Jackson, Rebecca Cox ___ 1795-1871 ___ American ___ priest

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Rebecca was born to Jane Wisson, a free black woman, but never knew her father. From the age of ten, she became responsible for two younger siblings, and from the age of 13, when her mother died, she lived with her much older brother Joseph Cox, an African Methodist Episcopal minister. In 1830, she married Samuel Jackson but, nevertheless, continued to keep house for her brother, look after his children, and work as a seamstress. Also in 1830, it seems, she had a religious experience during a severe thunderstorm, and, thereafter, saw visions. She developed a large following in the neighbourhood, and this led to friction with the local religious community, and, eventually, to a separation from her husband and her brother. She became an itinerant preacher, inspiring both white and blacks, and was embraced as a prophet by the Shakers.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1830g-1864 ___ religious social

WEB TEXT LINKS
one longish quote
googlebooks
excerpts

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
 

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Gifts of Power: The Writings of Rebecca Jackson, Black Visionary, Shaker Eldress
 

July 2005, July 2008, April 2013
Please email if you have any corrections, additions or comments, or if you've found the site useful. Thank you.

IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.