Throughline - Public Universal Friend

Episode Date: March 5, 2020

America in the run-up to the Revolutionary War wasn't just a period of dramatic political change, it was also a time of great religious and social instability, anxiety and experimentation. And in the midst of it all there arose a self-proclaimed genderless prophet — the Public Universal Friend. This week, how the Public Universal Friend rocked society's norms and paved the way for others to reject religious and gender expectations for centuries to come.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for this podcast and the following message come from Autograph Collection Hotels, with over 300 independent hotels around the world, each exactly like nothing else. Autograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of hotel brands. Find the unforgettable at AutographCollection.com. Jemima Wilkinson was a young single woman at this time. She has a deep knowledge of the Bible. In fact, it seems like she's memorized large passages of the Bible, so we know that. Everything else is less certain.

The next thing we know about her is she gets really ill. She gets a raging fever, and it gets worse and worse and worse to the point that her family fears that she's going to die. But instead of dying, as the story goes, she sort of miraculously emerges from her sickbed, announces that Jemima Wilkinson is dead, and that Jemima Wilkinson's body has been reanimated by God as this holy messenger, the public universal friend. Jemima Wilkinson was no longer Jemima Wilkinson, and the friend was no longer female.

It was this sort of genderless or gender-intermediate spirit of God. This prophet is not a woman, probably not a man either. Something in between, some sort of mystical blending of the two. The illness is gone. The friend or Jemima or whoever you want to see her, he or she is well again. The awareness about gender identification has grown among people outside of the LGBTQ community. They, as a singular pronoun, is increasingly moving to the mainstream public consciousness.

And it's got history. Even Shakespeare used it. You don't need to do anything fancy. Just replace he or she with they and its variations. No, I'm not going to modify basic biology because it threatens your subjective sense of what you are. Should we give people the right to say we're going to raise a child as non-binary, meaning we're not going to raise a child as male or female. I'm not male or female. I think I float somewhere in between. It's all on the spectrum. You're listening to ThruLine from NPR. Where we go back in time. To understand the present.

Hey, I'm Rondabdudvata. I'm Ramteen Arablui. And on this episode, the public universal friend. Gender identity has been a major topic in the news over the past few years, whether it's about trans people in the military, bathroom bills, or pronouns. I got a little dictionary update. Merriam-Webster announced its word of the year, and it's going to surprise some people because it's a pronoun, the pronoun they.

Now, this is a word that can be used to refer to one person whose gender identity is non-binary. So he, she, they. It became such a popular term. In 2019, Merriam-Webster expanded its definition of the word they to include the non-binary pronoun and made it the word of the year. And to plenty of people, especially younger people, this is already second nature. But others are still adjusting. Like CBS's Gayle King. It does, but I have to confess I'm still trying to navigate it. Somebody said they to me the other confess, I'm still trying to navigate it. Somebody said they to me the other day, and I thought they were talking about a group of people.

And they were talking about one person, so I'm still trying to get on board. Yeah, if you were raised with certain grammar lessons. Exactly. While non-conforming genders might seem like a recent phenomenon to some, it's not. People have been identifying outside the binary, even during the American Revolution. That story you just heard at the top, that mystical transformation, took place in 1776, right as our country transformed into an independent nation. When we come back, ThruLine producer Lane Kaplan-Levinson tells the story of a genderless prophet in revolutionary America who started a revolution of their own. I am Javier from the Dominican Republic, and you're listening to True Line from NPR. message comes from wise the app for doing things in other currencies send spend or receive money internationally and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees

download the wise app today or visit wise.com t's and c's apply part one the transformation The Transformation Colonial New England in the late 1700s was one wild ride. This is a really transformative period for America in general. There's a lot of experimentation, a lot of instability, a lot of anxiety. This is Dr. Paul Moyer. I'm a professor of history at SUNY Brockport. That's the State University of New York at Brockport. Where he teaches early American history and the American Revolution,

when this country's 13 original colonies took on the world's greatest military power, Great Britain, in the fight for independence. But before there was any bloodshed, there was over a decade of political dissidence and revolt. You've got No Taxation Without Representation and the Stamp Act in 1765. It was about political change. You've got the Boston Tea Party in 1773. Which was about constitutional change. And by 1775, it was all about the people behind it. Jefferson and Franklin and John Adams and these great political leaders.

