Books and Manuscripts

Philadelphia: Printed and Published for the Author, 1849. "Revised and corrected from the Original Manuscript, written by herself." 8vo. 98 pp (p. 98 misnumbered 97); lacking rear free endpaper. Illustrated with a lithographic frontispiece portrait of Jarena Lee, by P.S. Duval, after A. Hoffy. Original brown cloth-covered boards, stamped in blind and in gilt, boards and extremities worn and soiled, corners rubbed, spine ends chipped, gilt dulled; all edges trimmed; gutter split at front, frontispiece and title-page loose; moderate to heavy foxing to prelims and text; scattered faint dampstaining in top corners; erased pencil inscription on verso of front free endpaper; pencil scrawl in margin of p. 56; pp. 39-44 proud; contemporary ownership signatures on front paste-down.

A rare edition of Jarena Lee's memoir describing her experiences as the first authorized female preacher at the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Originally published in Philadelphia in 1836 under the title The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee... That edition was reprinted in 1839 in Cincinnati, then revised and expanded by Lee for this 1849 edition.

Jarena Lee was born in 1783 in Cape May, New Jersey to a free Black family. As a teenager she moved to Philadelphia where she worked as a domestic, and it was during this time that she attended a sermon at Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church where founder, Richard Allen (1760-1831), gave a powerful sermon that catalyzed her conversion to Christianity. In 1807 she asked Allen if she could become a preacher, and although he initially refused because of her gender, after he heard her preach in 1819 he changed his mind. She began travelling to various cities to preach and became incredibly popular for her oratory skills. During her travels she became involved in the abolitionist movement and joined the American Antislavery Society in 1839. In 1836 she became the first African American to publish an autobiography. The exact date of her death is unknown, but it is speculated to be in the late 1850s or early 1860s.