Speaker 1: The Scholar and the Feminist VII: Class, Race, and Sex. April 12th, 1980. Workshop 14: Women and The Church, Two Studies :"Black and White Women in the Baptist Church, 1870-1900", led by Evelyn Brooks Barnett, and "Women Activists in Radical Sects in 17th Century England", led by Phyllis Mack. 

Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham: Organizational activites probably formed at the state level. Some of the theological positions that they took to justify their organizing, and also to justify their position with the larger American society. These women as I said must be seen within a race perspective, so therefore I'd like to talk about their relationship to black men, but also as I said they must be seen within a sex perspective, and therefore I'd like to talk about a certain kind of influence and similarty that existed between black and white women, and also some of the reasons that prompted white women to organize. 

Efforts of black women to organize into sperate bodies parallel the struggle with black man to free themselves from a controlling wife [strucutre]. Let me stop here and just say this before I go on and that is that in 1900 black women formed a national organization called the Women's Convention Auxiliary for National Baptist [unknown]. It was the sister side of the male component which was the National Baptist Convention, which in 1906 claimed to represent more than 2,500,000 black people. The problem with that was women in the auxiliary [unknown unknown] National Baptist Convention, although they were recognized and could speak in conferences didn't have any calls in making decisions. And so in 1900 the women formed this national auxiliary to men in order to divide their own gender and to parallel the organizational of power of men, Prior to 1900 however, the women were organizing and working at the state level, and it is their success at the state level that led them to make this national network. I won't talk about about the post-1900 I want to talk about some of the things that led to [stablization]. 

Efforts of black women to organize into separate bodies parallel the struggle of black men to free themselves from control[ling] structures. Blackthorne and educational mission societies formed at the state level immediately following the Civil War as a conscious expression of racial interests. They spawned and educated ministerial leadership, which saught to address the political and religious questions of the day, from a unified black denominational base, rather than from within the structure of white missionary groups, such as the American Baptist Coalition Society. 

In the 1880s that these groups began to coalesce into large-scale organization -- no it was not until the 1880s that these groups began to organize to coalesce into large scale organizations. The Baptist Foreign Mission Convention, founded on November 24th, 1880 in Montgomery Alabama, was the first national effort to formally unite black Baptists. In 1886 the American National Baptist Convention organized in Kentucky, under the presidency of Reverend William J. Simmons, for the following purposes. And these purposes reveal not only the religious nature of these regional conventions, but also probably address themselves to the political and secular problems that faced black people in the Post-Reconstruction period when a lot of their political and economic rights were being taken away. The purposes of the American National Baptist Convention were: "one, to promote piety, sociability, and a better knowledge of each other; two, to be able to have an understanding as to the great end to be reached by the denomination; three, to encourage our literary men and women and promote the interests of Baptist literature; four, to discuss questions pertaining especially to the religious, educational, industrial, and social interests of our people; and five, to give an opportunity for our best thinkers and writers to be heard." 

In 1895 these two groups, the Baptist Foreign Mission Convention and the American National Baptist Convention merged with the then three year-old body, the National Baptist Education Convention. This consolidation is what brought on this National Baptist Convention for the United States. But prior to the merger in 1895, women had participated in all three conventions, serving in much fewer numbers than men but nonetheless represented on their executive committes. 

William J. Simmons is most cited for promoting women's rights, professional and educational equality between the sexes, women's involvement in the American National Baptist Convention, and women's separate organizations [or women's aid societies]. Mary B. Cook, who was a professor of Latin and Philosophy at State University [unknown], served on the executive committee for both this American National Baptist Convention, and the National Baptist Educational convention. Lucy Smith, also a professor at State University [unkown] this is an all-black school, functioned in the position of historian of the American National Baptist Convention. Julia Mason of Washington D.C. sat on the executive board of its Bureau of Education. Women constitued three of the twenty members of this bureau. Women served on all committees and delivered scholarly papers before the entire group. Representatives from white Baptist women's groups were also present at the annual conferences of the American National Baptist Convention. The white women who represented their respective women organizations were all of course [Mormon-]Baptist women. Moreover, organizational efforts of white Baptist in the 1870s provided living proof of the success of seperate women's societies. White women in the Baptist Church formed at the regional level in the Post-Bellum period also. They they supported the motto "North America for Christ," which was the motto of their brother organization, The American Baptist Home Mission Society. 

The Post-Bellum South was an especially fertile field for willin gand eager souls to be saved and white baptist women began to re-define their specific ministry to the free people, especially with respect to women. They defined their role as going into the south and working with the emancipated slave women. To a large degree it [reflected] a continuation of woen who had been involved in the anti-slavery movement prior to the Civil War, because many of the anti-slavery women's societies talked about, you know, "our sisters, our slave sisters," and identified the plight of slave women when they talked in reference to anti-slavery, and so much of this is a continuation, at least from their point of view, to now helping the black [junior unkown unknown]. They shared, to some extent, the white men -- white men's view of this job being both a patriotic and a religious one. Besides spiritual elevation that is converting black men and women to the Baptist faith and doctrine, wealthy men of the American National -- The American Baptist Home Mission Society, and the women who found regional groups, they don't have one they have one particular sister society to this group, they had a New-England based group which is called the Women's American Baptist Coalition Society, and they have a group in the midwist which is based in Chicago called the Women's Baptist Home Mission Society, and another group which is based in the Michigan area, called the Women's American Baptist Home Mission Society of Michigan. These gropus emerge in 1909, but prior to that point they had seperate areas in which women, let's say in -- who were based in Boston, would be represented by the whole New-England area. Women from Connecticut, Rhode Island, and the states in that area would all be represented by this women's group that was based in Boston, or headquartered in Boston.  

