User:Benjamin.trye

Rebecca Jackson (1795-1871) was born, in Hornstown, Pennsylvania. Her mother was a free black woman who married two times before her fatality in the year 1808. Rebecca Jackson never knew her father. She lived with her grandmother until she was four years of age, then her grandmother died when Rebecca turned seven years of age. Rebecca lived with her thirty one year old brother. Her brother was a father, he had six children. In 1830, Rebecca married Samuel S. Jackson. Rebecca would still take care of her brother’s children even though she was married, because he was a widowed father. Rebecca’s occupation was a seamstress; she would sow dresses and other clothing. She remained a seamstress for 20 years. On July 1830 at the age of 35, a bad thunderstorm occurred. She had always been afraid of thunder/lighting storms. She always felt that she would die when storms occurred. She felt like the clouds exploded and the lighting, which was once a sign of death evolved into a sign of peace and comfort. After that incident, she started to have visions. Her inner voice instructed her to use her spiritual gifts to persuade people to follow and abide by Jesus Christ’s rules. She claimed that in her dreams, she had the ability to heal sick people, turn sinners into holy people, converse with angles, and fly. She left her husband because her inner voice told her to do so in order for her to travel and speak to people. She was becoming a missionary. She held prayer meetings in other people’s homes. She also inspired blacks and whites, mostly through covenant meetings. Rebecca could not read and write at this point; she would rely on her older brother to read and write for her. Eventually she told her brother that she only wants god to teach her how to read and write. She prayed upon this for a long period of time. One day her inner voice “its time”. She then wrote, “ I laid down my dress, picked up my Bible, ran upstairs, opened it, and kneeled down with it pressed to my breast, prayed earnestly to Almighty God if it was consisting to his holy will, to learn me to read his Holy world. And when I looked on the world, I began to read, and when I found out I was reading, I was frightened, then I could not read one word. I closed my eyes again in prayer, and then opened my eyes, began to read”. Later, she taught her self-how to write diligently. For the next 10 years, she traveled and preached around Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York. She then joined a Shaker Community at Watervliet, near Albany, NY. Shakers welcomed Rebecca as a prophet. Rebecca was attracted to the sect’s practices of celibacy and the recognition of the feminine, as well as the masculine aspects of god. She lived in Watervliet for four years. Rebecca became disappointed with Shakers outreach on black people. She then moved, back to Philly. There she made a small Shaker family, which was filled with black females. REFRENCE: http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/jack-reb.htm http://shakerheritage.org/home/archives/rebecca-jackson-african-american-shaker http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/rebecca-cox-jackson-born

Mamie Garvin Fields is an African American woman who was born in Charleston, South Carolina in the year 1888. Mamie was a teacher, civil activist, and a religious leader, simultaneously. Mamie was a very ambitious teacher, considering that she would teach in very poor rural places that were infested with rats. Despite the rats, ideas and thoughts were still shared between Mamie and her students. Mamie is substantial because of her prominent book, Lemon Swamp and Other Places. This book focuses on the aspects of her life, and the techniques Mamie Garvin Fields and her community worked as a team to mitigate poverty and segregation. She wanted integration. The title of the book correlates to Mamie’s life because it was a Lemon Swamp grandfather (a slave) witnessed his wife being abducted by a slave owner. A Lemon Swamp was also were Mamie’s grandfather’s farm was located. Mamie faced many challenges in her Jim Crow environment, especially when she worked in a Boston sweatshop beside Italian and Polish immigrants, of which she explicates in her book, Lemon Swamp and Other Places. Although African Americans were separate but equal, Mamie still faced many economic and educational disadvantages, of which she elaborates on in her book, Lemon Swamp and Other Places. REFRENCES: http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/fields.html

Sarah Marinda Loguen Fraser (1850-1933) was a student, studying under her family physician. Dr. Michael D. Benedict, resulting with the admission of her into Syracuse University College of Medicine. While in Syracuse, she opened a mentor session for midwives. When she received her M.D. in 1876, she became one of the first African Americans women physicians in the United States of America. She moved to D.C. around this time, there, she started her first practice and became a family physician. The United States of America enumeration of 1920 had only 65 African Americans women efficacious in medical practice. In September 1876, Sarah started to work as an intern at Woman’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She was a kind and gentle young woman; her manner attracted children and made children love her. The children gave her a nickname, which was Miss Boc. Besides pediatric cases, she also would frequently encounter mental patients on her rounds. During the fall of 1874, Sarah Marinda Loguen Frasier moved to Boston, Massachusetts for a six-month internship in the New England Hospital our Woman and Children. Eventually, Sarah opened her own medical practice. Dr. Loguen Fraser had entrained on a career in the medical field to better social justice for not only African American women, but African American men as well. Her contributions to African American and white equality, also different sex equality improved healthcare delivery, which makes her a pioneer. REFRENCES: http://www.hws.edu/academics/english/fraser.aspx