Tag Archives: Black Women in History

Black Women in History – Maria W. Stewart

February is Black History Month. In our first post this month (February 1, 2019) we reviewed the book, Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Women’s Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century. The book contains the writings of three black women who have been forgotten but were well-known in their day – Jarena Lee (1783-1864), Zilpha Elaw (1790- ??), and Julia A. J. Foote (1823-1900). Thousands of people came to Christ thanks to their faithfulness to their calling in preaching and teaching the gospel.

I think you would enjoy reading the whole book, Sisters of the Spirit because it demonstrates that women are called and gifted by the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel. You will see from all of the women’s very frank accounts of their lives that they struggled with accepting their call. Women, especially black women, were not considered fit for this kind of kingdom work for God. The true stories of Jarena Lee, Zilpha Elaw, and Julia Foote will show that God does indeed call and gift women for service.

This week we will continue with another story about an early nineteenth century black female preacher – Maria W. Stewart. Her story can be found in Black Women in Nineteenth Century American Life, edited by Bert J. Loewenberg and Ruth Begin (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976).

I highly recommendBlack Women in Nineteenth Century American Life; it contains twenty-four stories of other black women who made contributions to society including Amanda Berry Smith, Nancy Prince, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ida Wells-Barnett, Lucy Craft Laney and Anna Julia Cooper.

Maria W. Stewart

“Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?”   Jeremiah 23:29

Not until many years after her death was Maria W. Stewart recognized as an underappreciated black female theologian and speaker of the early nineteenth century.

She is believed to be the first American woman to have given a speech before a mixed audience of men and women. It is possible that there were other women speakers before her, but we don’t have copies of their speeches as we do for Maria.

Maria Miller was born in 1803 in Hartford, Connecticut. Other than their last name, we don’t really know anything about Maria’s parents. She was orphaned at the age of five and became a servant girl in the home of a minister. While there she learned to read and became very familiar with the Bible. She understood it so well in fact that she would later incorporate it into her speeches in very intelligent and appropriate ways. 

At about age fifteen, Maria left this family and took a job as a domestic servant in order to support herself. She further educated herself by attending Sabbath schools.

When she was twenty-three, Maria Miller married James W. Stewart at the African Baptist Church in Boston. Maria took not only James’ last name but also his middle initial and thereafter she called herself Maria W. Stewart. James was forty-four years old. He was a veteran of the War of 1812. When he and Maria married he was a successful businessman earning a good income by outfitting whaling ships and fishing vessels. At this time, blacks or colored persons (as they were called then) made up only three percent of the Boston population. The Stewarts were also members of an even smaller society – the black middle class. They had no children and James died only three years later in 1829.

Heartbreak helped to fuel Maria’s zeal for God and His Word and freedom for women and blacks. But first, before she started her remarkable foray into politics, Maria had to try and get her inheritance. James Stewart had left her substantial property, but she was defrauded by the legal machinations of the unscrupulous white businessmen who were the executors of the estate. After a long court battle they took everything from her.

In 1830 Maria underwent a religious conversion that led her to begin to proclaim the Gospel along with social justice. She made a public profession of her faith in Christ and dedicated herself to God’s service. Being black and female did not stop this remarkable woman. She believed that the Scriptures were the authority of God and she could proclaim them as a servant of God no matter what her gender was. She also believed that it was an act of obedience to God to work for freedom for oppressed people. 

Throughout her life she would be criticized for speaking out, but Maria would point to the authority of God and say that she was simply following God’s will. This was an incredibly bold stance for a black woman to take in 1830. It would be a few years before other women would follow in her footsteps and now there is a great “roll call” of black and white women who boldly proclaimed the Word of God.

Maria’s first published work was entitled, “Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality, the Sure Foundation on Which We Must Build”. This appeared as a twelve-page pamphlet, priced at six cents, published in 1831. Soon after this, Maria began her public speaking. 

The main thrust of Maria’s speeches was to encourage black women to turn to God. She also urged them to stand up for their rights and not remain silent. She showed that free black women were little better off than the slaves. The only employment they could get was as servants to white people and many were as mistreated as she was. After all, she should know because she was cheated out of her inheritance. Being black and female was at the very bottom of the hierarchy in society. 