And one thing that we know is Jemima Wilkinson is in the center of all that. Who is Jemima Wilkinson? Jemima Wilkinson was a young Quaker girl. She was born in 1752. They were living in Cumberland, Rhode Island, which is just to the north of Providence, very close to the Massachusetts border. Her father, we know, was a Quaker. Jeremiah Wilkinson was a farmer, but he's a very prosperous farmer.

She's one of 12 children. Sort of an unremarkable family. But over time, things changed for the Wilkinson family. Because things were changing for most people across the colonies, not only politically, but spiritually. The American Revolution took place smack in the middle of two major religious revivals, the First and Second Great Awakenings. In the mid-18th century, when the First Great Awakening starts,

for most mainstream Protestants, the way to achieve salvation is basically listening to your minister. There are certain sort of sacramental rituals The way to achieve salvation is basically listening to your minister. There are certain sort of sacramental rituals that you need to go through in order to be a good Christian. By the end of the Second Great Awakening, all that's been swept away. Now there's this new focus on charismatic religious leaders. Christianity has more of a popular tenor, and it's a much more emotional religion,

not as much focused on theology and the finer points of theology. In many ways, that kind of maps out the sort of Christianity that's still dominant in our country today. Because the war happened in the years in between... For a lot of historians, the Revolutionary Period was seen as mainly a secular event. But Paul says that's just not true, that during this time, religious curiosity and upheaval was as strong as ever. That process of religious experimentation does not end. And some of the biggest religious experimentation was happening in the smallest colony,

Jemima's home, Rhode Island. Rhode Island, of course, is settled by Puritans who just didn't fit in in Massachusetts. My name is Tricia Noel. I'm the executive director and curator at the Yates County History Center in Pennian, New York. Rhode Island was the home of religious freedom. So if you lived in one of the colonies and you rejected Puritanism, or it rejected you, you went straight to Lil' Rhodey. Rhode Island was a place of religious diversity and religious controversy and religious upheaval. It became a refuge for people who were kicked out of Massachusetts

for religious dissent. If you were accused of witchcraft in the 17th century, you'd hightail it for Rhode Island to kind of escape prosecution in Connecticut or Massachusetts. It was a colony of misfits, a place where people could be who they wanted to be, where people could explore.

And Jemima was exploring. The other thing we know about Jemima Wilkinson is that she's been attending religious meetings of a local evangelical sect known as the New Lights. What they call the New Light Stir, which is a little leftover part of the First Great Awakening, stressing that you can be in control of your own salvation. And that's sort of a different idea at this time. It's pretty controversial. And these are the revivals that Jemima Wilkinson becomes involved in. And why do we think Jemima was going to these new light meetings?

I think during the revolution, nothing was certain. So nobody knows, are we British? Are we American? There's a lot of violence going on. There's death from these horrible diseases that are going around. It's completely unstable. And I think it was sort of an outlet for her stress, and she wanted to see what else was out there. And there was a lot out there. It was like a religious marketplace with pop-up churches and denominations

and people redefining what religion and its leaders could look like. Because of all that tumult and uncertainty, this was a time when a charismatic person could easily attract believers looking for meaning in all that chaos, whether it be a revolution or a whole new religion. The problem was, if you were a Quaker, you weren't allowed to see what else was out there. You weren't permitted to attend other religious denominations. And she's actually kicked out of her local Quaker meeting because of that behavior. She's expelled in October of 1776, and she's not alone.

The Quaker membership expel the Wilkinson children one by one. Yeah, two of her elder brothers, Stephen and Jeptha, they are kicked out of the Quaker church for participating in military preparations associated with the American Revolution. The Quakers were pacifists, so they drew a very firm line against participating in the American Revolution. One of her older sisters is also kicked out of the Quaker meeting. Minutes from the Smithfield, Rhode Island, Quaker meeting, August 29, 1776.

Patience Wilkinson has been labored with on account of her having an illegitimate child and not appearing in a state of mind suitable to make satisfaction there. This meeting disowns her from membership. It didn't seem like Jemima wanted to leave the Quaker church, but she, like her siblings, ignored their warnings and paid the price. The church was very important to her, and I think Quaker doctrine was very important to her. I think being expelled from the church was actually devastating.

There are some descriptions that almost sound like she was on the edge of a breakdown, really, because I think she was so distraught about being expelled. So about a month after she's expelled, Jemima becomes sick. As the story goes, a continental Navy ship, the Columbus, comes in to Providence Harbor, and it has a number of British prisoners. And in addition to kind of disgorging its human cargo, apparently it also brings disease. So Jemima becomes very sick and has a fever and this goes into sort of like a coma. And it gets worse and worse and worse to the point that her family fears that she's going to die. The family was concerned enough that they got a doctor to travel several miles.

