ePub Back of the Big House: The Architecture of Plantation Slavery (Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern Studies) by John Michael Vlach in History

Description

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.