Now, as I said, these women also talked about converting blacks to the Baptist [space], not only in terms of its religious aspects, but also in terms of the importance of a culturing and assimilating black people into American society. And I should add that their work not only spoke to blacks, but they also talked about Indians, they worked with the immigrants, the Chinese, and the Mexicans, always from this kind of assimilationist point of view. 

The 15th Annual Report of the American Baptist Home Mission Society noted that by 1900, there would be an estimated 12 million black Americans, and thus, I'll quote them, "patriotism summons us to do our utmost for them, a powerful factor in the destiny of this country." As the American Baptist Home Mission Society solicited money from women in their local churches and in fact began to hire women teachers, and then began to ask women to support these teachers, and to support the work of educating ministers, the women decided that it would be best to form their organizations. Now prior to this time, in the early 1860s, when women are functioning, white women, within their local churches and within local societies in these churches, it was because of the demands of the white Baptist men that the women decided that they would have a specific ministry to women, and that they would form organizations that could disperse funds, set up schools, and that kind of activity.

In 1873 women in the Michigan area organized the Women's Baptist Coalation Society for the evangelization of the freed men, and other needy people in America. They explained that they were quote "induced to commence as a separate society by the frequent calls for aid from the agent of the American Baptist Home Mission Society." On February 1, 1877, the Women's Baptist Home Mission Society, which was based in Chicago, organized for the purpose of evangelizing the [unkown unkown] people [unknown] working in the home. White women, such as Joanna Moore and Mary [Burdette] who [worked for] this Chicago based organization, actively participated in the proceedings of the black men's and women's groups. Between 1877 and 1905, this Women's Baptist Home Mission Society, which was headquartered in Chicago, but did work [at] mission stations [which] were in the south, conducted 84 mission stations, [among some] blacks, [unknown] 126 white women, and 87 black women as missionaries over this time period. This [unknown] cooperation between the women stressed women's role in the spiritual elevation of the black family, the education of black youth, and the [system unkown unkown], and in November 1877, the Women's American Baptist Home Mission Society, which had its headquarters in Boston, organized with the specific job of educating [the freed women], and so one of the things that they besides paying for the salaries of black women who worked in the universities throughout the south, they also [unknown] Baptist University, they also would have found this of Atlanta Baptist female seminary, which was later called Spellman University, and Spellman University was created for the specific education of black women [unkown]. 

Well, Mary B. Cooke, who was [now] black woman, who as very instrumental in forming the black [state board] business organization acknowledged both this white inspiration, and also the influential role of men such as William J. Simmons, who advocated female autonomy after seeing the white Baptist women's effectiveness [with] fundraising. Cooke stated the Simmons, who was also the president of State University at Louisville, [thus close] became determined to institute such a movement among the colored women of the state of Kentucky, believing that more [good could] be accomplished by putting the women to work to assist the brethren in the educational enterprises they had undertaken. So just like in the case of the white baptsit, they were first called upon to support male endeavors, and then as the women organized to do this more efficiently, they began to outline what they considered women' agenda. On September 8, 1883 black Baptist women express their enthusiasm for the Kentucky work when they met in the Fifth Street Baptist Church, with Simmons chairing only the initial meeting. They established the Baptist Women's Educational Convention of the State of Kentucky their constitution stated is a three-fold agenda: ["] one, to encourage the attendance of youth at State University; second, to pay off the school's property debts, and to build a girls dormitory; and three, to develop missionary spirit. The first convention was composed of women delegates representing nineteen church societies. By 1890, the women claimed representatives from almost every Baptist church in Kentucky. 

Speaking before the American National Baptist Convention Amanda Nelson, and this -- and remember the AMerican National Baptist Convention was [an all-male group] Amanda Nelson spoke before them in 1888, stating that there were included home university societies and also fundraising societies, which sponsered literary [unknown] societies. She proudly drew attention to their successful money-raising ventures. IN the first year of the group's existence, the women had raised $711, and over the next five years, $5,811.90. And I think [we] have to understand what it meant to raise that much money in a Southern state to support black education, and you're talking about raising this from [unkown] black people, to support their own schools at a time of retrenchment when money was being pulled away from schools [period]. Black people without [them] would not have been educated. This achievement prompted Nelson to remind her predominantly male audience, that the women of Kentucky know how to transact business as well as their brothers. Well inspired by the Kentucky example, Reverend E. M. Brawley began to encourage the [Baptist] women's society in his state of Alabama, for the purpose of promoting the work of [Selma] University, and mission[ary] work in general. Founded in 1886, The Baptist Women's [State] Convention of Alabama represented approximately 10,000 black women in sixty Church Societies in 1890. Although the Alabama Women's Convention accepted men as honorary members, its constitution stated that, "no Society shall send a male member to the Convention. None but women shall be allowed to vote or hold office." In 1886, the black women in Texas formed their state society to -- for founding industrial schools and organizing mission churches. Georgia black women organized in 1889. The women in Arkansas also formed in that year, and they stated, "believing that in the great work of religiously training the world, and giving the gospel to the many who are yet in darkness, the women are equally responible in proportion to their ability as the other sex, and feelin gthat we can better accomplish these duties by being organized, we therefore banded ourselves together in association."  And I think this is an important quotation because what happens is that as these women begin to organize and as they begin to raise money, for example the women in South Carolina organized in 1890 and in three years they raised, for the education of black people in South Carolina, over $3,005. 

