EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: JOSEPHINE SOPHIA WHITE GRIFFING P/135

                                                         Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman  named Josephine Sophia White Griffing. She lived from 1814 - 1872. Shortly after President Abraham Lincoln gave the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, Josephine joined the Women's Loyal National League as a lecturing agent, where she helped collect thousands of signatures for a women's anti-slavery petition that was eventually presented to the United States Congress by Charles Sumner 

Josephine was also active in the temperance movement. While in Washington, she maintained her dedication to women's rights and the cause of suffrage. In 1866 she helped found the American Equal Rights Association, whose purpose was to promote equality and suffrage for all people no matter their race or sex; she also served as its first vice-president.

Josephine becamse the president of the District of Columbia woman Suffrage Association in 1867, where she helped monitor suffrage activities in Washongton D.C.  In 1869, she joined the National Woman Suffrage Association and acted as its corresponding seretary. 

Josephine died in 1872.

Read Part One Hundred And Thirty-Six HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800; JOSPHINE SOPHIA WHITE GRIFFING P/134

                                                         Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman named Josephine Sophia White Griffing. She lived from 1814 - 1872. During the Civil War Josephine was struck by the plight of the recently freed slaves, especially those who were fleeing to Washington, D.C. Determined to help the freedpeople establish themselves, Josephine moved to Washington, D.C. in 1864.

Josephine became an agent for the National Freedmen's Relief Association of the District of Columbia, where she opend up two industrial school for freedwomen in order to teach them marketable skills such as sewing. She also worked with her government contacts to help freedpeople find jobs in  the north, and sometimes travelled with them to make sure they arrived safely. 

In addition to her work for the freedpeople of Washington, D.C. Josephine was also a woman's rights activist. Throughout the 1850s, she joined various organisations, such as the Ohio Women's Rights Association, of which she became the president in 1853.

Read Part One Hundred And Thirty-Five HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800; JOSEPHINE SOPHIA WHITE GRIFFING P/133

                                                         Read Part One HERE

In this post I will focus on a woman named Josephine Sophia White Griffing. She lived from 1814 - 1872. Josephine was born in Hebron, Connecticut. Her parents were Joseph White and his wife Sophia Waldo.

In 1835, at the age of twenty, Josephine married Charles Stockman Spooner Griffing. By 1842, the couple moved to Litchfield, Ohio. By 1849, she had become a active member of the Western Anti-Slavery Society, and by 1851 she had become a traveling agent, preaching "no union with slaveholders." 

Josephine also began going on lecture tours on abolitionism throughout the West, becoming one of the most prolific anti-slavery speakers in the region. She also wrote articles for The Anti-Slavery Bugle, a newspaper published out of Salem, Ohio.

Josephine opened her home as a stop on the Underground Railroad. During the Civil War, she acted as the western agent for the Women's Loyal National League, an organisation that worked to outlaw slavery in every state. 

Read Part One Hundred And Thirty-Four HERE

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800; CLARISSA DANFORTH P/ 132

                                                                 Read Part One HERE

In this post I will focus on a woman named Clarissa Danforth. She lived from 1792 - 1855. Clarissa was born in Weathersfield, Vermont. She heard Rev. John Colby preach in 1809 on his way to Ohio and had a conversion experience. After her ordination in 1815, Clarissa became an itinerant preacher throughout nothern New England.

She began preaching in Chepachet, Rhode Island and the surrounding area in 1818 after taking over as pastor of the Chepachet Baptist Church when Rev. Colby died. She was apparently very popular, so much so that in fact there was difficulty in finding large buildings that could hold all the people

Clarissa spent most of her career in Rhode Island and helped lead the revival in Smithfield emanating from the Greenville Baptist Church. She, in fact, led many revivals, and one of them drew in a large crowd when about 3000 people were converted, old and young.The relevance of this is that regardless of any harrassment she could have received in her position, she held her ground and did the Lord's work.

 She also preached for periods in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. In 1822 she married Danford Richmond, a Baptist minister from Pomfret, Connecticut, and they moved to New York, where she preached only occasionally.

