The Power of Preaching: Female Identity, Legitimacy, and Leadership in American Quakerism, 1700-1776 by Shannon Catrett Huggins A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Auburn, Alabama May 14, 2010 Keywords: Quakers, American Colonies, women, gender, religion Copyright 2010 by Shannon Catrett Huggins Approved by Ruth Crocker, Chair, Professor of History Charles Israel, Professor of History Hilary Wyss, Associate Professor of English Abstract Although 18th-century Quakerism allowed Quaker women ministers to preach as “enlightened” women, in many ways, they still had to transcend the colonial social conventions that inhibited their leadership. Because their willingness to challenge social norms was intricately tied to their willingness to “follow God,” they utilized their spiritual journals to deal with the internal tensions that were a central part of their gendered spiritual identities. Through their journals, they demonstrate the methods they used to negotiate authority and to circumvent challenges to their leadership as women and as preachers (or Public Friends). Because their claims to authority were shaped by their gendered conceptions of spiritual identity and the specific challenges they faced as female Public Friends, the content, language, and structures of their journals elucidate how the interaction of Anglo- American cultural values and Quaker beliefs affected their personal struggles and spiritual triumphs. A textual analysis of the internal workings of their religious beliefs in their personal lives suggests the limits and extent of their authority as leaders, and provides a point of departure for assessing both the “exceptionality,” and the congruence of Quaker women’s lives with those of other colonial religious women. ii As public ministers and participants in a larger controversy over individual authority and the meaning of spirituality during the revival period, the lives of the female ministers discussed here exemplify the potential for female leadership within the Society of Friends and within the broader 18th-century American religious culture. As promoters of charity, role-models for female piety, and overseers of their families and religious community, they also represented the potential for expanded female roles within the new Republic. As the forebears of 19th-century Quaker female reformers, who were instrumental in reforms such as suffrage, temperance, women’s rights, abolition, and prison reform, the experiences of these 18th-century Quaker female preachers suggest the roots of female empowerment in a controversial religious group. iii Acknowledgements I am grateful to my committee members, Charles Israel, Hilary Wyss, and outside reader, James Ryan, for their guidance and criticism. I am particularly indebted to committee chair Ruth Crocker for years of wise counsel and encouragement. I also received generous funding for this project from the Auburn History Department for which I am very grateful, as well as, helpful advice from my graduate colleagues and professors at various points in the development process. The Margaret Scharnagel and Robert Reid fellowships, in particular, and the travel grants given by the department made the majority of this research possible. The Colonial Society of Massachusetts also generously funded my travel to discuss this project. I would also like to thank the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and especially the library staffs at Haverford College and Swarthmore College who kindly offered time and resources to this long-distance effort. My family and friends have encouraged me throughout the process. My husband, Britt, jointly holds this degree with me. My parents Larry and Sue Catrett have been an ongoing source of support in many, many ways. Together with my in-laws Farris and Linda Huggins, they have given me the gift of time in the last months to finish this dissertation. I would also like to thank my daughter Elexis for being such a fun diversion. This dissertation is dedicated to my family, including my grandparents Levi and Nell Catrett, George and Mary Buckelew, and the late Betty Buckelew. iv Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………....ii Acknowledgements…………………………………….…………………………………iv Introduction………………………………………………………………………..………2 Chapter 1: Quakers and the Development of Group Identity…………...………………24 Chapter 2: Quaker Women and the Gendering of Authority……………………………55 Chapter 3: Convincement, Conflict, and Empowerment………………………………..97 Chapter 4: Spiritual Legitimacy and the Framework for Self-Authorization………….128 Chapter 5: Humility and the Politics of Self-Representation...………………...............153 Chapter 6: Weakness and the Dynamics of Strength…………………………………..177 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...221 References………………………………………………………………………………225 Appendix 1……………………………………………………………………………...236 v Jones, Rebecca. “Memorials of Rebecca Jones.” Compiled by William J. Allinson. Philadelphia: Henry Longstreth, 1849. 1 Introduction By prioritizing women’s spiritual lives and placing some women in positions of authority, the Religious Society of Friends allowed some Quaker women to act as spiritual exemplars within the group and as public representatives within the larger colonial American society. Between 1700 and 1775, historian Rebecca Larson found that anywhere from 1,300 to 1,500 female Quakers traveled within the British Empire to spread their faith.1 By recording and preserving their experiences, the Society of Friends insured that many of these women would not be among the women hidden from history. The careful and extensive records of women’s activities within the Society of Friends and the number of autobiographical works written by Quaker women present a unique opportunity to understand women’s experiences from the perspective of an “alternative” religious culture. 2 As adherents of an unconventional faith and members of a distinct religious community, many Quaker women developed a keen sense of their own importance as “divinely inspired” women. Female Friends were honored by their Quaker 1 Rebecca Larson, Daughters of Light: Quaker Women Preaching and Prophesying in the Colonies and Abroad, 1700-1775 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999), 110-111. 2 Barry Levy, Quakers and the American Family: British Settlement in the Delaware Valley (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 222. See also Catherine Brekus, Strangers and Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740-1845 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), especially 7-10, 31, 44-45, 52, 63, and 67 for a discussion of the sources available for other religious women and the reasons for their absence in the historical records. As Larson points out, Quakerism was one of several religious alternatives open to white women. See Larson, Daughters of Light, 4. The same opportunities for leadership within the Society of Friends were not open to black or native women. See Patricia Bonomi, Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 122. See also Jean Soderlund, Quakers and Slavery: A Divided Spirit (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985), 12, 177, and 183. Some black people in the area of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting did speak at all-black meetings conducted by white Quaker ministers, though such vocal participation was apparently rare. See also Bacon, Mothers of Feminism, 84-85. 2 contemporaries in letters, diaries, deathbed statements, and memorials; fellow Quakers described the importance of women as daughters, wives, mothers, ministers, and elders.3 As many women recorded their own experiences in letters, diaries, and journals, they participated in a long tradition of Quaker autobiographical writing, which encouraged their participation and their leadership.4 As Quaker women wrote about their experiences, they were aware of the instructive power of their spiritual journeys and the relevance of their personal struggles for future generations. This awareness was, perhaps, most acute among Quaker female ministers, whose roles as Public Friends gave their lives added significance. As conduits of “God’s word” and as certified leaders within their religious community, these women were an elite group, believed to have a special calling.5 Many were also likely among the most literate Quaker women,6 and were, perhaps, the most likely to recognize the religious and historical significance of their ministries and their writings. Like many of the celebrated male and female preachers before them, some felt “compelled” by God to compile their experiences in journals, providing their readers with 3 Levy, Quakers and the American Family, 222. 4 For a sampling of some early Quaker women’s narratives see Mary Garman and others, eds., Hidden in Plain Sight: Quaker Women’s Writings, 1650-1700 with a foreword by Rosemary Radford Ruether (Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill, 1996), 151-306. 5 All Quakers believed that Christ dwelled within all people and directly spoke to every Quaker member. In the late 17th and 18th century, Quaker leaders began to record or certify specific members as ministers. Although all members could speak publicly as they felt “led,” those members who received frequent revelations (deemed beneficial to the whole group) were encouraged to continue speaking and were eventually certified as Public Friends. Larson, Daughters of Light, 5. 6 Quaker women