But one of the things that happens, as they begin to organize, they begin to see themselves less in support of [kind of unkown unkown to the men], and more as autonomous women who are working for their own specific agenda. And with time, I don't get into that this paper, but--but with time they begin to define for example, what are the things they want to put their money for. In Arkansas, for example, the men at first when the women formed, had a four part plan. One fourth of their money was supposed to go to the school, the other fourth was supposed to go to the ministry [unkown], the other fourth was supposed to go to missionary work -- to missionary work, and the other fourth these women could keep for whatever purposes they wanted. But as these women began to organize, and to have their own president and vice president, and established what they considered, you know, the priorities, then they began to demand and did win control over their finances and in fact over what they consider to be the primary things that they wanted to address in their work. 

Now, in order to do this they had to justify this, and they justified this with the Bible. The women that I talked about are black women, who read the Bible and take from the bible the images of women that are, what they consider, the models for them to follow. Black women weren't the only people doing this obviously. White women were doing the same kind of thing in the last quarter of the 19th century. One of the things I'm finding very interesting is to just look at that whole genre and talk about how black women fit into the various themes of what I call the theological justification for women's inferiority. Most people think of Elizabeth Cady Stanton when they think of this kind of theological discussion, and of course she raises quiet the contrary position that the Bible for the most part has been used as a patriarchal and oppressive been justification for on woman's inferiority. And then she picks from the Bible specific quotations, but the Bible [imitates] specific things [to justify] quite the opposite position, and that is what these black women do. And let me say [unknown] white Baptist women. 

I'm going to read to you, for South, something from a woman named Joanna Moore. Joanna Moore was a white woman who went into the cell right after the civil war and worked very closely with free women there. She formed industrial schools, fireside schools, which fireside school wasn't a school in the sense that it was a building, it was within your home and, the fire side was your -- the hearth of your home, and you were supposed to teach out of the Bible to your children, and also to teach other lessons that were structured in her little booklet. Joanna Moore was a very interesting woman because she used to work very closely with the black churches and she talks about how, when she would go to the black churches, when the men talked, she never talked. She said that would be on un-womanly, and if they had--if they got to fighting and then she didn't like what was going on, she never would get up and say [unkown] missing the point. 

She read the [unkown] note with some little the word of scripture so that they [unkown] [laughter], so she -- so you wouldn't -- you know, she, she never comes across as being quite the feminist that most of us might, but at the same time she had a very clear position on woman's role in the church and what she, she starts to talk about is that she really doesn't -- doesn't want it thought that just because you know, at points she'd feel certain kinds of behavior are un-woman. That at the same time she's saying therefore that women should only play, supportive kinds of roles. But you know, this kind of passive supportive roles, and I want to read to you what Joanna Moore says herself in 1883, when black women were becoming more vocal in the churches and it was causing a little bit of conflict between the men and the women. She said she had to write this position paper so that she could [prove] her positions very clearly before the men, so that they would understand that she was [fighting] black women.

And she says that women -- that "woman has work to do in the Christian Church, no one will deny." And then she goes to the Bible: "In Exodus 1520, we find Miriam led thewomen in song as they praise God for his wonderful deliverance. Surely, she has a right to sing. After the children of Israel and [of Canaan], Deborah was appointed as one of the judges, seemingly with the same power to control as given." And then she has a biblical quote: "passing on to the time of Josiah when he found the long lost Bible. He goes to the prophet [unknown], and she tells him what to do. Years after we find [Anna], the profit is side by side with those [siblings], rejoicing over the infant savior and she spake of him to all. Passing the long list of devoted women who earnestly obey the savior through his weary years of suffering.

We come to the acts of the apostles, and find Peter quoting the words of Joel: 'I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. and your sons and your daughters. There is [neither] -- all -- upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters. There is neither male or female in Christ.'" And of course that's always the case [when women], the women [and] the feminist theologians quote. ["]In [X], we are told that Philip had four daughters who prophesied["], and she goes on and on with all these biblical models and precedents. And then she finally ends up and she says, "those women were doing something more than simply cooking dinners, preachers, and collected money for the church." [Laughter].

So then we get to the black women who also were writing the same kind of what I call feminist theology, the speeches, speeches, and writings of black women leaders such as Mary Cook, and Mary Cook was a black woman, I said that [tour] in the school in Louisville, she was -- her salary was paid for by the white women in Maine, who were part of that Boston headquarters [group]. There was another feminist theologian, Virginia Brown, who worked very closely with Joanna Moore. So, what I'm trying to argue for basically is that all the black women saw themselves within their larger racial context. They also spoke and, and were in fact [objectively] very much tied to what they considered the sisterhood aspect of what it meant to be black baptist. So the speeches and writings of these women reveal that women were not only concerned with the practical aspects of women's role in the church, but they were also concerned with her position within the larger American society arguing -- arguing for women's rights.