While speaking out against the unfairness of the white man’s world, Maria also boldly lectured the blacks themselves for doing little to better their own plight. “It is useless for us any longer to sit with our hands folded, reproaching the whites; for that will never elevate us,” she said. 

Maria continued to write articles for publication. In 1832, the famous publisher William Lloyd Garrison published another article entitled, “Meditations from the Pen of Mrs. Maria W. Stewart.” He also printed transcripts from all of her speeches, but going along with the social requirements of those days he put them in the “Ladies” Department” of the paper.

Maria Stewart continued to speak and write for only two more years. She had encountered so much opposition that she decided to leave Boston. She delivered her last speech on September 21, 1833 announcing her decision. She was truly sorry that even people who agreed with her did not like her speaking in public.

She did not just fade away. Maria refused to go quietly, asserting that women activists had divine sanction: “What if I am woman; is not the God of ancient times the God of these modern days? Did he not raise up Deborah, to be a mother, and a judge in Israel? Did not Queen Esther save the lives of the Jews? And Mary Magdalene first declare the resurrection of Christ from the dead?” 

Maria moved to New York where she became a teacher and taught in Manhattan public schools. She continued her political activities, joining many women’s organizations. She did deliver lectures occasionally, but none of these have survived. 

In 1852, Maria moved to Baltimore. Here she earned a living as a teacher. In 1861, she moved to Washington D. C. where she operated a school. By the 1870’s she had been appointed a matron at the Freedman’s Hospital and Asylum in Washington. Maria continued to teach even as she worked at the hospital caring for patients.

Finally, in 1878, a year before her death, congress passed a law granting pensions to widows of veterans of the War of 1812. (Big of them, wasn’t it? How many widows could there be sixty-six years after the end of the war?) Anyway, this money enabled Maria to publish a second edition of “Meditations from the Pen of Mrs. Maria W. Stewart”. It also included new sections, an autobiographical essay and an introduction calling for an end to tyranny and oppression of underprivileged peoples.

You can go to “Digital Archives” and read the book for yourself. Here is the link:

https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/stewart-maria/meditations/meditations.html

Maria died in 1879 at the Freedman’s Hospital at the age of 76. There was an obituary in The People’s Advocate, giving this recognition to Maria Stewart: “Few, very few know of the remarkable career of this woman whose life has just drawn to a close. For half a century she was engaged in the work of elevating her race by lectures, teaching, and various missionary and benevolent labors.”Maria was buried in Graceland Cemetery in Washington on December 17, 1879—50 years to the day after her husband’s death.

Black Women in History – Julia A. J. Foote

February is Black History Month. In our first post this month (February 1, 2019) we reviewed the book, Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Women’s Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century. The book contains the writings of three black women who have been forgotten but were well-known in their day. Thousands of people came to Christ thanks to their preaching and teaching.

For several weeks this month we are looking more closely at each of the three women’s stories and their writings. We began with Jarena Lee (1783 – 1864), who was born to free but poor black parents. She was the first African American woman to give us an account of her religious experiences. Last week we looked at the remarkable life of Zilpha Elaw (1790-??) who traveled to many states preaching the gospel. 

In this post we will look at the life of Julia A. J. Foote (1823-1900) including excerpts from her biography. I think you would enjoy reading the whole book, Sisters of the Spirit because it demonstrates that women are called and gifted by the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel. You will see from all of the women’s very frank accounts of their lives that they struggled with accepting their call. Women, especially black women, were not considered fit for this kind of kingdom work for God. The true stories of Jarena Lee, Zilpha Elaw, and Julia Foote will show that God does indeed call and gift women for service.

Julia A. J. Foote

Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?(Zechariah 3:2).

In the past few weeks we have told the stories of remarkable black women of the nineteenth century. Some were born slaves and some were born free. All of these women were courageous examples of what can be done by a woman who does not let her circumstances dictate to her. These women rose above many hardships including poverty, illness, prejudice, internal conflicts, and the limitations of their times to follow their call from God and affect the lives of many other people for good.

During the nineteenth century many black and white women published their autobiographies. There are also many fine diaries from that century when women wrote about their thoughts, dreams, and ideas that they could not express publicly because of their gender. It was acceptable for women to write and so many availed themselves of the opportunity to express themselves using this medium.

