may rise to that degree of respectability
which true merit deserves, and [their] sons above the servile
situations which most of them fill" (Stewart 56). However,
Stewart insisted petitions to the legislature were not enough.

Blacks must possess a spirit of "virtuous emulation" of the

”‘~-'h-n-v.-_n—- ‘
{GibP’H n 'HI—hmfiuuw 1m- ---H"-

 

w - m“... ..n

pilgrims and make a powerful effort to raise themselves"

---.-. .—._.,_.. ,, _. ...-..I..-

 

 

..._._-——— _'-

(Stewart 56) .
When Maria W. Stewart mounted the lecture podium at

Franklin Hall, she spoke during the time when the race riots

139
and brutality campaigns were in full swing against blacks as

they struggled to find equitable employment in Boston and other
Northern cities. Although the North had abolished slavery in
1817, blacks still felt disenfranchised. Black
disenfranchisement became one of the major themes in Stewart's
autobiography. Ready to die for the "cause of God and [her]
brethren! (Stewart 4), Stewart continued to use the lecture
podium to inspire blacks into political activism.

The year that Stewart gave her first lecture in 1832, at a
time when the national abolitionist.movement was at its height.
A year earlier, on January 1, 1831, in Boston, Massachusetts
the national abolitionist crusade was born when William Lloyd
Garrison published the Liberator, a weekly newsletter reserved
for articles which would advocate an end to American slavery.22
Antislavery efforts of the 18303 were dependent on the
publication of pamphlets, newspapers and tracts. Many free
blacks helped support this enterprise. Blacks in Boston led by
James Forten supported it by becoming charter subscribers.

With the publication of "Religion and the Pure Principles of
Morality: The Sure Foundation On Which We must Build" (October
8, 1831), Stewart became one of its first female
contributors.23 Through the efforts of black agents, the
Liberator was distributed in New York, Cincinnati, New Haven,
Connecticut and Boston. Three-fourths of the subscribers were
black and kept the newspaper in operation.

In order to ensure a proper understanding of Stewart's
text, there is a need to retrace the socio-cultural climate

that prompted her public political and religious stance.

140
However, proper understanding of the reform efforts in

nineteenth-century society may help ensure that Stewart's
active involvement in the nineteenth-century ferment of
political and social reforms will be realized.

The post-revolutionary era of early nineteenth-century
America immediately preceding and during the time that Stewart
began her political career was an era of great political
activism in the free black community in large cities of freedom
such as Philadelphia and Boston. From the early years in the
18003 to 1829, black leaders such as the wealthy Philadelphian
James Forten, as well as wealthy ship owner, Paul Cuffee, in
addition to black leaders Reverend Richard Allen and Reverend
Absalom Jones (co-founders of the first organized black church
in America, the African Methodist Episcopal), realized that
despite America's quest and subsequent victory for freedom in
the Revolutionary War, America was not truly a free country.

At the time of the American Revolution, colonists were
divided on the question of whether blacks should be allowed to
fight in the war. Opponents felt that if blacks were allowed to
fight, they would, understandably, feel entitled to American
citizenship. Abigail Adams had pointed out in a personal
letter to her husband that the American fight for independence
was in conflict with American slavery. On September 22, 1774,
Adams wrote to her husband John Adams: "I wish most sincerely
there was not a slave in the province. It always appeared a
most iniquitous scheme to me--fight ourselves for what we are
daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a

right to freedom as we have."24 However, not many statesmen

141
seemed to share that opinion. Although they felt black soldiers

in the American battle for independence would create problems
in America later on, they placed such issues on the back
burner. The need for every able-bodied male convinced them to
let blacks fight in the Revolutionary War.

Although black men fought in the Revolutionary war, the
majority of black men and women did not enjoy true freedom in
America. A large number of black men and women were still
chained in slavery and restricted by race from close social
contact with whites. Despite the fact that laboring blacks
paid taxes, blacks were denied services many whites enjoyed.
Many were restricted to the margins of society. Wealthy black
Philadelphian business owners Paul Cuffee and James Forten
faced discrimination. Despite the fact that their businesses
brought income into the cities, they were not truly free to
enjoy meals in white-owned restaurants and were limited in the
places where they could obtain housing. Blacks were restricted
from opera houses, resort areas, and many places of business.
Although James Forten had fought in the American Revolution and
was a volunteer in the American navy, he was not allowed to

have the privileges extended to the majority of Americans.

 

 

 

Discrimination and racial prejudice were constant factors

». u‘-“m~..~‘-r. . .
. .- .— u—Q—U—twmrmw’fi'flm'h‘fi‘.» ma.- m... W-

 

against blacks in the early decades of the nineteenth century.

 

M..-*,. .. ‘ _‘
.-

In December, 1816, in Washington, D.C., the American

W-” . .,._,__,.

Colonization Society (to remove American blacks to Liberia) was
organized. Members included Francis Scott Key, Richard Rush,
and John Randolph. Pamphlets supporting colonization were

distributed. Legislative petitions from colonization

142
apologists argued that blacks were degraded, ignorant human

beings, spiritually and emotionally deficient. Some proponents
used "scientific" arguments to support these claims.
Proponents also argued that racial prejudice against blacks was
rampant in all areas of the country. They further argued that
blacks could never hope to achieve equitable employment
opportunities or to assimilate into white society with all of
the socio-political privileges whites enjoyed. Even those
whites who were sympathetic to the racial crises facing blacks
in America felt that the African-American desire for upward
mobility in nineteenth-century America was impossible, because
its citizens would never incorporate blacks into the social
fabric of society. Colonizationists also felt efforts to
foster education among blacks were decidedly harmful in that
education would tend to make blacks think they could elevate
themselves. As this would never happen in America, it was
cruel to raise hopes only to dash them. Therefore, it was best
to keep blacks uneducated because they would never be able to
attain the goals that education would inspire in them.25 For
this reason advocates of colonization argued that American
blacks might be better served by being removed to Liberia.
Arguments by colonization apologists were persuasive.
The society began to increase in members, including Henry Clay,
James Madison, Andrew Jackson, William H. Seward, Stephen
Douglass, in addition to John Marshall, Daniel Webster and
William Appleton. Educational and religious leaders across
the country decided that colonization was the best solution to

the problem of the black presence in America.

143
Some blacks, finding prejudice overwhelming and

unbearable, felt the colonization efforts spearheaded by white
leaders to be the appropriate means toward a peaceful existence
in the present. In early to mid-nineteenth-century New York,
blacks could not own real estate, houses or land, "under
penalty of forfeiture."25 In New Jersey, free blacks were also
forbidden by law to own land. In Pennsylvania, blacks could
not turn down jobs which paid insufficient income or refuse to
accept employment under intolerable conditions because it was
against the law for any able black person to refuse to work.
If blacks felt that jobs offered to them were insulting, they
could not refuse to take them. For this reason, many blacks
felt it was hopeless to assume that blacks would not be
discriminated against in America. Therefore, Cuffee, Forten,
and Richard Allen, among many other black leaders, initially
joined the effort for colonization. However, these leaders
later revised their initial positions and not only abandoned
the platform but later persuaded abolitionist William Lloyd
Garrison to denounce colonization efforts.

Similar situations to those facing blacks in Philadelphia
were mirrored all across the United States. As feminist
historian Marilyn Richardson points out, in Boston, the area of
Stewart's residence, members of the small black middle class
were conscious that they faced discrimination and an
overwhelming lack of opportunity for good employment based
solely on the color of their skin.27 'This awareness caused

middle-class black Bostonians to realize that, regardless of

144
their economic prosperity, all blacks faced discrimination, and

w .__._p. ~i _ML“..”_~__A
_.__._..-——,_.._._.

 

restriction against personal advancement:28 Richardson writes:

...-—

 

In a community where economic opportunity for most
blacks was restricted by attitude and custom if not
strictly by law, many of the better-off black Bostonians
were not content to enjoy their relative security and
prosperity without regard to the situation of the vast
majority of their fellow blacks, both North and South.
Such men and women were aware of the extent of the
domestic and international political unrest which
characterized the decades of the 18203.29

For this reason. many we11:1;groomblackwggfigganS 21%;?

—._~h-..

conscious of the plight of the less well to do members of black

unv‘ w—r‘ mzbn

 

 

society. Litwack writes:

mm“ am

In an era of expanding opportunities and social
mobility, Northern Negroes faced economic discrimination
and exploitation. For the greater portion of black labor
force racial prejudice meant much more than restrictions
at the polls, in the theaters or on public conveyances, it
manifested itself in the daily struggle for existence, in
the problems of subsistence living, employment in the
lowest paid, unskilled jobs, hostile native and immigrant
white workers, exclusionist trade unions, and deplorable
housing in the "Negro section" of town. This was the
Negro's "place" in a white dominated society.30

The racial hostility that blacks faced in the North was
tremendous. Many blacks went to other states in search of
better economic opportunities. However, Virginia and Missouri
wanted to place a limit on the number of free blacks settling
in their states. Adopting the argument of colonizationists
that free blacks would drain their states' economy, Virginia
and Missouri increased efforts to keep free blacks out. In
addition, free blacks in Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire
and Vermont were given notice that they should not attempt to

settle in those two states.

145
In 1820 one of the first Fu91§£Y€w§lflYQ.L§E§ was passed.

Upon its passing, a number of blacks who had lived for years as
industrious individuals were at the whims of greedy slave
traders. Whether free American born or legally freed from
slavery, captured blacks were pronounced "escaped slaves" by
traders and sold into slavery. These two factors prompted some
members of Congress to debate black rights at a congressional
gathering on March 2, 1821.31

In the 18203, at a time when many blacks were migrating
North in search of economic opportunities, free blacks were
hated by many white laborers who felt threatened by their
ability to work. Politicians, white laborers, and European
immigrants fanned prejudice against blacks as their search for
labor increased. It was suggested that blacks eagerly competing
for jobs would decrease the wage scale, forcing working-class
whites and European immigrants to accept a non-livable wage.

The belief that white emaleysssgauldiax b1.‘i‘,9.].‘§_1¢$$-

«Aw-:J-Mn -

 

....__

heightened hostility between the races. Subsequently, the 18203

Ana—_any

and 18303 were a time of many race riots.

 

Denied entrance into apprenticeships in an effort to
prevent them from learning "useful" skills, blacks migrating
North had skills that might be beneficial for farming but which
did not serve them well in cities. Unable to participate in
apprenticeships in order to learn the necessary skills to

procure work in the North, many blacks became unemployable and

 

reduced to the lowest menial labor.

__ (mu-«um uA-wfiawj- wh‘d ..- l’wvh "’
~...-u-- ..

There was not a large number of black artisans and

 

craftsmen in the 18203 and 18303 who could teach blacks the

146
skills closed to them in apprentice shops. Overwhelmed by

doors closed to equitable employment, some blacks did not try

 

"Emu—And

to find work. For social historian William E. B. BuBois, this

#—

group created problems for the entire race. DuBois argues that
,‘_fl_,_.__t_ - mmwuw_mhim,w,h

”...—..-”..W—u- ., w...m~.a~v- .. _‘

 

while the majority of blacks continued striving to find
equitable employment, the small groups of blacks who abandoned
the effort created problems for the entire black race.

In his analysis of nineteenth-century American history,
DuBois suggests that this element of black society helped to
fan racial prejudice against those blacks who sought to
succeed. DuBois was not alone in his consciousness that all
blacks were judged by a small number in black society. Leaders

in the black community recognized that if one member in the

black community comittedfamillegaiactifau. , f the

 

black community, in total, were deemed capable of such an act.

‘ “"“ A. nod 41" aflaau- o-.v‘ ..

 

 

 

In protest of this fact, a member of the African Society in

Boston wrote:

But as we are not to judge men, then surely we ought not
to condemn all for one's transaction. How unwise should
we esteem the merchant that would destroy a large sum of
gold because a piece of dross was found amongst it. This,
I say, would be acting foolishly, judging partially, and
condemning wrongfully. It is true, many of our complexion
conduct themselves with great impropriety;
notwithstanding, as they must answer for their conduct, it
does not militate those having freedom who do conduct
themselves properlyg32

Even so, racial prejudice against Northern blacks continued to
increase. While well-to-do blacks in Philadelphia had tried to

establish themselves as apart from the criminal elements in

 

black Philadelphian society,_many whites still viewed blacks en

 

 

 

masse seeing them all equally and StQEEQEXBEE§};¥_?$.iéfilwéflgfl

 

147
prone to theft and murder. If blacks were hired at shops and

a“.._..-».- .-

 

 

 

factories around Boston and Philadelphia, rumors, prejudices
and negative slogans and boycotts were spread by immigrants and
other whites who saw black labor as a threat to white labor.
Some white laborers refused to work alongside blacks. Any
blacks hired in enviable positions in Philadelphia and Boston
were immediately discharged because of racial hostility. Freed
blacks who had once been skilled craftsmen in slavery were
unable to get employment because of prejudice.

In the post revolutionary era, many blacks found it
diffigult_tgfibecome prosperous and successful.. Denied access
to the voting booths, resort areas, schools, churches and
juries,33 many blacks were overwhelmed by the racial problems.

The political unrest in black communities resulting from

this form of oppression manifested itself in various ways and

indicated that not all blacks protested slavery and black

 

disenfranchisement in the same way. In 1828, just three years

 

.v‘_~ fl‘

prior to the official beginning of abolition, David Walker
published a political pamphlet entitled Waiker;e_5ooealp“ The
Appeal was considered an incendiary document and a violent
attack on Slaveholders, many of whom took considerable offence
to it. Consequently, they offered a reward for Walker's life.
Walker died in 1830 at the age of thirty-four, the cause of his
death unknown. Subsequent investigations were conducted to
establish the cause. These investigations, however, proved
inconclusive as no official cause could be given for his death.
As Maria W. Stewart would do seven years later, Walker

addressed and challenged members of his race to arm themselves

148
and fight for their own liberation. Walker combined his

challenge with Biblical exegesis, jeremiads and historical
precedents to support his arguments. In his "Preamble," Walker
wrote that his most accurate observations had: "warranted the
full and unshakened conviction that we (colored people of these
United States), are the most degraded, wretched and abject set
of beings that ever lived since the world began.“”’He wrote,
Walker told his audience, to alleviate ignorance among members
of his race.

Black protest against disenfranchisement took a different
form in the slave holding South. In 1832, Nat Turner led a
revolt against the white Slaveholders in Southhampton County in
Southeast Virginia. About fifty-seven whites were killed.
Whites suppressed the uprising by a militia and many blacks
were killed without a trial. Turner's revolt triggered the
debates on slavery in the House of Delegates in 1831 and
1832.36

In 1832, the year of Stewart's first lecture, the New
England Antislavery Society was founded by William Lloyd
Garrison and twelve other white men. One fourth of the members
were blacku37 That same year, the volume of religious
meditations by Maria W. Stewart, entitled Meditationa_Erom_tbe
2en_or_Maria_flr_5teuart, was published by Garrison and Knapp.

Maria W. Stewart was very active in the abolitionist

crusade. Many feminist and social historians as well as
\_________

feminist theologians have consistently pointed out the impact

the abolitionist movement and women's fight for equalitymin

_ . —- «...—uh-
-.—-....-.-—....—— . . v

 

149
public theological debates have had on the lives Of American

Ivr

 

-._..'-.- ...“... MHAG ......L A. - ...p 7'“...-

 

 

women. Eleanor Flexner writes:

 

It was inflthe abolition movement that women first learned
to organize, to hold public meetings, to conduct petition
campaigns. fiAs abolitionists they first won the right to
speak_in public and began to evolve a philosophy of théir
place in society and of their basic rights;38

 

 

Women could not participate in the male abolitionist
organizations in the early nineteenth century and therefore

formed their own organizations. Some of the princhple members

....- ' thumnrmm MW“..‘HN

were females who haQMAQQQQDiZQQMWQmEDJS equality with males in

————

the Divine. These early members included Lucy Stone, Lucretia

 

Mott, Antoinette Brown, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, among many
others. The womenjs suffrage organizations had two primary
agendas: women's equality and black equality}//§;me of the more
famous black female members included nineteenth-century female

HW‘ E::%:33;rper:>

activist, essayist, poet and novelist\Eragces

 

 

. Sojourner Truthaas also a member of the organization, but had
to fight for acceptance. Her fight for acceptance is recorded
in her public addresses.

Not all black women were welcomed in women' s suffrage

......
~-—-—...
1W..- Q-vq g“. ., ...w—Hu d- —-- -,.:..

 

 

 

 

O—.-.

organizations. While a few achieved acceptance, many white

“

women were afraid that close contact with black women might be

 

harmful to their reputations. Society at large considered

black women immoral, impure, and careless about motherhood, the
i___itw_m~_“ wmmew-

....a

 

 

 

W

 

...—......—

home and family. The rampant sexual exploitation of the

 

 

enslaved black female helped to foster negative stereotypes
about black women. Manning Marable writes: "Many masters did

not wait for the slaves themselves to reproduce in sufficient

150
numbers, and took matters into their own hands.“” While black

women were forced to create wealth for their owners through
hard work, their owners also increased wealth by increasing
field hands, the cheapest means being reproduction. Forced
sexual contact between white men and black women occurred often
in the nineteenth century. "Black women were...constantly
subjected to the physical sexual exploitation of white
males."4° JKnowledge of these widespread practices in southern
slave states contributed to the public ostracism of many black
females. The public division between many white women and
black women was intensified when the fight for black equality
was abandoned after black males achieved the right to vote and
white females did not.

This might account for the fact that many black women

 

 

spiritual aut obiogggebwe rs ~taunt ieigatsé -..ifl ,. 0.1931; ssnthmsgturr.

f

 

reform efforts in isolation. Although frequently overlooked,

‘_ ,1.-Y PM

 

involved in the political agitations for positive changes in
the lives of blacks and women were nineteenth-century black
women spiritual autobiographers and black women secular

autobiographers who also incorporated a subtext of women's

 

 

 

 

religious hermeneutics for women's liberation in their works.

W

 

("N- '"""Aho.u.

 

_ ‘ -.nmfl ~.M«,_.‘ ..- ’ . -‘uml. ,~ ‘ham'fl'fl" I,

The preservation and recovery of autobiographies by black women
theologians illustrate that black women participated in the

social reform mgxemgnt that swept America in the nineteenth

 

century. Their autobiographies, which challenge traditional

readings of canonized Judeo-Christian texts, indicate that the

n- —-.—.—.-.—

 

acquisition of literacy spurred their cause of freedom to_

 

radically interpret the Word and to dispense the Word. Their

q...- ...: ...-Mm-- - -

 

 

m

151
non-traditional readings of the Bible made possible their

understanding that the prevailing cultural and social attitudes“

which limited blacks and women to marginal political place must

——r

be revised. Feeling they had been chosen by God for a special

——r-r

mission, black female spiritual autobiographers traveled across

 

 

 

 

America to preach the gospel. Their particular gospels included

a radical rereading of Biblical texts which supported their

 

 

 

fight for women' s equality within the clergy. As black

I'M \Ilflm w:—

 

—— ___,_ rm...

females, their presence and participation as leaders in
racially mixed religious revivals were designed to fulfill
their particular understanding of Divine duty while
simultaneously fighting the racial exclusion of blacks from
socio-religious American spheres. Choosing to write
autobiography as a means to recreate and assert a self was an

act of rebellion against the mores of nineteenth-century

 

 

society and culture. Black acquisition of literacy was against

 

the law in slave states, while equal educational opportunities
for blacks was frowned upon in many areas in Northern states.
Writing autobiography for black females was, therefore, not

only an act of rebellion, but also an attempt to make permanent

 

the reforms they felt were necessary for a viable black

' ‘wwo H‘WM ~r—_

 

 

 

 

 

American humanity.

 

Recovery of Maria W. Stewart‘s autobiographical writings
fosters complete understanding of American women's political
history. Social historian Eleanor Flexner delves into women's

involvement in abolition campaigns but dismisses Maria W.

 

Stewart as merely a religious writer. Yet stewart's work‘s

encompasses religious matters, abolition and women' 3 rights for

n __ _ _ —-- p”
a..n—-—m. a.» —-.- __ ,. , -_' . ..- ‘- __.- 7" --"'~

 

152
equality. As literary historian William Andrews succinctly

 

points out, Stewart is the "first black [proto-] feminist-
abolitionist in America." 41
As stated earlier in this chapter, Stewart's autobiography

incorporates several agendas at once: the disenfranchisement

 

of blacks in the North, the abolition of slavery, women's
rights, the quest for women's equality with the clergy and the
quest to lead blacks to a greater religious enlightenment

through their personal independence. Yet, Stewart's focus is_

 

primarily religious. For Stewart, the socio-political ills

__ --.--«-—-- .__,. ,W Wflmmflh*_ __ , --.-.

 

 

r“

facing Americans could not be resolved without a mproper

run-u- [W 33,... .... annMw- M'- .w— ......mwr th- I‘W

 

’7

understanding of God's will for human beings. Any dismissal of

v-,I’.W “...". H‘V‘M

 

r—nv- ‘m gyrmmfl ““V'

Stewart as merely a religious writer who makes no contributions
to the social reforms in nineteenth-century society is
shortsighted. Emerson wrote that the great activity of
"thought and experimenting" and "soul of the soldiery of
dissent" in nineteenth-century America resulted from
dissatisfaction with the church.“2 Maria W. Stewart‘was~

involved in the spirit of "antinomianismf in the nineteenth-

 

 

 

 

 

century "harvest of reform." As the first American born female

 

to tour the lecture circuit (mounting the lecture podium five
years before the Grimke sisters, Sarah and Angelina Grimke

Weld), Stewart must have provided an example for other women to

 

follow. Stewart's activities also make her foremother of black
W

women who ac ' pic voice, Women such as Sojourner

fl

 

Truth, Anna J. Cooper, Ida B. Wells, Mary Church Terell and
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, like Stewart, fought not only for

black civil rights but for women's rights as well.

153

BY writing: StewarE..W

literary tradition begun by the American Puritan clergy in the

r.“

16203, that of writing and recording sermons for posterity so

u. ,‘yM fl -R'p'

 

 

that succeeding generations might make use of these historical
legacies and use them as lessons in God's dealings with human
beings. In writing their sermons and autobiographical
meditations, the Puritan clergy were interested in
demonstrating God's dealing with Americans, specifically the
American Puritans. Making use of Biblical history for models in
God's dealing with his chosen people, the Israelites, the
American Puritan clergy identified themselves as a new nation
chosen by God to fulfill a new covenant of God. A theocracy was
necessary in helping the Puritans transcend the forces that
would thwart their desire to experience self-determination and
prosperity, outward manifestations of God's blessings to his
newly chosen nation.

In a special manner, Stewart makes use of the precedent
that the Puritans have set. John Winthrop states in "A Model of
Christian Charity" (1650): "For we must consider that we shall
be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon
us..."'43 Stewart inverts this sermon by arguing that the eyes
of all nations are upon the black nation. Blacks in America
are held up to ridicule and finger pointing because they have

demonstrated themselves neither to be virtuous nor self—

 

reliant. Stewart argues that prejudice, ignorance, and poverty

. -~—_~.An ... a l. _ 7W-.. “1..--.. ”.7...”- ..——......--.-.-—-..q_.. .s-._..

 

oppress blacks. To become prosperous, blacks must cast off

- .- "oflbwm -..—4‘- —.l -
fi..—..-.—-—.. -H - u.~‘- .... ...-«r..—..— ....— Q.- '—

 

sluggishness and determine their own rights to freedom and

r run-m .a: ...-... ‘wmwlnl ...“- ~.u_-.~~ 1“..—v.m _ _

 

..

 

prosperity. "We this day are considered as one of the most

154
degraded races upon the face of the earth." Stewart adds:

"Shall we be a by-word among the nations any longer? Shall
they laugh us to scorn forever" (Stewart 16-17). In a sermon
in 1634, Puritan elder John Cotton tells his congregation that
Christians should: ”be busy like ants, morning and evening,
early and late and labor diligently with their hands and with
their wits."‘“ Apparently, Cotton's strategies for prosperity
are ageless. Stewart admonishes her audience that: fthg'
Christian has no timefito be idle" (Stewart 62), and further

argues that blacks must "unite and buildf (Stewart 16-17).

 

Wisdom must be employed if blacks are to become prosperous.45

Using both secular and Biblical history to form the core
of her hermeneutical explorations into God's will for human
beings, Stewart courageously participates in "naming," defined
by Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow as the process of

"claiming" and "naming [women's] experiences and exploring the

 

 

 

 

ways in which incorporating women's experience might#g£ansfomm
traditional religion or lead to the creation of new

traditions.nus Stewart's theological concepts then intersect

 

"with the particularities of religion, race, ethnicity, and
sexual orientation."47 In the process of naming, Stewart

outlines positive mechanisms which can help to destroy

 

 

 

 

 

 

w._(l..,,...,._ _. ~u..~ - __.,..
_w—

established structures of power which cause African-American
men and women to suffer from alienation, poverty, and
oppression. Naming, for Stewart, takes the form of

redefinition. In redefining God_as a Deity in favor of the<§~~

 

liberation of human beings from racial and sexual oppression,

Stewart attempts to motivate her audience to transform and to

155
transcend the racial, sexual and ecclesiastical barriers that

prevent them from enjoying full potential in America.
Stewart was encouraged that there were many able and
talented members of the black race "whose names might be
recorded on the bright annals of fame. But, 'I can't,‘ is a
great barrier in the way" (Stewart 12). Stewart, the first

black woman to publicly empower black females, writes: "0, ye

 

 

 

daughter of Africa, awake! arise! no longer sleep nor slumber,
but distinguish yourselves. Show forth to the world that ye
are endowed with noble and exalted faculties" (Stewart 12).