These black baptist writers invoke divine justification as the basis of sexual equality. The hermeneutic employed by these black feminist theologians utilize the Bible as -- and I'll use their words -- they called it an iconoclastic weapon, which would destroy negative images of their sex and would right the popular misconceptions regarding woman's place in the church. These baptist interpreters of the Bible envisioned themselves in the vanguard of a movement to present the theological discussion [with] women's role. And while I think it's so important that we're talking about women who [were in the] 1880s and the 1890s, not in You know, our generation, the black Baptist feminist theologians used the Bible to sanction both domestic and public roles for women. Their interpretation, never [counted owards] family responsibilities with leadership outside the home. And I want to talk about the four categories, woman's domestic role, her role in the church.

Her role as social reformer and her role in the world of work. In each case, the Baptist women only take the passages which show women in a progressive [stand]. And -- and, and let me say this, they don't feel that women's negative -- I mean they will admit to the negative iimages, but what they emphasize over this negative image that might be portrayed in the Bible, is the historic -- what they consider anyway, historically positive in the long run, and that is the strength of women. So, for example, there was Delilah who persuaded Sampson to reveal the secret of his strength and of course, there was [Queen Jezebel], and then there was Eve who disobeyed in the garden of Eden. Now they can't just say these people don't exist, what they do say is that women -- women's strength must be emphasized rather than any particular proclivity to a sin. And so they conclude that," he may send forth healthy purifying streams, which will enlighten by heart and nourish the seeds of virtue, or cast a dim shadow, which will enshrouded those [unknown calls] in moral darkness."

But the emphasis is on strength as opposed to woman's weakness. According to the feminist theology of lack Baptist women, while the Bible illustrated women in this dual image [good and bad], it also portrayed both good and evil men and thus must be understood as affirming women's humanity, and a similarity to men. Virginia Brown argued that the creation was God's first recognition of sexual equality, and thus she began her discussion with passages selectively taken from genesis for imagery of woman's creation was powerful. She stated, God didn't make Eve for, " [crude] play from which Adam came", then she goes on. She reminded her readers that "Eve came from the bone in Adam's side and under his heart, for woman to be man's [helpmeat] and companion." Brown was convinced of this: Since God took the bone, neither from Adam's head for woman to reign over him, nor from his foot for man to oppress her. Furthermore, feminist theology reasoned, that if woman had been a vehicle for Satan in man's downfall, she was also God's vehicle for human regeneration. It was to Eve that God entrusted the germ for human redemption by commanding, "the seed of woman shall bruise the serpent's head. [Brown] argued the redemption was there for inseparably [unknown] motherhood, and the role of women in the physical deliverance of this redeemer. Feminist theology referred to Isaac, Moses, Sampson and other greater or lesser heroes, men heroes of the Old Testament, in terms of the mother or other women who were influential in their lives. Woman's role was more than conception. She was responsible for raising the son that would deliver Israel from its oppressors. For example, they talked about how important she was even during pregnancy. And Brown argues, "an angel appeared to [Noah's] wife, told her," -- and this, this is Sampson's mother --"told her she should have a son and instructed her how to deport herself after the conception that Sampson might be such a one as God would have him be, to deliver Israel from the oppression [unknown] not have been such a one [unkown] Israel. Since motherhood was regarded as the greatest sanctity, Mary, the mother of Jesus, illustrated the highest expression of womanhood. Hers was motherhood in its purest formn in its most feminine, since it was virginal and without the intercession of the man. To the feminist theologians of the Black Baptist Church, Jesus who was conceived from Woman and angel of God, was indeed the fruition of God's commandment in Genesis.

Mary Cook's knowledge of ancient history and the Latin classics add even further insight into the versionMary theme. Cook stated that this concept had roots in antiquity, and she names the various heroic people who this motif of virgin mother [was unknown] dominant. For example, the twins, Remus and Romulus of the Roman Empire, also came from a virgin mother situation. According to Cook, Sylvia became their mother by the God Mars, even as Christ was the son of the Holy Ghost. However, because Mary represented the most blessed because she conceived and nourished Christ, who they believe was the savior and therefore -- of the world -- and therefore Mary, like Christ, stood out in a non-excelled and non-paralleled position. Well motherhood as part of the larger domestic relation[s] was the thememost often discussed. And I'll quickly go through that. They talked about women like Miriam, who's got, you know, her brother Moses to -- to safety. They talked about Sarah, they talked about other women who were in the home situation. One woman, the Black Baptist theologian [Unknown] Odom of Tennessee asserted that the home is the first institution of God, not the church or the state, but the home. To Odom, woman's domestic role was of supreme importance and representated her really true sphere, because within the home woman exercised her greatest influence of old -- of all, she would be "queen of all she surveys, her sway there, none can dispute, her powers there, none can battle. No we can argue this. -- this is what she did [unknown]. Woman's role as homemaker was to provide husband and family with an atmosphere of comfort, and [super]. And I -- I don't want to take too much time with this, but, they would emphasize at this point the women like Mary and [Martha], who [extended their] home to Jesus, who comforted him, and therefore woman's image as [computer], was a very crucial image that they felt, she must be, and they saw this within the home, but they didn't just limit the women to the home.

