Type of Document Dissertation Author Everson, Elisa Ann Author's Email Address eversonre@ntlworld.com URN etd-04212007-161752 Title "A Little Labour of Love": The Extraordinary Career of Dorothy Ripley, Female Evangelist in Early America Degree Ph.D. Department English Advisory Committee
Advisor Name Title Dr. Reiner Smolinski Committee Chair Dr. Malinda Snow Committee Member Dr. Tanya Caldwell Committee Member Keywords
- Congress
- revivalism
- spiritual autobiography
- Rose Butler
- Oneidas
- death penalty
- prison ministry
- religion
- England
- Whitby
- Methodism
- Quakerism
- women preachers
Date of Defense 2007-03-29 Availability unrestricted Abstract In the past two decades or so, feminist historians have sifted through the copiousillustrations of the turbulent, emotion-ridden years of early nineteenth-century American
revivalism to devote considerable attention to the rise of female evangelism. Despite the
notable upsurge, scholars generally remain untutored about the plethora of powerful
female preachers who devoted their lives to advancing the kingdom of God. This
dissertation seeks to resurrect the voice of one such woman: Dorothy Ripley (1767-
1831), an evangelist from Whitby, England, whose personal and evangelical awakening
rivaled the revolutionary power of the revivalism sweeping the new Republic. Citing her
direct mandate from God to preach, Dorothy grasped religion and reshaped it into a
spiritually, culturally, and politically altering device. She became the first woman to
preach before the U.S. Congress, composed five literary volumes (most of which she
published herself and in multiple editions), crossed the Atlantic as many as nineteen
times, and traveled up and down the Eastern Seaboard to preach among the different
levels of society in a variety of settings. As an unlicensed, unsanctioned preacher,
Dorothy defied powerful social and religious conventions by her solitary travel, scriptural
exegesis, public performances, and presumption of the patriarchally assigned and
protected role of preacher. She strove to proclaim the gospel even at the expense of
reputation, family ties, home and hearth, marriage and motherhood, and personal
security. Her rebelliousness allowed her to rise above the backstage role commonly
assigned to, and accepted by, women of the early Republic. Her works serve as cultural
artifacts by providing eyewitness accounts spotlighting the problems inherent in the
formative years of a Republic reeling with the headiness of self-rule: the tension between
Protestantism and American capitalism, the conflict between an emerging elite and the
increasingly dissatisfied lower class, the misogyny of the cult of domesticity and separate
spheres, the embryonic stages of widespread social reform, and the virulent
ethnocentrism of the rhetoric of Manifest Destiny. Through an examination of her
spiritual autobiographies, this dissertation seeks to enrich scholarly understanding of
women’s influence in the evolution of evangelization, abolitionism, women’s rights, and
social service.
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