An outstanding example of such a woman was Julia A. J. Foote (1823-1900). Julia Foote intended to leave her story so that she could “testify more extensively to the sufficiency of the blood of Jesus Christ to save from all sin.” Her autobiography was published in 1879.

She was born in 1823 in Schenectady, N.Y., a child of former slaves. Her mother had been born a slave; her father was born free but was kidnapped and enslaved as a child. Julia’s father endured many hardships but worked hard and purchased his freedom along with that of his wife and their only child at that time. 

A nearly fatal accident for Julia’s mother caused her parents to turn to God and they became committed Methodists. Julia’s parents wanted their children to be educated, but the schools were segregated, so they sent Julia to work as a servant and the white family she lived with used their influence to put her in a country school. Julia wanted to read the Bible and so she studied hard in school and learned to read. 

Julia attended many church meetings and was converted at age fifteen. Her experience was very profound and left her with a strong desire to serve Christ for the rest of her life. It also left her with a desire to be holy. She eventually embraced the Methodist idea of “sanctification”. This doctrine has been debated for centuries, but some Methodists believed in “total sanctification” where one is freed from sin completely and empowered to lead a life of spiritual perfection. Most Christians believe that sanctification is a gradual process, the Christian becoming more Christ-like as the years go on, and only becoming “perfect” when they die and go to heaven. Julia believed that absolute perfection belonged to God alone. However, Christian “perfection” was moving toward a life of love and peace with God. This Julia strove to do.

In 1841, Julia married George Foote, who was a sailor, and moved to Boston with him.  There she joined the African Methodist Episcopal Zion church. She made friends and studied the Bible. Convinced that she was fully sanctified by the Holy Spirit, she also believed that she was called to preach. When she tried to tell others, including her husband, she met with disapproval. It was all right for her to work with the neighborhood wives and children, but as a woman she was not supposed to speak in public. 

Julia had always been opposed to women preaching and had spoken out against it, but she began to have strong feelings toward preaching the Gospel and seeing many people come to Christ. God seemed to be calling her, but she felt unworthy of the task and said, “No, Lord, not me.”  The impression that God was calling her increased daily, yet she tried to shrink from it. One day she received a visitation from an angel who told her that she was to go and preach the Gospel. She tried to shirk this call for two months and became very sick. Her friends advised her to obey God. When she got well, Julia realized that God had been gracious to her. God sent another angel and this time, Julia bowed her head and said, “I will go, Lord.”

Julia met with opposition from her minister when she explained her divine calling to him. She and other like-minded brothers and sisters began to meet in her home. She was told to quit these meetings or else face discipline. She responded that she had to obey God, and she was turned out of her church. 

There were other heartaches for Julia. Her husband did not agree with her and drifted away from her, literally, as he spent most of his time at sea, eventually dying there. Her parents did not approve of her activity, but her father gave her his blessing on his death bed saying to her, “My dear daughter, be faithful to your heavenly calling, and fear not to preach full salvation.”

Of course, there were the “indignities” that were shown to her as a “nigger”. All of these things Julia endured as she went about the work of her Master. 

A Christian sister joined her as her traveling companion and they went throughout New England, the Mid-Atlantic States, Michigan, Ohio, and Canada. Julia was welcomed in Churches, homes, and revival camps. She was part of the holiness revivals that swept through the Midwest in the 1870’s. Julia served as a missionary for the A.M.E. Zion Church.

We are not sure what she was doing during the 1880’s and early 1890’s, but by the end of the last decade of the nineteenth century, Julia became the first woman to be ordained a deacon in her church. Later she became only the second woman to hold the office of elder. Julia died around 1900 after sixty years of ministry.

Julia protested against racism and other social abuses during her lifetime. Her special cause however was to encourage her Christian sisters to serve God in spite of their gender or color. Though slavery was long ended by the time she died, there was still much prejudice against blacks. Julia encouraged all believers to remember that God “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth ” (Acts 17:26). There is no room for prejudice among Christians.
All Christians have the responsibility to tell others about the love of Christ. Julia believed that women could be anointed to preach publicly because “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). God’s praise should be on everyone’s lips!