A self-appointed leader endeavoring to transform the
economic, political and cultural situation of black females and
males, Stewart faces the reality of the status of blacks in
America. Hoping to arouse her audience, Stewart insists: "I
really think we are in as wretched and miserable a state as was
the house of Israel in the days of Jeremiah" (Stewart 8). On a
personal level, Stewart challenges her audience to do two

things. They must first redefine themselves as human beings.

__."*—'~ ..._l __ mm"... —-——~

 

They must "prove to the world that [they] are neither ourang-
outanges, nor a species of mere animals [as Thomas Jefferson
suggested thirty-five years earlier], but that [they] possess
the same powers of intellect as those of the proud-boasting
American" (italics mine) (Stewart 21). Secondly, black men and

women must redefine themselves as Americans who are entitleghto

___-————

 

"i

all the rights and privileges the majority of Americans enjoy.

’1

 

 

Blacks must become self-reliant and fight for their rights.

 

Attempting to goad her audience of black males and females

into autonomous actions, Stewart asks: "Why sit ye here and

156
die?" "If we sit here, we shall die" (Stewart 51). Arguing

that the black community must unite and forge new and

collective identities which will lead to the construction of

/

; ‘schools.,Stewart challenges blacks to become self-reliant, to
\‘flflllwwg~‘
claim their rights and privileges as human beings, to empower

 

"“WW an. ~~-- I
M

themselves by developing those skills which will grant them
) . i .lmlfl_ul-lmellwmfl

self-sufficiency. Stewart writes:

 

it [will] be vain for the advocates of freedom to spend
their breath in our behalf, unless with united hearts and
souls you make some mighty efforts to raise your sons and
daughters from the horrible state of servitude and
degradation in which they are placed. (Stewart 55)

In a united effort, blacks might erect the educational
institutions’which will foster the survival of the black race.
These institutions will impart the knowledge and skills which
will sponsor a self-reliant humanity, which will in turn lead
to the prosperity and elevation of the majority of blacks from
the bondage of toil and servitude. Stewart's political agenda
seeks solutions to the plight of African-Americans from three
specific classes: those who are enslaved in Southern states;
those who endure a form of wage or social slavery in the free
states of the North, "who continually drudge from Monday
morning until Sunday noon;" and black women who suffer societal
exclusion because of negative definitions enforced upon them by
the dominant culture in nineteenth-century America.

Stewart's road was a hard one. As an advocate of
education as a means to black success, Stewart asked her

listeners to face almost insurmountable odds. Many churches,

politicians, and religious communities around the country were

157
against the black desire for upward mobility. In 1833 in

Connecticut, Prudence Crandall, the former director of an all-
white girl's school, opened one for young black females.
Whites in the community attempted to burn the school, and
insulted and harassed the students openly as they ventured to
and from school. Manure was placed in the school's well.48
The white citizens were afraid that the school would draw an
influx of free blacks to the community and ruin the economy
with "poor and ragged" black adults and youths seeking public
handouts from the state, since it was assumed, because they
would have neither the means nor the desire to provide for
themselves."9

The recognition that women were excluded from social
development in the "valued sphere of cultural formation and
leadership" motivated Stewart to begin a new tradition by
establishing herself publicly as a black woman theologian who

wass capable of leading men and women. In order to be

 

effective, her theology must notwbe detached from the political

 

situation of black Americans. Consequently, the experiences of

“—

women and of black Americans informed her theology. Letha

Dawson Scanzoni and Nancy A. Hardesty assert that:

Iheolng¥—iifil_nn§_stepping-stone between revelation
and application. The theologian... tries to understand

the nature of God and the whole of God's revelation in
Scripture in order to make generalizations about the
nature and destiny of human beings and God's will for
life. Based on the Bible, theology_is also open to other
ways of understanding God's world. If all truth is God's
truth, then insights from philosophy, history, the
physical and social sciences help us understand the
biblical message better.50

 

 

158
Stewart writes, "Knowledge is power" (Stewart 64). Using

,. flan-...
..__..“---'~ -- "4 “.... .._. H’s-... - ......—
_____ u

implied Biblical dogma "my people are destroyed for a lack of

 

 

 

knowledge", Stewart argues that black men and women suffer

 

because they lack a knowledge of their own and of world
history. Subsequently women's history, black history, and
American history are empowering forces which allow her to
challenge authority and to see possibilities for new life.51
Stewart argues that a lack of knowledge of their history makes

people prone to repeatmmistakes_of the_past, mistakes that

 

could be avoided with both an historical and theo- historical
and Biblical critical historical foundation.52

Believing that a knowledge of history will help to make
positive changes in people's lives, Stewart employs a Biblical

exegesis that considers all truth‘God's truth. In "An Address,

 

Delivered Before the Afric-American Female Intelligence Society
of Boston," Stewart argues, blacks suffer because they have

been deficient in three areas: Biblical knowledge for religious
power, intellectual knowledge, and practical knowledge; all ofߢr
which will help them to achieve prosperity. Earlier in her

text, Stewart orders her readers to "incline" their ears to
wisdom and to apply their "hearts to understanding." For

Stewart, "instruction" is "life." Stewart makes use of

-fl-u ”m: PvuA

 

Biblical knowledge in God's dealings with the Ethiopians, and
also her knowledge of history, to provide examples to help
blacks make positive changes in their lives:

But God has said, that Ethiopia shall stretch forth
her hands unto him. True, but God uses means to bring
about his purposes; and unless the rising generation
manifest a different temper and disposition towards each

159

other from what we have manifested, the generation
following will never be an enlightened people. We this
day are considered as one of the most degraded races upon
the face of the earth. It is useless for us any longer to
sit with our hands folded, reproaching the whites; for
that will never elevate us. (Stewart 60)

Stewart incorporates historical facts into her lecture: "All

 

 

the nations of the earth have distinguished themselves, and
have shown forth a noble and gallant spirit. Look at the
suffering Greeks! Their proud souls revolted at the idea of
serving a tyrannical nation, who were no better than
themselves, and perhaps not so good. They made a mighty effort
and arose..." Stewart continues to cite other nations in her
historical analysis: "the French in the late revolution;" the
Hatyians [sic], with their "firmness of character, and
independence of spirit have been greatly admired and
applauded;" the Poles "rose against three hundred thousand
mighty men of Russia;" and the wild Indians who refuse to be

insulted, "are held in higher repute" than blacks (Stewart 61).

Blacks, then, are destitute and destroyed. They suffer \\\\\\7

“...-n...“

from an extreme inferiority complex because they do not have

 

access to the true gospel and to_historigal truths which would

_—

 

 

 

 

 

 

provide them with models for a reliant self-identity. However,

“*A

 

women must be included in the efforts for black success.

 

Otherwise African-Americans will remain disempowered. Stewart

asks black women to take the initiative to become self-reliant

Ah-H- --.—u.-

 

v——-—
’—

because they must if the black race is to achieve success.
Stewart writes: "O woman, woman! upon you I call; for upon your
exertions almost entirely depends whether the rising generation

shall be anything more than we have been or not. 0 woman,

160

woman! your example is powerful." Stewart adds, however, that

black women must "demonstrate Christian love and unity, having

 

charity one for another, without which all our goodness is as
sounding brass, and as a tinkling cymbal" (Stewart 63).

A step toward women's self-actualization is the
establishment of a women's tradition in patriarchal Biblical

~\———

history and in the arts and sciences. Stewart reclaims women's

 

 

heritage and legacy in theseharggs. In searching women's
history, Stewart reverses the tool of androcentric selectivity
used historically to relegate women's roles in Biblical history
to that of merely subordinate or supportive ones. Stewart
presents the true gospel of Christ by demonstrating that women
played important roles in the founding of the Christian church

EEEEEEEEEEEEPQ women's history as "biblical-historical theology

 

 

and feminist theology." 53

 

In her attempt to redefine God as_being a God who is in

 

favor of women having self-determination, Stewart is aware that

 

 

 

 

- women' s Biblical heritage must be examined. Stewart asks:

'W” __
M'- "’“~*~>-~~u—-—~w-_- M'V- "- 'w— Hi

"What if I am a woman; is not the God of ancient times the God

of these modern days? did he not raise of Deborah, to be a

 

mother and a judge of Israel?" (Stewart 75) All of women's

Biblical history is important: "Did not queen Esther save the

 

lives of the Jews? And MaryflMgggalene first declare the

resurrection of Christ from the dead? Come, said the women of

MM—_ ...... _

Samaria, and see a man that hath told me all things that I ever

 

did, is not this the Christ?" (Stewart 75)
hi

Reclaiming women' s Biblical history as pivotal to t

 

 

 

 

.l_w. ................... k] 1 '(4(”
founding of the Christian gospel and to women' s liberation_6f( \/

{(

 

...-a-a-np‘

 

161
makes Stewart a forerugner_9§_gurr§nt feminist theologians

 

Elisabeth Schussler\Piorenza, Carol P. ChriS§, Judith Plaskow,
and Rosemary Radford Ruetheryxflfiorenza argues, "Women's ~
sy§E§E§£$Q~§X£$§§£gg from scholarship and intellectual
influence is an important aspect of our PBZE££S§EEEEEL"54

Fiorenza also writes, "Both Christian feminist theology and

biblical interpretation are in the process of rediscovering

 

 

that the Christian_gpspe1 cgnnot be proclaimgd if women

disciples and what they have done are not.remembered."5

.f—‘WP>

W_...—

 

Patriarchal interpretatiogsfl3f_scripture_oppr§ss women.
Stewart fights this oppression by establishing women

themselves as important and active participants in Biblical
.Mflwm__fl_~iii

 

 

 

 

history and as co-founders of Christianity with the disc' .

__ “Wu—...... ,-..-..

 

Thus, the Bible becomes for Stewart a heritage and legggy;

W
. ffi-meu”- ‘MH‘U‘

 

...W—‘H r —-. _wn- . -

As this dissertation suggests, nineteenth-century America
defined v9m891§m¥9l§§ as taking care of the home and family and

performing supportive, subordinate roles in the church. Men's

 

rglgs included affairs conducted under the aegis of political
and cultural leadership. While contemporary feminist
theologians Letha Dawson Scanzoni and Nancy A.\§srdesty argue
that .,WBL-.15AQ§-_-§BEQ¢ inflscriptgre,56 one only
needs to read the second chapters of the Apostle Paul's letters
to Titus and Timothy to discover Paul's interpretation of God's
will restricting women to domestic spheres;“' Women who
aspired to leadership or teaching roles were restricted to
leading or teaching other women. To lead or to teach men was
to "usurp authority over" men (1 Timothy 2:12). Sggwart

m,

relegates St. Paul to a fsllomeiblical exegetgflsndmembraces

-..__._._ ——-- —

 

162
Jesus as the Christian founder who does not rglggate women to

.... m‘
*wfli uh...

 

~‘ - l—Ja—n -»

 

rigidly defined spheres. Stewart writes: "St Paul declared

“fivflflflii~
that it was a shame for a woman to speak in public, yet our
great High Priest and advocate did not condemn the woman [of
Samaria] for a more notorious offence than this" (Stewart 78).
Stewart's theology is confrontational in that she rejegtsm
directlxgzjsayzziéinq §t_-. ,?3}3¥1§1§11§E‘E§9919f-.YQE‘PEI'

f"

especially so by refusing to restrict herself to topics and

.;w a._.___.-._- ...

 

 

 

augigggg§_ggn§idereg~appropriatewfggwwomsg,//Instead, Stewart
issues challenges to the ecclesiastical bastions of authority
by daring to speak with authority to both men and women about
important religious and political issues. Stewart argues:
"Did St. Paul but know of our wrongs and deprivations, I
presume he would make no objections to our pleading in public
for our rights" (Stewart 75).

It is not just in Biblical history that women determined

the course of their own lives. Stewart reggvers women's

 

history in the artsfanggsciegcgsg

“0‘..— —~ _——

 

In the 15th century, the general spirit of this
period is worthy of observation. We might then have seen
women preaching and mixing themselves in controversies.
Women occupying the chairs of Philosophy and Justice;
women writing in Greek and studying Hebrew; Nuns were
Poetesses, and women of quality Divines; and young girls
who had studied Eloquence, would with the sweetest
countenances, and the most plaintive voices, pathetically
exhort the Pope and the Christian Princes, to declare war
against the Turks. Women in those days devoted their
leisure hours to contemplation and study. The religious
spirit which has animated women in all showed itself at
this time. It has made them by turn,
mart rs apostles, warrio and concluded in making them
WM...” 77)

_i._,_.,-

I

 

 

 

163
Stewart also recovers women's history from the 13th century,

tracing the history of one who earned the Degree of Doctor of
Laws and who later earned a chair and taught "scholars from all
nations." Stewart may be somewhat unrealistic in believing that
it is not impossible for a nineteenth-century woman of "sable"
race to have such accomplishments.

Becauseiélacwkmmen-fissinqteuqsiequatelyifighting f_or their

 

liberty agdflfrgedom, Stewart rspgggches thg males in attendance

M
(f M-

at her lecture at the African Masonic Hall in Boston on
February 27, 1833. Stewart admonishes her audience of males
that "African rights and liberty" are subjects that should
arouse them to self-reliant manhood. Attempting to goad her
listeners into life-altering action, Stewart argues: "When I
cast my eyes on the long list of illustrious names that are
enrolled on the bright annals of fame ...I turn my eyes within,
and ask my thoughts, 'Where are the names of our illustrious
ones?'" Black disenfranchisement has anger€;Stewart. She
states: "These things have fired my soul with a holy
indignation and compelled me thus to come forward...Have the
sons of Africa no souls? 0 ye sons of Africa, when will your
voices be heard in our legislative halls, in defiance of your
enemies, contending for equal rights and liberty?" (Stewart

65-66)

 

Theories about black inferiority stemmed from myths that

“h..—

blacks_h§ge not made any significant contributions to the arts

 

and sciences;¥’ In an attempt to correct this myth, Stewart

-myg—‘H"

f.

felt politically compelled to take up her pen adding her own

voice to literary history. In an attempt to shatter this myth,

164
Stewart writes: "History informs us that we sprung from one of

w“ ...... H...—

the most learned nations of the whole earth; from the seat, if

ggtflthe.parent,of sciencelfi_5tewart asserts: "poor despised

Africa was once the rgsprt of sages and legislators of other

nations, was esteemed the school for learning, and the most

an..-

 

«an—am..-

illustrious men in Greece flocked thither for instruction."
Adapting the American jeremiad, Stewart argues that the "gross
sins and abominations" of blacks "provoked the Almighty to
frown thus heavily...and give our glory to others" (Stewart
65).

Stgwart adapted the role of a nineteenth-century“American

MHflu—vfl‘

Egbgrag7/In Biblical history, Deborah was a woman prophet, 3M”

 

spokespersgg forMGQQ who advised the entire nation of Israel.

 

 

Deborah was not only a prophet, but a jgdgg; The men of Israel
came to the Biblical Deborah for advice in daily and political
matters. Deborah's skills in judging were famous. Deborah
combined the political and secular sphere to carry out her
particular cause. Stewart combined the socio-political as well
as the religious sphere to carry out the duties she has carved
for herself. Empowered by God, Stewart's face was clothed with
"steel" and her forehead was lined "with brass" for her
entrance into "Christian warfare" for her people.

In her meditations, Stewart outlines three\ways for blacks
to be empowered, a theme developed by all black women
theologians included in this study: Religion is "the sure

foundation on which we must build." Tgfibe empowered, blacks

 

must go_ back to the source of power, which is God. In examining

m“...- "arm—h—

 

”bi-v“- -...
.....- av
m—a—ou‘

 

 

Biblical history to understand God's dealings with people

165
historically, blacks will rediscover God in a positive manner.

Mgr-...-
u‘ur—n—mfl-W’

 

i_..—---
-..

Finally, blacks must become self:reliant in order to experience

 

 

successful living in America.

Throughout her autobiographical writings and religious
meditations, Stewart develops one of her themes: "Religion is
pure;...it is beautiful; it is all that is worth living for; it
is worth dying for" (Stewart 9). For Stewart, the "religion of
Jesus alone"...will constitute ...happiness" (Stewart 9).
Stewart asks her readers to take hold of Biblical instruction.

Early in her text, Stewart indicts the way Christianity is,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_prigtiggd*in nineteenth-century America: "0 could I but see the
church built up in the most holy faith; could I but see men
spiritually minded, walking in the fear of God, not given to
filthy lucre, not holding religion in one hand and the world in
the other..." (Stewart 9): Stewart continues this indictment
throughout her text.

Arguing that the ministers of the gospel have not done

”Paw-t 9' .

N
MW“-*«' " _ u,”

their jobs and have not faithfully discharged their duties,

 

Stewart asserts that African-Americans "would have been a very
different people from what [they] now are; but [ministers] have
kept the truth as it were and hid it from [their] eyes and have
cried 'Peace, Peace' when there is no peace" (Stewart 60).

Rosemary Radford Ruether notes in Sexism_and_fiod_1alk that:

Exegetical criticism of received theological and
scriptural traditions can bring forth new interpretations
that speak to new experiences. A more radical break takes
place when the institutional structures that transmit
traditions are perceived to have become corrupt. They are
perceived not as teaching truth but as teaching falsehood
dictated by their own self-interest and will to power...
Usually interpretative patterns are taken from scripture

166 \

and early community documents to set the original
traditions against its latter corruption.59

In writing a spiritual-secular autobiography with a political
context which offered practical solutions to the political and"f\
economic problems facing black males and females, Stewart

'm-w—h ,_

created a literary mode in which black women could challenge

Hui'

 

r»- _-_.__‘¢—-~——.—-_._.
w“.

traditional and hypocritical readings of Christianity. Her

amqfi,‘ _‘ --.'..‘ . -m' gas. '

fiery indictment of traditional readings of canonized Judeo-

 

 

Christian texts and her fight against nineteenth-century

' ‘cultural and political roles for women made possible the use of

”*‘m‘ ‘Q-uI-u. .. ...-c... «‘3...

autobiography to offer radical readings of Scripture.

- .. ... .. ...-w... mm“... ._ -
«unl- a. «7 fivvs'm'“ . " ~“ " WHI—n-rfi'

Stewart's autobiography also made possible the opportunity for

 

 

 

\ black women to develop and to preserve a proto-

MMw—QM— 3‘-..;._.,a .. MW...

 

 

feminist liberation theology and a black liberation theology in

no». ...-w-

 

' .dn... ...—4...-

f literature.

I
I

‘“’ After a brief tour of the lecture circuit (lasting only

 

 

 

three years), Stewart retired in 1834. At the time that she
lectured, black communities across America were engaged in
activities concerning "race uplift" and "mutual improvement"
enterprises. Particular attention was given to self-help
organizations geared to aiding poor members of the black
community in the elevation of all.

Proponents of race uplift placed emphasis on education and
refinement for men and woman so that blacks could more easily
assimilate into mainstream society. While thewraceuuplift

movement valued education for women, not all proponents valued

ih‘n-Dv-‘r— ...—“_- —-— ..—.. __ ., _.
“..“"~'---._

equal education for women. In addition to this limitation, the

W
majority of advocates of race uplift adopted the social codes

 

 

~.__———

 

 

167
of conduct for black women that were similar to those of "true

————. .- , 4..

womanhood." Blacks hoping for acceptance in America's social

 

fabric stressed especially that black women conduct themselves

. “‘an

 

society at large. Many members of the black elite in

nineteenth-century America felt that the fall from grace of

”_—

 

even one black woman reflected badly on the entire race in the

QM-._H__,... ......- -- WWW ‘W~~—-~r~'-‘ — ”Wu-«an. ”......“ --.... -Mf—9“"
eyes of racist America fitsyems, 991.92}...exeqeaiswefm

scripture and her violation of "women' s realm" made her an

“ ...-....
w—AMM- '“v“"-FF*F F'IU-

object of "prejudice" and "reproach" among the people she most

m..— ,
M W‘aumu—uh” ,_____,,.._. - ...... y“.fi“ ... ...... .”_“,_‘ ....

hoped to reach. Stewart asked her audience: "What if I am a

M" /
woman?" but realized simultaneously that she had made herself

 

 

"contemptible in the eyes of many" (Stewart 81).
When she is forbidden to speak in some pulpits, Stewart
circumvents this silencing by seeking voice infla permanent

”It!”

form. By providing herself with literary voice, Stewart alters
the tradition in American literatureiso that it includes black
wgmsn; Her book of autobiographical meditations becomes her
permanent pulpit, her platform from which to teach individual
men and women while leading an entire black nation to Biblical

truth, secular knowledge, and ultimate freedom and prosperity.

Stewart argues that proper reading ofwtexts is imperative;

 

 

 

literacy is the duty ofH311fl§§riggn:§mgrigan§. Improper
readings of Biblical texts had destroyed blacks and had caused
blacks to be considered as primarily "hewers of wood and
drawers of water" (Stewart 51). Blacks, therefore, have a

responsibility in attaining knowledge because knowledge sav_es

..___.-

 

 

M

A

lives. As a Biblical exegete, Stewart sought the salvation of
n

168
all. As a liberation theologian, Stewart realized that passive

readings of Christian doctrine could result in personal
alienation and foster socio-economic and socio-political ills.
Stewart asks her 6291292239. 2.1m“. easy _the §h39k1683££§§2

disenfranchisement and to embrace a religion that is fpuremagd_

eve£_new" (Stewart 9).

NOTES

1 See works by the major proponent of black liberation
theology, James H. Cone. See for example, James H. Cone, A

Black_Thtecgy_of_Liberation (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1986);
Cone, Speaking_the_lrnth (Grand Rapids: Erdmans, 1986); See

also works by black liberation theologians in James J.
Gardiner and J. Deotis Roberts, eds., Quest_£gr_a_fllagk
Theology (Philadelphia: Pilgrim, 1971).

2 Rosemary Radford Ruether, "Feminist Theology and

Spirituality, " Christian_Esminismi__yisiQns_Q£_a_Neu_flumanit¥.
ed. Judith L. Weidman (San Francisco Harper, 1984) 9.

3 Ruether,"Feminist Theology and Spirituality" 9-10.
4 Ruether, "Feminist Theology and Spirituality" 10.

5 All citations from Stewart' 3 text will be taken from:
Maria W Stewart. Eroductions_oerrsi_Maria_fli_Stewart,
Spiritual_flarratiyes, ed. Sue E. Houchins (Boston: Friends of
Freedom and Virtue, 1835; New York: Oxford UP, 1988).
Eroductions_of_Mrsl_Maria_fll_Stewart includes Stewart' 5
autobiographical writings, as well as her compositions of
religious meditations, recorded prayers, addresses, songs and
public lectures.

6 This approach is identified by Elisabeth Schussler
Fiorenza as the systematic study of Biblical texts by feminists
to establish the positive and powerful history of women in
Biblical texts. Fiorenza writes: "Feminist interpretation
begins with a hermeneutics of suspicion that applies to both
contemporary androcentric interpretations of the Bible and the
biblical texts themselves." Fiorenza continues: "Certain
texts of the Bible can be used in argument against women's
struggle for liberation not only because they are patriarchally
misinterpreted but because they are patriarchal texts." Many
biblical texts, intrinsically patriarchal, legitimize women's
subordination in the church and society. See Elisabeth
Schussler Fiorenza. Bread.flct.§tonei__Ihe_£hallenge_of_Eemini§t
Biblical_1ntgrprgtatign (Boston: Beacon, 1984) xii.

7 See Marilyn Richardson, ed. Maria E. Stewart:

America_s_EirsL_Black_floman_£olitical_flriter (Bloomington:
Indiana UP, 1987) 3.

169

170

8 Richardson 4.

9 Richardson 7.

10 Richardson 7.

11 Facts about Stewart's life may be found in Marilyn
Richardson, Maria_fl‘_fiteuart. See also Gerda Lerner, ed.,
Watery (New York:
Vintage Books, 1973).

12 Richardson 10.

13 Richardson 11.

14 Ruether, "Feminist Theology and Spirituality. "

15 J. Deotis Roberts. A_alaer_2elirieal_rheeleey
(Philadelphia: Westminister P, 1974) 19.

16 James H. Cone, A_alaek_rheeleey_er_Liherarien xiii.

17 Paul J Achtemeier, Ihe_InaniraLien_ef_Seripturel
Erghlgm§_and_£;gpg§al§ (Philadelphia: Westminister, 1980) 89.

18 Cone xxi-xvii.

19 William E. B. Dubois, Ine Souls of Blaek_Eelk, Three
Negre_Classias, ed. John Hope Franklin, (New York: Avon, 1965)
343-345.

20 Lerner, Writs.
21 In the April 23, 1831, issue of Ihe_Liheratgr Garrison
wrote:

I am prepared to show that those who have entered
into this conspiracy against human rights are unanimous in
abusing their victims; unanimous in their mode of attack;
unanimous in proclaiming the absurdity that our free
blacks are natives of Africa; unanimous in proclaiming the
libel that they cannot be elevated and improved in this
country; unanimous in opposing their instruction;
unanimous in exciting the prejudices of people against
them; unanimous in apologizing for the crime of slavery;
unanimous in conceding the right of planters to hold
slaves in a limited bondage; unanimous in their hollow
pretenses for colonizing, namely, to evangelize Africa;
unanimous in their "true motive" for the measure -— a
terror lest the blacks should rise to avenge their
accumulated wrongs. It is a conspiracy to send the free
people of color to Africa under a benevolent pretence but
really that the slaves be held more securely in bondage.

Furthermore Garrison felt that membership in the

colonization society included ministers and Southern
Slaveholders and politicians. Garrison felt that such a
mixture indicated the hypocrisy of the colonization scheme. He
wondered how ministers and Slaveholders could agree on any
issue pertaining to slavery. See William Lloyd Garrison,

Iheughta_en_African_Qelenizatien (New York: Arno, 1968) 10.
22 John Daniels, In_Ereedemia_Birthnlaeei__A_Stud¥_ei_the
Beaten_Negrees (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1911) 39.

