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Queer Goldfields

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The Public Universal Friend

The Public Universal Friend (November 29, 1752 – July 1, 1819) was an American preacher born in Cumberland, Rhode Island, to Quaker parents. After suffering a severe illness in 1776, the Friend claimed to have died and been reanimated as a genderless evangelist named the Public Universal Friend, and afterward shunned both birth name and gendered pronouns. 


However, in newspapers of our time, they were always referred to as their birth pronouns (she/her) and birth name, which we will give here, only so that you can find the references to the Public Universal Friend in the articles: Jemima Wilkinson.


In androgynous or male clothes, the Friend preached throughout the north-eastern United States, attracting many followers who became the Society of Universal Friends.


The Friend's theology was broadly similar to that of most Quakers. The Friend stressed free will, opposed slavery, and supported sexual abstinence. The most committed members of the Society of Universal Friends were a group of unmarried women who took leading roles in their households and community. 


In the 1790s, members of the Society acquired land in Western New York where they formed the town of Jerusalem near Penn Yan, New York. The Society of Universal Friends ceased to exist by the 1860s. Many writers have portrayed the Friend as a woman, and either a manipulative fraudster, or a pioneer for women's rights; others have viewed the Friend as transgender or non-binary and a figure in trans history.


You can read more about the Public Universal Friend here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Universal_Friend 


You can also read a book about them, 'Memoir of Jemima Wilkinson, a preacheress of the eighteenth century; containing an authentic narrative of her life and character, and of the rise, progress and conclusion of her ministry.'  published in 1821 at the Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.memoirofjemimawi00huds/?st=gallery


Image from the above Wikipedia page

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