Her family fears that Jemima Wilkinson is in the last throes of life, but instead of dying, as the story goes, she sort of miraculously emerges from her sickbed. Gets up and says that Jemima Wilkinson has died and that at the moment of her death, Jemima's body was reanimated by a genderless spirit sent from heaven. The public universal friend.

All of a sudden she has this vision in which two angels in gold crowns with white flowing robes come streaking towards the sky towards her, and they have a message for her. She was to assume the body which God has prepared for the spirit to dwell in. And according to the declaration of the angels, the spirit took full possession of the body it now animates. We have an affidavit which was written by Dr. Mann

soon after Jemima Wilkinson became the Universal Friend. She rose with a different idea from what she had when the fever was general. She conceived the idea that she had been dead and got well fast. After coming out of this experience, the former Jemima Wilkinson says that the new name they will be going by is the Public Universal Friend. And never uses Jemima Wilkinson again. When we come back, the public universal friend goes public. Hi, this is Rita from Santa Rosa, California, and you're listening to ThruLine from NPR.

Bye-bye. This message comes from NPR sponsor, the NPR. Bye slash podcast. Must be 21 or older to purchase. Part 2. The Puff. It's 1776, and a 23-year-old single woman on the verge of death jumped up from her bed and proclaimed herself born again as a religious prophet with the power to lead people towards their own salvation. Oh, and she was no longer a woman. Yeah, and it's not a question of how she tells people, it's how she shows people.

It's the way the friend presents himself, the way the friend dresses. All of that sends this message that this figure is not a woman. The friend took on a whole new costume and started dressing in loose, flowing, clerical robes. Sometimes they're black, sometimes they're purple, sometimes they're gray,

but very much a robe that you'd see, say, like an Anglican clergyman wear. So it's kind of symbolically taking on that persona of a minister. And also, it's male dress. At the same time, the friend wore women's shoes and had long hair. Like a woman's hair,

but she does not keep her head covered indoors as a woman would do. Sort of an androgynous look is what the friend chooses, probably to discourage being considered either male or female. Some mixture of the two. Being a religious prophet, the friend also had a message. The basic message here is that the second coming is nigh. Christ is going to return soon. And the job that the universal friend has is basically to go out to humankind and to warn them that the day of judgment is at hand and they need to repent and, you know, live a righteous life if they want to be saved.

The world is going to end type of apocalyptic talk that resonates with people. It sort of, you know, puts a little shock into them and they start thinking about their lives and their salvation. Immediately after her reanimation as a universal friend, the friend starts preaching in the neighborhood of Cumberland, Rhode Island. The friend goes to the Smithfield Quaker meeting

and begins to relate the story of this transformation. That first public appearance didn't go so well. The Quakers at the meeting basically tell her to sit down and shut up. After she had uttered a few words, a friend stood up and desired her to sit down. But she not submitting, the same request was repeated by another, and then by another, and another, until no less than five friends required her to desist. But she said, as it was the Lord who spoke by her, she could not be silent unless they applied their hands to her mouth.

They quickly reject her. And then she begins to kind of widen her orbit of preaching. She goes to Baptist meetings. She goes to any meeting house, any religious group that'll hear what she has to say. And she basically lays it out. I'm no longer Jemima Wilkinson. I'm the public universal friend. The end of the world is coming soon. Christ is returning. You need to repent your sins. Follow me. I'll lead you to salvation.

It's a relatively simple message. There's not a kind of an elaborate theology. But what does stand out is that androgynous, can't-quite-put-your-finger-on-it look. And that's actually a very important element of Jemima Wilkinson's mystery. Or I shouldn't say mystery, ministry. There's a lot of mystery to her ministry. She's not clear about stuff.

She's not clear about what the friend is. And I think that's one of the appealing aspects of her ministry. This lack of clarity created confusion around how to refer to the prophet. Jemima Wilkinson, a.k.a. the public universal friend, or the puff, as I like to call her, or him for short. First of all, the puff? Yes. Second of all, her or him. It's this whole issue of pronouns. If you use female pronouns consistently, both when Jemima Wilkinson is Jemima Wilkinson and later when the puff emerges,

you're sort of denying this transformation that happened. The puff tried to avoid pronouns altogether, but... If you look at the writings of the Friends' followers, whenever they use those pronouns, the vast majority of the time are male pronouns. He and him and his. So there's this kind of transformation from a she into a he. By the way, Paul and Tricia do use various pronouns throughout this story. You will still hear them say she and her. I slip up sometimes, but I've made a more concerted effort.