171

23 Richardson 11

24 LB. Butterfield. ed.. Adamalamilyfierreapendente
WM. vol. 2 (Cambridge. MA: Belknap-
Harvard UP, 1963) 162.

25 Leon F. Litwack. We
EI§§_SLQL§§L_112921§§Q (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1961) 20-24.

26 Edgar J. McManus. Black_Bendaee_in_th.e_Nerth (Syracuse.
NY: Syracuse UP, 1973) 68.

27 Richardson 4

28 Richardson 4.

29 Richardson 4

30 Litwack 153.

31 Litwack 153.

32 A Member of the African Society in Boston 25.

33 Litwack 20-21.

34 David Walker. W
America, ed. Henry Highland Garnet (1829; New York: Arno,
1969).

35 Walker 11.

36 Louis Filler. W
(New York: Harper, 1960).

37 William H. Pease and Jane H. Pease, Ihey_flhe_flenld_Be
W (New York:
Atheneum, 1974) 31.

33 Eleanor Flexner. Century_ef_Strueelel__Ihe_flemania
Eiehta_Meyement_in_the_united_$tatea (Cambridge: Harvard UP.
1959) 41.

39 Manning Marable, "Groundings with My Sisters:
Patriarchy and the Sexual Exploitation of Black Women," Blagk

WWW. ed. Darlene Clark Hine,
vol. 2. (New York: Carlson, 1990) 409.

40 Marable 409.
41 William L. Andrews. W 22.

42 Ralph Waldo Emerson, "New England Reformers: Lecture
Read Before the Society in Amory Hall, on Sunday March 3,
1844." Selented flritinea_eLEmera.en. ed. Donald MCQuade. (New
York: Modern Library, 1981) 433.

43 Alan Heimert and Andrew Delbanco, Ihe_£uritan§_in
Amerieal__A Narratiye_Antheleey (Cambridge: Harvard UP. 1985)
91.

44 Heimert and Delbanco 31.

45 Like early American Puritan preachers, Stewart's
theological writing utilized the events of her age to present
the gospel and restore "harmony between communities and
Jehovah." See examination of Cotton Mather's sermons in George

Harrison OrianS. ed.. introduction. Setten_Matherl__2aya_ef

172

‘ '00 to D '1‘ - uoo
fer_BeaterinQ_Eayer_with_an_Angry_Ged_lleae_1121l (Gainesville.
FL: Scholar's Facsimiles & Reprints, 1979) vii. On July 30,
1724, Thomas Foxcroft delivered a sermon entitled "God's Face
Set Against an Incorrigible People." With a text taken from
the book of Jeremiah, Foxcroft admonished his people to
"procure the Cause of their Miseries, viz, Their own

Wickedness. " See Thomas Foxcroft, God;s_Eace_Set_Against_an

Incorrigible_£egple,(Boston: Printed for B. Green for John
Eliot, 1724) 3. He further admonished his congregation to

cheerfully submit themselves to God for their own liberation
from sin. In so doing, they would become a prosperous people
(Foxcroft, 3). Such a Puritan heritage is demonstrated in
Maria W. Stewart's religious writings. Stewart felt that God's
face was set against African-Americans due to their wickedness.
Stewart hoped to liberate her people from the "slavery of sin"
and thus alleviate the disenfranchisement of her race. Blacks
would be restored to an everlasting covenant if "Ethiopia would
stretch forth her hands to God." Thus, blacks would become
God's chosen people and thereby experience freedom from
oppression, prosperity, and wholeness.

Stewart's development of this theme in her autobiography
is concurrent with her development of a woman's liberation
theology which radically defies the sermonic and literary
heritage of the Puritan elders and also the prescriptive codes
of her age. As did Puritan elders of the early congregations
in the colonial era, Stewart establishes a new world order for
herself, for women, and for her people.

46 Judith Plaskow and Carol P. Christ, eds. ,Weaying_the

yiaienal__Ney Eatterna_in_Eeminiat_Snirituality (San Francisco:
Harper, 1989) 3

47 Plaskow and Christ 9.
48 Flexner 38-39.
49 See Daniels 26- 29. See also Litwack 113-115.

50 Letha Dawson Scanzoni and Nancy A. Hardesty, eds. Adi.

We_re Meant_te_Bel__Biblical_Eeminiam_£er_Ieday (Nashville:
Abingdon, 1986) 25.

51 Paula Giddings makes the same argument. See Paula
Giddings, When_and_flhere_l_finter.(New York: Bantam, 1984).

52 Olin P. Moyd states that black theology is
predominantly theo- historical as blacks use biblical history to
determine God' 8 will for human beings. See Olin P. Moyd,
Eedemetien_in_Black_Iheelegy (Valley Forge. PA: Jackson.
1979). Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza makes use of a feminist
biblical critical historical approach in her theological
writings. Fiorenza seeks to rediscover women's biblical
history in an effort to unearth women's pivotal roles in the
foundation of the early Christian church and the spreading of
the gospel of Christianity. Using a feminist biblical approach,
Fiorenza has determined that women's achievements in Biblical

173

history have been rendered invisible due to androcentric
language of the Bible and in traditional exegesis of Scripture.
See Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, 1n_Memgry_g£_Her (New York:
Crossroad, 1983).

53 Fiorenza, Bread_Not_Stgne xvii.
54 Fiorenza, Bread_flgt_§tgne xvii.
55 Fiorenza, Bread_flgt_fitgne xvii.
56 Scanzoni and Hardesty 29.

57 1 Timothy 2: 11-15 reads: "Let the woman learn in
silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach
nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For
Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived,
but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they
continue in faith, charity and holiness with sobriety" (KJV).

Titus W; 3-6 reads: "The aged women likewise, that
they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, ... teachers of good
things; that they may teach the young women to be sober, to
love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet,
chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands,
that the word of God be not blasphemed"(KJV).

58 Gates states that: "Writing... [was the} millennial
instrument of transformation through which the African would
become... the human being." Henry Louis Gates, Jr., ed.,

" " ' ' ' (Chicago: U of Chicago P,

1986) 11-12.

59 Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sexism_and_fiod_Ialk (Boston:
Beacon P, 1963) 16-17.

0

CHAPTER FOUR
SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHIES OF
RELIGIOUS ACTIVISM
BY FREE BLACK WOMEN IN THE NORTH:
"ON MY MASTER'S ERRAND"

A great number of works by nineteenth century traveling
ministers and missionaries have been recovered in black women's
scholarship. This chapter limits itself to an examination of
works by free black women in the antebellum era who wrote
spiritual autobiographies of religious activism. Mirrored in
these texts are survival mechanisms historically utilized by
the black race to transcend oppression--the adaptation of
religion and literature from a black perspective to create
meaningful lives in nineteenth-century America.

William E. B. DuBois argues that in order to understand
the history of African-Americans one must examine their

religious history.1 Such an examination of _the religious

m ~v’
WM

 

history of African-American women will enable us to ascertain

u. ...... ..I—..-

first-hand the mechanisms that fostered a self-reliant and
xfiflflvrl.mm«i_-l..ihin mmmmmm
powerful black womanhood in nineteenth-century soc1ety./Oarlene

 

--—..
‘- --——- --— v“. _. , .n -

 

A V__.-s_———‘-

Clark Hine writes: _,17

At some fundamental levelyallwblack_chur§hes
espouseHIEW—H”oIggngfflliberation, self- -determinism, a_nd

 

SIEEE‘afifofiomyTMHNorthern black churChes were especially .#
actiVEIIn and supportive of the abolition movement. The
promises embodied in Christian scripture permeated all \p

aspects of Afro-American culture and possessed special
174

175

transcendence.7 The black church became the training arena
that enabled free black women prior to the Civil War to
acquire leadership and organizing skills and an

increased Commitment to winning.fre dom for the slaves and
more control over their own lives BlaCk slave women's
religiofi§Hf§IEhmfifififished—hopé"for release from their
earthly oppression and degradation. The body could be
tortured and abused while the soul remained pure and
untouched. . In short, the black church ultimately
served as an institutional base giving moral sanction to

 

 

 

black women' s quest for freedom and the advancement of the

 

Analysis of black women's church history indicates that black

women were “2E_EEBE§EE_EPW remain in the traditionally

,fig—‘h
Ma” -..—fl...l_ _.—-—_ M-

subordinate roles __for women advocated by most black clergy

‘— --\....._—.-._.

 

members.3//Sbmem black women sought to transgeng these roles for
//
their own particular inner wholeness and independence. It is

,—- ...-.....- _-

 

-..—_—.‘..- M—h-

important to reclaim the means by which they did so)///

Autobiogr aphies by black women are appropriate places to begin.

“~t-F-u‘

For a comparative analysis of works by free black women in
the North that illustrate the black woman's religious activism,
the author of this dissertation has chosen three works that

continue the legacy begun by Maria W. Stewart in the religious

H.- “F- ‘_.- w-Lm_-._.. ...”.-. -WN—oo—

arena: WM
,,/'—\
CeleureLLLady; Wei:

0
:- o o ‘ .o‘ a. a v o - - - - - -oo -oo o

5.....-

Each of the women studied here develops a un_gue_pe£egnal
/

theology of liberation for all. Their theologies are grounded

 

. ...—____ _ 4 - “......
...... 1 ...__ -———-.—-—.

 

 

 

‘fi.

in a belief in black women' a right to clerical status//;ndeach
WM" —-1..

.____.__.—-I-'" —o-—~...... ...... _
MW H- ----__... I

_—

woman chooses the best autobiographical mode to create a

___.-_-.....__. .

 

_-
-...___,.'

‘><

176
lasting self-portrait of black women s triumph in literature. 7

“Mm Lam -..—.... __._

 

r—

While the works in this chapter concentrate primarily on

7<

religious matters, the central theme common to all texts in

’—

 

this dissertation is the "'pregenerisumythljm the quest for

MW- .-

 

"4
freedom and literscyfnq ______J

n.’

 

The spiritual autobiographies by black women in the
nineteenth century included various versions of the 999E9-
Black women wrote personal journals, confessional and travel

narratives, and sketches. Hailing from various geographical

 

 

regions End social ranks, black spiritual autobiographers
constructed various prose portrsits in literature. Conscious

of the fact that she is a trailblazer and pathfinder in black

 

women's quest for equality in pulpit ministry, each woman

provides a triumphant rendering of her life. While the black

 

women discussed in this chapter did not achieve ordination into_

,'.M
”...—...“-.pwH-g"

the ministry, their quests for equality are no less triumphant.

MWu—H—m gnu-run M- .....- _ -.J
W' -1...“ 1.1—... w. -~m-.—.H—-—-H "W ‘H—o‘.‘ ‘flflww- “Int-WW." ... '0 “"

They are among the first black women to find success in

“M...—

 

 

 

preaching engagements in many areas of the United States and in

foreign countrie .well

Autobiographies by black women who developed liberation

 

 

 

theologies of equality for all demonstrate that many black

women were neither passive in their religious faith, nor

---—.
-»»~— .... .

acquiescent in their particular circumstances. Yet, until

 

 

N"-
‘1'.__—_.__ .....L... - u 'h-"-" “" “Wm. .. _#.A “M“ --—'-' 'L“
\r a...» -m..-.. ., “Wm-'—

recently, the works by female spiritual autobiographers have
been dismissed as works that merely gave rise to texts of race
uplift or whitewash literature. Spiritual autobiographers who

developed liberation theologies challengedw clerical

WM-..-

restrictions against the full participation of women in pulpit

"...- —-‘ ‘._. —- - ......—---

K

 

/u 177
ministry. /in making efforts to transform and transcend
/ _— M

 

 

patriarchal systems, black women became warriors in the fight

m-u

 

 

 

 

for women's equality. Despite the fact that no black woman

 

achieved ordination in traditional religious spheres during the
early and middle nineteenth century, black women spiritual

autobiographers achieved much in religious and political“

W.A. HW‘

 

arenas. For this reason, the author of this dissertation finds

 

Marjorie Pryse's statement below somewhat problematic. Pryse

writes:

Afro-American female literary societies might serve as
self-improvement associations; black women preachers
might advance the cause of Christianizing the race; and
if the missionary impulse remained paramount, a novel
written by a black woman might also be put to the higher
service of racial uplift.5

Black women preachers such as Jarena Lee, Zilpha Elaw, and

Rebecca Cox Jackson were not merely interested in

 

......ofi ,

Christianizing the black race Their preaching engagements

were often conducted before predominantly white audiences. In

wv-(nn-vm -'

 

their various engagements they transcended the socio-political

 

codes of their_eras: As William L. Andrews notes: "Successful
evangelistic forays among 'lawyers, doctors, and magistrates,‘
climaxing in a vigorous dispute with a slaveholding Deist over
the issue of whether black people have souls, show [Jarena Lee]
at home in the male sphere of her society, indeed, triumphant
over those presumed by gender and race to be her superiors."6

The works discussed in this chapter provide richness in black

women's history and literature and indicate that, despite

 

racial or sexual oppression or inequities in employment

L -4__r..—

opportunities, black women set goals for attaining careers and

 

178
reached them These works also demonstrate that black women

developed their own religious ideologies and, on some

—-~_.._- -.....,__.,_....._—~.. .....-fi..--~..-.HW».~ «...-~- My“..- --Lflm ~

occasions, disagreed with mainstream religious philosophies and

 

practice. Yet, the contributions they made to black women's

history are tremendous because their works set precedents;

 

While black women spiritual autobiographers may not have
been as concerned with issues of American slavery as slave
autobiographers were, they were still activists in nineteenth-
century wgmggigmrights because they fought for women's right to“

_L _ w-.—~..- ......“

preach. Their works challenge public opinion aboutflwomenis

WW)”:-

 

 

 

quest for equality in eccleSiastical spheres

‘4 I'm"

 

“" “‘9‘ ssh-ma...“ A“ , “mu-ML Lwfl' “’

The aim of this chapter is to understand how black women_

 

achieved religious autonomy not just in the black community but

 

 

in society at large///The aim is also to understand how black

women transcended the all-pervasive socio-political codes of

 

true womanhood in order to define themselves positively in

_‘ ......- .- .... -..-n- mom-w-

 

“...—-...—

regions around the country. These works present black women in

a previously unheard of stance as authority figures providing

 

Biblical exegesis before mixed audiences of males and females

 

 

 

 

 

from the black community as well as the predominantly white
community. In the early nineteenth century, black women

religious enthusiasts found the courage to confront racism and

 

sexism from whites, and sexism within the black communities as
V

they struggled for public voice across America.

 

 

Literary historian Frances Smith Foster argues that black
women spiritual and secular autobiographers in the nineteenth

century struggled for more liberal interpretations and

W.” ”‘w-—*'“MMMM M“

definitions of "True Womanhood" while they struggled

_‘__.A._..;— —‘

 

 

 

(

179
simultaneously to define themselves according to the four

cardinal virtues of the cult. As mentioned earlier, ideologies
of the cult of true womanhood were all pervasive in nineteenth-
century society. Because this chapter is centered in Welter's
definition of the ideologies of the cult, it is necessary to

reexamine the boundaries she presents. Welter writes:

The attributes of True Womanhood, by which a woman
judged herself and was judged by her husband, and her
neighbors and society, could be divided into four cardinal
virtues piety, purity, submissiveness angflggmegtgggggg
Put them all togethera ad they spelled mother. daughter,
sister. wife -— woman. Without them, whether there was
fame, achievement or wealth, all was ashes. With them she_

was promised happiness and power.’

 

r‘

In "Adding Color and Contour to Early American Self-

\-

} Portraitures: Autobiographical Writings of Afro-American

} Women," Foster writes: "Although the social and economic

Lirealities of black life did not allow strict adherence to the
cult of True Womanhood, Black women at least publicly aspired

to this standard."9 Foster'continues:

.1

Personal histories by women such as [Jarena] Lee,
[Nancy] Prince, and [Harriet E.] Wilson, present
protagonists who transcend the images of thgflyigtimized
slave woman and the home-bound True Woman. However, their
characterizations are more ”complexm and subtle than a
simple reversal of stereotypes might imply. They offer
alternatives to the image of thgflg;L;§_i£miniQe lady and. ?F*
suggest a_mg£e_libgral interpretation of femininity and
woman's "proper sphere." Their characterizations do not
go against the cardinal virtues of womanhood: instead
they argue for freer interpretations by demonstrating that
even when their activities appear "unseemly" they did not
abandon piety,_purity,_ submission and domesticity. 9 ]

 

 

 

 

 

 

...—um”. “up-5

Foster offers an excellent contribution to discussions of black
women's spiritual autobiographies. However, her reading is

short-sighted. Spiritual autobiographies by black women are

180

rich, complex and diverse. No one reading closes discussions
on them.
This chapter attempts to demonstrate that black women —FW

spiritual autobiographers who developed liberation theologies

 

 

 

 

 

in a black woman's mode were at variance with the _codeswgfw ';(
"true womanhood." The cult of true womanhood was intentionally
exclusionary toward black women. Black spiritual _~J

 

 

 

 

autobiographers were, of course, aware of this fact. Yet the
cult was all-pervasive in nineteenth-century society. Literary
historian Hazel Carby suggests that the nineteenth-century cult

of true womanhood "influenced and, to a large extent,

M-’-
A —w~“‘—-a- any-4g mur‘n—‘W

 

 

 

 

 

,— - ...,

5w“ Ac—P 'NM‘ "mMMM—‘wn' '-

 

determined the shape of the public voice of black women

writers...."10 .But Carby also adds that perhaps literary

 

historians should seek to "understand how an ideology that
excluded black women from the category women affected the ways
in which they wrote and addressed an audience."11 The black

women discussed in this chapter not only defied but also

 

subverted the social codes of "true womanhood" as they sought g
,mwwlmirhflmiiwfi\‘*_‘~4_~* :

 

 

 

 

 

equality in clerical spheres. be
M ...—......"

Jarena Lee,;Rebecca Cox Jackson, and Zilpha Elaw focus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

primarily on seeking equality among the clergy by renouncing

 

undue attention to worldly matters and, instead, embracing

spiritual concerns. Their works are precedent setting and “_7

#—

 

provide a vehicle for postbellum black women to challengew the

‘_ Wyfihh...’ "_‘-.~l ..., 1. _

 

 

 

 

 

all-pervasive codesmgf "true womanhood" as they also struggle
‘W"‘ q... ,_ “fl ___ -m L ...» _ 77__A, ‘ _ . 1 _ r_ m N

for the right to preach, The self-definition begun by black ik
WWW "W " «i

C

and early twentieth century as black women struggle to redefine L’

-_.-- "....

 

women in the antebellum era continues into the postbellum era

F-,~‘__ __, '_ _fl-‘M umuva-‘N' tuna—word“- W‘“-le I“...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

\7/
I
f

/

181
cgnggpt§_of true womanhood. Black women such as Julia A. f

 

 

l;§§§t;,-Amanda Berry smith, and Virginia A.;§£oughtong)continue (:1

discussions begun by Maria W. Stewart, Jarena Lee, Rebecca Cox

Jackson, and Zilpha Elaw as they challenged notions of woman's

proper spheres in traditional religious settings. I
The fact that black women present themselves as pious_and_

virtuous has to do with what they feel are andro nous

 

qualifications for anyone seeking clerical status. In

_.._, a... “w
WAFhw-i‘w-m HVJL I. a

‘\

analyzing Jarena’Lee's:text, William L. Andrews notes that in a

...\.

"radical challenge to traditional systems of naming," Lee is

«Ms paw”—

 

intent on turning the "alienating implications" of her name to
her own "rhetorical advantage." Andrews further adds: "Lee

extends [the] tradition of rehabilitating alien names into the

 

 

 

 

area of gender, as well as social and racial, signs. Her
~1-___flflfl~llllfliiiin ”firm.

autobiography claims beneath the other denoting identity of her

 

“~-
._ _ ,._.....—-—.__... .....M..- .W
- ...- _«-

title-- A coloured Lady --a spiritual essence that abolishes
the privileging power of male over female and qualifies her for
the androgynous identity she adopts at the end of her

narrative." Andrews continues: "This identity she signifies

by appropriating to herself from Romans 8:14 the empowering

 

-~‘-.__..—~q_o--——’- --—-.. ruw~-- fl’-‘--—~a..

are "led by the gpirit of God."312
_fiflafi__flfl_nwmi - v

The quest for virtue is not simply an attempt to meet
ideologies concerning "true womanhood." Rather, the women in
this chapter initially held Calvinistic conceptions of sin and

__.—-‘-

innate depravity. Such conceptions are transformed only during

 

the cathartic moments of spiritual conversion which

"-——“.--—-w *WM .....r... .

 

 

W~w

consequently released in them outgoing love for all human

..-- ——-— ..-- ‘m ’v—

 

182
beings. After conversion Rebecca Cox Jackson writes:

I then felt a desire for all the world to come and love
God forfiChrist'sfl sake... W3
'§Q§_§;§peciallv [sicfwaftermthnfifi_gho had done me wrong
and I had never forgiven them and never intended to unless
they came to me and asked my pardon for the wrong they had
done to me. But I prayed and I felt I would go to them
and kneel down and pray for them and take them in my arms.

(Gifts 72)

The quest for entrance into the cult of "true womanhood" would

 

 

have been viewed.by spiritual autobiographers as a conflict
between worldly matters and the attainment of spiritual
perfection. As late as 1898, spiritual autobiographer Amanda
Berry\§mith,critiques those members of the black and white
communities who placed too much attention on the "fop" ang‘
"shng_gfflthewworld. For black women spiritual
autobiographers' t£22§i¢ntuma§E§£§léflReds-fiREEEEBE112£22£E§§;
The emphasis of piety and virtue in these texts also
permit the authors to meet a nineteenth-century reader
audience. As Darlene Clark Hine suggests, women who traveled

and pzsésasgléséqgslmiésd_agdians§ly9919l9ave been viewedlssl

 

 

promiscuous in the early decades of the nineteenth century.

 

It is better to argue that the religious philosophies of
Lee, Jackson, and Elaw are at variance with the codes of "true
womanhood." The three women listed above should not be

considered aspirants of the cult. Initially Lee, Jackson, and i

 

 

 

 

Elaw attempted to define themselves according to the social

-.. ”a... .....-- ..--... ..., -n... ....-

 

 

_flw_mm,wl,
codes but later realized that such aspirations”werg_1imiting to
~_-_flfl__fl__,,,_l.l. l .m- millimllulfl.
their self-definition and personal fulfillment in career ?K

 

vocations. Rather, their texts illustrate the courage of black
______,_.

women in creatingwnew_and more fulfilling roles for themselves. }

. .... —-.-.._,.- -.

183

THE SPIRITUAL NARRATIVES OF LEE, JACKSON, AND ELAW
The spiritual autobiographies by free black women in the

antebellum era will illustrate that many black women were

neither passive in their religious faith, nor acquiescent to

the "natural authority of males," nor were they content in

their particular and individual circumstances?//Rather, black

women proclaimed that the prophecy of Joel was fulfilled, and

that "sons and daughters" were inspired to prophesy.13 £35; _-~]

them the nineteenth__centurx,.,ushere¢in.the.-.e£al!'_fzen males and

..I-”’- “_er d

 

W—

females should achieve eqnelitywinwghe pulpit. glack women

-...
‘m mafia-mm: u-‘J"

 

#-

liberation theelggians went a step further in their radical

“”'—

 

philosophies and in their particular religious theories and

practices. They considered themselves leaders of men and

 

 

 

women, black and white, in all walks and areas ofllife

 

 

 

regarding proper understanding of Christianity and exegesis of y?
Biblical texts. Examination of these works will indicate that
black women spiritual autobiographers who penned liberation
theologies in a black woman's mode were necessarily religious

activists.//Their works are important from an historic 1 and
___.._————-—--""'—"‘ .

 

literary perspective in that they provide much needed

 

 

 

commentary on the pelitical and social eerrents in_nineteenthr

Hay-9‘...- _ ,

 

 

centurY Ame??? £39!“ .3 femininelpegpsgtiye: \

The author of this dissertation argues that it is through
subverting the ideologies of "true womanhood" that black women
find viable preaching careers, reach "listener-readeg"

audiences and shew other black women ways to positively define

”aw-I'M

 

 

 

 

dunmm-oovm‘- -

a self in nineteenth-century society. They illustrate further

184
that black women did not always embrace definitions of the

majority culture but were both courageous and creative enough
to define a positive identity. In spite of black women's
exclusion from the cult of "true womanhood," this did not
prevent them from forging a positive self in nineteenth-century
society.

Each spiritual autobiographer adapts what she considers to
be the best narrative mode to create a lasting self-portrait in
literature and to confront nineteenth-century culture and

politics. ‘Jarena:Leejstexfi1charts her triumphant journey from

 

 

 

 

her consciousness of sin and depravity to subsequent religious

 

 

 

 

 

 

conversion and,dedication of her life to God's will and work:///

 

\Rebecca:§ex JaEEEBE makes use of the Puritan journal for a

 

personal assessment of her spiritual growth. Jackson uses her

 

 

 

journal to dexelopfla theology and practice similar in form to“

 

 

 

 

 

 

vu—

that of the Shaker religious sect and cult. Examination of

- - " "‘- H‘— h-N .1 Ir

 

Jackson's text demonstrates that Jackson apparently felt that

she was developing a new theology that would not only benefit

'— _‘wm nae-h.“

 

 

 

 

the entire human race but that she was chosen to present this

“'W‘ “an” "n H" "" .. h“ ~ . “...-... ..I-...I:-

new theology to allggggkind, In her journal Jackson writes: "I

 

 

am only a pen in His hand" (Gifts 107). Jackson's studied
attention to dates and places as well as her frequent asides to
the reader indicate that Jackson may have wanted to publish her

journal as an historical and spiritual guide for others}///

Zilpha Elawladopts the autobiographical form of memoir to
“fly H- -1...

