Jarena Lee

After looking through a list of possible women to research and discover, I found the name of Jarena Lee, a name I remember from a former class, and the date of 1783. I realized that I had heard this name before. I heard it in my Church History II class as one of the first woman ministers in the United States. Finding this information was exciting for me, a woman who is training to be a Lutheran pastor, because it connects my vocation to the foundational threads of this country. I was eager and curious as to what kind of an impact she made not only for black women but for this country in the religious realm. The foundational and religious history that is recorded as historic are important to know and understand what Jarena Lee was up against in her life time.
The history of the United States is best know as it’s beginning by the explorer Christopher Columbus in 1493. Although there are many recorded events and communities on the American soil before Columbus’ expedition, his foundation on this land became a catalyst for many Europeans to settle in this new land. As more people settled and land developed problems arose for this new land. A Revolutionary war ended the ties between the new land and the land that ruled it, England. There was the start of indentured servants and slaves from other countries, mainly Africa. This increased the economy for the country but also highlighted the inhumanness of the country at that time.
The United States came to be a nation in the year 1776 with the Declaration of Independence. A Civil War broke out because of slavery (North wanted to free slaves the South wanted to keep slaves) and use of land (who would rule the entire nation). It was then a new beginning of its history. This side of history is taught in our school system, one of which I remember learning as I went through the grades. This is just the beginning and small portion of this nations history. There are many more people and events that are left out of this mainline history that are just as important as the Constitution. The religious history for this country is not taught too often, maybe with just the incidence of the Salem Witch Trial, but it reflects the core beliefs in which many communities were founded on.
Many European settlers immigrated to this country to experience religious freedom. The first strongest settlers were that from Protestant denominations like the Episcopalians and Puritans, also known as Pilgrims. Main line denominations from Europe sent ministers to the United States to foster and create churches within these new developments. In my opinion, the rise of Methodism and Pentecostalism was an exciting and faithful time for this new land. This is also titled, “The Great Awakening.” This happened after the Revolutionary War when military, civilians, and religious leaders were physically, mentally, and spiritually tired. The roots in which John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards and other religious missionaries started, continued to exist and boost the countries moral. “Vital for the political future of the colonies, the Awakening also made the people aware of their common spiritual heritage, and of their existence as an American Nation.” During this upsweep of faith also happens to be the time in which Jarena Lee lived and preach.
One common thread between the United States foundational and religious history is that it is very male dominated. The people and the places that made the “news,” history were men. This is what got highlighted. Abraham Lincoln formulated the Emancipation Proclamation, but who else worked in this same vein. John Wesley was very well known in his crusade of Methodism and the start of many revivals, but who else worked for this same cause? When I first started studying the religious history in America I searched for the women in history that made faith possible in this country. One of the women that made faith possible and flourish in this country was Jarena Lee.
Jarena Lee’s history is recorded and well known by her publication that she wrote title, “The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee.” This pamphlet really highlighted some parts of her life but was overall a witness to her conversion story. Researchers have discovered, through thorough investigation, some more information about her life. Many have found it difficult to find information about her life past the year 1849 and often question what had happened in her life afterwards.
Lee’s life began on February 11, 1783 in Cape May, New Jersey. This site was first founded by a Scandinavian man named Cornelius Jacobsen Mey in 1621. This is also how her published work began. She was born to parents who were free. Her parents are not named in an historical document and she writes under her married name. Although her family was free, they did not make an adequate income to raise Jarena and sold her to be a house servant at the age of seven, 1790. This location was approximately 60 miles from where her family lived. She had stayed there for many years and did not return to her home in Cape May. When she was older, she wanted to go, explore, and discover her faith in God. She traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where she stayed at homes and went to a few different churches to have her faith connected with God. This was also In the year 1804, when she was twenty-one years old, she had a conversion experience.
This conversion experience took place after joining Bethel African Methodist Episcopalian (AME) Church in Philadelphia. This was a pivotal moment for Lee who led her into deep spiritual conversations with others and herself. During this time she also struggled with guilt, mostly guilt about not “pleasing” God. At times she had suicidal tendencies. She had wrestled with God. It was not until 1811 that she felt called to preach. She approached the pastor of Bethel, who also is the founding father of the church, Reverend Richard Allen. She wanted the permission to preach during a worship service. She met with him on several occasions to discuss if and when she could preach in church. Allen struggled with the letting a woman preach in church but had given women permission to hold prayer meetings at their homes or after the pastor has preached. In a sense, Lee understood, and grasped at the opportunity to begin prayer meetings at homes. This gave her the chance to start to preach.
The year 1811 was an important year for Lee personally because she married Joseph Lee who was a pastor at a Black Church in a small town located six miles from Philadelphia in a town called Snow Hill. This meant that Jarena left Philadelphia to be with her husband in his ministry. This was a difficult time for her because Philadelphia was where she experienced her conversion and made friends. She and Joseph had six children and they were married for six years. Tragedy struck in 1817 when her husband and four children had passed away. She had two young children still with her. After these sad events, Lee moved back to Philadelphia to begin again her calling into the ministry.
In 1819 at a church service at Bethel AME she was called by the spirit to preach, interrupt, during the sermon of the Rev. Allen. This could have been a breaking point for her preaching career, instead it was the launching point. Rev. Allen decided to endorse her of her call to preach. She traveled all over the Philadelphia area and even as far as Canada. “In 1835 she traveled over seven hundred miles and preached almost the same number of sermons.” With all of the traveling that she did, she decided to collect her life story and experiences in type form so that she could distribute them at meetings and everywhere she went. In 1833 she did preliminary writing and editing for her book. In 1836 at the cost of thirty-eight dollars, Lee published one thousand copies of her book, “The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee.” This book was so popular that a second thousand was published in 1839.
She added on to her manuscript by placing more thoughts and experiences during her preaching ministry. She wanted a new addition to be published with these accounts and in 1844 she went to the church (AME) book committee to help get funding and endorsement for the third publication. The church turned down this business opportunity because they thought it was not, “written in such a manner that is impossible to decipher much of the meaning contained in it.” This many have been a terrible let down for Lee, but she published the book, with the additions, in 1849. At the 1850 AME annual meeting of the Philadelphia Conference, a group of women, and very likely Jarena Lee, brought to the table a chance to change their regulations to approve women who felt called to preach. After debate and discussion, their attempt to change the AME rules and regulations failed. The topic came up at the 1852 conference and a resolution was passed to license women to preach within the conference. This seems to be the last known activity of Jarena Lee.
The pamphlet written by Lee is an important historic and religious glimpse into the spiritual lives of African Americans in the early 1800s. In the book, Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Women’s Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century, cluster Lee’s narrative with that of Zilpha Elaw and Julia Foote. The editors of this book declare that all three narratives follow a similar pattern that resounds with the spiritual writings of its time.
“The autobiographies of Lee, Elaw, and Foote are structure in accordance with these two stages of the Christian’s psychospiritual development. First these women had to become assured that they were the beneficiaries of Christ’s atonement and were therefore heirs of his heavenly kingdom. Then they had to confront the problem of what their role should be as Christian women in an earthly realm.”