They also saw women's role within the church. This is particularly true of their interpretation of Paul's admonition in the book of Corinthians, that women be silent in the churches. For Cook, a critical analysis of the historical context of Paul's statement reveal that his words were specifically addressed and then she says,"to a few Grecian and Asiatic women, who were totally given up to idolatry and to the fashion of the day." [Laughter]. Paul's statement became irrelevant when used outside of this context, and it only served as a rationalization to overlook and minimize the important contribution and growing force of women's work in the church. If you ever really want to read something interesting, read Francis Willard's "Woman in the Pulpit." Francis Willard, people, talk about Francis Willard in terms of temperance, which she was obviously, but within that WCTU was an evangelical segment, and it was a very important thing -- organization, because it did have local branches which include black women, and the thing that is so important about this specific book, "Women in the Pulpit," is that this whole book is a theological discussion for women's rights, and in fact Willard is very radical because what she argues is that women should be in the -- you know -- be ordained ministers as well.

Both Cook and [Brown] were quick to point out that Paul himself praised the work of various women,and in fact depended upon them at times. Thus he could not have advocated woman's silence in a general way. They reasoned this way since Paul had expressed his respect and appreciation for Phoebe, the deaconess of the Church of [unknown] =. Paul and trusted her with a letter to take to Rome and told all along her way to assist her in anything that she needed. Moreover, the black woman mentioned, that Paul mentioned, Priscilla, Mary , Lydia and "quite a number of women who had been coworkers with the apostles." Speaking before the American National Baptist Convention in 1887, and again I say this was a male convention, Mary Cook praised the Baptist men for being progressive toward women and indeed thanked them for including women in their deliberations. But then she went on to note that the increasing role of women in church affairs and business meetings along with their role in fundraising was alerting to the man that this was only the beginning of women's denominational activity. Cook expressed the rising expectations of Black Baptist women for organizational work, when she declared that women would play a vital role in the work of the Baptist church in the future.

She said this was a holy man and she says, "God is shaking up the church. He is going to bring it up to something better. And that to greatly through the work of the women." Virginia Brown described this new movement of women in the church as "the general awakening and rallying together of Christian women. " And Brown lectured about this topic for schools, homes and all across the south.She also felt the same way, and I won't quote too many but -- but all these were to show biblical precedence for women's role. Although unlike Cook, she was a little less radical than Cook. She says that the Bible had precedence for everything. But she did -- she did warn against anything that didn't have a precedent for it. And, three things that she didn't see in the Bible was to establish a church, to baptize, or to administer the Eucharist.

Now Cook doesn't even agree with that though. She says that women can do all those. Then they also found biblical precedent for church, for work outside the church. [Obie Clan] of New Orleans spoke to the American National Baptist 1887, and she says that the Bible has placed the wife by the side of her husband, the daughter by the side of her father. The sister by the side of her brother at the table of the Lord and the congregation of the sanctuary, male and female met together at the cross and will meet in the [unknown]. Yeah, she said all that to say that male and female life can do work outside of the church also, but that the crucial work for women would be in social reform, especially in the area of female education, the care of children and a cause of social purity. [Clan] urged the need for an aggressive, outgoing Christianity [to reach the] oppressed and needy classes of women and children who did not go to church.

And in fact to her the weary wife, the anxious mother, the lonely woman, often feeling that she is forgotten by the world and neglected by the church, will open her heart and life to a gentle Christian woman that has taken the trouble to visit her. Many of the feminist theologians argue that point. There are many people that ministers just cannot reach, but a gentle Christian woman can. Mary Cook also argued the unique capability of women to cleanse immorality, indecency, and crime: "in the face of the government which is either too corrupt to care or too timid to oppose." She did not trust their eradication simply to ballot or legislation. Social purity was attainable only by woman's unswerving devotion to Christian virtues. Why would she emphasize above all else Christ's humility? [Because his] meekness, his benevolence, his forgiveness, and his zeal for doing good. Now since Christ internalized qualities, commonly regarded as distinctively feminine, that is the meekness, the benevolence, and the forgiveness, while he also embodied qualities considered masculine, that is strength of character, zeal. Women were urged to be assertively Christ's life and again the Baptist women found biblical precedence. Deborah, a married woman -- [and they always took this, the home so they don't count. It calls home and a couple of blog] -- Debra, a married woman, became judged prophet and a warrior, whom God appointed to lead Israel against its enemies. Cook described Deborah as a woman with a spirit independent -- independent of her husband. And she says, "her work was distinct from her husband, who seems to have taken no thought, whatever in the book of God, while Deborah was inspired by the eternal expressly to do his will and to testify to her countrymen that he recognizes in his followers neither male nor female."

