Religious Experience and Journal of Mrs. Jarena Lee, Giving an Account of Her Call to Preach the Gospel

by Jarena Lee

Jarena Lee's religious autobiography is among the most moving and profound of its kind, telling the story of one woman's journey to faith in a society hostile to her gender and race.

Published in 1836, this memoir attracted much attention for its eloquence, whereby Jarena Lee relays in clear and articulate terms her discovery of God and conversion to Christianity. Filled with emotional gravitas and passages attesting her devotion to the divine, the journal is one of the most inspiring religious biographies of its period.

After her early upbringing Jarena worked as a servant maid, where she struggled with depression and self-esteem. Often feeling damned and wretched, she contemplated and fantasized about suicide several times. It was only when she began to study the Bible and the Christian doctrines in detail that she found her calling in life and set about following it.

Feeling galvanized and joyous at having gained a sense of purpose on the Earth, Jarena set about delivering sermons and preaching. After founding the African Methodist Episcopal Church, she would traverse tremendous distances on foot, sometimes covering more than a thousand miles in a single year to deliver over one hundred lectures. This pilgrim's tirelessness, and her status as both a woman and a black person, distinguished Jarena Lee and brought her a measure of fame.

At the time Jarena experienced her career as a preacher, slavery was legal in the United States. Racism was accepted and, in parts of the nation, condoned as the correct attitude to hold towards black people. As such, Jarena struggled against abuse concerning both her gender and race. In spite of these attempts to undermine her character and devotion to God, Jerena went on to live a lengthy life of over eighty years total.

Genres: Religion, History, Autobiography

130 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1992

About the author

Jarena Lee (February 11, 1783 – ?) was a 19th-century African-American woman who left behind an eloquent account of her religious experience. She was also the first woman authorized to preach by Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1819.[1] Despite Allen's blessing, Lee continued to face hostility to her ministry because she was black and a woman. She became a traveling minister, traveling thousands of miles on foot. In one year alone, she "travelled two thousand three hundred and twenty-five miles, and preached one hundred and seventy-eight sermons." Lee’s importance is threefold. First, she exemplifies the 19th-century American religious movement’s focus on personal holiness and sanctification. Second, she left a detailed account of her life of faith that serves as a valuable primary source. Third, she became an eloquent witness to her faith and a pioneer for women seeking license to preach in the Methodist traditions.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Kyle Inman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hosted a book club on this book/journal. Not only did I get what I was looking for from it (the thoughts, acts, and experience of a very important historical character), I also found myself drawn to the language Jarena Lee was able to give for rather profound experiences. She makes good, brief arguments in the first quarter, detailing her call to preach despite everything stacked against her. The middle section of the book is where I feel people that leave reviews are misunderstanding. There is repetition, there is a laboring on points already made, but guys… it’s a journal! Not trying to say this should remove all standards in literary critique, but it does contextualize it for me, and the gravity of the last page is where my 5-star comes from.

Jarena Lee was a self taught, driven woman fiercely after God’s heart. The Lord gave her a vision for her life, “that she would turn enemies to friends” among other things. She repeatedly lived in to this calling, and she’s a sparkling example to have been the first woman, AND the first black woman, preacher.

[Shanae · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm giving Mrs. Lee's narrative 3 stars because I found the autobiography very very very redundant, though it was a short and insightful read. It was definitely a bit more boring for me. This is a spiritual autobiography and Lee writes to prove that she is equally as worthy of God's salvation as whites. The autobiography reads like propaganda text. I would like to know just how much of the narrative was written by some white abolitionist. Nonetheless, Jarena Lee's autobiography is an often cited but hardly ever researched work that is important to understanding the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the ex-slave narratives most students know about, like those by Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs.

[Will Waller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Log Jarena Lee into people you don't know but should. Here's the short of it: she was one of the first female preachers in America. She traveled through the American south in the 1820s preaching in white churches where doing so could have be lynched or enslaved. She's a rockstar, and yet you've never heard of her.

This book is journal all the way, yet remarkable in what it accomplishes. It reveals how far someone will go with a demand by the divine. She'll endanger herself, impoverish herself, all for God. That's some complete devotion. She even abandoned her family for this calling.

I recommend to anyone that has read some journals from the mid-19th century and wants to know more about the religious uprising that occurred in America at that time. She's a great place to augment what you already know.

[Stacie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting, but got to be too long so I stopped reading before the end.

[Jeffery Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfortunately many e-reader typos but still a very interesting and an amazing life to discuss. Jarena's story would make a great movie with more research done.