Clarissa died around 1855.

Read Part One Hundred And Thirty-Three HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800; JARENA LEE P/131

                                                Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman named Jarena Lee. She lived from 1783 - 1855. Jarena began preaching in 1820 and preached throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. Her first journey as a itinerant preacher was back to her birthplace in Cape May, New Jersey to visit her mother. She travelled to Ohio to preach, and made an extensive trip to preach her way through Canada.

She became a travelling minister, travelling 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."

During all her travels, she always returned to her home in Philadelphia to rest and recuperate.

Jarena was also heavily involved in the abolitionist movement and joined the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1839. 

To share her experiences in ministry, Jarena decided to pen her autobiography titled, "The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee." She completed her autobiography in expanded form in 1849.

Jarena died in 1855. 

Read Part One Hundred And Thirty-Two HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800; JARENA LEE P/130

                                               Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman  named Jarena Lee. She lived from 1783 - 1855. In 1811, Jarena married Pastor Joseph Lee. However, her husband died in 1818. Jarena's desire to proclaim the word of God grew even stronger. This caused her to renew her advocay for women in ministry.

In 1819, during a worship service at Bethel Church, a guest preacher began struggling with his message and abruptly stopped preaching. As he stared into the congregation at a loss for words, Jerena sprang to her feet and began preaching, picking up where the minister had left off. 

After her sermon, she was afraid that Bishop Allen would punish her for preaching without permission. On the contrary, he was so impressed by Jarena that he officially gave her authorisation to preach the gospel. He asserted that God had called her to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

She was granted permission first to preach on the itinerary circuit and then to hold prayer meetings in her home, both huge concessions to be given to a nineteenth century woman of any race. However, despite the bishop's blessings, Jarena faced hostility because she was black and a woman.

Read Part One Hundred And Thirty-One HERE

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800; JARENA LEE P/129

                                               Read Part One HERE

In this post I will focus on a woman named Jarena Lee. She lived from   1783 -1864. She was born into a free black family, in Cape May, New, Jersey. However, from the age of 7, she began to work as a live-in servant with a white family. As a teenage, she moved from New Jersey to Phildelphia, Pennsylvania, where she continued in domestic service.

One afternoon Jarena attended a worship service at Bethel Church where Bishop Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, was scheduled to preach. After hearing the powerful sermon delivered by Allen, Jarena became a believer. 

In 1807, Jarena sensed a calling to preach the Gospel. She was initially reluctant to pursue ministry, given the male-dominated nature of the church. However, she decided to confide in Bishop Allen and revealed to him her call to preach. Allen told Jarena that he could not grant her permission to preach because he was required to uphold the A.M.E Church's ban against female ministers.

Read Part One Hundred And Thirty HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: JANE JOHNSON P/128

                                                                     Read Part One HERE

In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Jane Johnson. She lived from 1814 - 1872. Jane emancipated herself and her children by walking away from her former "master," John Hill Wheeler, into the free city of Phildelphia, Pennsylvania. On 18 July, 1855, Jane passed a word to a black porter in Bloodgood's Hotel, where Wheeler had locked her in with her children, that she wanted to escape her master's custody. He got word to William Still, chairman of the Vigilance Committee of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, who helped fugitive slaves. Later that day, as the full Wheeler party prepared to board the ferry, Still and abolitionist Passmore Williamsons, secretary of the Society reached the docks. Still told Jane that she could choose freedom according to Pennsylvania law. While Wheeler argued, offered her a promise of freedom, and tried to prevent Jane from leaving, five black dockworkers restrained him, and Williamson explained the state law to him.William Still quickly escorted Jane and her children away by a coach, later taking them secretely to his house.

Jane and her children were soon helped to get to Boston, where they were safeguarded by northern abolistionists, including Lecretia Mott. They continued to live free, settling in Boston. She sheltered fugitive slaves in Boston on at least two occasions. 

Jane died in 1872.

 Read Part One Hundred And Twenty Nine HERE