Another good [local] woman often singled out by Cook and Brown is Huldah, also a wife. Huldah lived in a college in Jerusalem where she studied the law and interpred the word of God to priests and others who saught her knowledge. Huldah is generally the example they use for women to be young teachers. Well finally these proponents of the feminist theology concluded that women should not be denied entrance into professional fields. Lucy Wilmot Smith, historian of this, predominantly male American National Baptist Convention, put it squarely before the men in 188,6 when she decried the difference in training between boys and girls. She noted that the 19th century woman was dependent as never before upon her own resources for economic survival. Smith believed that women must be taught, just as boys, to value the dignity of labor. She rejected views which considered work for women disdainful or only temporary at best, views which conceded to women only the ultimate goal of dependency on man, and she stated this, I'll quote her, it sounds like something you'd say today: "It is one of the evils of the day that from babyhood girls are taught to look forward to the time when they will be supported by a father, a brother, or somebody else's brother." She encouraged black women to enter fields other than domestic service, has suggested that enterprising women try their hand at poultry raising, small food gardening, dairying, [viticulture], lecturing, newspaper work, photography, and nursing. Likewise, Mary Cook suggested that women seek out opportunities as editors of newspapers or news correspondence in order to push women's causes, and in order to reach mothers, daughters, and sisters. She advocated teaching young people, developing juvenile literature, and writing books. And she told the men in 1887 that women "must come from all the professions, from the humble to the expounder of his word, from the obedient citizen to the ruler of the land."

Biblical precedents had revealed that God used women in every capacity and thus proved to Mary Cook that there could be no issue of propriety despite the reluctance of men. She urged the spirit of woman's influence in every cause, place, and institution that respected Christian principles. Her logic follows therefore that all professions be open to women, since no profession should be recognized, even by men or women if it didn't recognize Christian principles, and sexism was not Christian principle. Women had a legal right to all honest labor and thus she challenged her sisters in 1887: "go and toil in any vineyard. Do not fear to do and dare. If you want a field of labor, you can find it anywhere." And she really turned the place out when she said that. In fact she even mentioned it, she knew a lot of brothers in the church wouldn't like it, but that she was sorry, and then went on to talk. Well at the time of Cook's speech in 1887, state organization among Black Baptist women had just begun. By 1900, as I said, these women were able to forge a national network called the Women's Convention Auxiliary to the National Baptist Convention. And at that point their feminist theology has crystallized and joined forces into something that they could concretely call their own. [Thank you]. [Applause].

Speaker 1: Do you want to take questions or do you want to [unknown].

Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham: I feel more comfortable [unknown].

Phyllis Mack: The title of my [part] is a little bit misleading on the program. It says that its about women in radical sects in England in the 17th century. I really want to talk about women who were active as preachers and prophetesses, during the period of the English revolution. Most of these were in radical sects, there were a lot of mostly Quakers and [unknown] Baptists, and other small sect. But some of these ladies were freelance prophetesses, and one that I want to start out by talking about for a couple of minutes was such a person. I don't think she was a member of a sect, but she was a prophetess and a famous one.

Her name was Eleanor Davies and she was an aristocrat. She was the daughter of an earl. She was very well educated. She was married to the attorney general for Ireland. And one morning she was awakened by a voice in her bedroom which said to her: "nineteen years and a half til the judgment and you will [be the virgin]." She looked around, she couldn't see anybody and she said to herself, "hmm," [Laughter]. "This must be the word of God." So she -- she figured she'd been chosen as a prophetess and she immediately wrote down a number of statements about her political situation in England, and she took them to the person who she thought was the obvious authority, the Archbishop of Canterbury. He was unimpressed by this. He gave the statements back to her husband who can [unnknown]. She retaliated by saying that he was going to die within three years. And in fact, he died within about three months after she started [wearing mourning] right in front of him. [Laughter] This -- this incident increased her self confidence [Laughter] in her spiritual powers.

So she started, remember, this is an aristocrat so she had access to the royal court. So she started circulating around the royal court and she was able to talk to the King and Queen, the Queen got interested in her and asked her whether she was going to give birth to a boy or to a girl. And even the king who started to mistrust this woman's influence over his wife. Couldn't we just ask him your questions about whether he will have a son an heir to the phone? So this, this woman was -- gradually acquired, what could be called the national reputation as a prophetess. She had her biggest success in foretelling the death of the Duke of Buckingham, who was an important political figure in England in the 17th century. And that happened in 1648.

Now her trouble started when she decided that she wanted to publish her writings. Since she was wealthy, she started financing the publication [tract] that she had written herself, which identified the King of England as a timer ruling over Babylon. For those of you who are not historians of England in the 17th century, this is a period of the English Revolution and the King is beheaded in 1649, so these words were loaded. She was arrested soon after this. She was fined £3000 and imprisoned for two years. The Magistrate judged that she had acquired the reputation of a witch among the common people and was therefore dangerous. She herself seems to have thought she was the incarnation of the Prophet Daniel. No sooner was she released from prison then she turned up in a church, totally distracted and carrying a kettle of tar or pitch, and she started painting on the hangings of the church with this black stuff saying that it was holy water. 