The autobiography of Lee was created so that people would feel inspired to open their hearts to God, to start having an experience with God, and to make her call to preach the good news known throughout the world. This was her written masterpiece.
Jarena Lee’s autobiography starts off with a quote from scripture. “And it shall come to pass…that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons, and your daughters shall prophecy.” This set’s the tone for her whole life. It is very interesting that she has chosen this scripture from this particular text. The book of Joel is considered to be a book from a prophet. Already in the beginning of her story she connects herself to be a prophet. The writing continues with the basic information of when she was born, the circumstance of her parents, and where she was raised into adulthood. Although it is important to know the basics of Lee, she does not discuss her familial history because it is not the focus of her story, her faith is.
Her conversion story is of most importance in her life. She describes the beginning of the seeking as God coming down and telling her that she is a wretched sinner. This sends her on a question to become holy, for God even though she didn’t feel like one of God’s children. During these beginning stages she had contemplated suicide many times.
“…I had a book in my hand; it was on a Sabbath morning about ten o’clock; to this place I resorted, where on coming to the water I sat down on the bank, and on my looking into it; it was suggested that drowning would be an easy death….It was the unseen arm of God which saved me from self murder.”

The description of one attempt is sad, but saving at the same time.
She continues on in her writings speaking about her travel to Philadelphia. She went to a few churches before finding the right fit to meet her spiritual needs. She found a church home in Bethel AME church where Reverend Richard Allen was the pastor. During the service she felt the spirit overwhelm her and she leaped out of her seat to declare what God has done to her heart. “ That moment, though hundreds were present, I did leap to my feet and declare that God, for Christ’s sake, had pardoned the sings of my soul.” Lee recalls the feeling of being relieved of sin as part of her conversion story. This was only the first step towards preaching.
After committing herself to God, she wanted to search for salvation. She experiences the his part of her faith with a few meetings with a certain man from the church named William Scott. She explains their first conversation in this way, “In the course of our conversation, he inquired if the Lord had justified my soul. I answered, yes. He then asked me if he had sanctified me. I answered, no; and that I did not know what that was.” This started her new question to experience sanctification from God. Mr. Scott instructed her in what it meant to be sanctified according to the theology of John Wesley. She also did more individual reflection which was joyous and difficult at times. At one point she described that she was wrestling with Satan during her quest for sanctification from God. It was after this wrestling that she experiences this sanctification and describes it in this way, “During this, I stood perfectly still, the tears rolling in a flood from my eyes. So great was the joy, that it is past description.” After this experience she was ready to preach.
The next section of her life story is devoted to her calling to preach the good news. It was not four or five years after her sanctification that she felt the surge to preach. She writes about her struggle to actually go to the head of the African Society, who at that time happened to be Revered Richard Allen. It took her a few days, a loss of appetite, and a gain of courage to go and ask permission to preach.
“Several times on my way there, I turned back again; but as often I felt my strength renewed, and I soon found that the nearer I approached to the house of the minister, the les was my hear. Accordingly, as soon as I came to the door, my hears subsided, the cross was removed, all things appeared pleasant – I was tranquil.”

