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Strangers and Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740-1845
Margaret Meuse Clay, who barely escaped a public whipping in the 1760s for preaching without a license; "Old Elizabeth," an ex-slave who courageously traveled to the South to preach against slavery in the early nineteenth century; Harriet Livermore, who spoke in front of Congress four times between 1827 and 1844--these are just a few of the extraordinary women profiled in this, the first comprehensive history of female preaching in early America.
Drawing on a wide range of sources, Catherine Brekus examines the lives of more than a hundred female preachers--both white and African American--who crisscrossed the country between 1740 and 1845. Outspoken, visionary, and sometimes contentious, these women stepped into the pulpit long before twentieth-century battles over female ordination began. They were charismatic, popular preachers, who spoke to hundreds and even thousands of people at camp and revival meetings, and yet with but a few notable exceptions--such as Sojourner Truth--these women have essentially vanished from our history. Recovering their stories, Brekus shows, forces us to rethink many of our common assumptions about eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American culture.
Drawing on a wide range of sources, Catherine Brekus examines the lives of more than a hundred female preachers--both white and African American--who crisscrossed the country between 1740 and 1845. Outspoken, visionary, and sometimes contentious, these women stepped into the pulpit long before twentieth-century battles over female ordination began. They were charismatic, popular preachers, who spoke to hundreds and even thousands of people at camp and revival meetings, and yet with but a few notable exceptions--such as Sojourner Truth--these women have essentially vanished from our history. Recovering their stories, Brekus shows, forces us to rethink many of our common assumptions about eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American culture.
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First published December 7, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 27, 2018
"Bathsheba Kingsley, Jemima Wilkinson, Nancy Towle, and Anna Oliver were connected by bonds that they themselves could not see. Denied knowledge of their collective history, they unknowingly fought the same battles generation after generation, repeating one another's stories from across the span of more than one hundred years."
Long but powerful history of female preaching in the U.S. during the 18th and 19th centuries. It was fascinating to read because so many of the women Brekus discusses have not made it into the mainstream history books in any sense of the word--something that she argues is because of the institutional forces that pushed back against their ministries.
Long but powerful history of female preaching in the U.S. during the 18th and 19th centuries. It was fascinating to read because so many of the women Brekus discusses have not made it into the mainstream history books in any sense of the word--something that she argues is because of the institutional forces that pushed back against their ministries.
March 26, 2025
It took me way too long to read this book written almost 30 years ago by one of my graduate advisors. It really holds up. Such a great story of unsung heroes, women who preached even though they were given so little scope for it. She contextualizes how and why women started preaching and how churches were changing in the 18th and 19th century in North America. These stories are compelling and so is the sad story of why we don’t know them more.
September 10, 2016
Brekus’s work Strangers & Pilgrims attempts to fill a gap in the literature by providing a social and cultural history of female preachers in early America who were not part of “radical sects” such as the Society of Friends and the Shakers. She suggests that this gap is the result of female preachers being deliberately left out of histories because they are too “radical” for later evangelical groups who have an increasing investment in domestic, middle class values, but too “conservative” for liberal feminist reformers who believe that these female preachers’ “biblical” feminism, with its disinterest in political, legal, or economic equality with men, has little social value.
Brekus analyzes the stories of 123 preaching women between 1740 and 1845, and the majority of her materials are memoirs and other print sources. She traces the history of female preachers from the transatlantic revivals of the late 1700s to the American Revolution, and then from the Second Great Awakening through the economic changes of the “market revolution” and the “Great Disappointment” of the Millerites in the early 1840s. She finds “overwhelming evidence” that women preached in “unprecedented numbers” that wouldn’t be reached again until the 20th century, and finds that the majority of female preachers are lower-class, uneducated women affiliated with dissenter groups (especially Methodists, African Methodists, Freewill Baptists, and the Christian Connection) in which women were very active and which were experiencing a shortage of male preachers. As these groups became more mainstream, there was a corresponding backlash against female preachers as they try to self-consciously align with middle class, domestic sensibilities which devalued women’s public leadership and espoused a genteel femininity to which many female preachers failed to conform.