Those who heard Julia preach believed that she had the gift and the anointing of the Holy Spirit as she spoke with such power. At one meeting there were over five thousand people listening intently as she explained the way of salvation. Other ministers attested to the soundness of her doctrine and exhortation and commended her for it.

Julia was faithful to her calling. She was grateful for her redemption, “a brand plucked out of the fire” and her life has been an inspiration for Christian women since then.

Julia’s story is one of three stories of remarkable black women preachers from the nineteenth century. God called and gifted these women for service in His kingdom. Many, many more women have served in the last few centuries in the United States. It is tragic that their stories have been all but forgotten. 

Next week we will continue with another story about an early nineteenth century black female preacher – Maria W. Stewart. (Her story is found in Black Women in Nineteenth Century American Life. To be reviewed next week).

Black Women in History – Zilpha Elaw

Those who trust in the Lord are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever.(Psalm 125:1).

Zilpha Elaw was born in 1790 to free black Christian parents near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Zilpha was one of the only three surviving children of the twenty-two babies her mother gave birth to. She was twelve years old when she lost her mother who died in her twenty-second childbirth.  Her father then put Zilpha with a Quaker family where she lived until she was eighteen years old. Her father died eighteen months after placing her with the Mitchel family.[1]

In her father’s house devotions had been held morning and evening often with hymn singing. Though Zilpha appreciated her new Quaker foster parents she was surprised at how little outward devotion they paid to the Lord. Because of this her own earnest desire to follow God waned. She followed the childish pleasures that were all around her, but occasionally had feelings of guilt.

During this time the Methodists were evangelizing strongly in their area. Zilpha was allowed to attend their services once a fortnight on Sabbath afternoons. She loved the preaching and the message of God’s love and began to deal with her feelings of shame and guilt for her sin. She gradually came to accept Christ’s forgiveness and assurance of her salvation. She studied the Word and increased in knowledge daily, but she lacked full assurance. She prayed that God would send her such assurance and in her memoirs she tells how God answered her prayer.

One day while milking a cow, Zilpha saw the figure of Jesus coming toward her. He opened his arms and he smiled at her. She knew it was not her imagination because even the cow turned her head and bowed her knees and cowered to the ground. After this wonderful manifestation, the peace of God which passes understanding was communicated to her heart with the joy of the Holy Spirit. She said that from that day on she “never entertained a doubt of the manifestation of his love to my soul.” 

In 1810, Zilpha married Joseph Elaw. Joseph was only a nominal Christian and did not appreciate Zilpha’s zeal for Christ. In fact, he often chided her and tried to keep her from going to religious meetings. Zilpha regretted having become unequally yoked with a non-believer, but she did her best to be submissive to her husband. She warned girls that because they must be in subjection to their husbands it was of utmost importance to marry a Christian. Otherwise the believing wife must either sin by obeying her husband or cause discord in the family when she won’t follow him into sin. 

Zilpha gave an example of the trials of being married to an unbeliever with the story of a time when her husband insisted that they go dancing. In those days ballroom dancing was seen as worldly. Zilpha attended the “vaporous bubble of worldly gaiety and pleasure” but sat on the side weeping. Her husband found that it wasn’t as pleasurable as he thought and he never made her go again. Zilpha gave the praise to God for protecting her.

Joseph’s trade caused him to move to Burlington, New Jersey in 1811. Zilpha went along with him and bore him a daughter the following year. She was happy there because the Meeting House was only a short distance from their home. She studied and grew spiritually throughout the next few years.

In 1817, Zilpha attended her first American camp meeting. She described camp meetings as heaven on earth, with the singing of praises to God in the midst of HIs beautiful creation. Meetings went on day and night with thousands in attendance. Hundreds of souls came to Christ daily.

At one of the camp meetings, Zilpha received her call to preach. She did not think herself a likely preacher since she was black and a woman. She did not seek to lead meetings or preach formally, but she did begin to share the Gospel by going into people’s homes and telling them of forgiveness and salvation in Christ. In this manner she led whole households to Christ.

Zilpha was comfortable sharing the Gospel this way until the time that she visited her only sister, Hannah, who was dying. Hannah had a vision of Heaven and angels and insisted that they told her that Zilpha must preach the Gospel. Zilpha had a hard time believing this prophecy and she kept it to herself for a long time. 