She did approach the building but she was rejected in a sense to not preach publicly, but she could hold prayer meetings. She writes in her pamphlet about her feelings on women preaching. She connects women preaching to the first woman who preached the Gospel, Mary Magdalene when she saw that the tomb was empty. She continued to write that if Mary could do that, preach publicly, and be filled with the spirit at that time, she could preach. Where she could preach she was successful. She writes about how successful she was and how people had heard her preach, had other people preach, and wanted her to come back again.
A short section was devoted to her Marriage. She was married in 1911 to Joseph Lee. She writes about how much love she had experienced with him and how pleased she was to marry him. The only downfall that upset her was that he was a preacher in a town called Snow Hill which was away from Philadelphia, where she had fostered her faith. When they first moved to Snow Hill, she was having a difficult time making friends and finding out where she would fit in the town. She wrote that she wised they would move back to Philadelphia. She wrote about having a dream with sheep and wolves. This dream gave her the meaning that her husband needed to be in Snow Hill or else the flock would be eaten by the wolf. After this moment she had a new lease on life. She ended this section with talking about her loss of five members of the family, including her husband and being left with two young children. She closes out that even though this was traject God was supporting her. “I have ever been fed by his bounty, clothed by his mercy, comforted and healed when sick, succoured when tempted, and every where upheld by his hand.”
Her final section titled, “The Subject of my call to preach renewed” focuses on her return to Philadelphia with her two young children and reentering her call. She went back to Reverend Allen to ask to preach again. She was given the permission to hold prayer meetings and exhort. She also made house visits to those who were sick and dying. She wrote about one particular man. This young man was sick and his sister asked to visit him during his final days. The first visit was not a big visit, but had lasted impression on him. “I asked him if I should pray for him. He answered in a sluggish and careless manner, ‘ O yes, if you have time.’ I then sung a hymn, kneeled down and prayed for him, and then went my way.” She visited three days after this first visit and then two days after that.
On the third visit, he was near death and he asked her to pray for him and quick. She did as she normally did, started to sing a hymn, but then gathered everyone in the room to kneel and pray for the young man and for God to forgive him and take him home to suffer no more. Her writing about this experience is power.
“While calling on the name of the Lord, to have mercy on his soul, and to grant him repentance unto life, it cam suddenly into my mind never to rise from my knees until God should hear prayer in his behalf, until he should convert and save his soul. Now, while I thus continued importuning heaven, as I felt I was led, a ray of light, ore abundant broke forth among us. There appeared to my view, through my eyes were closed, the Saviour in full stature, nailed to the cross, just over the head of the young man, against the ceiling of the room. I cried out, brother look up the Saviour is come, he will pardon you, your sins he will forgive.”
He then opened his eyes and fell asleep into eternal rest.
This event inspired Lee to continue preaching. She even was invited by a congregation to preach in the town in which she was born, Cape May. She calls this that it was her Jonah moment to go back home where she needed to be. She writes that she even met with her parents and had a good reunion. She preached at many different places that even took her far away from her children. She writes that it was hard to leave her children in the hands of friends but she wanted to do the Master’s work. Lee ends her pamphlet with a blessing to all of her readers. “I have now only to say, May the blessing of the father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, accompany the reading of this poor effort to speak well of his name, wherever it may be red. AMEN.”
After reading the life story and the 1839 version of it is one of the most earliest inspiring writings for anyone and any women who have faith, want faith, and want to follow their vocational call to serve the Master. When I was given this assignment, I wanted to research a woman who was in the earliest years of this country. I found this to be important because of the lack of women’s voices and women in the history books. She had overcome obstacles that were common for people, especially women, to go through and more. Women of all colors can learn from Jarena Lee’s life. If this pamphlet that was produced over two thousand times could impact me in a positive way now, I am sure that it impacted many people to and through faith. I am happy to have come across this woman and her life. It has given me hope to continue my training in my vocation. And I hope to refer to her writing to other women who are discerning their call to preach.

-Phyllis Smoot