Early life
Jarena Lee was born on February 11, 1783, inCall to preach
She soon started hearing voices telling her to "Go preach the Gospel! Preach the Gospel; I will put words in your mouth." Lee then told Richard Allen that God had spoken to her and commanded her to preach, but Allen said that there was no provision for women preachers in the Methodist Church. This did not stop Lee from pursuing her call. "If the man may preach, because the Savior died for him, why not the woman, seeing he died for her also? Is he not a whole Savior, instead of half of one?" Allen still refused, but eight years later during a Sunday service at the Mother Bethel the preacher seemed to lose spirit. Lee stepped up and began to preach, the crowd was very intrigued to what she had to say. Religious belief, especially in God's divine protection, became a source of self empowerment for Lee. In rebuttal to questions on a female ministry, she responded, "Did not Mary ''first'' preach the risen Savior?".Harvey, Paul. (2011). Through the storm through the night: a history of African American Christianity. Landham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. p. 43. The idea that African Americans and women could preach was an element of the Second Great Awakening, which reached its peak as Lee began her missionary work.Converting a non-believer
In the ''Religious Experience and Journal of Mrs. Jarena Lee'' there is a story she tells of young man who would ridicule her for what she preached, because he did not believe in God or religion. He was a person of color who would regularly attend her meetings. As time passed he grew ill. The young man's sister, who was a part of the society, called upon Lee to not help him to recover, but in hopes that the Lord would enter into his mind. When Lee went to visit she saw the young man in a very low state. She asked him if he wanted her to pray for him and he replied yes. Although he never recovered, the young man continued to ask for her to be at his bed side to pray for him.Marriage
Lee came to Philadelphia as a teenager and was changed when she heard a passionate sermon given by Richard Allen. She married Joseph Lee in 1811, seven years after joining Philadelphia's Mother Bethel. Joseph Lee was a pastor of a Society at Snow Hill. Snow Hill was six miles from Philadelphia. Lee moved to Snow Hill with her husband, but was unsure because she knew no one there besides her husband. She found at Snow Hill that she did not find the same closeness that she had in Philadelphia. During their marriage her husband did not want her to preach, so she felt forced to put her spiritual needs on hold for her marriage. It is said that her not being fully committed to her spiritual needs resulted in Lee becoming ill and a sense of discontent. Joseph Lee died six years into their marriage. Soon after Lee was fully devoted to religious concerns, but her ill health never recovered.Legacy
Lee is recognized as being the first woman to preach in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. Her life story exemplifies the 19th-century American religious movement's focus on personal Hallow, holiness and sanctification. She has been compared to influential African American women of her time, such as Maria W. Stewart and Sojourner Truth. In the decades after Jarena Lee became a preacher, other women such as Juliann Jane Tillman gained prominence as evangelists within the AME Church. Much of what is known about Lee's life comes from her autobiographical memoir, ''The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee'' and its expanded version, ''Religious Experience and Journal of Mrs. Jarena Lee''. Extensive archival research by Dr. Frederick Knight has revealed that Jarena Lee died penniless in Philadelphia sometime in early 1864. Jarena Lee is also currently the subject of a research project atSee also
* Richard Allen * " Black Harry" Hosier * Juliann Jane Tillman *References
Bibliography
*External links
* http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages/lee_jarena.php * https://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/people/jarena-lee.html * https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3h91.html * https://www.nyhistory.org/womens-history/education/curriculum/saving-washington/module-2-breaking-the-rules-women/life-stories/jarena-lee *https://daily.jstor.org/jarena-lee-the-first-woman-african-american-autobiographer/ *www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/pastorsandpreachers/jarena-lee.html *www.womenhistoryblog.com/2012/02/jarena-lee.html *www.nyhistory.org/sites/default/files/newfiles/cwh-curriculum/Module%202/Life%20Stories/Jarena%20Lee%20Life%20Story.pdf *https://blog.nyhsdev2.org/sites/default/files/newfiles/cwh-curriculum/Module%202/Life%20Stories/Jarena%20Lee%20Life%20Story.pdf {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Jarena 1783 births Methodists from Pennsylvania 1864 deaths 19th-century American women writers African-American women writers American religious writers Women religious writers African Methodist Episcopal Church clergy Methodist circuit riders Women Protestant religious leaders 19th-century American Methodist ministers People from Cape May, New Jersey American women non-fiction writers 19th-century African-American writers