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"Paul Has Been Forgotten":
Women, Gender, and Revivalism
during the Gilded Age
Edward Blum
Baylor University
Hand in hand, man and woman build the home;
Hand in hand they ought to build the state and the
church.
Hand in hand they left an earthly Paradise Lost;
Hand in hand they are likely to enterÉan earthly Paradise
Regained.
- Reverend Joseph Cook to Frances E. Willard (1888)
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During gigantic urban revivals in
1875 and 1876, the Chicago-shoe-salesman-turned-religious-evangelist
Dwight Lyman Moody set the northern United States ablaze with
the fires of a great religious awakening. Over two million Americans
of all Protestant affiliations attended his meetings in Brooklyn,
Philadelphia, New York City, and Chicago. Although his popularity
had been unrivalled, Moody worried about his campaign that would
begin in Boston in 1877. To carry the day, he knew that he would
need the help of "the New England women." "What a power they would
be," Moody claimed. For this reason, he sought out Frances E.
Willard, an up-and-coming female leader and temperance advocate.
When the two met, the evangelist asked, "Will you go with me to
Boston and help in the women's meetings?" After considering the
invitation for several days, Willard agreed to join him. She did
more than merely minister to women, however. On one occasion,
as she recounted later, "Mr. MoodyÉplaced my name upon his program"
to "literally preach" to men and women. Willard wondered aloud
if the sight of a woman preaching would shock the audience: "Brother
MoodyÉ,perhaps you will hinder the work among these conservatives."
Responding, Moody "laughed in his cheery way, and declared that
'it was just what they needed.'"1 |
1
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Although the most prominent female
leader during these revivals, Willard was not the only woman to
work alongside Moody. Quaker "preacheress" Sarah F. Smiley of
Philadelphia, suffragist Maria T. Hale Gordon of Boston, and temperance
leader Mary C. Johnson of Brooklyn also led women's meetings and
addressed large crowds of both women and men. With them, as one
contemporary journalist recognized, a coterie of women "unnamed
in the press but known of God, whose service has been of the first
order" played key roles during the awakenings. "The record of
the revival," this writer continued, "so far as human agencies
are concerned, would be incomplete without due account of their
work."2 |
2
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