They're working on it. Back to Paul. It's not just the way the friend dresses, but the very fact that this young woman, who's no longer a young woman, who's the universal friend, is preaching in public, that is a masculine behavior. So it's like this dual thing, right? Because it's like, A, we can perceive you as a woman who's preaching to the public. That's not supposed to happen. But beyond that, you're a woman who's telling us you're not a woman preaching to the public. Right, exactly, exactly. So it must have been quite a head trip for people at the time. But there was something appealing about this mysterious, enigmatic vibe.

I think people expect prophets from God to be mystical, to speak in allegories, to speak in metaphors. And that's what she does. And I think it annoys some people and it seems to attract other ones. And how did the friend's family respond to this? They were religious. How did the friend's family respond to this? They were religious. How did the family respond? The family responds very supportively, actually. Her father becomes one of her followers.

Several of her sisters and brothers also join her group. If they hadn't already by that point, this is when the other Wilkinson siblings got expelled from the Quaker church. According to appointment, we have visited Mercy Wilkinson, the account of her neglecting to attend our meetings for worship and going to those of her sister. Elizabeth and Deborah Wilkinson, daughters of Jeremiah, who have for some time attended the meetings of their sister, Jemima. The friends appointed to labor with Jeremiah Wilkinson report that they have again visited him and find no encouragement.

She now being gone with her sister, Jemima. As was expected, it is our judgment that she be denied as a member of society. It's quite possible that every one of Jemima Wilkinson's immediate family members are ejected from the Quakers at some point in the 1770s. It's a clean sweep. And what's most interesting, I think, is there are a number of people who accept her message. It's not just the Puffs' immediate family. Other people start taking to the Puffs' message,

people who have also been rejected by the Quakers. A lot of these converts are these wayward Quakers who are sort of looking for a new spiritual home. And Jemima Wilkinson's religious message, it's not shocking, actually draws a lot upon Quaker belief and Quaker theology. So I think a lot of these Quakers who are at loose ends find a new home with the universal friend. They may have been at loose ends with the church, but they were far from the fringes of society. The people who are accepting her message are not marginal figures.

Some of these people are pretty wealthy. One of her earliest converts is this guy, William Potter. He's very wealthy. He at one point served as a judge in the Rhode Island Supreme Court. Another one of her converts was a captain in the Continental Army, James Parker. Another convert, James Hathaway, the son of a very, very wealthy Massachusetts shipbuilder. So there are wealthy, respectable people joining her. That's a real interesting mystery to her story.

Why is it that these people who are, again, are successful, why are they kind of taking the risk that comes along with joining ranks with the universal friend? Reason number one. She offers salvation. She offers a path to heaven. Reason number two. She offers this message of universal salvation. And that's not generally accepted in late 18th century Protestantism in America. So that's attractive.

Reason number three. She offers spiritual empowerment. Now she herself, or I should say himself, the friend, engaged in prophecy, engaged in faith healing. But not only did the friend engage in these behaviors, the friend sort of empowered his followers to do the same thing. So, for example, Sarah Richards becomes one of the Universal Friends' chief lieutenants. She engages in prophecy. She engages in public preaching. So there are a number of men and women within the Friends sect who lot of which sounded very familiar to the Quaker gospel. But there were some aspects of his message that were even more radical.

For example, she promotes the idea of celibacy. She doesn't require it, but she argues that it is a spiritually superior state of being. And in fact, all the evidence is once Jemima wilkinson becomes the friend that the friend lives an entirely celibate life well there are a number of women in her sect who become known as the faithful sisterhood who embrace this idea of celibacy and we have to understand once a woman in the late 18th century embraces the idea of celibacy, you're shutting the door to what are seen as the traditional female roles of wife and mother. So right there, that religious decision has profound social and gendered impacts. So in those subtle ways, the universal friend's faith opens the door for her

female followers to kind of break out of some of the restrictions that women faced in the late 18th century. And again, this builds upon Quaker and New Light precedents, but I think the Universal Friends kind of take it to another level. Hundreds of people flocked to the public Universal Friend and his message, but for every bit of support, there was just as much pushback. The friend is so polarizing that people loved them or hated them. Obviously, there are people who are opposed to her ministry. They think that either she's insane or she's this sort of upstart woman. Largely, the detractors of the friend seem to use female pronouns. They just don't buy it. In fact, I should point out at one point, she travels to Newport, Rhode Island.