Brekus’ central claim is that this “lost” history of female preaching is valuable because it offers a new perspective on the long-standing historical debate of whether the Second Great Awakening is a democratizing force – she argues that it is, in the limited sense that it gives white women, black women, and black men a way to have their voices heard in public, even when they do not have political rights. Exploring this history is also valuable because it provides context for examining how gender relations in early America morph from a “one-sex” model (in which women are understood as “incomplete” men) to a “two-sex” model (in which women and men are understood as distinct and different beings) between the 17th to the 19th centuries, as well as how women use gender to make sense of their religious experiences and justify their preaching activities.
Finally, Brekus thinks that it’s important that we recognize that the history of female preaching in America is characterized by “discontinuity and reinvention” rather than “upward progress” (339). I agree that this is a valuable shift in perspective because it shifts the narrative of female preaching in the United States from one that is primarily associated with mainstream, upper-middle class, “liberal” Christian denominations (and thus carries implications of 20th century progressive inevitability) to one that does not allow us to tell a story that so simply draws lines between liberal Christian groups and evangelicals as their backwards, anti-woman counterparts. Instead, Brekus focuses our attention on the religious beliefs of these evangelical feminists, encouraging us to think about what motivated them as female preachers and how they negotiated power within their various evangelical communities. There are possibilities for more future research in this vein that focuses on women in the South and West during the pre-Revolutionary War period through the Civil War, as well as similar research on women’s leadership in conservative evangelical groups in the postbellum period through the 20th century.
Brekus analyzes the stories of 123 preaching women between 1740 and 1845, and the majority of her materials are memoirs and other print sources. She traces the history of female preachers from the transatlantic revivals of the late 1700s to the American Revolution, and then from the Second Great Awakening through the economic changes of the “market revolution” and the “Great Disappointment” of the Millerites in the early 1840s. She finds “overwhelming evidence” that women preached in “unprecedented numbers” that wouldn’t be reached again until the 20th century, and finds that the majority of female preachers are lower-class, uneducated women affiliated with dissenter groups (especially Methodists, African Methodists, Freewill Baptists, and the Christian Connection) in which women were very active and which were experiencing a shortage of male preachers. As these groups became more mainstream, there was a corresponding backlash against female preachers as they try to self-consciously align with middle class, domestic sensibilities which devalued women’s public leadership and espoused a genteel femininity to which many female preachers failed to conform.
Brekus’ central claim is that this “lost” history of female preaching is valuable because it offers a new perspective on the long-standing historical debate of whether the Second Great Awakening is a democratizing force – she argues that it is, in the limited sense that it gives white women, black women, and black men a way to have their voices heard in public, even when they do not have political rights. Exploring this history is also valuable because it provides context for examining how gender relations in early America morph from a “one-sex” model (in which women are understood as “incomplete” men) to a “two-sex” model (in which women and men are understood as distinct and different beings) between the 17th to the 19th centuries, as well as how women use gender to make sense of their religious experiences and justify their preaching activities.
Finally, Brekus thinks that it’s important that we recognize that the history of female preaching in America is characterized by “discontinuity and reinvention” rather than “upward progress” (339). I agree that this is a valuable shift in perspective because it shifts the narrative of female preaching in the United States from one that is primarily associated with mainstream, upper-middle class, “liberal” Christian denominations (and thus carries implications of 20th century progressive inevitability) to one that does not allow us to tell a story that so simply draws lines between liberal Christian groups and evangelicals as their backwards, anti-woman counterparts. Instead, Brekus focuses our attention on the religious beliefs of these evangelical feminists, encouraging us to think about what motivated them as female preachers and how they negotiated power within their various evangelical communities. There are possibilities for more future research in this vein that focuses on women in the South and West during the pre-Revolutionary War period through the Civil War, as well as similar research on women’s leadership in conservative evangelical groups in the postbellum period through the 20th century.
October 14, 2022
hadn’t read anything by brekus before this but now i get why she’s considered such a force in the field. brilliant book.
June 10, 2014
History tells us that male preachers have not always been the norm. Started this for a genealogy project of my own and ended up getting engrossed with the story. My husband asked me, "If more women wrote social histories, would more be known" My response: "Good question. Why do readers read what they do? And who publishes and makes them popular?"
Want to read
January 11, 2010This sounds odd but interesting
Want to read
January 13, 2010Would make a nice addition to my reading of Algernon Sydney Crapsey .. could be interesting.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews