The 18th Century Genderless Preacher You've Never Heard Of

During the second year of the Revolutionary War, a person who had until then gone by the name of Jemima Wilkinson fell into a coma during a fever. Upon awakening, this person proclaimed that Jemima was dead.

Instead, they said, a spirit sent from heaven to ready people for the upcoming millennium now inhabited their body. They claimed to possess no gender, asserting that gender applied only to earthly humans. They would now be known as the Public Universal Friend.

How the Public Universal Friend Started a Movement

The Friend’s revelations occurred in 1776, during the era of the Great Awakenings, which were periods of intense religious fervor that occurred in America during the 18th and 19th centuries. At this time, Quakerism had been established as a major religion in the United States, and preachers who traveled to Quaker meetings in different communities were known as Friends.

After their awakening, the Public Universal Friend attempted to speak in some Quaker meetings, but the Quaker Society of Friends ejected the entire Wilkinson family due to the Friend’s unique gospel. Still, the Friend began traveling across the northeast United States with their siblings, gathering followers who often referred to the Friend as “Comforter” or “P. U. F.” A group called the Society of Universal Friends soon formed, leaving behind the Quaker tradition in the process. Many members of this group were ex-slaves, unmarried women, and anyone drawn to the Friend's promise that there was room for everyone in heaven.

The Society of Universal Friends rejected slavery, and often persuaded slaveowners who joined their ranks to free their slaves. They also encouraged celibacy and the renunciation of worldly temptations, and advocated for free will and universal salvation, or the idea that all people will go to Heaven. The group also advocated for generosity, hospitality, and gender equality.

Controversy, Later Years, and Legacy

As the Public Universal Friend began to accrue followers, many newspapers became fixated on the Friend’s gender presentation. When asked if the Friend was a man or a woman, the Friend responded, “I am that I am.” Controversy also developed around the fact that many women held positions of power in the Society of Universal Friends.

In the late 1780s, partly to escape all the scrutiny, a group of 25 Society of Universal Friends members gathered together to purchase land in the wilderness of upstate New York, near the Genesee River. Around 300 people were living there when the Friend came to reside on the property in 1790. Later, the group moved to Jerusalem, New York. 

This period was not without its issues. The group was plagued by internal tensions, and at one point, former followers attempted to have the Friend arrested for blasphemy. However, the Friend successfully escaped arrest on horseback. Later, when the Friend finally appeared in court, the judge wound up ruling in the Friend’s favor, concluding that "blasphemy," in this context, was not punishable by law and asking the Friend to give a sermon for the whole courtroom to hear.

The Friend and some followers remained in Jerusalem until their leader's death in 1819. Splintered by property disputes and without the Friend to unite around, the group soon disbanded. Since then, the Friend’s legacy has remained a point of fascination, controversy, and admiration. 

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