"self-construct" and to self- -define. Qefiningflherself as an

mm
flW-‘w" 'I-——-—.._._.,_n_.-—~-"-u ---
...-new

 

 

"American female of color" Elaw successfully mergee her "double

_, ...“-
———. - ‘.' m—--- ‘V
‘H__ - .._--_—~.IH"

self [American and black] into a better and truer self" in
mm- , _ “h . ‘ ' ‘ ' - -. v-

"7

185
which "neither is lost.“” Elaw writes from a triple

consciousness which at the end of her text is successfully

 

_merged: gender, race, and American heritage come together to /j\
create a positive identity.
In striving to develop more positive definitions for black;%é
women in fighting for equality among the clergy, black women

sought alternative means for positive self-definition despite

 

clerical silencing and their excluSion from the c_ult‘gf”:trugn

f...-
m“... w...“- -..-«run vfl-W

 

(“I r-»— .1 ‘ “ “'in-m

 

womanhood." This step took courage. Social historian Barbara ~—-J
___fl,______fli
Welter writes: "... a true woman was a true woman, wherever

 

she was found. If anyone, male or female, dared to tamper with‘

the complex virtues which made up True Womanhood, he was damned

._ ......Mh-
-....r.

 

immediately as an enemy ofmgodlmofmcivilization, of the

 

 

Republic!"15‘The nineteenth-century "cult of true womanhood"

 

insisted upon woman's prescribed place, ordained by God and
society, as being in service to her husband and family. Women
were to place the needs of the family before their own. In
addition, the cult insisted on the submissiveness of the wife
to the "natural authority" of males in the church, in society
and the home. Middle class women who could not aspire to the
social model of the "true woman" because of its emphasis on
leisure, sought other avenues for personal fulfillment and

legitimate social outlet in what may be regarded as the "cult

 

of domesticity." By forming benevolence organizations and

m

 

temperance societies, middle class women found the means to
become useful outside of the home without challenging the cult
of "true womanhood." For the black woman, entrance into the

cult of "true womanhood" was impossible.

186
In the early nineteenth century sermons and editorials

were constantly circumscribed woman's place. Newspapers and
magazines frequently featured articles on this subject.
Ministers argued that virtuous women attended the church.

Hence, as feminist historians Martha Tomhave Blauvelt, Gerda
Lerner, and Nancy F. Cott insist, nineteenth-century females
considered religion important and glggkggfiggwchurghesmigilargeWm
numbers.

.7

During the early nineteenth century holiness revival .

msm

4‘

bands under John Wesley MSEEQQEEEW§!§9§-§D§.DéfiiQn These
religious revivals emphasigegwthemiggixiduallalébilifiy to
determine God's true will for personal fulfillment. Leading

me- «mm-«.- W" .- wmm ...—.—
proponents of these revivals argued that women as well as men

 

 

had equal access to God and to proper understanding of God's

”MW
“...-...

 

 

 

0- gag”... e.- ,

will for human beings. God might reveal to women as well as to

 

men the proper means to divine salvation, the correct
interpretationofflthe inine word. In addition, God might also
reveal his plans for nineteenth-century America to women.
Recognition of the possibility that women as well as men might
be recipients of divine revelation prompted revival preacher

Charles Finney-~after Theodorexfieldyinitiated the practice--to

permit women to speak and to pray publicly in lay religious

ova....p-.4. .

 

meetings.

The practice of speaking in formal lay religious meetings

«7‘... Han-.-

 

 

and religious revivals led black women to develop their own
religious praying bands. _ln these_meetings black female
“fi_‘_\__‘_fi_*~ 5#Mw_ ______ , . ..“m-

evangelists developed the courage to lead religious assemblies.

“w#_uH—~nv -._..__.-...,._‘./,.._...An-—r--*-

As Jean McMahon Humez notes. ./"

 

x
W

187

In these relatively intimate, highly participatory
democratic religious gatherings, in the familiar private
world of women friends, spiritual talents and speaking
skill§_were tested. Given the suspicion or hostility that
a woman's public religious leadership evoked outside these
circles, from the independent black church, leaders and
some congregations, it seems likely that the female

(praying banaslwere of utmost importance in preparinga

woman for a career as a speaker and minister.

 

 

 

 

This portion of the dissertation includes an examination

of some of the first black women's autobiographies to be

I
\

published after Maria Stewart's?//These contain the fundamental E
1

~fhemes7of the black woman's journey toward sel£:£gliance, self-
..I/r
determinism and ultimate power through the acquisition Q:*§“_

 

publig_ggi9e and the construction of a permanent selffpgrtrait

 

in literature.

The autobiographies of Lee, Jackson, and Elaw demonstrate

the authors' heavy reliance on dreams, visions and inner

 

_promptings of the spirit in their quest for inner wholeness and
self-reliance. These texts seek to indicate a significant,

intimate, reciprocalmrelationship with the Divine as proof that

 

 

blacks were not only the recipients of God's saving grace but
to demonstrate as well an intimate reciprocal relationship with
God. This was meant to serve as prgof_tg_white audiences that_
blagkgfipg§§§§§ed_souls. In addition, their frequent
documentations of spiritual guidance was meant to persuade

members of the black and white clergy of women' 5 right to

-—-<..__-- v“

 

 

preach.

 

During her first preaching tour which lasted six months,
<§é€>demonstrates tremendous suggess. At one of the initial

sessions, Lee writes: "God made manifest his power among the

188
people. Some wept, while others shouted for joy. One whole

seat of females, by the power of God as the rushing of a wind,
were all bowed to the floor at once, and screamed out" (Lee
45). In attendance at this meeting were both males and
females. Through God "... a sick man and woman ... [were]
convicted [of sin)" (Lee 45).

Lee links race, gender, and class with the power of God.

Mm

Lee asserts: "Here by the instrumentality of a poor coloured

 

—r—_..__- A
< m—..... M—

 

 

_.___—

woman, the Lord poured forth his spirit among the peOple.
Though as I was told, there were lawyers, doctors, and
magistrates present, to hear me speak, yet there was mourning
and crying among sinners, for the Lord scattered fire among
them of his own kindling" (Lee 45-46). Lee continues: "The
Lord gave his handmaiden power to speak for his great name for
he arrested the hearts of the people and caused a shaking
amongst the multitude for God was in the midst" (Lee 46).
Dreams are frequently documented in Rebecca Cox Jackson's‘

v2”
text as a gift of power and as one of the many manifestations

 

of her intimate reciprocal relationshipywith god. Yet dreams

 

become a burden to her family. In her narrative Jackson writes

___.—.r.

 

that she will "mention only a few" of her dreams in [her
journals] "in order to show how it pleased Godin His wisdom to

lead a poor unlearned ignorant woman without the aid of mortal"

(Gifts 100) -

__ , ..me—u—r—w—w

experience and becomes "overpowered with the presencewofifiodi"

_u—‘u.

 

 

She reports to have heard a voice say to her: "Now thou art
Wm»-

sanctified and I will show thee what thou must do? (Elaw 66).

‘ .__,___.~——-—~-;--

189
What follows is an examination of the spiritual narratives

M‘l-I' ..

of Jarena Lee, Rebecca Cox Jackson, and Zilpha Elaw. These

 

authors share in commo an early affiliation with African

‘— “_ H, mwymn -—

Methodism--specifically in the AME tradition. The works also
have common grounding in the development of liberation

theolggieswin a blagk woman's modegK/Led by inner promptings of

...)

the spirit, visions,_dreamsk and reasonably reliable

,prsgnnnitine—episodewh -wgmag ..i‘§.i_g}3}99<1. to what she
believes to be her proper religious sphere. )

THE SPIRITUAL NARRATIVE OF JARENA LEE

Jarena Lee presents the first "detailed" autobiography

_—

 

 

written by an African-American fema.‘l.e.317 Lee's autobiography,

,nFF-r—w—L
\ _.-‘.1h....-_

as well as the other spiritual autobiographies discussed in

 

this chapter, address the "central question of the fate of the

__ L..- "a“...
-.. -..“... M- l..-- pm”

individual soul."18 .As William L. Andrews notes: "Whether

WM

written by blacks or whites, American spiritual autobiography

chronicles the soul's journey not only from damnation to

 

 

 

salvation but also to a realization of one' 3 true place and

““5 -..

 

destiny in the divine scheme of things."19
i“\
Lee was born on February 11,(l78§> in Cape May, New

Jersey, the child of free parents. Like many young black

...—Vi,- ."
... w. __._-..

females in the nineteenth century, Lee was placed in domestic
service as a means of earning her keep. Because nineteenth-
century American life left few opportunities for black males
and females to earn a decent livelihood, their children were
often placed into service at an early age for self-support.

While in domestic service, Lee became aware that she was a

,“ _,.———

190
"wretched sinner;" but those concerns became subordinate to her

daily existence. However, in 1804, Lee was again convinced of
her sinful nature. Lee's autobiography progresses through the

three degrees of salvation that Lee experiences: conviction of

.—

 

 

 

.——.
..., -..-
-——..-_,_ ...—-_ ..--s... .i-“-u—'-‘

 

sin, justification and sanctification.

.mwm-P‘I ..u... _‘

 

 

an“...

 

The structure of Lee's autobiography consists of three ~

main parts;/ the introduction 59 her life historyz/her "call"

 

 

4...- uw-r-var r-II-V‘l'

to preach the gospel{/her marriage and the subsequent renewal

of her "call." Lee's text ends with details of her triumphant

 

career in itinerant ministry. Lee's initial attempts to
achieve salvation are dramatic as Lee intersperses her account

with her numerous bouts of depression regarding her depravity

 

and her resulting suicide attempts. Lee finally achieved

m

 

religious conversion under the Reverend Richard Allen, bishop
and co-founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME).

Lee writes:

During the labors of this man that afternoon, I had come
to the conclusion, that this is the people to which my
heart unites, and it so happened that as soon as the
service closed he invited such as felt a desire to flee
the wrath to come to unite on trial with them —- I
embraced the opportunity. Three weeks from that day, my
soul was gloriously converted to God under preaching at
the very outset of the sermon. (Lee 29)

Conversion sponsored catharsis, not only in a release of

negative emotions regarding one's person, but also a release of

 

"malice" and ill will toward others. Forgiveness of others for

 

 

their perceived shortcomings and inappropriate behavior
released in Lee the courage to exhort publicly. Lee writes:
"At this discovery, I said Lord, I forgive every creature"

(Lee 29). Lee further adds:

191

That moment, though hundreds were present, I did leap
to my feet, and declare that God, for Christ's sake, had
pardoned the sins of my soul.... For a few moments I had
power to exhort sinners, and to tell the wonders and of
the goodness of him who had clothed me with his salvation.
During this, the minister was silent, until my soul felt
its duty had been performed, when he declared another
witness of the power of Christ to forgive my sins on
earth, was manifest in my conversion. (Lee 29)

After conversion, Lee again felt dissatisfaction with her

religious life and embarked on a quest for the "entire_

 

 

 

sanctification of [her] soglwto God" (Lee 33%{/ About five

pf

 

 

 

years after sanctification, Lee felt the call to preach the

 

gospel. Concerned about the proper course she should take, Lee

sought the counsel of Rev. RichargwAllen. Allen acknowledged

 

that Methodist discipline permitted women to exhort and lead
prayer meetings. However, Allen added: "As to women
preaching, ...[Methodist] Discipline ... did not call for women
preachers" (Lee 36). Although Lee initially felt relief at her

M...- an. _M“- v”-

ability to escape the call "because it removed the fear of the

1., a. as aw...— M... ‘M Mhnw"._up

 

....m not! . ... .. .W 4w .1”
‘W ‘fifl‘mw~.w

cross," Lee was later troubled about not fulfilling divine

.. . I,” ‘...-. .... .,._. ...,L m.,—— vwwww— ”mm

 

duty. Subsequently, Lee rejects Allen' 3 advice and formulates

 

 

 

her own theology for women's duty to preach. Challenging

_————

 

 

-..—--va..

ideological biases against women, Lee presents her strongest
Hfifl_~u__ii

 

 

argument in favor of women' 3 right to preach. Lee_arg2es that

“-..... ...I

 

 

x

unnecessary carefulness about "bylaws of church government and

inn-... ___-\

 

“may-n

 

discipline" may result in "disrepute" even to the "word of

--....__ _, ...-....

 

 

life." Continuing her argument, ¥E§*§§§E£E§ (as twentieth

 

“h. -o.. --

century feminist theologians will later do) that one half of (l:

w--.r N- —._....._....i7
W -' " "“ ""‘----"_“"‘ "= ~-a-

humanity has been silenced by ideological bias against women.
K J, “M ~" "—""“ -‘--'- -..... ....-. '—""—" -- -. “...- -_.___._._.._._.____ ____r.........

Lee wonders:

192

And why should it be thought impossible, heterodox, or
improper for a woman to preach? Seeing the Saviour died
£9; the woman as well as the men? (Lee 36) __

 

Lee feels that arguments against women's right to preach are

unjustified.

If a man may preach, because the Saviour died for him, why
not the woman? seeing he died for her also. £§_he not a
whele Saviour, instead of half a one? (Lee 36)

Lee continues:

Did not Maryyfirst preach the risen Saviour, and is not
the doctrine of the resurrection, the very climax of
Christianity -- hangs not all our hope on this, argued by
St. Paul. Then did not Mary, a woman, preach the gospel?
For she preached the resurrection of the crucified son of
God. (Lee 36)

 

 

 

In 1811, Lee married Mr. Joseph Lee, pastor of a black

” *mW‘m

Methodist society in Snow Hill, Pennsylvania. For a time, Lee

chose the traditional rele of pastor's wife to a small society.

 

 

 

But Lee found it difficult to become comfortable in her new
__,,_____i_ii_m~___*wfl,ii

surroundings. The desire to preach "burned vehemently" in her

 

 

soul. While ill, Lee exhorted "sinners" who came to visit her.
After recovering from her illness, Lee realized she would be
"permitted to preach."

After her husband's death, Lee realized that her call to

 

 

preach should be delayed no longer. Her overwhelming desire

W w-mW—J-A- 1".“

 

 

was realized in a moment of high drama when Lee took over the
____\wflflflw,_i

sermon of visiting minister Rev. Richard Williams who was

.~_~-_----iu——w- «v <-~‘4~n-no- -.pr- I4. -M‘ ‘W m "...—C
am '- Hon—5‘..—

having some difficulties "expounding" the second chapter of
Jonah. Before members of the congregation, Lee took over his
sermon and fully expounded the Jonah text. Using the method

common to revival preachers and lay religious leaders in the

193
early nineteenth century, Lee used her personal experience in
f— My

 

her first public sermon. Lee insisted that, like Jonah, she

 

 

had delayed her call to preach to the fallen "sons and
daughters of Adam" (Lee 44). After preaching, Lee was
concerned: "I now sat down, scarcely knowing what I had done,
being frightened. I imagined that for this indecorum, as... it
might be called, I should be expelled from the church" (Lee
44). In Lee's defense, Richard Allen told the congregation
that Lee had sought his advice about her call to preach and he
had "put [her] off", but he now believed that Lee had

experienced the call as much as any preacher present. With the

 

support of Allen, Lee went on to establish a home ministry

n_ -M”" o.- n-r-J A—m

 

 

‘ flpm”.---o. ._, ‘_

 

...... .n»

until she had the courage to begin a traveling public ministry.

.. .. ...-...- --- mmma-w- '- ‘W N. m" -“W’rm""

 

 

"a ....

 

a... ”4“-

In violation of the cult of domesticity and true

-..-Ag“.-

 

 

 

“...—..., w

womanhood, Lee "broke up housekeeping" in order to preach

’0’— Win-M

Leaving her sick son and her daughter, Lee embarked on her

 

 

 

first preaching tour during which time she was not troubled
about her sona2° .After speaking successfully before lawyers,
doctors and magistrates, Lee returned home from a lengthy
public tour and found that no harm had come to her sick child.

With this realization, Lee abandoned women' 3 traditional sphere

 

 

 

fl- _ i-

and went out to preach. Material freedom was realized in Lee' 5

ability to preach before white and black audiences and to speak

freely with a "loose tongue." Under Lee's preaching, both

whites and blacks were converted

—.___._ “...“- ,_

 

..-...fl —.—..—._,._- -.fin—

194
THE SPIRITUAL NARRATIVE OF REBECCA COX JACKSON
Rebecca Cox Jackson was born in:ii§§ and was affiliated
with, though not a member of, a black Methodist Church in

F‘s-w
54."...—

Philadelphia. In 1844, in the middle of her life, Jackson

 

became a member of the Watervliet Shakers at a time when the

 

 

Shaker religious sect enjoyed its greatest prosperity and
largest number of members.21 .Jackson's autobiographical
account presents historical insight into Shaker religion and
communal life at this time.

Rebecca Cox Jackson is the first knownwblackfimember of the

Shakers. Her narrative records her severance of primary

 

 

relationships with family and friends to become a member of the

 

/' -..“... ...

predominantly white Shaker community///Before embarking on a‘

Aflw' ...”...

permanent life plan with the Shakers, Jackson came to develop a

... n- * ""““" '
“HM—WM“ "

liberation theology and religious belief and philosophy that

w.mw 1L
'-

she later discovered was similar in thought and practice to the_

.- “_hl. w— _ .44.. . H...) ...I. ...-mm ...-.... ..., -..—.... - m“...—

~wqwn. .w—v

 

 

"w—m 7...“. Watch-4

 

oa—

Shakers. Because of her very radical religious belief, and her

" ‘ “‘d ‘P "v“ ...». 8" 'Mri- ‘in-u-Lm-I—lv FHAWW ““ “1'“ nm‘ hm ”any“... Jou- wmm-v-h o-I-Ol'
.whw Cd! Hfl—W 'M

advocacy of celibacy as the chief means to perfect holiness,

...-...- w mat-u- um “ww-

—L‘_.L-

 

Jackson was a figure of some controversy. Jackson‘ 3 narrative

WJWWH_"_

 

 

"a ‘W .W tau-

charts a most unusual quest by a black woman for freedom and
literacy.

Unlike most of the spiritual autobiographers included in
this study, Jackson did not have a voice in the publication of

her own journal. The posthumous publication of her text

Hm."- “tun...
N... n- .
a- ...-1 .- M

 

”ya—a.)—

-M
M“— 0-

prevented her from making changes that she might have desired.
Humez found Jackson's journal entries scattered in museums
across the United States and compiled them into a chronological

whole. With Humez's brilliant editorial skills and her

195
historical and literary analysis of Jackson's text, we have the

first in-depth treatment of Jackson's journal.

These fragmented accounts of Jackson's life were arranged
chronologically by Humez: "Awakening and Early Gifts" (1830-
1832), "Breaking Away From Family and Churches" (1833-1836),
"Finding God's True People on Earth" (£840-1843), Shaker
Doctrine and First Residence at Watervliet"(1844-1851). These
works were followed by: "Interim in Philadelphia:
Experiments in Seance Spiritualism"(1851-1857), "Second
Residence at Watervliet: Establishment of the Philadelphia
Shaker Community" (1857-1864).

As does the autobiography of Jarena Lee, Rebecca Cox
Jackson's personalfljournal charts her inner growth to spiritual

W

perfection. As in the case of Lee's autobiography, Jackson's

 

text is an inner-directed chronicle which indicates Jackson's

heavy reliance on her inner voice, dreams and visions.

"“ kph-m Wit-“WM
How-

 

 

 

Disobedience to inner promptings of the spirit leads her to

“M“- _fi-_._._,

failure in carrying out a particular mission which might

\Mfimm4hk__ -

provide a valuable learning experience///As Carl B. Evans

m A ”w"

 

notes, the guest for literagy in Jackson's text embodies two

 

kinds of reading: spiritual reading, known as discernment in

 

the will of God, and material reading of Biblical texts.
~___,_____..i_
Although Jackson kept a detailed and careful chronological

account of her life, her focus is largely religious. The

 

narrative focuses primarily on Jackson's spiritual growth and

acquisition of personal "gifts of power.“22 Daily issues are
not mentioned unless they serve to highlight or clarify

W W" ...

 

--...-

x...

 

spiritual or religious moments. However, from Jackson's text

 

196
the reader learns that Jackson was married to Samuel Jackson.
She and her husband resided with her brother Joseph Cox, a
widower with four children. Due to Jackson's relative

7i

prosperity, unlike most black women in this study, Jackson was

 

 

 

 

not employed as a domestic to help provide for her livelihood.

 

 

 

 

Before becoming a member of the Shakers, Jackson made
every effort to make home life comfortable for the members of
her extended family while seeing to the needs of her immediate

family. Jackson's desire for financial independence prompted

”Ma-5""

 

her to take in sewing as a means of having her own money.

 

Jackson did have some valuable a§set5;_ In one of her near-

 

death experiences recorded in her autobiographical writings,
Jackson advises Samuel on matters concerning her possessions.
The narrative opens in mid-year,;July ISM“) in the middle

of a thunderstorm, when Jackson is in the middle of her life.

 

The opening scenes capture the moments of her spiritual

 

rebirth. A sense of drama becomes immediately apparent when we
”pp—... m

realize that Jackson is involved in a quest for freedom from

 

 

.the slavery of fear. Jackson writes:

 

In the year of 1830, July, I was wakened by thunder and
lightning at the break of day and the bed which had been
my resting place in the time of thunder for five years was
now [taken] away. About five years ago, I was affected by
thunder and always after in time of thunder and lightning
I would have to go to bed because it made me so sick. Now
my place of rest is [taken] away, and I rose up and walked
the floor back and forth wringing my hands and crying
under great fear. (911;: 71)

Jackson asserts that she experiences a deep conviction of sin

““U—

 

 

of such great weight that all the sins of her childhood "rushed
m

... _. ”...—ht“ -_
M —'--v.—‘,..._ I I ‘ ".- —.,‘

into [herlgming like an over swelling tide," causing her to

197
expect every clap of thunder to launch [her] soul at the bar of

God..." (Gifts 71). Through intense prayer<:g personal act

 

that would later become one of her "weapons of war" in

 

confronting clerical silencingL_ ackson achieves transcendence

......H. “Ma—v“
-.i H.” _ -..”.

 

 

 

 

and transformation. She overcomes her fear of thunder and is

. ~fiw—p—yo «......

 

 

transformed into a person who experiences the deep joy of "loved
for God and all mankind" (Gifts 71).

The factmthathackson' '8 text begins in mid- life is, of
course, critical to the reading of Jackson's narrative. In
these opening moments, Jackson is reborn, no longer considering
herself a depraved sinner but a person transformed and renewed
by an act of God. Jackson deliberately does not begin her
narrative in the manner familiar to the autobiographical genre

with the statement: "I was born." This strategy indicates that

events in her life prior to religious conversion in July 1830

.-~... -—--~ I .-
..m'o-n-n-v-p . -... y u 4,...“ .- __.. "an, ...—>1 W...

...-"any. “-... u": ~

are of little importance to Jackson herself. As the narrative

Mam .a 4W..- v-..

 

 

Us «mot-‘—

_. __. ......- -._.~ “*muhfi

 

unfolds we learn that events that took place in Jackson's life
prior to 1830 are used by Jackson only to chart the earliest
acquisition of a particular gift or to support Jackson's belief
in her gift of prophecy.

Although Jackson has had religious experiences prior to

W“

 

 

 

 

this moment, they, too, are deemed unimportant. When Jackson

—...—.-—.—~—- -..-..n._‘
MH- -u—. “w-

 

 

 

 

 

 

relates to her brother, Joseph Cox, that she has found the
Lord, his response is telling. "Has thee? I am glad thee has
found the Lord again."

Like all of the narratives chosen for discussion,

Jackson's text centers on the guest for freedom and literacy;

m..— W W—
"...— '—‘———_...J

 

 

 

 

 

 

In order to realize these gifts and forge a self:reliant

-~.‘_ __ ‘

198
womanhood; Jackson must first gain freedom frommmaleidgmlflgtion
w r «— m—v—‘I

 

W

Jackson's text demonstrates a nineteenth-century black
woman's most radical defiance of the ideologies concerning the
cult of true womanhood and notions as to women's prescribed

place. Jackson's liberation theology centers in the quest for

AM nun-w“

 

‘wl- mutt-.... ....- ..5 um unwl-w

 

 

a celibate and self-reliant lifestyle. Shortly after achieving

......me

 

u.._‘r d.

sanctification, experienced in a female-dominated praying band

...... ufiww .. w. WWW "‘ ...I». . _,. w. “‘ ”W
-..4‘ ......— w~~m-—.~ ‘* 'W ...-,4 N. D'-

Jackson comes to believe that sexual union for pleasure--
whether in marriage or illicit union--is §i9///;or Jackson,
upon this one act rests Adam's fall_and the consequential fall
of all human beings. Lust as sin is a primary tenet of Shaker
religious faith and theology.23 Further, Shaker theology
suggests that the desire for sexual union stems from the desire

to possess another human being and distracts human beings from

W'— *M“""" "‘h H" ”An 1:.......

 

 

 

‘ I'm-..-
- -...“ w..- O—A’-

 

._ ~d4-
~ " “'1 .« _h -l"""“"‘

concentrating on understanding GOdu: This understanding of

 

 

 

J

 

 

the true nature of "sin" motivates Jackson to find_ liber_ation

---—_ -.. u-q

 

‘aMa—w .—~ quh‘p._, ,ng .

from all aspects of male dominance:

 

Jackson's radical stance on the issue of celibacy, which
was her outward demonstration of control of her entire person,

sets her apart from the other black women included in this

Wm-—..—- .-__

 

 

 

study and sets her apart from the political and cultural

 

 

 

 

ideologies in nineteenth- -century society. Social and religious

km... MW “WW“ .m- p0. Hm

 

 

...—f

mores in nineteenth-century society insisted that women submit
to their husbands' will in all areas of the marital
relationship.

Aware that her philosophy of celibacy was radical and that

it might be taken by many to be a false doctrine, Jackson

Mum-nub.» -—

199
attempts to demonstrate that celibacy is a part of the Divine

plan. Her "new thoughts" about sin cause her to praise God and
to behave very differently; this aroused her husband's concern.

Aware that great effort must be undertaken to put her new life

-ivfiw
M

 

 

 

into practice, Jackson relies on the power of God to

.....- -- 'WMM
_I'h“ ‘_——- — G“- 'd.—-—D‘L ‘- _ ...h. _v u

demonstrate that she has an unusual relationship with the

M----- n-W' "
“......— .-.. ., ..- rm

Divine. Supernatural forces come to her aid. Jackson writes:

m.- ...—...—

 

 

 

 

 

"So in my march appraising God, I went from the cellar door to
the stove and when I would get to the stove I would lay my
hands on the stove, and then turn to the cellar with my eyes
shut all the while" (Gifts 77). Jackson continues: "These two
things caused my husband to believe that it was more than
nature. He expected every time I laid my hands on the stove,
and when I went to the cellar door, to see me fall down the
cellar" (Gifts 77). This unusual demonstration inspired fea£“_
in Samuel. Later when his fear turned to anger, he sought
Jackson's life. However, Jackson acquired precognitive gifts
and Samuel's frequent attempts to murder_ her were altogether

_w- ”H4 M_ ....N -~—-> ux--.‘_.. -E‘wfi-gukg mugfiumnw

unsuccessful.

 

Through the primarily female and highly "democratic"

 

praying bands Jackson develops her radical theology regardingm

~—v—-—

 

celibacy and develops, as well, the public voice in which to

...W— ...-p...— w --.

 

present her gospel. Her radical theology, supported by a new
exegesis of scripture causes members of the clergy to suggest
that she is "chopping up churches."

For Jackson, liberation from marital union and the

”“Mww ”um _-

 

 

acquisition of public voice are the means whereby women may

L——.—-o——k- ......
_afi

transcend the cultural, political, and secular forces that

Wan-....“ “

 

200
cause them to be confined to the domestic realm///he desire for

'fl .M ”hm ”1""
...... -« . ~9- “A!"

 

freedom from male domination manifests itself in Jackson's

 

quest for literacy which comes to Jackson through the

 

"remarkable providence of God's love" (Gifts 107). Before
acquiring this gift, Jackson was unable to read or write and
had to dictate her letters to her brother. Joseph Cox seized

control of Jackson's voice:

So I went to get my brother to write my letters and to
read them. So he was awriting a letter in answer to one
he had just read. I told him what to put in. Then I
asked him to read. He did. I said, 'Thee has put in more
than I told thee.‘ This he done several times. I then
said, 'I don't want thee to word my letter, I only want
thee to write it. Then he said, 'Sister, thee is the
hardest one I ever wrote for! (Gifts 107)

Jackson is distressed by her brother's attitude. However,
through inner promptings of the spirit, Jackson learns that she
will eventually have the gift of reading. Jackson specifically

makes clear in her text that she does not acquire literacy by
W

.._..w. .-..

 

human aid, rather she_is taught by GQQL.

 

 

..picked up my Bible, ran upstairs, opened it, and
kneeled down with it pressed to my breast, prayed
earnestly to Almighty God if it was consisting to His holy
will, to learn me to read His holy word. And when I
looked on the word, I began to read. And when I found I
was reading, I was frightened -- then I could not read one
word. I closed my eyes again in prayer and then opened my
eyes, began to read. So I done, until I read the chapter.
(Gifts 108)

The acquisition of literacy was useful to Jackson's home

ministry. In these meetings, Jackson gained some followers

”......- --.

 

Black members of the Methodist clergy accused Jackson of

Mu. .. .....hm wan.

 

‘ —*vu--—.-'~...-

inappropriately transcending women' s sphere. "The Bishop

...a-

 

 

’H- -‘_“th
”m- ~-~u .‘muww

[African Methodist Episcopal bishop, Morris Brown] came to

201
Brother Peterson and said he heard that he had that Rebecca

Jackson at his house, aholding [sic] class meetings and

 

aleading [sic] the men" (gifts 105). However, Morris Brown

relented after hearing her preach. He told attending members

”"--.fiflh—

 

 

 

.N—J

-....._ - -M...

 

of the black clergy: "Nothing [was amiss]. If ever the Holy
W

Ghost was in any place, it was in that meeting.,..let her alone

WW'”"‘ A, , ._ . . "...," ,...~u~—n.-—— -—--.~ ..7 _._.__..1...,..__... -.._...-.-...r—-’-" -' ‘---'--—- “...—”H, ._y___.1.‘..._n~—.wu—-

now" (Gifts 106).

—————K

In 1833, three years after spiritual conversion, Jackson

began a traveling ministry to white congregations in Marcus

 

 

 

Hook, New Jersey. On the first step of her journey, Jackson

confronts sexism again. Men who heard that "a woman was going

 

 

to speak... came to prevent it" (Gifts 127). However, the
principal officer of the village experiences conversion through
Jackson's sermon and advises that no one present prevent her
from doing God's will. While her meetings in Marcus Hook are

successful, Jackson returns_home to find her husband and

'N‘WWn—nw- .-.-.~- ...-...- W ‘-

brother opposed to her ministry. However, J393§991§$ not

wan-u
M” , fl': o'-

deterred and continues her ministry.

 

.4.

 

Mum-.. “fl -—‘I -

In order to live

. o—“mvw‘..' ...,m..- m‘, .,.., _ ,

as she desires, Jackson finds it

_um4.m Irma-A man «JnHmmMyV—M—uwm-'Av°h
'1' v ‘ I W

necessary to break away from family and friends. Jackson

 

 

"I; -F _-

writes: "While I was under great sorrow and suffering about
living a holy life, everything seemed to stand in opposition to
that life...This made my life burdensome to me and to my
husband, and to my friends" (Gifts 137).

When Jackson realizes that Shaker philosophy and PréEEiEE,

 

 

is similiiwggflgg£~gflflitheology, in that it "contained much of

[her] experience" (Gifts 143). Jackson feels that she must

join the predominantly white Shaker sect because they are

202
"God's true people on earth. " Before joining the sect, Jackson

_., ..._--. ...... “...W—fi

 

underwent a period of intense persecution (because of her

 

doctrine) by members of the black and white clergy. Jackson
remains with the predominantly white Shaker sect until 1858
when she g§£§3¢£¥3£§§¥99 fr”: Shakes. §}_§§§§§W¥3291ina B§§§.§_.P_9_.

leave the Shakers and work among her own people.
N

.-....- w
-..... K. m- -m. ”Mr—cam”

 

The Divine is a transcendent reality for Jackson who uses

mam-h,
t’V—rvl‘s. Mwflw ”‘w- ‘--v
.. ...-....

 

spiritual power to transcend the cult of domesticity and

"‘H MN» PW

 

... mm
.... 14.....-“ M'- wmfiu W "’

 

women' s realm. Through redefinition of the Divine as a Deity

A‘nhm WWW; ... . .-.W. AIM -- “WW“;—

in favor of the liberation of women and blacks, Jackson finds

 

 

 

literacy and subsequently economic well- -being. To the end of

wwwwfl—

 

_— _b",

her text, Jackson has control over her body, her destiny, and“

W;r_

 

her career.
\ ..

THE MEMOIRS OF ZILPHA ELAW

W
Colour (1846) represents one of the most positive narrative
accounts of women's quest for equality included in this
collection. Set in the era of the religious revivals that
swept America under Methodist impact, Elaw's text charts her
struggle to transcend the cult of "true womanhood" in order to
find liberation. Through Elaw' s text, the myth is shattered

..I '4'“. ‘«QWN_W'

that black women engaged in preaching tours primarily to

mu...“- nu-*‘-"'"' ' ""-""'

 

-- -.-.___

 

-...m._.—-,. 1".

Christianize the black race. Although Elaw never achieved

 

ministerial ordination, she conducted her preaching tours

-'-¢-.I

 

 

primarily among white congregations both in England and

, ...... ...». 4W»... ...- ..."...- my.-- -..... - _x..-~-- Mans-M

- ou.-..-, “#4.,"-

America; she was almost always well-received. As a
¥,-»-W#

203
spokesperson for the Divine, she was an influential_ figu_re_ of

authority.

As a female preacher activist Zilpha Elaw considered

herself an equal to male preeghers in Occidental countries.

v ...—n-

 

She dedicated her memoirs to her brethren in England while
longing to return to America, "the land of [her] nativity"
(Elaw 51). This dedication reflects the finished prose
portrait of her journey toward liberation as well as her full
potential in the black woman's autobiographical genre.

Transcending women' 3 traditional spheres, Elaw presents herself

«...—... F,” vpn‘_ z-III- .u-a--'~ rm“..-,.. __._,.__..—

 

_—

as a teacher and religious leader to members of the clergy. In

a- ..w ...», ,
A 5...»... .....n.

doing so, she radically violates St. Paul' s admonitory advice

about women' s rea1n125 and ideologies concerning theflgnltdof

-_. _1 .4.-.,_,_.....—_ -
MK ‘ ..—__.‘ .... ...-3' v m

‘—‘-—-—-.__ -...r _ -ww‘d— .

 

 

 

 

"true womanhood." Her dedication to the "Saints and faithful

brethren in Christ who have honoured my ministry with their

 

attendance in London... England" is centered primarily on

religious matters (Elaw 51). Elaw asks her audience to

 

 

__.-

renounce undue attention to things of the world such as the

. fly. ..I ‘4'.» Nun-4w“..- 1.91m... v- nun—un-

 

 

'7 '-—.1 ...,” qr" ....

love of money, possessions, societal advancement and
achievements. Holy men, Elaw insists, should resist the
"artificial surface-polish of society and abhor the pride of
respectability; for that which is highly esteemed amongst men
is an abomination in the eyes of God" (Elaw 52).

The autobiography is also Elaw's attempt at immortality

 

 

 

beyond the grave. She presents her life history as a sermgg_to'
____,____111#w

chart the Lord's dealings with an African-American female

....“ -....._._ “......
-m__ ...-..._.._

 

...-...... .... Cab-“w... ...._.

chosen as spokesperson for God. Elaw begins her autobiography

 

 

with a dedication to her brethren in England which indicates

204
pride in her race and her acquisition of spiritual authority

through redefinition of the Divine. Elaw writes:

I feel I cannot present you with a more appropriate '
keepsake, or a more lively memento of my Christian esteem,
and affectionate desires for your progressive prosperity
and perfection in the Christian calling, than the
following contour portrait of my regenerated constitution
-- exhibiting as did the bride of Solomon, comeliness with
blackness [Song of Sol. 1:5]; and as did the Apostle Paul,
riches with poverty, and power in weakness [2 Cor. 12:9.
(Elaw 51)

Making no apologies for gender, Elaw feels she can guid§~h3r
bretES’:Q-E.9MB§929r. pndegfandingmof”epixi-aeiyill- She exhort?»
them to "walk worthy of the high vocation wherewith you are

called," and proceeds to teach them how to conduct themselx§§.

Elaw writes:

...dear brethren,....Cease, therefore from earthly
accumulations; but lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven. Renounce the love of money; for it is the root of
all evil. [1 Tim. 6:10] Love not the world. (Elaw 52)

To inform the world that she has established an eggal

partnership with her brethren_on an informal level, Elaw

 

 

 

writes: "We ... met together in the house of God, mingled our
ascending petitions at the throne of grace unbosomed our
spiritual conflicts and trials to one another and listened with
devotional interest to the messages of gospel mercy..."
Suggesting that if she is indeed worthy of their "cherished
recollections," her brethren should "receive with cordial and
generous courtesy, this small token of esteem and love" (Elaw
51).

Like the women presented earlier in this dissertation,

Elaw's desire forwaipious and virtuous ekistence is

 

androgynous. Elaw claims that her contour portrait does not

 

205
represent the features of her "outward person, drawn and

coloured by the skill of the pencilling artist," but
represents instead, "the lineaments of my inward man, as
inscribed by the Holy Ghost, and, according to my poor ability,
copied off for your edification" (Elaw 51).

Elaw's text presents a first—hand account of a black

 

woman's struggle for full equality with the clergy. The

persona Elaw adopts early on in her text is of a woman who

 

 

struggles to define herselffiwithin the all-pervasive social

 

 

 

 

codes of "true womanhood" but later realizes that such

 

definitions are too limiting for expression of her full

 

 

potential: After experiencing sanctification at a revival

meeting, Elaw begins a home ministry.

 

Elaw's text opens with background information about her
life. At the age of nine when her mother dies, she is placed by
her father into domestic service for Pierson and Rebecca
Mitchell. At the age of 18, her father dies. The introductory
material of Elaw's text sets the tone for the rest of her
discussion. Here Elaw focuses on her eaglymreligious

%-_—_w‘c—-

instruction or, more specifically, the lack of it and the

 

impact it had on her life. Elaw's text moves swiftly toward her
religious conversion and the achievementsmshemrealigesnthrough~
Wraitmnin theyiyiag-

Once Elaw has achieved spiritual conversion, she defines

herself as a child of God and begins a quest toward liberationfi

 

 

 

of her full potential. While at a revival meeting, Elaw

III——

experiences sanctification, during this time, she has an out-

f

Qf;bod¥_experienne and is "overpowered with the presence of

 

206
God" (Elaw 51). Sanctification is confirmed when a heavenly

 

 

voice tells Elaw that she is sanctified and that she will be

shown whatgtowdgz/When she returns to her body, Elaw finds the
courage_sswp§syspublicly at the revival meetings. Through the
subsequent receipt of inner guidance by the Spirit, Elaw begins

a home ministry// As a home flministerr~filaw struggles to adhere

...-—

 

to traditional Scriptural exegesis concerning women's roles in

WWW wwd‘ ”flu-rd“..- M'-~hfl—Lfi,mm,_~~_l

 

......“- -... H...-
...—....

the minissry. Elaw confines herself to "visiting families" and
to "speaking personally to members thereof, of the salvation
and eternal interests of their souls" (Elaw 67). Elaw also
visits the sick and attends to the personal needs of her
followers.

The hsme ministry for Elaw was primarily a trial period.

 

 

Elaw is called to preach in a manner similar to that of Paul
the Apostle. In recounting her call to a full-fledged
itinerant ministry, Elaw establishes a matrilineal line in
determining God's will. While visiting her gravely ill sister

in Burlington, Elaw is informed by her sister that she must

 

 

 

 

preach the gospel. However, in order to receive further

 

instructions as to her call, she must go to a Quaker woman
named Fisher_who would tell her further what she must do;
Initially, Elaw does not believe that these are divine orders.
Shortly after the visit with her sister, Elaw receives a visit
from a Quaker female who questions her about her divine call.
Still, El§VJ909S.B°t carry out her_migi§terial duties.

In the interim, Elaw becomes gravely ill and considers

‘—

this a punishment_from Go94/hhen she is well enough, she

attends a religious revival with thousands in attendance. At
'__.‘_fl,wiwrrmnm

207
this revival, Elaw comes to understand God's will concerning

her life when she is moved to do an impromptu exhortation.
Elaw writes:

I immediately went outside and stood at the door of the
tent; and in an instant I began as it were involuntarily,
or from an internal prompting, with a loud voice to exhort
the people who yet were remaining near the preacher's
stand; and in the presence of a more numerous assemblage
of ministers than I had ever seen before; as if God had
called forth witness on earth, ministers and members, to
witness on this day to my commission, and the
qualifications, He bestowed on me to preach his holy
Gospel. (Elaw 82)

Elaw writes that her first preaching session had a tremendous“

 

effect 32 the misistersmprsssnt: "Our dear ministers stood
gazing and listening with wonder and astonishment; and the
tears flowed abundantly down their cheeks while they witnessed
the wonderful works of God" (Elaw 82).

Iswgrdgrwtowprgagh, Elaw has to refute Pauline theology

that women remain silent in churches. Elaw writes:

nwv «

 

 

_—— mfiw _.

It is true, that in the ordinary course of Church
arrangement and order, the Apostle Paul laid it down as a
rule, that females should not speak in the church, nor be
suffered to teach, but the Scriptures make it evident that
this rule was not intended to limit the extraordinary
directions of the Holy Ghost, in reference to female
evangelists, or oracular sisters; nor to be rigidly
observed in peculiar circumstances. (Elaw 124)

Elaw's text depicts her inner struggle to define herself
outside of woman's prescribed sphere to complete her
ministerial duties. Early in her text, she suggests that the
"wife is destined to be the help-meet of her husband" but later

she comes to realize that such a subordinate role limits those_

_—

women who have strong career aspirations. Elaw advises women in.

her audience against being "unequally ysked," Marriage to a

...—.1
_fi- ..-....—-'-

 

208
non-believer can place limitations on a woman's reaching her

full potential.

After her husband's death, Elaw places her daughter in

 

service and bsgiss_§_§elf-reliant and tremendgusly successfsl
career in itineragtwministr , reaching in free Northern
ststes! slave holding states in the South, as well as before
leading members of upper class society and in England.
Courageous and self-reliant, Elaw ventures into the
slaveholding South during the era of the Fugitive Slave Law to
preach the Gospel: "On one occasion..., I had been preaching
to a coloured congregation; and had exhorted them impressively
to acquit themselves as men approved of God... I had no sooner
sat down, than Satan suggested to me with such force, that the
Slaveholders would speedily capture me, as filled me with fear
and terror" (Elaw 91). However, Lee confronted her terror and

undaunted, preached the gospel nightly until taking her leave.

In large part, Elaw successfully confrontsmragism and

“31.-1‘...“an

sexisms/Preaching before predominantly white congregations with

doctors, lawyers, scholars, and theologians in attendance,

 

 

presents Elaw with a triumphant challenge. In her preaching
engagements in America, Elaw was invited by prominent citizens,
including the wives of Mayor Hunter and General Van Esse, to
spend time at their residences in order to preach the gospel.
Mrs. Lee, wife of General Robert E. Lee, invited her to a
chapel on her property to preach the gospel. While a guest at
residences of upper class and significant Americans, Blé!_fl§§,

tested concerning

her intellectual knowledge of scriptures and

 

always prevailed before audiences with men in attendance. For

209
this reason Elaw's memoirs contain a flavor of pride in her

 

 

 

achievemsnts as she records her triumphant accomplishments in
itinerant ministry. Elaw leaves her autobiography as a legacy
to be read "long after [she has] ceased from [her] earthly
labours and existence" (Elaw 160).

Welter maintains that "religios gr pietywas the core of a

 

woman's virtue, the source of her strength." Yet, clerical

 

 

authority in mainstream American churches viewed religion as a

> kuxm N: .w w a.“

meansmschonfiningfiwsmen to‘ssgspssdsstwiifs. Religious
training would help women develop those characteristics and
qualities that would make women dependent and submissive.
Through religion, woman would know that her "proper sphere" was
her home. Welter writes: "Unlike participation in other
societies or movements, church work would not make her less
domestic or submissive, less a True Woman."”5 Above all else,
ideologies concerning the cult of true womanhood specified that
woman's energies were best placed in domestic duties and the
religious work which promoted them. Intellectual pursuits
which "clashed" with those duties were to be avoided at all
costs.

The women included in this discussion found it necessary

to break away from family and friends in order to preach the

 

 

 

gospel. They did not adhere to the standards for women in
__,,,__l i
nineteenth- century society or to the ideologies of the cult of

W“ ‘ H.“ 'MW
~b~M

 

-—-» way-mm... "_b MM'MH- ‘ ’N- -m- --n.——..r Anal-11 ...

 

,_ o “u mm ..-
,‘q-rWr-W— “I“ ... ‘-" ham-mw-Hu‘. ww—"tJ

"true womanhood." Performing Biblical exegesis as authority

......a.» ‘m - . -. .w‘r‘t~'t~'vz-x‘xw. ... v.

 

”(gh— - no

figures before mixed audiences of males and females made them

violators of woman's place in traditional readings of Scripture

 

 

and in society at large.

NOTES

1 William E. B. DuBois, ine_sQnis_gr_siagk_rgix. Three
Negrg_classigs, ed. John Hope Franklin, (New York: Avon, 1965).

2 Darlene Clark Hine, "Lifting the Veil, Shattering the
Silence: Black Women's History in Slavery and Freedom," The
W ed.
Darlene Clark Hine, (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1986)
228.

3 See Jean McMahon Humez, ed., Gifts_gf_£gner;__1he
HII' EE] C I] 'Elllli' 5]]
Eldress, (Boston: U of Massachusetts P, 1981) and Jualyne
Dodson and Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, "Something Within: Social
Change and Collective Endurance in the Sacred World of Black

Christian Women," WW eds. Rosemary

Radford Ruether and Rosemary Skinner Keller, vol. 3 (San
Francisco: Harper, 1986).

4 Robert Burns Stepto, Eer_Behind_the_yeil (Urbana: U of
Illinois P, 1979) vii.

5 Marjorie Pryse, introduction, Conjnring, eds. Marjorie
Pryse and Hortense J. Spillers (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1985)
8.

6 William L. Andrews, Ig_Iell_a_£ree_§tgry. (Urbana: U
of Illinois P, 1986). 70-71.

7 Barbara Welter, WWW
in_the_m'.neteenth__c.entur¥, (Athensz Ohio UP. 1976) 21.

8 Frances Smith Foster, "Adding Color and Contour to Early
American Self- -Portraitures: Autobiographical Writings of Afro—

American Women " Wm

WM, ed Darlene
Clark Hine, vol. 2 (Brooklyn: Carlson, 1990) 404.

9 Foster 405.

10 Hazel V Carby, W

W (New York:
Oxford UP, 1988) 40.

11 Carby 4o.
12 Andrews, W 69-70-

210

211

13 See Joel 2: 28-32 and Acts 2: 2-28.
14 DuBois discusses the double consciousness of African—

Americans. See DuBois, Souls_gf_Blagk_EQlk 215.
15 Welter 21.

.— umez 6.

17 William L. Andrews,

     

(Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1986) 9.

18 Andrews, W 10.
19 Andrews. W 10-11.

20 Lee writes: "I had a call to preach at a place about
thirty miles distant, among the Methodists, with whom I
remained one week, and during the whole time, not a thought of
my little son came to my mind; it was hid from me, lest I
should have been diverted from the work I had to, to look after
my son" (Lee 45).

21 The Shaker religious sect and cult is one of the few
religious faiths currently alive in America whose founder and
leader was female. The Shaker sect, or the United Society of
Believers in Christ's Second Appearing was founded in America
in 1776 in Niskeyuna (Watervliet) near Albany, New York to open
the Gospel of Christ's Second Appearing the New World. The
Shaker religious faith was founded by Mother Ann Lee (1736-
1784), a former member of the Manchester England Shaking
Quakers. As a young woman, Lee joined the organization hoping
to attain liberation from sin, thereby attaining spiritual
perfection. Because of her religious beliefs, throughout much
of her life, Lee had suffered persecution and hostility from
the local Manchester residents as well as from the local civic
and religious authorities. The intensity of this hostility led
to Lee's imprisonment.

During her imprisonment in 1770, Lee underwent two
significant religious experiences that would later become the
foundation of the Shaker religious faith. In the first
religious encounter, Lee had a visionary experience which led
her to believe that sexual union was a grievous sin and was, in
fact, the signal act which prompted God to expell Adam and Eve
from the Garden of Eden and subsequently to human loss of
paradise. From that moment on, Lee preached that celibacy was
the only way to achieve salvation. With the preaching of this
new doctrine, Lee again encountered persecution, perhaps even
more severe than before. As the persecution raged, Lee
informed her followers that God had revealed to her that she
would found a religion in America. In 1779, the Shakers
officially became followers of Mother Ann Lee.

Shaker theory and practice taught the dual or androgynous
nature of God. Members of the sect believed that females and
males were equal representatives of the Divine and created
equal by God. However, due to a lack of enlightenment, as well

212

as misinterpretation of Scripture, females were rendered
subordinate to males. Believing that Christ was present in the
embodiment of Mother Ann Lee, the sect separated from the world
to carry out their religious beliefs.

The longevity of the Shaker religious cult and sect was
due to Lee's ability to attract intellectual followers who
could maintain her organizational and theological vision for
her movement. See Rosemary Radford Ruether, "Women in Utopian
Movements," Women_and BeliQiQn_in_America. eds, Rosemary
Radford Ruether and Rosemary Skinner Keller, vol. 2 (San
Francisco: Harper, 1986). For the above discussion, see also
Anna White and Leila S. Taylor, eds., Shekeriem;__1§e_fleening
and_Meeeege (Columbus, Ohio: n.p., 1904); Shakers, Testimonies

o o- - z e - '00 -00 lo '0‘ o v0 0‘ :00
Lee, (New York: AMS,1988); Frederick William Evans,
Autobiogranhx_of_a_5haker (Glasgow: United, 1888); Richard E.
Williams, Called_and_£heeen (Metuchen: Scarecrow, 1981).

22 See Humez's analysis of this concept in Gifts Qf Pewer
7-36.

23 See John McKelvie Whitworth, fieg;e_Blneprinte;__A

S9siol9gical_Studx_of_Ihree_utonian_Seots (London: Routledge,
1975). Whitworth writes.

Interesting evidence of the psychology of the Shaker
theologians can be found in the instances of the
'practical evils' deriving immediately from sexuality,
which they cited to illustrate the corruption and misery
of life in the world. These evils included excessive
child-bearing (the 'curse of women') and the power of
'unseasonable lust' to master and degrade otherwise
controlled and rational man (19).

