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Introduction

Many women in history have made a great impact on their societies without ever being noted for their accomplishments. Whether it was because of poor record keeping or the lack of importance placed on women, very few were influential enough to be recognized in their own times never mind today. A unique religious leader of her time, Jemima Wilkinson created a following of both men and women. Today she is noted for her revolutionary ideas about her gender and how little it meant to what she was supposed to do in life, which at the time meant being domesticated, submissive, and pure.

Biography

Though the actual date is questionable, Jemima Wilkinson was born sometime in the year 1952 to a Quaker couple in Cumberland, Rhode Island. Her father, Jerciniah Wilkinson, was an uneducated man who managed to work hard until he became the owner of a small estate. Later in his life he married Jemima’s mother, Amy Whipple, and they had twelve children. Amy Whipple was an intelligent eighteenth century woman who felt that her most important job in life was to educate and care for her children. Being the eighth child, Jemima went along with her family’s religious views during her childhood. Even at an early age she displayed a great interest in religion and she regularly attended services with her parents. This was not unusual as during this time piety was one of the main characteristics of women. In fact, in most churches there were more women in attendance than men. Going to these services caused her to be influenced by the Inner Light congregation of John Woolman. This continued until the death of her mother when she was about fourteen years old. Her mother’s death had a profound impact on Jemima and the way that she was raised, only caused her religious fervor to grow. She became very impressed by the zeal of the Baptists and decided to go to their services. During that time the Baptist churches gave women the most power as they were able to become deacons or eldresses, attracting young women like Wilkinson. After going to a meeting of the New Light Baptist groups who emphasized repentance of sins she was dismissed by the Quakers. She then decided to become a member of the Baptist church in 1780. In this way she saw white women in power in the church creating their informal religious groups.

Because of her mother’s death she was never taught the feminine principles of being pure and submissive. In turn Jemima was disobedient and idle, allowing her to do what she pleased in terms of religion as her father was mostly in solitude after the death of her mother. If she had been taught the basic principles of being a woman as a child, she may have never grown up to be the leader she became.

It was at this time that Jemima Wilkinson supposedly became seriously ill, although according to Hudson’s book The History of Jemima Wilkinson, the doctor who attended to her could find nothing physically wrong. Family and friends would watch over her and at one point she seemed to go into a coma. Then one night right after midnight she awoke and demanded her clothing in an authoritative tone. She said that she had passed through the gates of death and Jemima was gone; she was a man. Once she recovered from the apparent fever she referred to herself as the “Universal Publick Friend.” She even went as far as to ask that she only be referenced as the Universal Publick Friend and not with any feminine pronouns . After about ten days the friend decided she was the second coming of Jesus Christ and would live on Earth for a thousand years until she was lifted off into Heaven on a cloud.

Why is Jemima Wilkinson Important?

During the time in which Jemima Wilkinson lived the idea of a woman as the head of anything was pretty much unheard of except in the Baptist Church. And to have Jemima claiming that she was only in a woman’s body but was actually a spirit of God sent to preach was something much more unbelievable. She began by simply preaching at the end of other Baptist gatherings but soon began to get people’s attention by preaching at any town meeting she could go to. At the time of her “rebirth” as Christ, in addition to being called the Publick Universal Friend she would dress in male clothing suggesting her complete lack of acknowledgment of her female form. According to Dubois and Dumenil, “after hearing her preach in New Haven, Connecticut one critical observer described her in 1787 as wearing ‘a light cloth Cloke with a Cape like a man’s- Purple Gown, long sleeves to Wristbands- Mans shirt down to the hands with neckband purple handkerchief or Neckcloth tied around the neck like a man’s’” etc, clearly defining the denouncement of her gender. In fact in a portrait in the same article, Jemima Wilkinson’s gender could absolutely not be decided by someone who was unaware of who the portrait was of . While this caused some people not to respect her, perhaps it was her eccentric ways that attracted her group of followers. Her revolutionary ideas included equality between the sexes which could result in a type of Utopian society. The first step to achieving this meant the rejection of all types of organized religion and churches. Because her ideas were as controversial as they were progressive, most of her early followers were impressionable young women or people who had been rejected from other churches in the area.

As time went on, some followers started to question Jemima’s teachings and so she found ways to renew their dedication and belief in her role. While she was called the Publick Universal Friend, she used her title to make personal gains. She did this by telling followers those possessions they had but she wanted were ‘needed by God’ in order to take them for herself. Perhaps even more manipulative, she hired men to act as spies to obtain personal information about her followers. Using this information she acted like she knew all of their personal secrets reinforcing the idea that she was Christ reborn. After she had attained a following of over two hundred throughout New England in her estimated ten congregations, she had enough power that at one point she was able to separate families based on whether or not they were all followers. For example, if a wife was a friend but the husband was a Quaker, the couple may be asked to separate. An immense influence like this would be astounding for a man to have at this time, never mind a woman, and especially not a woman claiming to be inhabited by a male spirit. Considering this however, it makes sense that even in her most influential days the followers of Jemima Wilkinson were impressionable and uneducated people . Intelligent people with more rational thinking stuck to traditional teachings they were used to like those of the Puritans, Quakers, or Baptists.

Conclusion

In the final years of Jemima’s life in some ways she did manage to achieve her main goal, which was to live free of temptation in a peaceful society. She first made a society in Worchester, learning everything she could about the families in the area. Then she convinced some followers to follow her into the wilderness to a settling place she called Jerusalem. It was here that they could all live together free of the temptations of society and without the influences of organized religions and churches. It was in Jerusalem where Wilkinson continued to preach until a short time before her death in July of 1819. .

Clearly an odd woman by her day and modern standards, Jemima Wilkinson was a clear example of a woman influencing people with the power of a man. It was because she chose not to follow the gender norms that would have kept her in the home that made her so unique. While it is questionable whether or not the reason is because of her lack of a mother, Wilkinson was nothing like the domesticated, elegant, and submissive women around her. Though it may have been irrational to many, she believed herself to be Christ reborn and she had over two hundred followers throughout New England who shared this view. In this way Jemima Wilkinson is considered a revolutionary woman, one of the few who had importance in society in her time and is still remembered today.