Prophesying Daughters: Black Women Preachers and the Word, 1823-1913 Revised Edition book cover

Prophesying Daughters: Black Women Preachers and the Word, 1823-1913 Revised Edition

Author(s): Chanta M. Haywood (Author)

Publisher: UNIV OF MISSOURI PR
Publication Date: 30 Dec. 2016
Edition: Revised
Language: English
Print length: 277 pages
ISBN-10: 0826220703
ISBN-13: 9780826220707

Book Description

In nineteenth-century America, many black women left their homes, their husbands, and their children to spread the Word of God. Descendants of slaves or former “slave girls” themselves, they traveled all over the country, even abroad, preaching to audiences composed of various races, denominations, sexes, and classes, offering their own interpretations of the Bible. When they were denied the pulpit because of their sex, they preached in tents, bush clearings, meeting halls, private homes, and other spaces. They dealt with domestic ideologies that positioned them as subservient in the home, and with racist ideologies that positioned them as naturally inferior to whites. They also faced legalities restricting blacks socially and physically and the socioeconomic reality of often being part of a large body of unskilled laborers.

Jarena Lee, Julia Foote, Maria Stewart, and Frances Gaudet were four women preachers who endured such hardships because of their religious convictions. Often quoting from the scripture, they insisted that they were indeed prophesying daughters whom God called upon to preach. Significantly, many of these women preachers wrote autobiographies in which they present images of assertive, progressive, pious women—steadfast and unmovable in their religious beliefs and bold in voicing their concerns about the moral standing of their race and society at large.

Chanta M. Haywood examines these autobiographies to provide new insight into the nature of prophesying, offering an alternative approach to literature with strong religious imagery. She analyzes how these four women employed rhetorical and political devices in their narratives, using religious discourse to deconstruct race, class, and gender issues of the nineteenth century.

By exploring how religious beliefs become an avenue for creating alternative ideologies, Prophesying Daughters will appeal to students and scholars of African American literature, women’s studies, and religious studies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A fine work that contributes significantly to literary and religious scholarship."--Journal of American Studies

"Haywood brings to her work the religious understanding of an insider and in the methodical eye of a scholar who evidences a firm grip on literary theory."--PNEUMA

"In addition to introducing readers to relevant biblical references, Prophesying Daughters presents an excellent historical overview of the conditions under which these women labored in order to fulfill their "divine obligation.""--CHOICE

About the Author

Chanta M. Haywood currently serves as the Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Albany State University, where she is the chief fundraiser officer for the school. She completed her doctoral and master’s studies in American literature from the University of California at San Diego and her undergraduate education in English from Florida A&M University. A scholar, grant writer, reviewer, and administrator, Haywood has over 20 years of academic professional experience in three university systems (Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia), having worked in different capacities including graduate dean, associate provost for both academic affairs and research, vice president, and full professor. Dr. Haywood was appointed by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to serve on the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Board, which she chaired. Her current academic research interests include literature for children in the black press before the Civil War. She is interested in writing college preparation and success texts as well as inspirational books for children and adolescents.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Prophesying Daughters

Name: Prophesying Daughters: Black Women Preachers and the Word, 1823-1913 Revised Edition
Author: Chanta M. Haywood (Author)
ISBN: 9780826220707

Black Women Preachers and the Word, 1823–1913

By Chanta M. Haywood

University of Missouri Press

Preface,
One. The Prophesying Daughters,
Two. The Act of Prophesying,
Three. Prophetic Change,
Four. Prophetic Journeying,
Five. Prophetic Reading,
Six. Prophetic Works,
Seven. Can I Get a Witness?,
Selected Bibliography,
Index,

CHAPTER 1

The Prophesying Daughters

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Three times between 1804 and 1808 Jarena Lee, a young black maid, contemplated killing herself. First she was "tempted to destroy [herself]" by drowning. Her intention to carry out this act was diverted just as she poised herself to jump into a "deep hole, where the water whirled about among the rocks" (Experience, 5). Although this time her "thoughts were taken entirely from this purpose," they reemerged four years later, when she notes that she "was again tempted to destroy [her] life by drowning" (Experience, 6). Again, inexplicably, she dismissed the idea. Shortly after this second incident, Lee "was beset to hang [herself] with a cord suspended from the wall enclosing the secluded spot" (Experience, 6). A young boy who was playing nearby distracted her, and she abandoned the thought once again. Prior to each thought of suicide, Jarena Lee had been to church and had felt an overwhelming sense of religious conviction; she did not know exactly how or where to channel the intense emotion it spurred.

