African-American women have boldly preached the Gospel and even started Christian churches going all the way back to the time of slavery in our country. Many of those women became followers of Christ while slaves themselves.

Historical records say that the first black woman preacher was a Methodist known only as Elizabeth. She is said to have held her first prayer meeting in Baltimore around 1800, and then preached the Gospel for more than 40 years.

Elizabeth then moved to Philadelphia, spending the remainder of her life living among the Quakers.

Another early black preacher, Isabella Baumfree, was born into slavery in Ulster County, New York. She was one of the 10 or 12 children born to James and Elizabeth Baumfree, who were captured from the Gold Coast of Africa.

Later in life, Isabella gained her freedom, and she became known throughout the northeast as a powerful evangelist and public speaker. She was told, time and time again, that women couldn’t be preachers. Isabella preached anyway.

She was one of the featured speakers at the “Woman’s Rights National Convention” in Akron, Ohio in 1851. During her message she pointed to a male preacher and said, “That little man in black over there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, because Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? From God and a Woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.”

(I love that quote.)

By that time, Isabella Baumfree had been led by the Holy Spirit to change her name to “Sojourner Truth.” She said that name spoke to what she considered her mission in life.

Another early black woman preacher was a lady named Jarena Lee. She was born in1783 in Cape May, New Jersey to a black couple who had been granted their freedom.

Jarena taught herself to read and write while she was working as a domestic servant. One of the first books she read was the Holy Bible. When she was about 20 years old she moved to Philadelphia, where she continued to work as a domestic.

Jarena spent her free time worshipping at the many churches in the city, but she had trouble finding a religious community that “felt right” for her. It was in 1807 when she heard the voice of the Lord telling her, “Go Preach the Gospel!”

Jarena was shocked and told herself, “I can’t do that! No one will believe me. The Lord knows I’m a woman and a colored woman. It must be Satan transforming himself into an angel of light.”

But she continued to hear God’s voice, “Go preach the Gospel! I will put words in your mouth, and I will turn your enemies into your friends.”

Jarena continued to struggle and wrestle with God in prayer, and then the Lord gave her a vision of a pulpit and a Bible. At that moment she knew it was the Lord calling her to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

During that time, Jarena was attending services at Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church where Bishop Richard Allen was the preacher. Allen was a former slave who started the church when the parish he used to attend began segregating its services.

Mother Bethel’s parishioners were all black, and the people there welcomed Jarena. She finally found a religious community where she felt at home, and she asked to be baptized into the church.

Shortly after being baptized, Jarena told the Bishop that she believed God had called her to preach, and she asked him if she could preach there at Mother Bethel sometime.

He told her no, and said it wasn’t allowed for women to preach. Jarena was very disappointed, and she later wrote: “If the man may preach, because the Savior died for him, why not the woman, seeing He died for her also. Is He not a whole Savior, instead of a half one?”

In 1811, Jarena married a preacher in the church by the name of Jason Lee, and she moved with him to New Jersey. She gave birth to six children while there, but only two survived. Throughout her marriage to Lee, Jarena knew God was calling her to preach, but her husband kept telling her it wasn’t allowed for women to be preachers.

In 1817, her husband died, so Jarena moved back to Philadelphia, and she started attending services at Mother Bethel again, and her conviction that God wanted her to preach grew even stronger.

In 1819, a guest preacher was speaking, and in the middle of his sermon he stumbled over his words and became so nervous he couldn’t speak. So, Jarena jumped to her feet and began to preach, finishing the man’s sermon.

Bishop Allen was so moved by Jarena’s preaching that he decided that maybe God had chosen her to be a preacher. Allen authorized her as the first female minister of the A.M.E. Church.

It wasn’t long and Jarena decided to become a missionary, and she traveled all over the country on foot, preaching to any group of people who would listen. She sought out black people in particular.

Jarena later wrote that in her experience most people were kind. Some gave her rides and places to sleep, provided her with meals, and some even gave her money. She needed all the help she could get. Most male preachers were given a small salary, but women preachers weren’t paid.

Jarena preached wherever she could: in homes, schools, and open fields. She was part of the spiritual movement that historians now call the “Second Great Awakening,” which was a period of intense religious enthusiasm that lasted from the 1790s to the 1840s.

Historians say that women flocked to these huge religious meetings, many which were held outdoors; and multitudes of women gave their hearts to Christ in those services. Almost100 women became preachers like Jarena during this time and they also traveled the country preaching the Gospel.

Jarena Lee and the other female preachers of the Second Great Awakening were trailblazers. But Jarena knew suffering in a way that most of the other women preachers didn’t know because of the color of her skin. Yet, the Holy Spirit fueled her evangelism.

In her autobiography, “Religious Experience and Journal of Mrs. Jarena Lee,” she wrote: “O how careful ought we to be, lest through our by-laws of church government and discipline, we bring into disrepute even the Word of Life. For as unseemly as it may appear now-a-days for a woman to preach, it should be remembered that nothing is impossible with God. And why should it be thought impossible, heterodox, or improper for a woman to preach seeing the Saviour died for the woman as well as for the man?

“Did not Mary first preach the risen Saviour, and is not the doctrine of the resurrection the very climax of Christianity—hangs not all our hope on this, as argued by St. Paul ? Then did not Mary, a woman, preach the gospel? for she preached the resurrection of the crucified Son of God. But some will say that Mary did not expound the Scripture, therefore, she did not preach, in the proper sense of the term.

“To this I reply, it may be that the term preach in those primitive times, did not mean exactly what it is now made to mean; perhaps it was a great deal more simple then, than it is now—if it were not, the unlearned fishermen could not have preached the gospel at all, as they had no learning...As for me, l am fully persuaded that the Lord called me to labor according to what I have received, in His vineyard. If he has not, how could he consistently bear testimony in favor of my poor labors, in awakening and converting sinners?”