upon the actions of grace within the heart. The futility of intellectual study as a spiritual method led New Light preachers to highlight the simple yet intense piety of the child as a model for faith. In the thinking of the new Enlightenment, bound by traditional assumptions about gender and race, the attainments of the adult mind were associated with European men, while women and African-Americans were judged to be simpler. In their childlike-ness both the woman and the African-American came to represent the quintessential spiritual convert. In Edwards’ Faithful Narrative his two exam-ples of Awakening converts were the young, unmarried Abigail Hutchinson and the irritating four-year-old Phebe Bartlet, who spent most of her time praying, listening to ministers and instructing other children.

doi:10.4324/9780203166505-56

Chapter

upon the actions of grace within the heart. The futility of intellectual study as a spiritual method led New Light preachers to highlight the simple yet intense piety of the child as a model for faith. In the thinking of the new Enlightenment, bound by traditional assumptions about gender and race, the attainments of the adult mind were associated with European men, while women and African-Americans were judged to be simpler. In their childlike-ness both the woman and the African-American came to represent the quintessential spiritual convert. In Edwards’ Faithful Narrative his two exam-ples of Awakening converts were the young, unmarried Abigail Hutchinson and the irritating four-year-old Phebe Bartlet, who spent most of her time praying, listening to ministers and instructing other children.

Chapter

upon the actions of grace within the heart. The futility of intellectual study as a spiritual method led New Light preachers to highlight the simple yet intense piety of the child as a model for faith. In the thinking of the new Enlightenment, bound by traditional assumptions about gender and race, the attainments of the adult mind were associated with European men, while women and African-Americans were judged to be simpler. In their childlike-ness both the woman and the African-American came to represent the quintessential spiritual convert. In Edwards’ Faithful Narrative his two exam-ples of Awakening converts were the young, unmarried Abigail Hutchinson and the irritating four-year-old Phebe Bartlet, who spent most of her time praying, listening to ministers and instructing other children.

ABSTRACT

Nancy Gove Cram enjoyed four years of preaching in fields and barns on the New York frontier and published her own collection of hymns and poems before she died in 1815. One Christian Connection leader claimed that at least seven active ministers were converted under her influence. One of her converts, Abigail Roberts, founded four churches.16 A third Nancy, Nancy Towle, dreamed that she was called to preach, and subsequently embarked upon an itinerant ministry that took her over 15,000 miles through the north-east, the south, Canada, Ireland and England. She described encounters with women preachers among Christians, Freewill Baptists, Universalists, and Methodists, and called for more women to join the preaching work.17 Among the Christians and Freewill Baptists, historian Catherine Brekus has counted at least 41 women preachers. In addition to preachers, literally hundreds of women could be found as exhorters at camp meetings as well as regular parish gatherings. They were encouraged and praised by clergymen for their ‘melting exhortations’, ‘ardent prayers’ and ‘powerful testimonies’.18