Finally, God used other means to convince Zilpha. He allowed her to be very sick, almost to death, for nearly two years, and then the He marvelously healed her and after many more months she was able to go to Meetings again. 

Zilpha could not imagine that God could use her but eventually she humbly accepted the fact that “God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the mighty” (I Corinthians 1:27). She began her public ministry.

When her husband found out, he was troubled in his mind about it. Zilpha was pleasantly surprised that he did not completely object; his concern was that they would become a laughing stock to their neighbors because his wife was preaching. He asked her to stop preaching publicly, but Zilpha felt that the call from God was so strong that she needed to obey it.

About this time her husband became ill with consumption. He grew worse and so Zilpha’s ministry duties lessened as she cared for him and her daughter. Her biggest concern however was that he was not yet saved. A short time before his death he seemed to change his mind and soften toward religious things and asked for Zilpha’s forgiveness. He finally went to be with the Lord on January 27, 1823.

At this time Zilpha needed to support herself and her daughter and pay all of their debts including funeral expenses. Zilpha went to work as a servant and put her daughter out to servitude as well. This nearly ruined Zilpha’s health, so she eventually started a school, which was greatly appreciated by the black people in their neighborhood. 

Zilpha was able to care for herself and her daughter in this way, but she wasn’t getting ahead with the debts. Here “Satan bound me down for two years” and then she remembered her call to the ministry. She sought the Lord with prayer and decided to trust Him completely and step out in faith and pursue her calling. She put her daughter under the care of some relatives and set out to follow where the Lord led her. She believed that God would bless her and help her do what was right.

Zilpha continued to work to support herself after both her husband and her sister died. She had long ago received her call from God to go out and preach the Gospel. She had kept putting it off because she did not feel worthy to do so. She was uneducated compared to other ministers who had been to seminary. Zilpha was also worried about the fact that she was black. She prayed to God, “Lord! Send by whom thou wilt send, only send not by me; for thou knowest that I am ignorant; how can I be a mouth for God! — a poor, coloured female; and thou knowest we have many things to endure which others do not.”

Zilpha had not yet learned the lesson from 2Corinthians 3:5 (“Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.”). God answered her objection, “What is that to thee? Follow thou me.”
Placing her child with some relatives, Zilpha began her journey of preaching salvation to lost souls. She would travel to many states including the slaveholding states in the South. Here she ran the risk of being kidnapped and sold into slavery. The Lord protected her; she preached to both black and white folks. Some wealthy white people put her under their wings, caring for her even when she got ill. 

Many people came to the Lord because of her preaching and at least one person was healed. Though Zilpha was worried that being black and a female would be detrimental, those factors are actually what attracted people to come and hear her. Some came out of curiosity; a few even came to mock her, but most were genuinely convicted and came back to hear her preach again. More than a few women would weep and beg her to pray for them at the meetings. Some of these women would become life-long friends.

Zilpha encountered many obstacles throughout her ministry. Besides young men who would come to the meetings specifically to hassle her, there were other church members and church leaders who opposed her because of her gender or color. Often these turned out to be people who were jealous of the reception that she got wherever she went. Sometimes after they heard her preach, they would repent of their attitude, ask her forgiveness and encourage her to continue on. 

One example of this was a Presbyterian minister, Rev. Mr. House, who declared that he would have her stopped when she came to his city of Hartford. While in that city, Zilpha visited a very sick man and prayed for him. He immediately got so much better that his attending physician declared that he would like to go and hear Zilpha preach. After hearing her, the physician visited Rev. House and told him all that he had witnessed. Rev. House changed his mind about stopping Zilpha exclaiming, “Well, if God has sent her, I bid her God’s speed.” A revival broke out in Hartford among the people of every denomination.

Zilpha also encountered those who were skeptical of traditional, Evangelical Christian beliefs. Universalism was taking hold in the Northeastern United States at this time. The Universalists not only believed that everyone would be saved, thereby denigrating the cross of Christ, but they behaved as Deists, denigrating the immanent power of our Sovereign God. Many of these people came to hear her preach and she was able to exhort them in the whole Gospel including repentance for sin and genuine faith in a crucified Redeemer. She preached that mankind was lost and in need of a Savior. She warned them to flee from the wrath to come. Some did turn and believe.

