public universal friend

in 1776, jemima wilkinson, aged 24, was dying from typhus in cumberland, rhode island. when the fever broke, however, the person who awoke called themselves the public universal friend (1752-1819), claiming jemima had died and and they were reanimated to preach the word of the lord. the friend had no gender and eschewed gendered pronouns. if someone asked if their name was jemima, they would quote Luke 23:3—“thou sayest it.” if someone asked if they were male or female they would simply respond, “I am that I am.” they dressed androgynously, often dressing in the style of men at the time, and spoke with a voice deeper than that expected of a woman. the friend gained a significant following throughout new england based on their preaching of quaker ideals that included abstinence, abolition, and salvation, and ultimately established a society in upstate new york. though the friend died in 1819, the society of universal friends existed into the 1860s.

unsurprisingly, there was controversy surrounding the friend’s claims to be a messiah, particularly as more and more religious splinter groups cropped up in revolutionary-war-era america. at the time, many claimed the friend a hoax. some scholars, however, suggest that the friend emerged out necessity, since the options for a 24-year-old unwed woman in colonial rhode island were relatively slim. regardless, the fact that the friend identified as genderless even in the 1700s is a testament to the reality that queer folks have always been here.