She actually passes through the military lines. Newport is occupied by the British Army at that point, and they want nothing to do with that at all. But the friend was not deterred. He left the comfort of his Rhode Island home and set out into unchartered territory. In 1782, she makes the decision to travel to Philadelphia, to Pennsylvania, to try to expand her ministry. And strategically, it makes a lot of sense.

Philadelphia had one of the largest Quaker populations at that time, including the ones who had been thrown out. So if you're looking for a large population of Quakers, what better place to go than Philadelphia and its environment. Philadelphia at that time is the political, cultural media capital of the United States. In many ways, it's like this small-town prophet from Rhode Island hits the big time. Maybe it was hitting the big time that encouraged the Friend to formalize his following, to incorporate, so to speak. The society establishes itself as an official religious group in 1783. They were the Society of Universal Friends. The society establishes itself as an official religious group in 1783.

They were the Society of Universal Friends. And as per usual, the more legit you get, the more shade you get thrown. And once she's in Philadelphia, that's where we begin to see evidence of real pushback against her. There are people who write into newspapers and magazines complaining about this woman, that she's a fraud, that she's a blasphemer. You know, who are these crazy people coming into our city? There are now, in this city, a number of the disciples of a certain Jemima Wilkinson,

a native of Rhode Island, a person who professes that she is Jesus Christ come again in the flesh a second time without sin unto salvation. Though it should be noted that her followers do not admit she is a woman, and they therefore, of consequence, deny her name, and appear to resent it as an affront when she is called Jemima Wilkinson, and declare in the most solemn manner that they know no such person.

During one public sermon, an angry heckler confronted the friend head on. Yeah, at one point somebody, you know, asked, what are you? What are you? This is actually where she's asked point blank if she's male or female. And she replies. There is nothing indecent or improper in my dress or appearance. I am not accountable to mortals. I am that I am.

They don't understand that aspect either. So I think it's just a lack of understanding and ignorance, and it leads to a really negative reaction. It reaches quite a crescendo. Ultimately, they're even accused of attempted murder. Pennsylvania Gazette, April 4th, 1787. Observing a piece in your last paper, relative to a preconcerted plan by a number of Jemima Wilkinson's deluded followers

of murdering Mrs. Sarah Wilson in January last, too many already have fallen victims. Be reason of their opposition to the cause and interest of Jemima Wilkinson. There's definitely a process of character assassination going on here. Tensions were high. Still, the puff stuck around and had a place to stay. But it wasn't exactly a safe haven. While she's in the house, a riot takes place.

People are throwing bricks and objects at the house. Breaking windows and stuff like that. There was heckling, there was shouting. So clearly that crowd wasn't exactly happy to see Jemima Wilkinson come into town. Over time, the level of rancor against her and her followers seems to grow. And they decide to leave. And to go out into the frontier where she and her followers can sort of live in spiritual splendor until the second coming happens.

When we come back, the Society of Universal Friends leaves society behind and goes where they'll be left alone, the wilderness. Hi, this is Abdes Azoul from Karachi, Pakistan, and I'm listening to True Line by NPR. Part 3. The Wilderness It had become painfully clear that the puff was not welcome in Philadelphia.

After traveling around the Northeast for almost a decade, it was time for the Society of Universal Friends to carve out a space for themselves, a place where they could live in peace. She wants to leave behind her detractors and naysayers. And starting the late 1780s, her followers begin to send out expeditions to the frontier. And at that time, what is today central and western New York was the frontier. Why do they go there? Well, it's very isolated. It's almost sort of a utopian idea that they're sort of imagining. There's something that is truly queer about this idea

to just go set up shop in the wilderness. You know what I mean? Like it's, there's almost like a lesbian separatism to that act. During the women's movement in the seventies, there were all these gay women who went to Arkansas and were just like, you know, we're going to just live in the mountains. And so that's kind of what the public universal friend does. Yeah. It's like the late 18th century version of that. We're going to go out and we're going to separate ourselves from all these sinners and naysayers, you know, wait for the second coming.