24 Whitworth 19.
25 See 1 Timothy 2:11—15.
26 Welter 22.

CHAPTER FIVE
PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION

 

AND
RELIGIOUS ACTIVISM IN SECULAR AUTOBIWLMWBITJNES
""OF—i

AFRICAN-AMERICAN FEMALES

The pattern established in Maria W. Stewart's spiritual
and secular autobiographical writings of 1835 is displayed in
the later secular autobiographical writings of African-American
women. In_i§§2, Harriet E.fWi1son)"seized authority" to print
a text indicting hypocritical Christianity and America's socio-
political structure. Two years later, Harriet A. QQZSEE]
"seized authority" to publish an autobiography indicting
similar issues. While the texts focus primarily on secular
matters and challenge sexism and racism in America, they
develop liberation theolsgies which are crucial to their

authors' religious activism>//E;amined here are Harriet E.

 

 

 

Wilson's

O l
- .0- 0 A. ‘ v. ‘ \0 0' 0.. O. 0- - ‘ 0-..:

Eall_nyen_1here (1859),1 and Harriet A. Jacobs' Insidenifi_in
(1861).2

 

Analysis of these texts should illustrate that black women were
able to develop a Christian theology of liberation despite
their exposure to a slanted version of that religion which

supported their oppression. Further, analysis from "their own
213

214
mouths"3 will illustrate how they were able to transform the

 

Christian doctrine into a political tool for_tssir individgsl

 

 

 

 

 

liberation.

 

With the 1859 printing of Qnr_n1g, Wilson became the first
African-American female to publish a novel in English. In
1983, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. recovered and authenticated
Wilson's text as both an African-American novel and as a
"fictional third-persssssutssiogrsphy "4 According to Gates,

Wilson's text, also an adaptation of the nineteenth-century

sentimental narrative, bears quite striking similarities to her

fl

own life history. For the purpose of this discussion, Wilson's
text will be examined as the secular autobiographical writings
of a black female. Through the autobiographical format Wilson
develops a critique of almost every social institution in

existence in mid-nineteenth-century America. Wilson indicts:

 

the pervasive silence of the organized clergy in many

MM- -..“...nh «— ..- .4.- .thfi

 

 

'"“ albm-"Jpfl'HH-osm

mainstream Christian sects on the evils of racism; the slanted

r a inn-om ’p‘flh—l
...-n.- -m_._.. mmfiw -w- W”.-

 

 

 

Zsrsissssgsghristisnity taught_to blacks byswhites; and what

 

she perceives to be the hypocrisy of many abolitionists.

 

 

Finally, Wilson's narrative is an indictment of the cult of

 

 

 

 

 

domesticity and "true womanhood." It is through subverting the

ideologies of true womanhood and the development of a

 

 

 

 

liberation theology in a black woman' 5 mode that Wilson

Own—u‘ _a...
....aM- ... “W, “...“..W’

 

:._._..__ —._ -... .... ...-m .... -._ ___, . .... -..-...WW‘I"

achieves freedom and self- reliance.

.-mmww_ _M

 

Wilson's text confronts racism straight on. As the title
suggests, Wilson exposes the enormity of Northern racism,
"showing that slavery's shadows fall even there." Historian

Leon Litwack discusses the ever-present manifestation of

215
Northern racism and points out that efforts to portray the

North as a benevolent region were deceiving:

The Mason-Dixon Line is a convenient but an often
misleading geographical division. It has been used not
only to distinguish the old South from the North and the
Confederacy from the Union but to dramatize essential
differences in the treatment of, and attitudes toward, the
Negro--to control Southern racial inhumanity with Northern
benevolence and liberality.5

However, Litwack warns that historians must be "wary of such an
oversimplified comparison, for it does not accord with the
realities of either the nineteenth century or the twentieth."6
Litwack states further that while the intrinsic cruelty of
Southern slavery does not have to be proven any longer,

Southern slavery does not mitigate Northern racism:

Although slavery eventually confined itself to the region
below the Mason-Dixon Line, discrimination against the
Negro and a firmly held belief in the superiority of white
race were not restricted to one section but were shared by
an overwhelming majority of white Americans in both the
North and the South.7

In giving prominent place to racism in her text, Wilson

 

 

 

presents another first-hand account of a Northern black womasss
attempt to transcend oppressioss_

Wilson presents her life history through her protagonist,
Alfrado, who is the product of an interracial marriage between
Mag and Jim (a white female and black male), the ultimate taboo
in antebellum society. Mag, a "fallen" woman, marries Jim to
survive financially. During the marriage, Mag becomes the
mother of two children, Alfrado and her brother. When Frado's8
father dies, Mag cohabits with another black male, Seth, who

rejects Frado and her brother. Desperate financial

circumstances prompt Seth to adopt a scheme to rid himself of

216
Mag's children. Mag goes along with his plans. Abandoned into

service at a young age to the Bellmonts, Prado experiences a
vile form of racism and victimization at the hands of Mrs.
Bellmont. Ironically, Mrs. Bellmont's community perceives her
to be an exemplar of the cult of domesticity and "true
womanhood." When her mother and Seth abandon the child,
Frado's own life story takes central focus.

Wilson's text is valuable to black women's history and
literature, not only in relation to the merits that Gates
uncovers in his introduction to the work, but also because of
the insights the text presents about a black woman's experience
in service in nineteenth-century America. While Frado's story
is typical in that quite a few black women were placed in
service at a young age because of the dire financial straits of
many nineteenth-century black families, it may be also atypical
in that Frado's story includes a black child's life-time
abandonment by a mother who has no regard for her care. Recent
and ongoing historical scholarship suggest that the history of
blacks involved a struggle to keep the black family together
despite racial Oppression and slavery. In extreme isolation
from the black community, which is vital to a black child's
self-esteem and maturity, Prado struggles to come to terms with
her destiny and her life. Frado's story, then, becomes one in
which the heroine endures a third of her life in continual
maltreatment under the supervision of Mrs. Bellmont.

Under the terms of "true womanhood" women were to exert
their influence in what was known as "women's sphere." In

this instance, Mrs. Bellmont, known as a "she-devil" by the

217
lower and working classes, but as a "true woman" by the

privileged classes, controls the Bellmont household. The men
in the household are helpless before the tyranny of Mrs.
Bellmont. While they attempt to intervene for Prado, their
actions on her behalf are futile. In her early childhood,
Prado experiences a continual onslaught of beatings, forced
toil, and drudgery.

However, the very young Prado does experience bright
moments in intellectual spheres when she is allowed to attend
school with Mary Bellmont, who is resentful of her presence.
After a brief episode of racial hostility from her classmates,
Prado becomes one of the most popular and wittiest members of
her academic setting. Frado's early quest for freedom and
literacy is, however, imperiled by Mrs. Bellmont's insistence
that Prado be treated as a "nigger." Because Mrs. Bellmont
sees Prado as one who will provide cheap labor and be made to
do the work of two women in a few years, she does not mind the
"nigger in the child" (Wilson 26).

Frado's introduction to Christianity comes from the
Bellmont's son, James, who introduces her to a slanted version
of Christianity, one that is partial to whites. The unfairness
of her life grates on Prado who finds her abuse unjustified.
However, James counsels Prado "to be a good girl" (Wilson 50)
despite her oppression. Prado does not see goodness as a
solution to her desire for liberation and self-esteem.
Whatever choices she makes, the results are the same. Whether
good or not "I get whipped," Prado responds (Wilson 50). Such

abuse results from the fact that Frado is viewed by Mrs.

218
Bellmont as an inferior member of the human race. As foremost

black liberation theologian James Cone notes: "American “QEEE- —_7

 

theology has not been involved in the struggle for black

_ ,_#-w - >~W-___

liberation. It_sss been basically a theology of the white

oppresssr,‘givisghreligious sanction to the genocide of

I- ~qfi...,,_* W'-

Amerindians and the enslavement of Africans."9 (

 

As the narrative progresses, Prado is extremely
overworked. During James' illness, her work load is made even
more severe. Until moments before his death, James gives Prado
religious instructions and insists upon her attendance at
church. In church, the minister urges all blacks and whites to
accept a compassionate Christ as their Saviour. Prado
struggles to find salvation while the ministers and neighbors
carefully observe her progress. Yet none of these people offers
Prado solutions to her daily worries. Mrs. Bellmont, concerned
that Prado will gain religious transformation, impedes her
progress toward salvation. Ultimately Prado abandons her quest
for relationship with a Deity defined by her oppressors.
Realizing that their definition of God supports her oppression,
Prado struggles to develop her own theology.

After her years of service are ended, Prado leaves the
Bellmont household, but overwork and a resulting illness
postpone her dreams of self-reliance. Because of racism,10
Prado doubts that she will be able to find a usable skill that
will foster her self-reliance: "But how should she, black
feeble and poor, find anyone to teach her?" (Wilson 124).

Prado, however, has made progress toward a development 95

..--
. “a...“ . I __--....n.a~~—-

 

a black woman's hermeneutics of understanding the_Divine.

.- .._. 51,...

_,-‘......... o--:u-“‘

219
Years of hidden study of Scripture prove to Prado that: "God

 

 

 

 

prepares the way, when human agencies see no path" (Wilson

124). This understanding of a Deity who favors_the ligsrstisn_

 

of blacks provides Prado with a sense of freedom and a desire
to strive for self-elevation. Presenting to the world a
"devout and Christian exterior," while inwardly developing a
liberation theology in a black woman's mode, Prado finds new
friends and acceptance in the community.

Frances Smith Poster suggests that Wilson's Prado is a
representation of a "true woman" in that she is a "pious"
mulatto, who is "sensitive and long-suffering."n- On the other
hand, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. suggests that Prado's "devout and

Christian" exterior is an outward act of pretence. While it is

true that Prado adopts the outward manifestations of a devout

M..— m..- -._.._ ...- t), __,,___ —...-un—-

 

worried“: inwardly Fraao deveiooaaa intimatelrelatéonship

with the Divine on her own terms. As indicated in previous

 

chapters in this dissertation, black women's quest for piety
and virtue may consist of an androgynous pursuit, rather than
one specifically designed to meet the ideologies of the "true
woman."

Prado attempts to find happiness through the traditional
avenue for women, marriage. She marries a man who pretends to
be an ex-slave touring the lecture circuit with white
abolitionists. This experience illustrates that Frado's
initial attempts to define herself in terms of "trussssmsssgggfi

W “ _, ”W-eW-l-Am-‘M“M
are disastrous: As a result her "first feelings of trust and

 

repose on human arm" (Wilson 127) leave her again destitute and

ill. With the extra burden of a child to support and a husband

220
who frequently abandons her, Prado is placed in the county

house. During each abandonment, Prado seeks to become
independent and self-reliant. After her husband's death, Prado
seeks employment among white abolitionists as a means to care

for her child but finds rejection because of her race:

...Maltreated by professed abolitionists, who didn't want
slaves at the South, nor niggers in their own houses,
North. Paugh! to lodge one; to eat with one; to admit
one through the front door; to sit next one,awful! (Wilson
129)

Divine Providence again favors Prado and she is able to
acquire a useable skill which may have been hair coloring. At
the end of her text, Prado continues her journey toward self-

reliance and religious liberation. Harriet E. Wilson, whose

 

life parallels Frado's, attempts as well to become self:

 

 

 

 

reliant.,/In her preface, Wilson writes: "Deserted by kindred,

disabled by failing_healthLI am f°§EE§i§P some experiment

 

which shall aid me in maintaining myself_and child without

 

 

 

Extinguishing tiliajesglemlilfel:

 

Frado's story is the bildungsroman of an isolated black

 

 

 

 

woman's coming of age. Wilson's protagonist grows from a young

‘d‘a ”A“ ms. ._:

female who asks the wrong questions ("Why was I made? Why
can't I die?") (Wilson 75) to one who finds a black
appropristissmsfsthe Divine. This leads to Frado's
understanding of the means to find release from drudgery and

liw»nr ..a‘

enslavemsnt. William E. B. DuBois insists that such questions

...-—

 

are merely "wasted" and "bitter" cries of anguish that provide
no answers and lead to hopelessnessdn Escape for Prado comes

almost too late because she has waited almost too long to ask

221
the right questions, questions that would lead her to utilize

her understanding of a liberation theology for self-reliance.
Ill health as a result of years of drudgery almost makes her
unfit for her dream of self-reliance; she realizes at the end
of her narrative that such independence is crucial to black
transcendence of oppressive socio-political codes in the
nineteenth century. However, at the end of her narrative Prado

continues her journey toward liberation in the Divine.

And thus, to the present time, may you see her busily
employed in preparing her merchandise; then sallying forth
to encounter many frowns, but some kind friends and
purchasers. Nothing turns her from her steadfast purpose
of elevating herself. Reposing on God, she has thus far
journeyed securely. (Wilson 129-130)

Published two years after Wilson's an_NiQ and shortly
before the outbreak of the American Civil War, Harriet Ann
,Jacobs:1nQidenLa_in_Lh2_LiIa_Qf_a_fila!£_fii£li_flzitlfin_h¥
Herself, demonstrates the importance of the black community in

the development of a young woman's self-esteem, self-reliance
f

 

 

and a black theology of liberation. Jacobs' autobiography,
m~_ee*m_l

A man-

 

 

like Stewart's Exndnatiana; is a model of self-reliance and
self-authorization. Like Qnr_Nig, Incidents isdicts the

nineteenth- -century cult of domesticity and truemwomanhood. As

__.....o. m- ..I -fi-v
I w__.— - “‘-

the author of a secular slave autobiography, Jacobs provides a

 

subtext of self- determinism through a black appropriation of

’- I.” “..M a- an.- scant-nap... . .-
M a u - - ‘ _“ ...I" "I... ..-...-._.—- v' '-

the Divine.

 

 

W is the story of a1n

African-American female's transcendence of the system of
American chattel slavery and the nineteenth-century socio-

political codes of "true womanhood.“13 Like most slave

222
narratives, Jacobs' text adheres to the motif of the slave's

journey to freedom and literacy.

Many antebellum slave narratives present a prose portrait
of a happy childhood until the slave comes to a realization
early on that he or she is a slave for life. Jacobs' text is
no exception. When she becomes the slave of Dr. and Mrs.
Samuel Norcom, presented in the text as Dr. and Mrs. Plint,
Jacobs' life takes on an even more tragic turn. Daily Jacobs
faces maltreatment at the hands of her new mistress. Yet her
painful encounters with Mrs. Flint are lessened by the support
of her maternal grandmother, Molly Horniblow, represented in
the text as Aunt Martha. Although Jacobs' grandmother (a
former slave) is unable to buy Jacobs' freedom (despite her
constant struggles to do so), she provides Jacobs with a

theologicglwperspectiye and self:ssteem that will enable herfite

~ -wuv .4...-
- .. .1 ~~e we ~“_--'\u¢.~.t.'—. ...

develop_a strong sensswsfself;

 

 

When Jacobs becomes a young woman, she experiences
continuous sexual harassment from Dr. Flint and, as a result,
heightened cruelty from Mrs. Flint. These oppressive
circumstances cause Jacobs to exercise her will in choosing a
lover and, thus, in determining the father of her offspring.
When Jacobs can no longer tolerate her oppression she flees
slavery. However, Jacobs' love for her children causes her to
remain hidden in her grandmother's attic for seven years as an
escaped slave so that she can be near them. Through many
dramatic episodes of outwitting her master, Jacobs finds

freedom at the end of her narrative.

223
The historical and literary importance of Jacobs' text is

well-documented in recent historical and literary studies.14

In Jacobs: text, for the firstwtime,fldetails aéggpmgpe
M - ---...uo-qm— 0’ - «V M w

...nn-o- ... ‘ “swarms—.4... o “..., dua-

 

of an African-American female who retains control of her own

- r—'

 

w; .M ”‘1‘

text. Angry at the silence of many nineteenth-century American

 

churches on the subject of slavery, Jacobs' text employs a

blackwfemslewlibergtipn hermeneutics meant to challenge_she

 

 

 

 

institutionwef patriarchy, that system best demonstrated in
.American chattel slavery. In order to attack effectively this
institution in mid-nineteenth-century America, Jacobs attacks
the traditional readings of Christianity used in support of it.
Published before the outbreak of the American Civil War,

during the era when women began to organize for political force
and power, Jacobs' narrative is asd:ssssg_tg_yhite_gemen_inethe
_Nsrth; Her aim is to persuade her audience that they have the

power as a unified group to put an end to slavery and racism.

While the text is known largely as abolitionist literature, it

 

may also be considered a jeremiad in which Jacobs presents a

 

lamentation of woe regarding the sexual exploitation of the
female slave and a warning to American women about the dire
consequences for America of the evils of slavery and racism.

Sacvan Bercovitch defines the American jeremiad as a mode
of public exhortation which originated in the European pulpit.
The jeremiad typically employs "social criticism" and

"spiritual renewal."15 In short, it is a political sermon in

 

which politics and theology are "welded" to establish what

“mm—...: ‘mma-‘fl‘

 

might be considered God's will for the present and future 16

p. . --— -.-.. ... . . ....
‘_ a - m. h-nx .~ ‘m --.; .q, .- ‘cw— . um.

 

224
Bercovitch expands Perry Miller's definition of the American

jeremiad by classifying it as fundamentally optimistic.
Bercovitch adds that public figures who present jeremiads are
considered practical and spiritual guides who present a vision
of America as it "ought to be.“” Further Bercovitch argues:
"American writers have tended to see themselves as outcasts and
isolates, prophets crying in the wilderness so they have been,
as a rule: American Jeremiahs, simultaneously lamenting a
declension and celebrating a national dream.18

This chapter argues that Wire
5121 offers a subtext of liberation theology in a black woman's

voice. Jacobs' text is a sermon delivered by a fallen woman

f—v

who claims that position asflgn_authorityflfigure. Although

 

Jacobs is isolated from mainstream America because of the

 

 

socio-political codes of race, gender, and class, she fights

 

for the national dream of freedom for herself and her people.

”.-.—...... .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the few slave narratives in which an ex-enslaved female
controls her own text, Jacobs' narrative presents an argument
based on the premise that slavery does not have Divine

sanction. Jacobs writes:

I am glad that missionaries go out to the dark corners of
the earth; but I ask them not to overlook the dark corners
at home. Talk to American slaveholders...Tell them it is
wrong to traffic in men. Tell them it is sinful to sell
their own children, and atrocious to violate their own
daughters. Tell them that all men are brethren, and that
man has no right to shut out the light of knowledge from
his brothers. Tell them they are answerable to God for
sealing up the Fountain of Life from souls that are
thirsting for it. (Jacobs 75)

In adopting the role of exhorter to the women of the

North, Jacobs' stance is_a radical interpretation of_scripture:

----uu.- .. urn-....-- ~_ ”----.....u—n—n.

 

225
As Jean Pagan Yellin notes, Jacobs' "easy use of Biblical

quotations and references throughout her narrative"19

indicates her thorough knowledge of canonical Biblical texts.

 

 

 

 

Knowing one's audience is essential to being read. In the
pietistic era in which Jacobs writes, she finds it necessary to
establish a Biblical, critical, historical precedent for her
radical exegeses of Scriptural texts. Jacobs does establish a
Biblical historical precedent for her actions. Before
discussing Jacobs' text it is necessary to locate the place
where Jacobs establishes such a precedent. Editor Jean Pagan
Yellin documents Jacobs frequent Biblical quotations for easy
reference. When Jacobs quotes Jesus' observation that the
fields are "ripe for the harvest and awaits the reapers"
(Jacobs 73), Fagan Yellin locates the text in two places of
Scripture: Revelation 14:15 and John 4:35. The location of
the Scripture in John 4:35 where Jesus states: "... look on
the fields: for they are white already to harvest," provides a
Biblical reading that may be used in support of women's right
to preach.

Theologian Ben Witherington, III, recovers the history and
heritage of women in early Christianity. His examination of

Jesus' interactions with women demonstrates that the Messiah

 

frequently and radically defied social customs of his age in“

#—

regards to women. By speaking to women openly in public and

 

 

 

 

 

touching them when they would have been considered ritually
unclean, Jesus defied Jewish law and social ethics.20
In the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus engages

in an intellectual conversation with a female adulterer and

226
converses with her as an equal. As Biblical scholar Leonard

Swidler asserts, Jgsuswfdeliberatelyfiwagdmflagrant1y violated

“m
- ...“...

 

the then commonwcgde concergiggnmeglg relationship to women,"21

WWW

In this famous encounter, Jesus also transcends racial

prejudice. The woman asks a pertinent question of Jesus: "How

“.m" +— "Way

 

is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a
woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the
Samaritans (KJV John 4:9). Swidler notes that in John 4, Jesus
goes out of his way to enter into a conversation with a strange
woman, to reveal himself to her as the Messiah, and to make her
an instrument for the preaching of his "good news."22

Biblical theologian Denise Lardner Carmody argues that the
Woman of Samaria is a witness for Jesus from outside the
mainstream of Jesus' ethnic heritage. Carmody further states
that many believed that Jesus was the Messiah because of the
woman's testimony, which was "rooted in Jesus' understanding of
her life."23

When the disciples return to find Jesus talking to a
woman, they are shocked and amazed at his violation of Jewish
law and social custom. However, they remain silent. To the

woman of Samaria, a woman who might be defined as an_

 

adulterer, Jesus reveals that he is the Messiahmandwfurther

- nun—W

 

 

 

 

 

-..—-—-—- --'

sanctions her as preacher of his gospel; The woman of Samaria
preaches the good news to fellow Samaritans crying: "Come, see
a man, which told me all the things that I ever did: is not
this the Christ?" (John 4:29) The men then "went out of the
city, and came unto him" (John 4:30). Jesus informs his

disciples that the fields are ready to harvest and that they

227
must reap what others had sown. At this point, the Samaritans

come to see Jesus because: ... many of the Samaritans of that
city believed on him for the saying of the woman which
testified, he told me all that I ever did" (John 4:38). In
verses 25-42 of John 4, Jesus presents the woman of Samaria as
a sower and the disciples as reapers. A Biblical historical
precedent is thus set for a formermfgmalgfladulterer to preach*
the good news.

Delivering a jeremiad to the "pure" women of America,

\ _ _.._- t - __ ..- , __,. “a... .--...b- _hwa—o—an-w- w ----- 'W mJ “Hun-.w ”vi-.‘wrr‘W—Nmm".

Jacobs fulfills the role of the woman of Samaria. Jacobs makes

9 -W -... rw-W- «If-rt— r-r-"I‘ '~&.m Mogul-haw” Imafiflwm .-

 

 

 

 

no apologies for gender and transcends her adulterous past.

”A ~a~-r~, “‘ v-W-N' "“ "m. ‘w “v Ant-A .31., -w ..., nml‘lme, ..-.

Jacobs attempts to establish new roles for the women in her

..-hA—M-N~ min-y- A ' ‘Nm“'- “M“«cmw ”we. .. ..p ...-..., How-4y ..." r...- L r "‘“ W.“

 

 

 

 

———

audience and to demonstrate to them that they are powerful

Hun—f on) I“
K“ aux-.1“ N. 4 V“ ”M - MWW ..IH-u- H~.~— .L'wa. '-
W-

enough to change the course of American history.

———— “a... ...,“ ammowhm—a -- - ‘L .—_..

This chapter seeks to articulate the means whereby an

 

enslaved black woman was able to develop a liberation theology
which was directly responsible for her freedom and self-
reliance. Such an understanding will bring to light the
invisible religion of the African-American slave.

In 1978, religious historian Albert J. Raboteau wrote:

Wg_§hguldmspeakflgfwthe "invisibility" of slave_reliqion
with irony; it is the neglect of slave sources by
historians which has been the main cause of this '
IfiVisibility. 24

“...-...I..—

Citing the seminal contributions of historians John

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blassingame, Sterling Stuckey, and Lawrence Levine and others

in recovering the religious heritage of_slaves, Raboteau argued

 

 

 

that slaves left an articulate record of their religious

u “A Hm xh. WWI—h“ _-

-_._- W.on4—W\

 

experience. Raboteau continues: "I have tried to investigate

___ ”WIr-Lmn-uu-mrfi

228
slave narratives, black autobiographies and black folklore in

order to gather literally out of the mouths of former slaves,
the story of their religious experiences during slavery."25

By redefining Christ as a liberator of women and blacks,

w

 

 

 

 

 

Jacobs is able to exhort publicly and to w_rite an autobiography

mmuuA-t‘LIJ-a KM 4“» 1‘“ -f"""."' H-y- _w-r

 

"hiPhflbfigflfiséiéli§£§miadrtomuomenmofm§h§MEgggh- Through ad

 

Biblical exegesis that confirms her humanity and liberation,

 

5" u. _- _. . -..... -n___~au-_...WW

includes a subteXE_-_9€-_l_i.P§£a£$9n. tbs-“mgr; Arguing that the

 

 

"doctors of divinity" are, on the one hand, blind, and, on the
other hypocritical, Jacobs seeks to dispense a more valid
exegesis of the Christian gospel.

Jacobs develops a liberation theology and successfully
finds public voice through the combined elements of heritage,
familial community, and black slave community. Through these
social institutions, Jacobs is provided with a foundation of

Qlégk_religiou§w§nd CRlEE£él_helisfslwhich_§nableS her P9.

become self-reliant, By relying on the religious and secular

fin“ vu-

 

 

 

 

 

beliefs of her ancestors as true, Jacobs is able to build a

F M h._._.

 

 

 

 

 

foundation for her own individual theology and to thwart her

‘hM-q—a‘wm.‘ H,

 

 

...-n-

 

‘f “Wu—-

 

 

oppressors, thereby gaining a poSitive identity. The religious

 

 

beliefs of her community, enable her to define herself
positively.

Houston A. Baker states that the desire for self-
definition and being is a common motif in slave narratives.
Positive self-definition increased Jacobs' abilities to see
possibilities for full humanity while existing in a system

which promoted and fought for the dehumanization of blacks. The

229
black world view recorded and historicized in her narrative is

central to Jacobs' definition of her culture and her world.
Both the sense of heritage and community combined with this
knowledge of common black religious beliefs, helped her to
survive and to transcend the system of chattel slavery in
America.

