Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T21:24:18.627Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Spiritual Pilgrimage of Rachel Stearns, 1834–1837: Reinterpreting Women's Religious and Social Experiences in the Methodist Revivals of Nineteenth-Century America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Candy Gunther
Candy Gunther
Affiliation:
Ms. Gunther is a doctoral candidate in the history of American civilization at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

“Again am I commencing another manuscript,” wrote Rachel Stearns in October of 1836, a “brief record of the most interesting events of my life, of the Lord's dealings with me, and of my own feelings and conduct. Faithful monitors in future years to warn me against departing from my God, by a detail of past sufferings in consequence of wandering; to encourage me to trust in God, by a recollection of the many deliverances I have experienced. Very joyful has been my path sometimes, at others very sad, but in sadness or in joy the Lord has never forsaken me.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 65 , Issue 4 , December 1996 , pp. 577 - 595
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Journals of Stearns, Rachel Willard, 31 10 1836, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar

2. Stearns, , 15 01 1837, 1 January 1835, 24 May 1835, 17 December 1837, 1 January 1837, 12 September 1835, and 13 June 1835.Google Scholar See also Cott, Nancy, The Bonds of Womanhood: “Woman's Sphere” in New England, 1780–1835 (New Haven, Conn., 1977), pp. 14–17.Google Scholar

3. Welter, Barbara, “The Cult of True Womanhood, 1820–60,” American Quarterly 18 (Summer 1966): 151–174;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Smith-Rosenberg, Carroll, “Beauty, the Beast and the Militant Woman: Sex Roles and Social Stress in Jacksonian America,” American Quarterly 23 (1971): 584; and Cott, p. 129. See also Cott, pp. 1, 20, 34, 39, 65, 69, 138–141, 159, 173, 181.Google Scholar

4. Stearns, , 3 03 1835; Greenfield: One Hundred and Fifty Years Old: 1753–1903 (Greenfield, Mass., 1903), pp. 1–3;Google Scholar and Willard, David, History of Greenfield (Greenfield, Mass., 1838), p. 117.Google Scholar

5. In Stearns's Greenfield, a sharp divide existed between trinitarian and Unitarian Congregationalists. Throughout her journal Stearns uses the terms “orthodox” and “Congregational” interchangeably to refer to the trinitarians.Google Scholar

6. Stearns, , 18 10 1834 and 15 October 1834.Google Scholar

7. Stearns, , 18 10 1834, 1 January 1835, and 5 December 1834;Google Scholar Ahlstrom, Sydney E., A Religious History of the American People (New Haven, Conn., 1972), pp. 605–608;Google Scholar and Reid, Daniel G. et al. , eds., Dictionary of Christianity in America (Downers Grove, Ill., 1990), p. 1019.Google Scholar

8. Stearns, , 25 01 1835, 15 October 1834, and 1 November 1835.Google Scholar

9. Stearns, , 15 03 1835, 3 May 1835, 5 December 1834, 23 October 1835, 25 May 1835, 12 June 1835, and 6 September 1835.Google Scholar

10. Stearns, , 5 12 1834, 30 April 1835, 1 January 1835, and 29 November 1834; see Luke 9: 23–24.Google Scholar

11. Stearns, , 18 12 1834, 16 November 1835, 24 October 1834, 27 October 1834, and 25 July 1836.Google Scholar

12. Stearns, , 10 10 1835, 3 September 1837, 12 April 1837, and 2 July 1836.Google Scholar

13. Peters, John Leland, Christian Perfection and American Methodism (New York, 1956), pp. 8, 33, 35, 39, 46–57, 98, 181–191;Google Scholar and Smith, Timothy L., Revivalism and Social Reform in Mid-Nineteenth Century America (New York, 1957), pp. 62, 115–116.Google Scholar

14. Stearns, , 7 10 1834, 8 October 1834, 9 October 1834, 18 October 1834, 19 October 1834, 23 October 1834, 18 November 1834, 23 November 1834, 15 December 1834, 30 December 1834, 5 July 1836, 10 August 1836, 15 August 1836, 24 September 1836, 18 October 1836, 19 March 1837, and 8 July 1837.Google Scholar

15. Matthew, 6: 5–6;Google Scholar and Stearns, , 3 10 1834, 27 October 1834, 15 December 1835, 30 May 1835, 12 June 1835, and 1 November 1835.Google Scholar

16. Stearns, , 3 10 1834, 19 October 1834, 27 October 1834, 14 September 1836, 15 December 1834, 1 January 1835, 8 June 1837, 10 February 1837, and 7 October 1834; and 1 John 5: 14–15.Google Scholar

17. Stearns, , 26 01 1837, 10 February 1837, 5 January 1835, 10 February 1835, 6 August 1836, 9 October 1834, 19 October 1834, 21 November 1834, 21 May 1835, 16 November 1835, 6 August 1836, and 12 April 1837.Google Scholar

18. Brown, Earl Kent, “Women of the Word,” in Hilah F. Thomas and Rosemary Skinner Keller, Women in New Worlds: Historical Perspectives on the Wesleyan Tradition (Nashville, Tenn., 1981), pp. 69–73;Google Scholar and Stevens, Abel, “The Women of Methodism: Its Three Foundresses, Susanna Wesley, The Countess of Huntingdon, and Barbara Heck,” in Women in American Protestant Religion, 1800–1930, ed. Gifford, Carolyn DeSwarte (New York, 1987), p. 12.Google Scholar