Now this time the authorities immediately said that she was insane and put her into [bedlam] as an insane person. There she was visited by sightseers who wanted to watch her have her fits and prophesize. She was considered to be [a total -- you know -- bananas]. She got out of there and spent the rest of her life, which was about 15 years writing an issue and at her own expense, more tracts on the political situation in England. She was a very arrogant woman, and when the King was finally in prison before his execution, she wrote him a letter and said she'd [love it] now it was time for him to apologize to her for [unknown] [laughter] since [in a sense her] prophecies were coming true because one of her prophecies which was the King was going to die , which was of course unheard of, except that he did. He was executed in 1649. And when that happened her reputation as a prophetess soared again. And she even acquired male disciples who wrote sonnets, which were put in the dedications of her books, which now had a pretty vast audience. Her last prediction was that there was going to be a second flood, to occur in 1656 but she didn't live to see whether she'd been right. She died in 1652 and was [buried with honor] in the family chapel.

Now there are lots of interesting things about the story of this woman, but there are two things that are particularly interesting, I think for us and for people who are interested in the kind of power that she had. The first thing is the nature of her audience. It wasn't [inclined] to class people knew about her, people who were peasants, people who were [literate], people who were members of the world court, all were somehow attracted or repelled by her. But she reached people from all levels of English society. And the second thing that I find really strange is -- is that sort of fluidity of her identity. When people first responded to her [it was as] a prophet. Then they said she was a bitch. Then they said she was insane. And then they said, no, she's a real prophet. And my inclination would be the [same for a reason]. These are categories which are easily crossed, I mean somebody who can [either read] deviant or they're respectable. They're either good or they're evil. They're either good citizens or they're criminals. But this woman was seen as all those things by people. And they seem to switch back and forth fairly easily. No, they say,"no, no, she's nuts, [put her in the hatch]." And then they say, "no, no, she's a prophet. That's god talking." And then they would buy her books. Or they'd say, "she's a witch" and put her in prison. And it seems to me that most of the theories that historians and social scientists have come up with to explain women's participation in radical sects or their persecution -- persecution of witches don't come to terms with this phenomenon [that] really existed in her case.

And I want to argue that the case is not atypical, this change of identity. Books by historians usually focus on distinct groups: they talk about intellectuals, theologians, sects, which is certain kinds of women in the lower classes, the upper classes, the [unknown] classes and so on. And they acknowledge that there's -- there's such a thing as a mentality, right? An atmosphere of a certain kind of -- a collection of values that exist in a society or they'll acknowledge that maybe one -- a person from one class can influence -- ideas can influence people from another class. For instance, there's a book by Christopher Hill that says if the poet Milton went to taverns and he came in contact with people from [a different group], and they talk about this. But what they don't do is talk about people whose identity seems to have been so easily shifted from one thing to another [unknown].

And theories of when these historians use this material that they get from anthropologists. They usually, at least in my opinion, do it in a kind of elitist way and it just reinforces these differences. For example, there's a book by Keith Thomas about witchcraft in England and he says -- he makes many references in the footnotes to the work of anthropologists. He says, for instance, ["]the radical sects needed miracle -- to believe these miracle working powers as their prophets because it helped them come to terms with the rigors of life in 17th century England, we didn't have technology to cure disease and so on, much like the [Bantu] tribe["] in such and such a country uses witch doctors and medicine men. He never says that Milton was responding to the same kind of needs or --or needed to -- to use magic in order to help him cope with life. It's -- it's always the villagers, people in radical sects, never intellectuals, never the Cambridge Platonists [unknown]. And so these differences among groups of people I think are reinforced by historians who try to use social scientific theories. To describe this, particularly witchcraft, and the activities of the radical sectarians in England.

The theories of social scientists themselves, I think, and I'm sorry to be so crude about this but, because we have so little time I have to be, seem to be grouped under two categories. One that says really that gender is all important. In other words, that women join radical sects or become witches or are accused of witchcraft because their uterus and their cycles of menstruation are like the cycles of the moon. And then -- then you know, men are threatened by women because the woman is like earth and earth is like night and night is like death ergo [unknown Richards]. And they talk about the cycle -- these psychological categories behavior and [part of them], for example, the word hysteria was related to the word hysterectomy, which is the removal of the uterus, and it was believed at the time that when you menstruated your uterus came loose from [uknown] and traveled around your body and it can get stuck in your throat, and cause you to choke and have a fit.

So people -- people at the time and social scientists writing about these women very often focus on these psychological categories, even if they don't believe them. [And we remember] [unknown] people pay these women and persecuted them as witches because they believe that "dot dot dot." They still focus on the fact that women [unknown] gender was an important thing. There are other groups of theory which say something very different. They say that gender is irrelevant. That it's women's position in society, not her nature, that causes her to join these sects or to be persecuted as a witch. For example, [A Roman historian] writes about England says that women were the lowest people in a sense that they were widows., they were the most vulnerable, the were the poorest, and because of their position, not because they were women, but because they were outcasts in a way they would tend to be persecuted as witches or out of frustration that their inability to have a proper voice they would join a radical sect. But these theories are attending to structural [matters]. They focus on the position of the woman in the society not -- not [unknown] -- not the fact that she's a woman.

