African American Women in Black Religion

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African American Women in Black Religion During the early stages of black religion African American women played a major part. Women like, Isabella Baumfree, Araminta Ross, Jarena Lee, and Amanda Smith. Isabella Baumfree was women’s rights activist, emancipated slave and, became arguably the most well-known 19th Century African American woman. She was born in 1791, bought and sold many times by slave-owners. She became involved in a religious cult known as the Kingdom, whose leader, Matthias, beat her and assigned her the heaviest workload. The turning point in Truth’s life came on June 1, 1843, when she adopted a new name, Sojourner. She also toured the public speaking circuit on behalf of abolition and women’s rights, and in 1851, she gave her infamous “Ain’t I A Woman” speech at a Women’s Rights Convention. Next is Arminta Ross. She is better known as, Harriet Tubman and perhaps the most well-known of all the Underground Railroad's "conductors." During a ten-year span she made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom. And, as she once proudly pointed out, in all of her journeys she "never lost a single passenger." She was born in 1820. In 1849, in fear that she, along with the other slaves on the plantation, was to be sold, Tubman resolved to run away. She followed the North Star by night, making her way to Pennsylvania and soon after to Philadelphia, where she found work and saved her money. Tubman returned to the South again and again. Tubman even carried a gun which she used to threaten the fugitives if they became too tired or decided to turn back, telling them, "You'll be free or die." Jarena Lee was likely one of the first African American female preachers in America. Born in February 1783 to free but poor black parents, she was sent to work as a live-in servant at the age of 7. After hearing a sermon by Richard Allen, the
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