The Life And Religious Experience Of Jarena Lee

Another inspiring women abolitionist in the 18th century, Jarena Lee, produced The Life and Religious Experiences of Jarena Lee, which is a women’s spiritual autobiography. Lee believed God called her to preach, despite the impropriety of women preachers due to the time period. Lee experienced hostility and prejudice as she traveled and spread the word of the Gospel, but continued to fight for her devotion to faith with the intention of fulfilling her calling from God. In The Life and Religious Experiences of Jarena Lee, Lee formats her text as a sermon and associated her qualifications with her production of a religious service in order to convince her audience of her abilities. Also, Lee associates herself with male ministers because of shared characteristics and experiences.

When Lee referred to her calling, she noted that her impression was so strong that she had feelings of “guilt” about the lies she told before God called to her and she “promised” (20) to her heart she

Instead of establishing a perfect image of herself, she described her emotions gradually accumulate in order to gain the audience’s trustworthiness. During her religious experience, she meets with the first preacher in charge of the African Society, Reverend Richard Allen because he was the only one with the power to ordain her. As she anticipated this meeting, she admitted her “courage failed her” (27). Lee’s noticeable skepticism further built trustworthiness amongst the male preachers in her audience, because they personally understood the journey she traveled, thus associative with her emotions. Dually, Lee exemplified her humble character because of her confession of skepticism, which is a quality fit of a minister. In fact, in Psalms 25: 9: the Bible states, “He leads the humble in what is right and teaches the humble his way,” which directly exemplify Lee’s