Daughters of Light: Quaker Women Preaching and Prophesying in the Colonies and Abroad, 1700-1775 - Softcover

Rebecca Larson offers a deeper and more daring probe into colonial religious life. ("New Republic") Larson has written the first comprehensive account of the role of 18th-century Quaker women ministers. ("Choice") "Daughters of Light" should be required reading for everyone engaged by present-day debates about whether the clergy should be open to women. ("Philadelphia Inquirer") """Larson] provides a welcome corrective to popular historical accounts that underestimate the roles of women and religious diversity in early American history. ("Booklist")" "Larson provides a welcome corrective to popular historical accounts that underestimate the roles of women and religious diversity in early American history. ("Booklist") Larson has given us the stories of thousands of women whose words and courageous deportment forced large numbers of British North Americans to admit female competence. ("Womens Review of Books") "Larson] provides a welcome corrective to popular historical accounts that underestimate the roles of women and religious diversity in early American history. ("Booklist") [Larson] has given us the stories of thousands of women whose words and courageous deportment forced large numbers of British North Americans to admit female competence. ("Women s Review of Books") Larson] provides a welcome corrective to popular historical accounts that underestimate the roles of women and religious diversity in early American history. ("Booklist)

More than a thousand Quaker female ministers were active in the Anglo-American world before the Revolutionary War, when the Society of Friends constituted the colonies' third-largest religious group. Some of these women circulated throughout British North America; others crossed the Atlantic to deliver in courthouses, meeting houses, and private homes, to audiences of men and women, to Quakers and to those of other faiths, to Native Americans, and to slaves. Utilizing the Quakers' rich archival sources, as well as colonial newspapers and diaries, Rebecca Larson reconstructs the activities of these women. She examines the ways their public, authoritative role affected the formation of their identities, their families and their society.