Jarena Lee was born on February 11, 1783, in Cape May, New Jersey. At the age of seven, she began work as a servant away from her poor parents. Living during the aftermath of the Second Great Awakening, she was surrounded daily by the religious fervor it aroused. She was also living in an era where women's experiences with religion and their roles for performing within religious contexts were clearly defined. Women usually served the church in some type of domestic position as members of the congregation, benevolent aid organizers, or Sunday school teachers. Blacks were considered spiritually inferior and often were described as not even having souls. Thus, the first time that "a ray of renewed conviction darted into [her] soul," Lee had trouble negotiating feelings that obviously contradicted these views (Experience, 3). Suicide seemed the best way out. After she decided against it, she suppressed her strong religious convictions.

Months later, while attending another church service — this one presided over by Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church — Lee leaped to her feet and began to testify about how God had delivered her soul. She felt that she had the "power to exhort sinners, and to tell of the wonders and of the goodness of [God]" (Experience, 5). Shortly afterward, she thought of attempting suicide again. For quite some time, though, Lee continued to struggle internally about her religious conviction. This dilemma was partially resolved after a visit from a black man named William Scott, who introduced Lee to the notion of sanctification, which he described as the "progress of the soul from a state of darkness" (Experience, 9). Sanctification was thought of as a state of complete spiritual purification and perfection. Three months after Scott's visit, Lee felt that she had achieved sanctification, and about five years later, she was convinced that she had been called by God Himself to preach. Despite her own certainty — which was informed by visions and spiritual confirmations by God — Lee knew that in that day and age, no one would believe that she, a black woman, was called to preach the gospel. If anyone could provide some direction about how and where to channel such conviction, it would be the leader and founder of the church, Richard Allen. She met with him and impressed upon him her belief that God had called her to preach. His response was that their discipline, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, "did not call for women preachers" (Experience, 11). Lee admits that she felt relieved of this burden.

In 1811, she married Joseph Lee, a minister, and she moved with him to Snow Hill, Maryland, where he had a church. For six years, Lee still experienced dreams and visions, which she interpreted as reinforcement of her call by God. Unfortunately, during the course of just three years, Lee lost five close family members to death, including her husband. She was widowed with two children, and one of them was very sickly. A few years after her husband's death, Lee felt as if her call to preach was renewed, and she reapplied to Allen to be allowed to hold prayer meetings and to exhort; this time, she was granted permission.

Despite doctrinal rules and regulations prohibiting her from preaching, Lee never could shake the feeling that she had to do more than just hold prayer meetings and teach Sunday school. This feeling became a torrent while she was listening to a sermon being given by a minister who, by her own account, "seemed to have lost the spirit" (Experience, 17). With what she described as a "supernatural impulse" surging in her, she interrupted the preacher's sermon and began to expound upon his text (Experience, 17). Fearing expulsion from the church for such bold actions, Lee was surprised to learn that Allen considered her actions sufficient evidence that she was indeed called to preach. He granted her permission to preach, and she did so, but not without difficulty.

From that point on, Lee began traveling "up and down the world (to) promulgate the gospel of Christ" (Experience, 30). She preached in various towns in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and New York. She left her children in the care of family members and friends. She visited and prayed for the sick in their homes, and she preached in private homes, churches, and bush clearings.

Lee apparently knew that what she was doing as a woman preacher was significant and unprecedented, because, despite the fact that she was not very educated, she began recording her life and travels. Fully aware of the power of the printed word, she also felt that by publishing a record of her work, she could proselytize to more people. In 1833, she decided to pay five dollars to have a portion of it published. She felt that her autobiographical sketch would be an "exercise to a dying world" (Experience, 66). In 1835, with the encouragement of friends and church members, Lee published a book. She was able to sell it in various cities, and she used the proceeds to pay for her living and travel expenses. Around 1849, with her texts selling well, Lee was encouraged to print a second edition at her own expense. She was over fifty years old when this issue was published. Many of her activities from this point are unknown.

In 1804, the year that Jarena Lee pinpoints as the beginning of her strong religious inclinations, a little girl named Maria Miller was barely one year old. She was born in Hartford, Connecticut, to free parents, both of whom had died by the time Maria was five years old. According to her, after she was orphaned, she was "bound out in a clergyman's family." She provides very little information about this family but does acknowledge that it was while living with them that she had "the seeds of piety and virtue early sown in my mind" (Productions, 3). Like many free blacks in the North,...

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Prophesying Daughters: Black Women Preachers and the Word, 1823-1913 Revised Edition