Studying Jacobs' text will refute any notion that most
religious blacks in the antebellum era passively waited for God
to free them. Rather, Jacobs' concept that it was God's will
that she be free provides the impetus in her struggle for
freedom.

In outlining a theology which embraces a Black world view
and religious beliefs, Jacobs is able to do an effective
rebuttal of the institutional Christianity of America. Taking
on the role of spokeswoman for God, Jacobs explores a political
Christianity of liberation in a black woman's mode as she
argues for the freedom of Black women in slavery and against

W ...—W —~“__‘
“M“m—nmu-M

the mythology that blacks have no souls.

\

 

 

M
'—~—‘

The quest in Jacobs' n::§ative is the quest for freedom

 

and the quest for literacy. It is through writing that Jacobs

 

 

brings order into her wor d and through writing that Jacobs

 

 

 

establishes her full humanity. Literacy is important to

 

 

/

is the ultimate act of rebellion

Jacobs, who is aware that it

.__‘

for slaves: ..." [learning to read] was contrary to the law;

 

and ... slaves were whipped and imprisoned for teaching others
to read" (Jacobs 72).
In order to have success as an abolitionist, Jacobs has to

construct a black political theology which demonstrates that

230
slavery is not the divine will of God. Since certain Biblical

exegeses of institutional Christianity support slavery, Jacobs
must construct a Biblical hermeneutics which refutes what she

considers to be biased interpretations of scripture. In writing

 

 

 

autobiography Jacobs historicizes the American version of

«m - ...-..- .... .
.. . Ha—mxhfi. ,v‘ H “
_......-.._..-— ... m‘_ A“.

Christianity which promoted ideas of black inferiority Such a

“n u . ‘av'fl- 1w
gnaw-Mm .. A“ “W

 

version became an abusive tool in the hands of slavemasters and
is commonly known by black historians for its brainwashing

effects. Jacobs' text is a record of the means by_which a rage

 

 

can both reject and transcend the religion that promotes its

”W «Wm- H

 

—‘---P *‘- aw on.

 

 

massive oppression. John W. Blassingame notes that, in
episodes of brutal oppression, groupwsolidaritywandwreligigus

ideals helped foster the survival of the oppressed. “5 fiXwi

\w- ~hL-fl'nm—h- ”M‘m—‘ ‘M "J" ”I“ “1 W“bw~o.n

 

rejecting brainwashing Christianity, blacks survived.

“13.... “was ”1.. (x a.“ “W v ...-1......

 

no“... JV. _—

Early in her text, Jacobs exposes a "true woman' 5" version
of the Christian doctrine which is hypocritical in that it

rejects black humanity:

My mistress had taught me the precepts of God's word:
'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Whatsoever ye
would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto
them.‘ But I was her slave, and I suppose she did not
recognize me as her neighbor. I would give much to blot
out from my memory that one great wrong. As a child, I
loved my mistress: and, looking back on the happy days I
spent with her, I try to think with less bitterness of
this act of injustice. While I was with her she taught me
to read and spell; and for this privilege, which so rarely
falls to the lot of a slave, I bless her memory. (Jacobs
8)

By forgiving her mistress for the wrongs perpetrated upon her,
Jacobs embraces what Olin P. Moyd designates as one of the core
motifs of the black religious experience. Moyd suggests that

blacks have always exemplified an "abiding humanity and a love

231
of God and neighbor, even [to] those who oppressed them."27

Moyd further suggests that: ”This humanity anchored in a
belief in God is characteristic of black religion which touched

all of black life."28 Moyd continues:

The practice of humanity and love which is the inevitable
and abiding center of Black Christianity puts blacks in
close proximity with the expression of righteousness of
life on the part of the chosen people of the Old Testament
and of the early Christian church.... Black Christians in
general have been and are a people who affirm the dignity
of human beings and practice the love they preach.29

By demonstrating love and forgiveness, Jacobs manifests an
ideology central in the black world view that Christians should
love and forgive those who have wronged them. In making the

choice, inner freedom is realized for the slave. Forgiveness

 

is an act of righteousness and helps”thehslavemestablish“a1

m-lup. . . rfium,.lrk‘.—~ “M‘-

 

better spiritual relationship with the Divine.

- «Inn-ix... “.hu—Hmt -q ‘Ik-‘m—m-uh W‘-

 

 

Any desire to hang on to feelings of bitterness toward her
mistress would have chained Jacobs to past enslavement by
preventing her from concentrating all her mental faculties on
her goal of freedom. The slaves felt that deliverance would
grant them the freedom to worship God in the manner with which
they felt most comfortable. Olin P. Moyd suggests, moreover,
that freedom in white theology represented freedom from sin and
guilt but in a black world view freedom was more political.30

Jacobs' narrative reclaims the black familial past in
slavery and the struggle of the black family for survival. Her
attempt here is to prove what her audience may be unaware of:
the black family struggled to survive in slavery. Community

and family stability are important to the majority of human

232
beings. Human beings who have the power to change oppression

should become concerned for their fellow human beings in
slavery. In a heart-wrenching scene, Jacobs depicts a common

occurrence in American slave history.

On one of these sale days, I saw a mother lead seven
children to the auction block. She knew that some of them
would be taken from her; but they took all. The children
were sold to a slave-trader, and their mother was bought
by a man in her own town. Before night her children were
all far away. She begged the trader to tell her where he
intended to take them; this he refused to do. How could
he, when he knew he would sell them,one by one, wherever
he could command the highest price? ( Jacobs 16)

By presenting a mother's perspective in her narrative, Jacobs

demonstrates that family ties are important Her example

MW “HM-“"'d
WH—k‘um" - ‘vmn baa-W“.

emphasizes the brutality vented on black mothers Jacobs'

mas-1m...” Nominee...»

example 313° deE9E§E£§£§§_tb§t_women_must develop their own

theologies. In speaking of the slave mother, Jacobs writes:

 

 

 

"She wrung her hands in anguish and exclaimed, 'Gone! All gone!
Why don't God kill me?‘ I had no words wherewith to comfort
her" (Jacobs 16).

Jacobs text provides not only a subtext of her liberation

theology, but a subtext of her grandmother's storyx/By

’T—

 

wwwwww

WWCR femalenga t- Jacobs'

grandmother represents not only Jacobs' legacy to the black

 

 

 

 

 

 

hpast,_but also the self—esteem and the grounding in_a

 

liberation theology that will later foster her freedom.

 

 

Jacobs' radical defiance of patriarchal authority and_.

\ ‘~——-—

*—

 

 

oppression may have, in large part, been developed by the

 

 

 

 

 

 

example her grandmother provided As Jacobs writes. "To this

... -an '
......p-w M"

 

mm

233
good grandmother I was indebted for many comforts,...and after

we ceased to be children we were indebted to her for many more
important services" (Jacobs 6). Jacobs' realization that her
grandmother, by perseverance and industry, was in control of
her own household convinces her that it is God's will that she
be free. Jacobs does acknowledge that her grandmother's belief
in God is "beautiful" because she accepts God's will in many
objectionable circumstances. However, her grandmother's
lifestyle as a free and respected individual who gained that
freedom and self-reliance through a work ethic convinces Jacobs
that she and her brother should have freedom as well. Watching
her grandmother use her business skills to buy her children
while often experiencing many defeats gives Jacobs the ability
to form and create new strategies for her freedom. Rejecting
her grandmother's theology that she and her brother John accept
God's will, Jacobs writes: "We reasoned that it was much more
the will of God that we should be situated as she was" (Jacobs

17). Throughout Jacobs' text are undercurrents of the belief

_—_

 

 

 

 

that one must take the first steps toward freedom. "He that is

a.:....,

 

 

 

 

 

willing to be a slave, let him be a slave" (Jacobs 26). Jacobs'

theology is not passive; rather, it isya theology based on

 

action: "William must be free. He shall go to the north, and I
will follow him" (Jacobs 42).

Incidents is a representative example of a black woman's
ability to develop a practical theology of liberation and find
freedom, emotional well—being, and self-reliance through a
black female appropriation of the God. Incidents is a

revolutionary text in which a woman in antebellum America

234
transcends the political institutions of racism in order to

seize control of her own life and work.

NOTES

1 Harriet E Wilson. W

O
o ..- . -- \. .. ..A .. .-

WWW ed Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
(1859; New York: Vintage, 1983).

2 Harriet A Jacobs, WW
G1:1;__flritten_by_fle;§elfi, ed. Jean Fagan Yellin (1861;
Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1987).

3 Albert J. Raboteau. siaxe_neiiainni__mne_21nxiainia
InstitutionLinJhemnellnm South (New York: Oxford UP.
1978) x.

4 Henry Louis Gates, Jr., introduction, Qnr_Nig, by Wilson
X1.

5 Leon Litwack, North of Slayery; the Negro in the Ergg
States llfiflzlflfifl, (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1961) vii.

6 Litwack vii.

7 Litwack vii.

3 Derivative of the heroine Alfrado's name.

9 James H. Cone. A_Black_Ihteos¥_Q£_Liberation
(Maryknoll, New York, 1986) 4.

10 See Litwack 25-36.

11 Frances Smith Foster, "Adding Color and Contour to
Early American Self- Portraitures: Autobiographical Writings of

Afro-American Women " W ed
Darlene Clark Hine, vol. 2 (Brooklyn: Carlson, 1990) 405.

12 William E. 13. DuBois, MW. Ihree
NegrQ_CLassigs, ed. John Hope Franklin, (New York: Avon, 1965)
214.

12 Hazel V Corby, W

W (New York:
Oxford UP, 1987) 40- 61.

13 In addition to Pagan Yellin' s brilliant contribution to
literary and historical scholarship with Jacobs' text cited
above, see Carby, Reconstructing_flgmanhggd; Henry Louis Gates,
Jr W (New York: New American
Library, 1987); Mary Helen Washington, Inxented_Livea;

WWW (New York: Anchor-
Doubleday, 1987); Jean Pagan Yellin, "Texts and Contexts of

235

236

Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written
by Herself," Ihe_Slaxels_Narratire. eds. Charles T. Davis and
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (New York: Oxford UP, 1985) 262-282.

14 Sacvan Bercovitch, Ihe_Amazigan_Jeremiad (Madison: U
of Wisconsin P, 1978).

15 Bercovitch 180.
15 Bercovitch 181.
17 Bercovitch 180.
13 Pagan Yellin xvi.

18 See Ben Witherington. III. Homsn_in_the_uinistrx_nf
Jeans (Cambridge UP, 1984). Witherington suggests that Jesus'

precognitive gifts would have made him aware that the woman
would appear. For this reason, Jesus waited at the well
purposely to speak to her. Jewish customs in Jesus' era warned
against men speaking publicly to a woman. To knowingly have
dealings with a woman known as an adulterer was forbidden.
Further racial prejudice prevented social contact with Jews and
Samaritans. Jesus is the first to break social customs. He
asks the woman: ”Give me to drink." The woman herself
answers: "How is it that thou being a Jew, askest drink of me,
which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans" (John 4:7).

Jesus then orders the woman: "Go call thy husband, and
come hither." The woman responds, "I have no husband." Jesus
then presents her life history. "Thou hast well said, I have
no husband. Por thou hast had five husbands and he whom thou
now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly" (John
4:16-18).

Witherington argues that the Woman of Samaria was
commissioned by Christ to become the first female evangelist.
Witherington posits that because of the social customs of the
era the woman would have been considered unclean.

19 Leonard Swidler. Biblisal.5ffirmations_of_flnmen
(Philadelphia: Westminster, 1979) 189.

20 Swidler 220.
21 Denise Lardner Carmody, _Biblical_Homani__Contsmnorar¥

Beflections_on_Scrintnral_Iexts (New York: Crossroads, 1985).
22 Raboteau x.

23 Raboteau x

24 John W. Blassingame, Ihe_$la¥e_cgmmnnity (New York,
Oxford UP, 1972) 230-233.

25 Olin P- Moyd..Bedemntion.in_Black_Iheoloa¥ (Valley
Forge: Jackson, 1979) 103.

26 Mbyd 103-104.
27 Moyd 103.
28 Moyd 56.

CONCLUSION

This dissertation has been engaged in recovering some of
the contributions black women made to America's political and
religious history. Through the examination of representative
autobiographies by nineteenth-century black women, such
contributions have been delineated and analyzed.

The spiritual/secular autobiographical writings of Maria
W. Stewart; the spiritual autobiographies of Jarena Lee, Zilpha
Elaw and Rebecca Cox Jackson; as well as the secular
autobiographies of Harriet E. Wilson and Harriet A. Jacobs

demonstrate that black women have indeed played a major role in

 

the survival of the black community as they changed th§_

¥

 

 

structure of American politics and challenged the all-male‘

g

bastions of authority in religious spheres.

I 15333 Maria ww
nL/J)

Stewart provided a literary vehicle for black women to

 

 

 

 

challenge permanently America's socio:political structure and

_

 

 

 

 

 

 

simultaneously to transcend the nineteenth-century socio-

 

political codes of "true womanhood." In addition, Stewart
/

penned the first known autobiography incorporatinq a black

b—

 

woman's theology of liberation. Such a radical act, born in a

 

 

 

spirit of personal authorization and rebellion, created a

___-.‘

possible vehiclefljormotherlblackfiwgmegls autobio raphies.

"____—4—-"'—

237

238

These women might have been enabled by Stewart to provide
first-hand accounts of the strategies black women used to make
political and religious contributions. Without the development

of a liberation theology in the form of a redefinition of the _

—————

 

divine as a Deity in favor of black liberation, these

. r .. J. ..
_nwp ..., ..I-e 'ux“ nun-...“, .“4

challenges could not have been successfully executed.
The works studied here are valuable to recovery efforts in
black women's literature and heritage because they have

demonstrated that black_women havewgartigipated in and

 

contributed much to the black quest for civil rights in the

”1...... “...... .... e- .. as... ”us-.-- u... _ N a "...-..Ha «mm—N ‘— ~—

North, the national abolitionist efforts, and women' s quest for

 

 

 

«u .w!‘ ......_ -..".‘.-,..

 

 

‘v— _‘v

equality in secular and religious spheres/V/This study,

-- .hnmxbu .\-.

 

 

however, is centered primarily on works by black women in the
antebellum period. Further study in the development of an
empowered consciousness in black women's history and literature
may examine representative spiritual autobiographies of black
women's transcendence of the socio-political forces in

'Mpostbellum society. Such a study should include examination of

"v’ WM“

autobiographies written by Julia A. (Foote,’Amandé Berry Smith)

 

—-. W. I

and Virginia A. Broughton.1 hese works suggest that black

   

v ‘
women in the antebellum period provided a literary model for
WWW—a. MW—cmar- -""'"

black women in the postbellum era to revise. Works by Foote,

,,_..—- ~~<a<v~h runny, u

 

 

 

._ FF...“

smith and Broughton, among others, demonstrate that there is a

paradigm shift in black women's consciousness in the late

. ..“w--~u— - ...—u..-

nineteenth century///Por example, the strugglgmfggflgreggom and

-----

 

 

 

“literacy as well as the struggle to redefine themselves against

 

secular oppression and theological silencing remain central to

~fl-——

 

 

 

black women's writings in the postbellum era///However, black

239
women also struggle to become a part of the American

 

 

 

 

 

tun-h.

mainstream. gain, the literacy achievements of black women in

 

the antebellum era provide stepping stones for black women's

 

 

accomplishments in the postbellum era of the nineteenth
century.

Black women in the antebellum eramwere participants in the

. -._-W
.—‘— ..—.—‘_ ‘MW—uw

 

birth and development of an organized feminist and feminist

theological consciousness. Until quite recently they have also

w

 

 

been overlooked. Thanks to recovery efforts by William L.
Andrews and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., among others, such
oversights are being corrected. It is hoped that this

dissertation will stand as a further contribution to this

effort. ‘5
‘ngfiflg
/

NOTES

1 Julia A. Foote, A Brand_Elncked_Ean_Lhe_Eine Sisters
in_the_SpiriL,, ed. William L. Andrews (Bloomington: Indiana

UP, 1987); Amanda Berry Smith, An_Antobiograph¥1__1he_Stor¥_of
the_Lord_a_Dealings_nith_Amanda_Berr¥_Smith, ed. Jualynne

Dodson (New York: Oxford UP, 1988); Virginia A. Broughton,

Iwenty_1sars_a_Missionar¥.ySpiritual_marratixes ed. Sue E.
Houchins (New York: Oxford UP, 1988).

240

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PRIMARY SOURCES

Broughton. Virginia W. W
Missionarx- Spiritual_uarratixes. Ed. Sue E. Houchins.
New York: Oxford UP, 1988.

V/ElaW. Zilpha. Memo1rs_nf_the_Lifer_Beligions_Experiencer
H' . I . J I J i I 1 E H E] E E .
Eemale_of_Colour. Sisters_of_the_5nirit. Ed. William L.
Andrews. 1846. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1986.

oote. Julia A. A_Brand_Elncked_£rom_the_Eire. Sisters_of the
Spirit. Ed. William L. Andrews. 1879. Bloomington:
Indiana UP, 1986.

Q§¥kHume2. Jean McMahon. ed. Giffs_of_Eoueri__1he_flritinds_of
Bebecca_Cox_Jacksoni__Black_yisionarxr_Shaker_Eldress
(18821. Boston: U of Massachusetts P, 1981.

Jacobs, Harriet A. Incidents_1n_the_Life_of_a_Slaxe_Girli

Hritten_hy_fierself. Ed. Jean Pagan Yellin. Cambridge:
Harvard UP, 1987.

KeCkley, Elizabeth. Beh1nd_Lh2_Sa2ne51__9r1_Ih1£L¥_Xears_a
Slaye1_and1EQur_Years_in_the_flhite_House. Ed. James
Olney. New York: Oxford UP, 1988.

E C J I I I 3' . E | E l 3 J] ! E 1
Ed. William L. Andrews. 1836. Bloomington: Indiana UP,
1986.

‘«/Lee, Jarena. Ihe_L1fe_and_Bel1g1Qus_Exnerience_ofhlarena_Leer

Smith, Amanda. An_Autohiogranhx1_Ihe_anr1_of_the_Lordls
Ed. Jualynne E. Dodson. 1836. New York: Oxford UP,
1986.

241

242

%g 3": Stewart, Maria W. W

Spiritual_Narratixes. Ed. Sue E. Houchins. 1835. New
York: Oxford UP, 1988.

Wilson. Harriet E. W

W. Ed. Henry
Louis Gates, Jr. 1859. New York: Vintage, 1983.

SECONDARY SOURCES

Aber. Edward. ed. W.
1624. 2 vols. Edinburgh: Grant, 1910.

Achtemeir, Paul J. W
Proposals. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1980.

Allen, Rowland H. W. Boston:
Nichols, 1869.

Atkinson. Clarissa W. MW
MW. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1983.

A Member of the African Society in Boston. "The Sons of
Africans: An Essay on Preedom With Observations on the

Origin of Slavery." Early.Negro_flriting_illflflzl13ll. Ed.
Dorothy Porter. Boston: Beacon, 1971. 13-27.

American Moral Reform Society. "Minutes and Proceedings of the
First Annual Meeting of the American Moral Reform Society,
Held at Philadelphia in the Presbyterian Church in Seventh
Street below Shippen from the 14th to the 19th of August,

1837 " WM. Ed Dorothy
Porter. Boston: Beacon Press, 1971. 200- 248.

Andrews, William L. "The First Fifty Years of the Slave
Narrative. 1760- 1810 " Ihe_Art_of_Slaye_Narratiyei
WW Ed John Sekora

and Darwin T. Turner. Macomb: Western Illinois UP, 1982.

___. S' | E I] S . 'I' E I 1. 1' E I] N' 1
Century. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1987.

---. o - 9 “ . o ' 0‘ ° ‘0 . o ;_ o-il-_' -n

W. Urbana: U of Illnois P, 1986.

---. "Toward a Poetics of Afro-American Autobiography. " AIIO:
WW. Eds. HoustonA.

243

Baker, Jr. and Patricia Redmond. Chicago: U of Chicago P,
1989. 78-91.

Baker. Houston A. The_JQurne¥_Backi__l::ne:_in_Black
LitezaLnI£_and_Czitiaism. Chicago: U of Chicago P,
1980.

Barnes, Gilbert H., and Dwight L. Dumond, eds. Letters_gf
Ihe9dore_Du1ahf_Held1_Angelina_Grimke_Weld_and_Sarah
Grimke_11122;11411. New York: Appleton-Century, 1934.

Barnes Gilbert Hobbs. Ihe_AnLislayezy_1mpnl§g. New York:
Appleton-Century, 1933.

Barton, Rebecca Chalmers. W1Lnesaes_£gr_£reedgm. New York:
Harper, 1948.

Bayliss, John F., ed. Black_Slaxe_Narratixe:. London:
Macmillan, 1970.

Belinda. "The Cruelty of Men Whose Paces Were Like the Moon."
Am_I_NQL41Jmn1JuuLjLjummher1__Ihe_Anti:laxer¥_an:ade_df
Bexolutionarx_America_llfl11:ll11l. Ed. Roger Bruns. New
York: Chelsea, 1977. 3-4.

Benezet, Anthony. "Anthony Benezet Attacks the Slave Trade."

The_Anti:larer¥_Argnment. Eds. William A. Pease and Jane
H. Pease. Indianapolis: Bobbs, 1965. 3-10.

Bercovitch, Sacvan. Ihe_Amerigan_flezemiad. Madison: U of
Wisconsin P, 1978.

Berkeley, Kathleen C. "'Colored Ladies Also Contributed'":
Black Women' 3 Social Activities from Benevolence to Social

Welfare, 1866- 1896. " Black_flomen_in_American_History:

EIbm_Coldnial_Iimes_Ihrnngh_the_Ninsteenth_Century. Ed.
Darlene Clark Hine. Vol. 1. Brooklyn: Carlson, 1990.

1039-1045.

Berlin, Ira, and Ronald Hoffman. S1aye;y_and_£reedgm_in_§hg
Age_of the_American_Bexolution. Charlottesville: United
States Capitol Historical Society by UP of Virginia, 1983.

Billings, Warren M. "The Cases of Fernando and Elizabeth Key:
A Note on the Status of Blacks in Seventeenth- -Century

Virginia " Arf1cle:_on_American_SlaxerY- Ed Paul
Finkelman. Vol.3. New York: Garland, 1989. 1— 3.

Blassingame, John W. Ihe_Slaxe_£Qmmnnity. New York: Oxford
UP, 1979.

244

Blauvelt, Martha Tomhave. "Women and Revivalism." Wemen_end
Beiigien in_Ameriee. Eds. Rosemary Radford Ruether and
Rosemary Skinner Keller. Vol. 1. San Francisco: Harper,
1981. 1-45.

Boles, John B. Black_Sentherner:1__ll11:11111 Lexington: UP
of Kentucky, 1972.

---. The_Netnral_Hi:torx_of_Nerth:Qarolina. New York:
Johnson, 1969.

Brooks, Evelyn. "The Feminist Theology of the Black Baptist

Church, 1880- 1900. " Black_Hemen_1n_1nited_1tete:_fli:tory

Ezgm QQJana] Ijmee Through the Nineteenth Century. Ed.
Darlene Clark Hine. Vol. 1. New York: Carlson, 1990. 167-

195.

Brown, Clifton F. "Black Religion-1968." Ihe_Biaek_Chnreh_in
America. Ed. Hart M. Nelsen and Raytha L. Yokely. New
York: Basic Books, Inc., 1971. 17-28.

Bruns, Roger. ed. Am_l_Net_a_Man_and_a_Bretheri__Ihe

' - - o- ' - ' to o.
4. - .0... . s . . .80. ;N -. 0°.- .0

New York: Chelsea, 1977.

Bulkeley, Peter, "A Willing and Voluntary Subjection. "

Buritani:m_and the_American_Exnerienee. Ed. Michael
McGiffert. Reading, MA: Addison- -Wesley, 1969. 33- 37.

Butterfield, L. H., ed. Adams_Eamil¥_2erre:nondence_lDecember

1161;Mey_11161. 3 vols. Cambridge, MA: Belknap-Harvard
UP, 1963.

Carby. Hazel V. Becon:trncting_Hemanhoodi__The_Emergence_of
the_Afre:Americen_floman_Nexeli:t. New York: Oxford UP,
1988.

Carmody. Denise Lardner. B1hl1cal_flemani__Centemnerar¥

Reflection: on_Scrintural_Iext:. New York: Crossroad.
1988.

Cheek, William F. ‘ r 'v' W
Beverly Hills: Glencoe, 1970.

Childs, John Brown. The Eeljtjga] Black Minister° A Study jg
AfrezAmer1cen_Eolitic:_end_Beligien. Boston: Hall, 1980.

Christ, Carol P. and Judith Plaskow, eds. flQmanspjrj; Rising-
A Eemini:t_Beader_in_Beligien. New York: Harper, 1979.

245

Cleveland. Catherine. Ihe_Great_Bexixal_in_the_West. Chicagoz
U of Chicago P, 1916.

Celenial_Becord:_ef_Yirginia_il11$1. Baltimore: Genealogical.
1964.

Cone, James H. A_Black_Iheelody_of_Liheratien. Maryknoll.NY:
Orbis, 1986.

---. Speeking_the_1rnth. Grand Rapids: Erdmans, 1986.

Cott Nancy F ed. Beets_ef_B1tterne::1__Decument:_ef_Secial
Hietetx.of.American_flomen. New York: Dutton, 1972.

---. "Young Women in the Second Great Awakening in New
England" Eemini:t_Studie: 3 (1975): 15-29.