By the nineteenth century the different denominations had separated themselves from each other. There was a group of women however who held monthly unionprayer meetings together. This brought them into closer contact with each other as well as allowed them to share Christian love free from bigotry. Zilpha loved these meetings and was delighted to hear Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists sharing the Gospel truth as one. She said, “The Christian church should manifest one fold and one shepherd; one body and spirit; one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism; and one God and father of all who is above all, and through all, and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). 

Of course, Zilpha missed her daughter. Eventually her daughter married and had two sons. Zilpha was very close to her daughter and grandsons.

Zilpha had received a vision some years before this promising her that she would travel to London. Zilpha was never sure how this could come about, and she argued the matter with the Lord in prayer, pleading her ignorance, her sex, her color, and her inability to minister the Gospel in a country “so polished and enlightened, so furnished with Bibles, so blessed with ministers, so studded with temples; but the Lord said, ‘say not, I cannot speak; for thou shalt go to all to whom I send thee, and what I command thee, thou shalt speak’.” (Jeremiah 1:7).

The Lord opened the way for her in 1840. She went home for a short time and spent some time with her daughter and two grandsons. The parting was tearful when it was time for her to leave for New York. From there she traveled to Philadelphia, then went by ship to London. Zilpha preached over one thousand sermons over a five-year period in England. She lived on the edge of poverty and endured “a thousand privations, hardships, targetfires, vexatious anxieties and deep afflictions, to which my previous life was an utter stranger.” She was occasionally ill, even near death, but the Lord sustained her. 

While in England, Zilpha published her memoirs. Nearing the end of her life, she exhorted all her readers to stand fast in their faith. “Dear brethren, the time is short, it is ominous, and it is perilous; be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” Truly, Zilpha Elaw practiced what she preached. She is a model for us of a courageous woman who put aside all of her own feelings and wants and made herself totally available to God. Please get the book “Sisters of the Spirit” to read all of the memoirs. You will be blessed.

There is a hint near the end of her memoirs that she wants to return to the United States, but we don’t know whether or not she did. There is up to now no further information about her life after 1845. We can be sure that she is in Heaven rejoicing with all of the other saints including many that she had the privilege to lead to Christ.

[1]This story is from “Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Women’s Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century. Edited with an Introduction by William L. Andrews(Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1986.)

Sisters of the Spirit

Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Women’s Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century

Edited with an Introduction by William L. Andrews (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1986).


February is Black History Month. In honor of the many black men and women who made significant contributions to society I am dedicating the next few blog posts to three incredible and amazing black women: Jarena Lee, Zilpha Elaw, and Julia Foote. I highly recommend the book, Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Women’s Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century. It is sad that so many stories of black women have been lost. In this book we are privileged to read about the women from their own accounts. 

These autobiographies will reveal that the women were products of their time. They understood bondage, but they did not become fanatical. They lived in traditional marriages in submission to their husbands. But they also saw themselves as preachers called by God to bring revival. Being black women, they were on the lowest rung of the social hierarchical ladder, but that did not stop them from following their call from God to preach the Gospel. They believed that the Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to whomever He wills irrespective of gender. 

Jarena Lee (1783 – 1864) was born to free but poor black parents. She was the first African American woman to give us an account of her religious experiences. It was first published as The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Leein 1836. (It was later revised and expanded in 1849, but the account in this book is the 1836 account.)

Zilpha Elaw (1790 – ???) was born free, but her parents died when she was twelve. She went to live with a Quaker family where she learned to rely on the Holy Spirit’s power in her life. Her preaching was compelling and many lives were changed. The book, published in 1846 contains her Memoirs of the Life, Religious Experience, Ministerial Travels and Labours of Mrs. Zilpha Elaw, An American Female of Colour

Julia A. J. Foote (1823 – 1900) was born to former slaves in Schenectady, New York. her book, A Brand Plucked from the Fire: An Autobiographical Sketchwas published in 1879. Julia traveled throughout the United States and Canada for more than fifty years preaching in churches, camp meetings, and revivals.