Name | Jemima Wilkinson |
Date of Birth | November 29, 1752 |
Place of Birth | Rhode Island |
About
Jemima Wilkinson was born on November 29, 1752 in Rhode Island. She died on Jul 1, 1819 (age 66). a member of the Society of Universal Friends and leader of the Quaker faith who advocated for sexual celibacy and the acceptance of all gender identities and expressions. Her adherents felt that they were neither male nor female and so refused to answer to the names they were given at birth.
She spent her childhood in Rhode Island attending services of silent worship at the Smithfield Meeting House. After suffering from a terrible case of typhoid in the 1770s, she asserted that God personally commissioned her to share the gospel of Christ and spread his word. Following their relocation to New York, she and her followers established herself as the first white people Native Americans in the area engaged in commercial exchange with. She was born Amy and Jeremiah Wilkinson’s daughter. Jeremiah was her father.
House
Jemima Wilkinson’s house was a simple one room cabin. It had a dirt floor and a thatched roof. The walls were made of logs and the door was a piece of hide. There was a small fireplace in one corner and a bed in the other. Jemima lived here with her husband and their two children.