Crabtree, Davida Foy. "Women' s Liberation and the Church. "

Hemen_s_Liberetien_and_the_Church. Ed. Sarah Bently Doely
New York: Association, 1970.1-7.

Crummell, Alex. Afr1ca_ahd_Americai__Addresse:_end_Discour:e:.
1891. New York: Negro Universities, 1969.

Daniels, John. In_Ereedem1:_Birthnlacei__A_Stud¥_ef_the_Be:ten
NegIOeS. Boston: Houghton, 1914.

Davis, Angela Y. Hemenr_Baee_and_Qieee. New York: Random,

1981.

Davis, David Brion. Antieiexery_3eferm. New York: Harper,
1987.

De Tocqueville, Alexis. "How the Americans Understand the

Equality of the Sexes." Demegreey_in_Ameriee. 1849.
Trans. Henry Reeve. Vol. 2. New York: Colonial, 1980.

221-226.

Dixon, Melvin. "Singing Swords: The Literary Legacy of

Slavery" Ihe_$iaye;s_Nerreti1e. Eds. Charles T. Davis and
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Oxford UP, 1985.

Douglass, Frederick. Narrati1e_of_the_Life_ef_Erederick

Dongla::1_An_American_Slaxe. Ed. Houston A. Baker. Jr. New
York: Penguin, 1982.

Dodson, Jualyne, and Cheryl Townsend Gilkes. "Something
Within: Social Change and Collective Endurance in the
Sacred World of Black Christian Women. " Homen_and_Beligien
in_Amerigei_iflflfl;iflfifl. Eds. Rosemary Radford Ruether and

246

Rosemary Skinner Keller. Vol. 3. San Francisco: Harper,
1986. 80-130.

Douglas, Ann. Ihe_Eem1nizatien_ef_American_Culture. New York:
Arno, 1988.

Drake. Thomas E. Ouaker:_and_Sla1er¥_in_America. Gloucester.
MA: Peter Smith, 1965.

DuBois, William. E. Burghart. "Of the Faith of the Fathers."

The_Blaek.Church_1n_America. Eds. Hart M. Nelsen. Raytha
L. Yokely and Anne K. Nelsen. New York: Basic, 1971.

29-39.

---. The Senls 9f Black.£elk. Three_Negre_Cla::ic:. Ed.
John Hope Franklin. New York: Avon, 1965.

Dunn, Mary Maples. "Saints and Sisters: Congregational and
Quaker Women in the Early Colonial Period. " Wemen_in

American_Belig1en. Ed. Janet Wilson James. Philadelphia:
U of Pennsylvania P, 1980. 27- 46.

Edwin. Scott Gaustad ed. Beligieu:_l::ue:_1n_American
.fliSLQIX. New York: Harper, 1968.

Ellis, Carl F.. Jr. Bexend_Liheratien1__Ihe_Gospel_in_the

Black_American_Exnerience. Downers Grew, IL:
Intervarsity, 1983.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "New England Reformers." Selected

flritinda Qf_Emeradn. Ed. Donald McQuade. New York:
Modern Library, 1981. 433-452.

Evans, Frederick William. Antehiegraphy_et_a_§haker. Glascow:
United, 1888.

vans, James H. Jr. Sp1ritual_Empewerment_in_Afre:American
Literature. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen, 1987.

Farnham, Christie. The_lmnact_ef_Eemin1:t_Be:earch_in_the
Academy. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1987.

Perm, William Deane. Third Werld Liberation Iheglggjes- A
Reader. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1986.

Finkelman, Paul, "Colonial Southern Slavery." Artieiee_en

Ameriean_§iayery. Ed. Finkelman. Vol. 3. New York, NY:
Garland, 1989.

247

Fiorenza. Elisabeth Schussler. Bread_Net_1tonei__1he_ghellenge

of_Eem1n1st_B1hl1cal_lnternretaticn. Boston: Beacon,
1984.

---. "Emerging Issues in Feminist Biblical Interpretation."

Christian Eeminismi_yi:ion:.of_a_Neu_Humanity. Ed. Judith
L. Weidman. San Francisco: Harper, 1984. 33-54.

—--. In Memery cf Her. New York: Crossroad, 1983.

Flexner. Eleanor. Century_of_Struccle1__Ihe_Wemen1:_Bichts

Meyement_1n_the_united_1tate:. Cambridge: Belknap-
Harvard UP, 1959.

Foster, Frances Smith. fli1n335iD9—5la1£I¥i__IhE_Deyelcpment_ct
Ante:bellum_Slaye_Narratiye:. Westport. CT: Greenwood.
1979.

---. "Adding Color and Contour to Early American Self-
Portraitures: Autobiographical Writings of Afro-American

Women." Black_Homen_1n_Amer1can.Hi:teryi__Erem_Celen1a1

Iime:_Ihreugh_the_Nineteenth_Centutx. Ed. Darlene Clark
Hine. Vol. 2. Brooklyn: Carlson, 1990. 395-408.

FoxcrOftr Thomas. Godl:_Eace_Set_Acain:t_an_lncorrigihle
Eecpie. Boston: Green, 1724.

Fox-Genovese. Elizabeth. Within_the_Plantatien_Heuseheld.
Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1988.

---. "To Write My Self: The Autobiographies of Afro-American

Women." Black_Wemen1:_Hi:toryi__Theory_and_Practice. Ed.
Darlene Clark Hine. Vol. 1. Brooklyn: Carlson, 1990.

155-174.

Franklin, John Hope. Ercm Slayery tc Ereedcm; A Histcry cf
American_Necrcee. New York: Knopf, 1948.

Fredrickson, George M. William_Licyd_Qarriecn. Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968.

Fuller. Louis. Ihe_Cru:ade_Again:t_Slayery_1131;l111. New
York: Harper, 1960.

Gardiner James J. and J. Deotis Roberts, eds. Quest fer a
Black_1heciccy. Philadelphia: Pilgrim, 1971.

Garnet, Henry Highland. ed. Halkerl:_Anneal_in_Eeur_Article:1
Dayid_Halker1__An_Addres:_to_the_Slaye:_of_the_united
States cf America. New York: Arno, 1969.

248

Garrison, William Lloyd. "Fourth of July Address, 1829."

H1lliam_Lloyd_Garr1:en. Ed. George M. Fredrickson.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968. 11-21.

—--. "Opening Statement of the First Issue of the Liberator."

H1111am_L1cyd_Garriecn. Ed. George M. Fredrickson.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1968. 22-23.

---. Iheuchts_en_African_Celenizatien. New York: Arno, 1968.

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., ed.. Eicnree_in_Biack. New York:
Oxford UP, 1987.

_——, u u ' ' ' . Chicago: U of Chicago
P, 1986.

Literary_Criticiem. New York: Oxford UP, 1988.

---. Six CJassjg Narretjyes. New York: American Library,
1989.

George. Carol V. R. Secredated_Sabbath:i__Bichard_Allen_and
the_Emergence_of_Indenendent_Black_1hurche:1_1111;l1ifl.
New York: Oxford UP, 1973.

Germantown Friends. "Germantown Friends Protest Against
Slavery, 1688." Am_l_Not_e_Man_and_a_Bretheri__1he
E I. J C I E E J I' E . (1588-1188).
Ed. Robert Bruns. New York: Chelsea, 1977. 3-4.

Giddings, Paula. When_and_flhere_l_finter. New York: Bantam,
1984.

Grant, Jacquelyn. "A Black Response to Feminist Theology."

flemani§_ficirit_Bcnding. Eds. Janet Kalven and Mary I.
Buckley. New York: Pilgrim, 1984. 117-124.

Gregory, Chester W. "Black Women in Pre-Federal America."
E] 1 fl . E . H' | . E 3 J . J I'
Ihreuch_the_Nineteenth_£entury. Ed. Darlene Clark Hine.
Brooklyn: Carlson, 1990. 499-516.

Gundersen, Joan Bezner. "The Double Bonds of Race and Sex:
Black and White Women in a Colonial Virginia Parish."
E] 1 H . E . H' I E 2 J . J I'

Ihreuch_the_Nineteenth_Centur¥- Ed- Darlene Clark Hine-
Vol. 2. Brooklyn, NY: Carlson, 1990. 523-544.

Guy-Sheftall, Beverly. "Daughters of Sorrow: Historical
Overview of Black Women, 1880-1920." Danchtere_ct_scrrcyt

249

Att1tude:_Iererd_11eck_flemenr_l111:1221. Ed. Beverly Guy-
Sheftall. Brooklyn: Carlson, 1990. 15-16.

Hall. David D. The_Antinemian_Centreyersy1_1131211311__A
Dccumentary_flistcry. 2nd ed. Durham: Duke UP, 1990.

Hamilton. Charles V. Ihe_Black_2reacher_in_Amer1ca. New
York: Morrow, 1972.

Hamilton, William. "An Oration Delivered in the African Zion
Church on the Fourth of July, 1827, in Commemoration of
the Abolition of Domestic Slavery in This State." Early

Negro_flr1t1nc_llleflzl131l. Ed. Dorothy Porter. Boston:
Beacon, 1971. 33-41.

---. "An Address to the New York African Society, Delivered in
the Universalist Church. January 2, 1809." Early Necrc

Hz111ng.lllflfl;l131l. Ed. Dorothy Porter. Boston:
Beacon, 1971. 74—89.

Hardesty, Nancy, Lucille Sider Dayton and Donald W. Dayton.
"Women in the Holiness Movement: Feminism in the
Evangelical Tradition." Homen_of_Sniriti__£emale
Leadership in the Jeyish and Christian Iraditicns. Eds.

Rosemary Radford Ruether and Eleanor McLaughlin. New
York: Simon, 1979. 225-254

Harley, Sharon, and Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, eds. Ihe_Atrc;

American Wemani__Strucgle:_and_lmace:. Port Washington:
Kennikat, 1978.

Heimert, Alan and Andrew Delbanco. The Puritan: jg Amezjga- A
Narratiye Anthclccy. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1985.

Hine. Darlene Clark. ed. Ihe_State_ef_Afre:American_Hi:teryi
Past. Present and Future. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
UP, 1986.

Holliday. Carl. Wemanl:_Life_in_Celenial_Day:. New York:
Ungar, 1922.

Houchins, Sue E. Introduction. Spiritual_Narratiye:. Ed.

Houchins. New York: Oxford UP, 1988. xxix-xliv.

Hutchinson. Thomas. Ihe_H1stery_ef_the_Coleny_and_Ereyince_ef

Massachusetts;fiay. Ed. Lawrence Shaw Mayo. Cambridge:
Harvard UP, 1936.

James, Janet Wilson. "Women in American Religious History: An

Overview." Wcmen_in_American_Belicicn. Ed. Janet Wilson
James. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1980. 1—25.

250

---. ed. WWW Philadelphia: U of
Pennsylvania P, 1980.

Johnston, Ruby. ThLDeyelenmentJLNeerLBeligien. New York:
Philosophical Library, 1954.

Jordan. Winthr0p D. W

W New York: Oxford
UP, 1974.

Kalven, Janet, and Mary I. Buckley, eds. flcmen;e_§pi;ll
Bending. New York: Pilgrim, 1984.

Katz, Esther. and Anita Rapone. WWW

An_Histcrical_Anthclcgy. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction,
1980.

Keller, Rosemary Skinner. "New England Women: Ideology and
Experience in First-Generation Puritanism (1630-1650)."

H I E J' . E . I] E J . J !
Beycluticnary_£ericds. Eds. Rosemary Radford Ruether and

Rosemary Skinner Keller. Vol. 2. San Francisco: Harper,
1983. 132-192.

Leharee, Benjamin W. Celen1al_Massachusett:.z_A_Hi:tery.
Millwood, NY: KTO, 1979.

LeJau, Francis. "Slave Conversion on the Carolina Frontier."

Ed. Milton C. Sernett. Durham: Duke UP, 1985. 24-32.

Lejeune Phillippe. Qn_Autchicgrachy. Minneapolis, U of
Minnesota P, 1989.

Leonard. Eugenie Andruss. Wage.
Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1963.

Lerner, Gerda. "The Lady and the Mill Girl: Changes in the
Status of Women in the Age of Jackson." Wcmenls_Experience
in_Ameriea:__An_Histeri.cel_Anthelegy EdS- Esther Katz

and Anita Rapone. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1980.
183-235.

--—. BlackJiomenJD W New
York: Vintage, 1973.

Lipscomb. Andrew A. W 3 vols.
Washington, D.C.: n.p., 1903.

251

Litwack, Leon. Ncrth cf Slayery; The Negrc in the Free States
1191:1111. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1961.

Lowenberg, Bert James and Ruth Bogin, eds. Black_Wcmen_in
11' I Il-CI E . I'E' I] . I! 1 Il'

Thought:1_Iheir_Eeeling:. University Park: Pennsylvania
State UP, 1976.

Manning, Marable. "Black Women's History: Theory and

Practice." W

W. Ed.
Darlene Clark Hine. Vol. 1. New York: Carlson, 1990.

1-39.

Mather. Cotton. OrnamenthorJhLDaughteruLZienMetihe
Disccurse_llldll. Ed. Pattie Cowell. 1741. Delmar, NY:
Scholars Facsimiles & Reprints. 1976.

Mays, Benjamin Elijah and Joseph William. The_Negrcls_Church.
New York: Negro Universities P, 1933.

Mays, Benjamin. WW1:
Literature. New York: Atheneum, 1969.

Mhiti. John S. Afr1can_Belieien:_and_Ehile:enhy New York:
Prager, 1969.

McGiffert, Michael. Buritan1:m_and_the_Ametican_Experience.
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1969.

McKay, Nellie. "Nineteenth Century Black Women's Spiritual
Autobiographies: Religious Faith and Self-Empowerment."

o - o - '99 lou‘o' ‘ ‘n a o‘- qno ". 0!.
Narratiyes. Ed. Personal Narratives Group. Bloomington:
Indiana UP, 1989. 139-154. .

McLaughlin. William G. BeyiyalLAwakenincLanLBeferm:_An
a CIIW. . . . ' - .92 2 a
Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1978.

McManus, Edgar J. W. Syracuse, NY:
Syracuse UP, 1973.

Miller. Perry. ed. WW
Ecetry. New York: Columbia UP, 1956.

Mitchell, Henry. Black Belief: Eclk Beliefs cf Blacks in
AmerieaJndflestJfrica. New York; Harper, 1975.

252

Moran, Gerald F. "'Sisters' in Christ: Women and the Church
in Seventeenth-Century New England." Wemen_in_Ameriean
Religion. Ed. Janet Wilson James. Philadelphia: U of
Pennsylvania P, 1980. 47-65.

Morrow, Ralph E. Northern_Methodism_and_Beconstruction. East
Lansing: Michigan State UP, 1956.

Moyd. Olin P. Bedemotion_in_Blark_Iheologx. Valley Forge. PA:
Jackson, 1979.

Myrdal, Gunnar, Richard Sterner, and Arnold Rose. An_Ametieee

Dilemma1__Ihe_Negro_Erohl:m_and_Modern_Democrac¥- New
York: Harper, 1944.

Nelsen, Hart M., Raytha L. Yokely and Anne K. Nelsen, eds. The
Black.£hurch_in_America. New York: Basic, 1971.

Nichols, Charles. Many_Ihousand_Gone1__Ihe_Ex:51aye:_Account

oi_the1r_BQndage_and_Ereedom. Bloomington: Indiana UP,
1963.

Niemtzow, Annette. "The Problematic of Self in Autobiography:
The Example of the Slave Narrative." The_Att_efi_Sieye

H l' . D . . . J E . C 'I' . i I] .

Eds. John Sekora and Darwin T. Turner. Macomb: Western
Illinois UP, 1982. 96-109.

Orians, George Harrison. ed. Cotton_Mather1__Da¥:_o£
H .J. I. , I“ E EEEJ’ I. i n' I , H.
WM. . - :2 l o

Gainesville, Florida: Scholars, 1979.

Pacquet, Sandra Pouchet. "Response: Toward A Poetics of Afro-
American Autobiography." Airo:Am:rican_Literar¥_§tudx_oi
the_ififlfle. Eds. Houston A. Baker Jr. and Patricia
Redmond. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1989. 91-96.

Palmer. Phoebe. Promise_oi_th:_Eather1_or_a_meglected

Specialt¥_oi_th:_La:t_Dax:. 1859. New York: Garland.
1985.

Paris, Peter J. Ihe_Social_IeaQhing_o£_the_Black_Churche:.
Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985.

Pascal. Roy. De:ign_and_1ruth_in_Autohiogranh¥- Cambridge:
Harvard UP, 1960.

Payne, Daniel. Hi:torx_oi_the_Airican_Methodi:t_Eni:cooal
Chnreh. New York: Arno P, 1969.

253

Pease, Jane H., and William A. Pease. They_flne_fleuid_ae_fireei
Blaaks_Search_£or_Ereedom1_1&3Q:1&61. New York:
Atheneum, 1974.

Pease, William A., and Jane H. Pease, eds. Ihe_Antieieuery
Argument. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965.

Petit. Norman. Ihe_Heart_Erenared1__Grace_and_con1ersion_in
Puritan Spiritual_Li£e. New Haven: Yale UP. 1966.

Plaskow, Judith and Carol P. Christ, ed. fleeting the yjsjgns-

New EaLterns_1n_£:m1ni:t_finiritualitx San Franciscoz
Harper, 1989.

Pryse, Marjorie and Hortense J. Spillers. Cenjuring.
Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1985.

RabOteau. Albert J. Slaxe_Beligion1__1he_21nxi:ible
In:titution1_in_the_Antehellum_South. New York: Oxford
UP, 1978.

Richardson, Harry V. Derk_§eixetien. Garden City: Anchor,
1976.

Richardson, Marilyn. Bieek_flemen_enu_3eiigien. Boston: Hall,
1980.

---, ed. Maria E. Steuart; America's gins; BJaek flQman

Eol1tical_flriter1__E:sa¥:_and_Sneeche:. Bloomington:
Indiana UP, 1987.

Rosell, Garth M., and Richard A. G. Dupuis, eds. The_Memeire_et

Cheriee_fir_Einney. Grand Rapids: Michigan Academic,
1986.

Ruether, Rosemary Radford and Rosemary Skinner Keller, eds.

Women_and_Beligion_in_America 3 vols. San Franciscoz
Harper, 1983.

Ruether, Rosemary Radford. "Feminist Theology and

Spirituality. " Qhristian_Eeminism1__21sion:_o£_a_New
Humanity. Ed. Judith L. Weidman. San Francisco: Harper,

1984. 9-33.

---. "Women in Utopian Movements." Wemen_and Beiigien_in
Ameriee. Eds. Rosemary Radford Ruether and Rosemary
Skinner Keller. Vol. 2. San Francisco: Harper, 1986. 46-
100.

—--, sngsm and fled Ialk. Boston: Beacon, 1963.

254

Russell. Letty M. Human_L1herat1on_1n_a_E:m131:t_Ber:2ectiy:1
A_Iheniegy. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1974.

Scanzoni, Letha Dawson, and Nancy A. Hardesty. All_fleire_Meant

to.Be1__B1hlica1_Eem1n1:m_£cr_Ioda¥. Nashville:
Abingdon, 1986.

Schneider, Herbert Wallace. Ihe_£uritan_Mind. Ann Arbor: U
of Michigan P, 1958.

Sekora, John, and Darwin T. Turner, eds. The_Art_e£_Sieue
Narratixe. Macomb: Western Illinois UP, 1982.

Sernett. Milton C.. ed. AirQ:American_Beligiou:_flistor¥1__A
Documentar¥_flitne::. Durham: Duke UP. 1985.

Sewall. Samuel. Ihe_Se1l1ng_o£_lo:eph1__A_Memorial. Boston:
U of Massachusetts P, 1969.

Shakers. Iest1mon1e:_Qi_the_L1ie1_Charaster1_Bexelation:_and
Dostr1n2:_o£_Mother_Ann_Lee. New York: AMS. 1888.

Shaw. J. Beverly F. Ihe_Negro_1n1the_flistorx_oi_Methodi:m.
Nashville: Parthenon, 1954.

Smith, Page. Daughters_oi_the_Promised_Land1__Women_1n
American_flistury. Boston: Little Brown, 1959.

Smith, Sidonie. flhere_I1m_BQund1__Eattern:_o£_Slaxer¥_and
Ereedom_in_Black_American_Autohiogranh¥. Westport. CT:
Greenwood, 1974.

Spencer. Aida Besacon Bexond_the_Cur::1__Women_Called_to
Ministry. Nashville: Nelson, 1985.

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. The_flemenie_fiibie, Parts I and II.
New York: Arno, 1972.

Stepto, Robert Burns. Erem_Behind_the_yeii. Urbana: U of
Illinois P, 1979.

Sterling, Dorothy, ed. We are 19“: Sisters- Black fl:m5: .
the_Nineteenth_Centur¥. New York: Norton, 1984.

Stone. Albert E. Autob1ograph1cal_QcQa:19n:.and_Qriginal_Act:1

y . E E . II I.! E H E! H
Shag. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1982.

Swidler. Leonard. B1bl1cal_A££1rmation:_o£_flomen.
Philadelphia: Westminister, 1979.

255

Terborg-Penn, Rosalyn. "Discrimination Against Afro-American
Women in the Women's Movement (1830-1920)." Ihe_A£rg;

American.Woman1__Struggle:_and_Image:. Eds. Sharon

Harley and Rosalyn Terborg-Penn. Port Washington:
Kennikat, 1978. 17-28.

Thomas, Benjamin P. Iheodore_Weld1__Crusader_£or_Er:edom. New
York: Octagon, 1973.

Trible, Phyllis. God_and_the_Rhetoric_o£_Sexualitx.
Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978.

Tyler, Moses Coit. ' ' ‘ 7- 7
1878. Ithaca, NY: n.p., 1966.

Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. "Vertuous Women Found: New England

Ministerial Literature, 1668-1735." Wemen_in_Ameriean
Beiigign. Ed. Janet Wilson James. Philadelphia: U of
Pennsylvania P, 1980. 67-87.

Vaughn, Alden T. "Blacks in Virginia: A Note on the First

Decade" Ihe_fl1111am_and_Mar1_Quarterl¥- 3rd ser- 29
(1972): 469-478.

Wade, Richard C. "Beyond the Master's Eye." Ihe_Biagk_Chureh_in
Ameriga. Eds. Hart M. Nelsen, Raytha L. Yokely and Anne
K. Nelsen. New York: Basic, 1971. 63-73.

Walker. Alice. In_Search_of_Qur_Mother1:_Garden:1__flomanist
Erase. San Diego: Harcourt, 1983.

Webb, Lillian Ashcraft. "Black Women and Religion in the

Colonial Period." Women_and1Bel1g1on_1n_Amer1gai__Ihe
Co1on1a1_and_Bexolutionarx_£eriod:. Eds. Rosemary

Radford Ruether and Rosemary Skinner Keller. San
Francisco: Harper, 1983. 233-259.

Weld, Theodore. "Weld to Sarah and Angelina Grimke, New York,
August 26, 1837." Letter:_o1_Iheodore.Dwight_Weld_and
Ange11na_Gr1mke_fleld_and_Sarah_Grimke1_1lflzi;laiil. Eds.

Gilbert H. Barnes and Dwight L. Dumond. New York:
Appleton-Century, 1934. 432-436.

Welter, Barbara, Dimity Cenyietiens; The Ameriean Weman in
the_Nineteenth_Centur¥. Athena: Ohio UP. 1976.

Weidman, Judith L., ed. ' ' ' ' ° V' ' N w
Humanity. San Francisco: Harper, 1984.

White, Anna A., and Leila S. Taylor. Shakerjsm' Its Meaning
and Message. Columbus, 1904.

256

White, Deborah Gray. ' ' 9

Eiantatign_§guth. New York: Norton, 1985.

Whiteworth, John McKelvie. GodLs_B1uenrint:1__A_Sociological

Stud¥_o£_Ihree_ULQpian_Sects. London: Routledge. 1975.

Williams, Delores S. "Womanist Theology: Black Women's

Voices. " Weay1ng_the_Y1s1ons1__New_Eattern:_1n_Eem1n1:t
Spirituality,. San Francisco. Harper, 1989. 179-186.

Williams, Richard E. Called_and_Chosen1__Ihe_Story_ofi_Mother

Behes2a_laQkson_and_the_Ehiladelnhia_Shaker:. Metuchen,
NJ: Scarecrow, 1984.

WinthrOP. John. W1nthron1s_Journa11__lflistory_o£_Neu_England"

163Q;1642. Ed. James Kendall Hosmer. 2 vols. New York:
Barnes & Noble, 1908.

Witherington, Ben, III. Women_1n_the_M1n1:try_o£_lesus.

Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1984.

Woolman, John. "John Woolman Preaches Against Slaveholding."

Ina,Anti:layery_Argument. Ed. William A. Pease and Jane
H. Pease. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965. 295-308.

Yellin, Jean Fagan. "Texts and Contexts of Harriet Jacobs'

I .1 I . I] I'E E SJ 3' 1- H 'II 1
Herselfi." Ihe.Sla1::1:_Narrat1xe. Eds. Charles T. Davis
and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Oxford UP, 1985.
262—282.

Ziff, Larzer. 1ohn_Cotton_on_the_Churghe:_o£_New_Bngland.

Cambridge: Belknap-Harvard UP, 1968.

Zikmund, Barbara Brown. "The Struggle for the Right to

Preach." Women_and_Belig1on_1n_America. Eds. Rosemary

Radford Ruether and Rosemary Skinner Keller. San
Francisco: Harper, 1986. 193-241.

Zikmund, Barbara Brown. "The Feminist Thrust of Sectarian

Christianity." Women_of_Sp1r1t1__Eemale_Leader:h1n_1n_the
Jeu1sh_and_Christian_Irad1tions. Eds. Rosemary Radford
Ruether and Eleanor McLaughlin. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1979. 206-204.

"mmmm