Strangers and Pilgrims

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.<br/><br/>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.