Now these theories don't fully explain to us the case that I described in case of Eleanor Davies because this was not a marginal lady. This was a highly educated aristocrat. The people who listened to her were in no sense anymore than anybody else in the country was threatened by lets say the breakdown of village life than anyone in the 17th century. And also the theories about witchcraft and women's behavior in these radical sects are usually based on misogyny. In other words, they try to find reasons why men would hate women so much and then turn around and persecute them. And this woman in many respects was a winner. I mean, she -- its true that she was in -- that she was put in jail and then she was put in a mental institution, but she was also revered and people bought her books. So there's something complicated going on because it isn't, just explain [why] the fact that men, people.

Now, what I want to do today is look at some of the women who are acting as prophets. Many of whom were also persecuted for being witches in mid-17th century England. And I want to ask a number of questions about these women. First of all, why did these women think that they could speak up publicly way that they did? Where did their sympathetic audience come from? How could it be that prophecy and witchcraft, categories of good and evil, which are so diametrically opposed from our viewpoint, be so fluid as they obviously were in the case of Eleanor Davis? Finally, why were both prophecy and witchcraft positive and negative, positive and negative views of women, both so intense during this period? And again, I think this is an interesting question because women were active in -- in positive ways in the same period that they were most intensely persecuted and then [unknown]. Why was that happening? Those are the questions I want to ask.

Okay. First, why were women like -- they think that they could get up and talk in front of other people when they had never been allowed to do so in the church before? What were the stereotypes about women's behavior or what were the symbols that Protestants in England in the 17th century used to talk about women. Now we all know, those of us who spend our time doing this stuff you know, that Protestants, especially puritans in the 17th century, thought that women were inferior to men. They came out against the sexual double standard, some of them even advocated divorce. So they still believe that women were the inferior partner -- was the inferior partner in marriage. She couldn't own property. She wasn't a citizen. One of the sects that I've been reading about are called the Muggletonians, and Muggleton, who was the leader of the sect, said that in heaven everybody would be a man. [Laughter] So, these people certainly didn't think that women were equal.

But the other side of the coin is that all of these protestants, including puritans, put a very high value on prophec, as a way sort of, of democratizing grace. In other words, these people were trying to attack the clerical hierarchy. They were trying to say that grace can come to you outside of the channels that were set up by Catholics with the way that you get it. It's not just that the priest because he's ordained is filled with sometimes spiritual power. This spiritual power is accessible to everybody if God chooses, and if the person who has faith. And they had a kind of scorn for intellect, in other words for theological status, right? That was unaided by divine intuition.

Now two things connect women to this for the sympathy for listening to prophetic utterance. One is that women had a low social position and as such, woman was symbolically just the perfect example of the despised creature whom God loves, and there's a whole tradition for this in Christianity. In Medieval Christianity, they were stories about -- there's the story -- there's a story about Our Ladies juggler, about this guy who just so dumb, he didn't know how to praise the virgin. So we just start turning somersaults in front of altar and and the virgin appeared and took this person to Heaven. And so this idea of God pick -- or the Virgin picking up this despised person, the lowly person, the uneducated person is -- is not new in the 17th century, but they -- but this focusing on women I think is fairly new. One prophetess. her name is Antonia Bourignon. She lived in the low country, so her books were read very very widely [unknown] translated into English. She said, "that men are now less disposed to receive the divine light of God than women. Since their hearts are blown up with pride, to apply all glory and authority to themselves instead of referring it to God, and cannot endure the simple woman, she should speak of divine things, lest there [meaning] be less esteemed."

Okay, so that's one reason why women are suited for this. They're the most despised. Okay? So what -- what the Protestants are saying is God doesn't just speak to priests and kings, God speaks to anybody, and we mean anybody. Even women. [Laughter]. The second thing is that a woman's essence equips her especially to be a sort of receptacle of divine inspiration, of grace, because she's irrational, you know, and she's easily, for the same reason that they said that women might be witches, that she's -- that she's susceptible to gossip and to influence by the devil., she's also susceptible in certain cases to influence by God, or by good spirits.

As one puritan minister said, "she's impotent." A woman has a certain kind of impotence about her which means that she's not powerful against spiritual forces. One minister says, "nature hath put a fierceness into the female, therefore the she-bear, the lioness, are the most raging [and cruel]. But grace makes that natural impotency of the woman turn impotency for God. Their nature of being fearful hath ever been fodder to superstition. Men spirits are heartier, do not so easily fear majesty, tremble at judgments, believe promises, shun sin, love God as women, so that when they are [away], none are better. And an editor of the prophetess I mentioned before, says -- is talking about the way this prophetess wrote down her -- her messages from heaven, and he says, "and as her writings are not the result of study and [human learning], so neither were they the effective meditation and human reasoning. We," that is, men, "we must think before we write, we must plot out and then add to our first drafts." [Laughter]. That's how I know it wasn't a prophetess. [Laughter] "But when she put pen to paper, she wrote as fast as her hands could guide the pen. She was perfectly denied to all sense and to everything that depended upon imagination. [In her] conversations with God, she used neither ideas nor meditations, but was in an admirable vacuity of all desire, of no one [needing] this or that, having no will of her own." And she herself even went farther because, Antonia Bourignon [unknown]

Speaker 3: Could you spell her last name please?

Phyllis Mack: B-O-U-R-I-G-N-O-N.

Speaker 3: Thank you.

Phyllis Mack: There was a story about her, I don't know if its true or not, that when she was born, in fact, people thought she