19. Brown, , “Women of the Word,” p. 77;Google Scholar Brown, , Women of Mr. Wesley's Methodism (New York, 1983), p. xv;Google Scholar and Muir, Elizabeth Gillan, Petticoats in the Pulpit: The Story of Early Nineteenth-Century Methodist Women Preachers in Upper Canada (Toronto, 1991), p. 180.Google Scholar

20. Stearns, , 8 01 1835.Google Scholar

21. Stearns, , 15 11 1835.Google Scholar See also Turner, Victor and Turner, Edith, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture: Anthropological Perspectives (New York, 1978), pp. 249–251;Google Scholar and Bell, Catherine, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice (Oxford, 1992), pp. 81–83.Google Scholar

22. Stearns, , 1 01 1835, 15 November 1835, and 26 July 1835.Google Scholar

23. Stearns's consciousness of setting aside “control” should also be read in the context of controversies surrounding revivalism; prior to becoming a Methodist, she had considered the “raptures which some had described, but the excitement of a disordered imagination.”Google Scholar Stearns, , 24 07 1835, 24 August 1836, 12 October 1834, 9 November 1834, 27 October 1834, 18 October 1835, 12 March 1837, 2 April 1837, and 20 November 1834.Google Scholar

24. Stearns, , 24 05 1835, 5 July 1836, 10 October 1834, and 17 October 1834.Google Scholar

25. Stearns, , 27 10 1834, 7 October 1834, 9 June 1835, 7 November 1834, 27 September 1835, and 4 October 1835. When she moved to Mississippi, Stearns found Southern Methodism closer to Congregationalism in structure; Stearns, 19 May 1837.Google Scholar

26. Among the women cited were Anna, Mary, Elizabeth, Martha, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, Phoebe, Lydia, Priscilla, Junia, Dorcas, Tryphena, and Tryphosa;Google Scholar Stearns, , 7 10 1834, 5 December 1834, 11 November 1834, 13 May 1835, 29 August 1836, 19 May 1835, 3 August 1835, and 20 September 1835.Google Scholar

27. Stearns, , 11 05 1835, 9 November 1834, 31 July 1835, 27 September 1835, 18 October 1836, 21 October 1836, and 9 June 1835.Google Scholar

28. Stearns, , 2 07 1836.Google Scholar

29. Stearns, , 4 01 1837 and 19 July 1835.Google Scholar

30. Stearns, , 3 11 1834, 27 May 1835, 10 June 1835, 5 April 1835, 8 October 1835, 17 October 1834, 27 October 1834, 1 February 1835, 6 October 1835, and 8 October 1837.Google Scholar

31. See Bell, p. 101. Ritualization was effective in this situation because Stearns's negotiations of power were based on indirect claims, such as her claim that God spoke through her, and because her experience had to be “rendered socially redemptive in order to be personally redemptive,” as when the group validated the genuineness of her claim to forgiveness and perfect love.Google Scholar Stearns, , 17 11 1834, 11 October 1834, 3 May 1835, 8 November 1834, and 19 July 1835.Google Scholar

32. Stearns, , 17 10 1835, 27 October 1835, and 20 September 1835.Google Scholar

33. Stearns, , 18 06 1836, 3 August 1835, 4 October 1835, 19 October 1835, 24 October 1835, 15 April 1837, 17 May 1835, 9 October 1835, and 3 May 1835.Google Scholar

34. Stearns, , 15 06 1836, 26 January 1837, and 19 June 1836.Google Scholar See Hall, David D., “The Uses of Literacy in New England, 1600–1850,” in Printing and Society in Early America, ed. Joyce, William L., et al. (Worcester, Mass., 1983), pp. 22, 23, 32.Google Scholar

35. Stearns, , 2 08 1836.Google Scholar

36. Stearns, , 30 12 1834, 2 August 1836, 18 December 1834, 30 December 1834, 5 August 1836, 27 October 1836, 16 June 1836, 23 September 1836, 1 January 1837, 4 January 1837, and 18 May 1837; Hall, pp. 10, 43; Cott, p. 63; Stevens, pp. 13, 98–102;Google Scholar Brown, , Women of Mr. Wesley's Methodism, pp. 199–206; and Bell, p. 134.Google Scholar

37. Stearns, , 7 10 1834, 12 November 1835, 16 May 1835, and 19 October 1835; see Welter's argument.Google Scholar

38. Stearns, , 4 11 1834, 21 October 1836, 8 October 1834, and 11 May 1835.Google Scholar

39. Stearns, , 22 11 1836, 25 June 1836, 29 November 1835, 12 July 1835, 16 October 1834, 15 October 1834, 19 November 1834, 23 August 1835, 19 October 1834, 3 May 1835, 5 December 1834, 1 January 1835, 28 May 1835, 7 June 1835, 24 October 1835, 2 July 1836, 25 August 1836, 23 November 1834, 15 December 1834, 15 November 1835, and 21 October 1836.Google Scholar

40. Stearns, , 25 06 1836, 15 December 1834, and 15 November 1835.Google Scholar

41. Stearns, , 19 03 1835, 8 August 1836, 27 September 1835, 3 May 1835, 18 May 1837, 5 December 1834, 17 May 1835, 18 October 1835, and 8 November 1835.Google Scholar

42. Stearns, , 15 11 1835 and 26 March 1837.Google Scholar

43. Stearns, , 12 04 1837, 15 April 1837, 19 May 1837, and 17 December 1837; see Psalms 23:4.Google Scholar

44. Stearns, , 31 03 1835, 12 March 1837, and 19 March 1837; see 2 Timothy 4: 7–8.Google Scholar

45. Stearns, , 23 August 1835, 22 November 1835, 18 May 1837, and 23 August 1835.Google Scholar