Yeah, it doesn't turn out that way, but that was the idea. You know, it's hard at first. It's very, very hard for them. There were no towns. There was no food. They're very hungry for a while, and people are also becoming very sick. So it's a very hard time for the people who do come up here. Slowly, over time, the society set up shop.

They built mills, harvested crops, established a land trust. But once the settlement got settled, everything started to go downhill. The sect begins to fall apart. There's emerging factionalism. There's an emerging sort of insurgency. There are some early followers, including James Parker and Judge Potter. They start pulling away from the friend. I think there's a gendered context to this. The American Revolution, the 1780s and 1790s, there's this growing association

between citizenship and manliness. Men are citizens. Women are not. Men run the show. You know, women do not. So you see this resistance, this betrayal, manifest itself in a number of ways. And the friend is accused of blasphemy in court

by these former followers. The charge was that Jemima Wilkinson was claiming to be Jesus Christ. And the state of New York ruled, she's not breaking any law by claiming that. The case gets thrown out almost immediately. The judge reminds everyone that blasphemy is not illegal in New York State. So the puff defectors looked around to see what type of legal argument they did have,

and they realized it was right under their noses. The estate. Roughly 14,000 acres of land. People like William Potter, James Parker, they are instrumental in purchasing this land. And unfortunately, when the deeds were written out for this land, the deeds were written in their names. The friend refuses to use her legal name, Jemima Wilkinson. The friend can't legally own property because the law does not recognize the universal friend as a being. That really relates to the types of things we see today, right?

With the trans community, for instance, of people that are changing their name, that in the legal system it's complicated or they can't get it on their driver's license. That's just the relevance of that really stands out to me. Right. The friend is experiencing all of that. They're basically trying to get this property away from the friend out of the hands of Jemima Wilkinson and into the hands of men like themselves. The men challenged the friend' property rights and won. By 1819, a large number of the Universal Friends had turned their backs on the puff. The following dwindled not only because of these betrayals, but because once the society

isolated itself, it was hard to draw new converts. Plus, celibacy was so encouraged that there weren't exactly a lot of babies being made. And then, as everything seemed to be crumbling around him, the friend once again got sick. The friend was suffering from congestive heart failure. They were almost incapacitated for a couple months before their death. And once again, got sick. The friend was suffering from congestive heart failure. They were almost incapacitated for a couple months before their death. And the end comes in the summer of 1819. The public universal friend died on July 1st, 1819. Some believe that a group of the remaining followers thought this might not be the end, that the friend might rise from the dead just like how Jemima Wilkinson did.

Others worried that the puff's grave would be vandalized by his haters. So the small, devoted following waited to bury the body. They waited and waited, but then finally they gave up and put the body. They waited and waited, but then finally they gave up and put the body to rest. She was sort of the charismatic glue that held the whole thing together.

And once she is gone, the sect kind of rapidly devolves. You know, the enthusiasm is just worn off. Without the friend, obviously, it's pretty hard to keep that going. By the 1830s and 1840s, the group is just a shadow of its former self. And by the mid-1840s, it basically fades away. Tricia Knoll lives in Penn Yan, New York, the Finger Lakes region of the state, right where the public universal friend established the religious settlement. A lot of the followers of the friend stay right where the Public Universal Friend established the religious settlement.

A lot of the followers of the Friend stay in Yates County, and their descendants are still here, and that's really why we have such a wonderful collection of items that were connected to the Friend. Trisha is the director of the Yates County Historical Center, which houses a major collection dedicated entirely to the public universal friend. You walk into a room full of the puff's personal belongings. There's a Bible, of course. It is British printed, 1769. A mahogany desk. This would have been pretty expensive. A spoon, even a medicine kit. It actually still has liquid in the vials. And some real live puff DNA. There is a lock of the friend's hair. There's also a portrait of the public universal friend in all his androgynous glory. I think that

almost every family that you research here has got some connection to the friend. The friend was a very important person, but you know, a very powerful person in their ancestors' lives. The friend was one small person from one small town who, at the end of the day, had one small religious following. And so as interested as I am in this story, it still made me wonder why and if it's really all that important. Paul Moyer was quick to say yes, because that's the very power of a microhistory. I mean, you might write a biography of Thomas Jefferson because you think Thomas Jefferson has this kind of transformative impact on American history. I don't think that's the case of Jemima Wilkinson. You're right. But nevertheless, I think her story is a great way to kind of shine light on the American Revolution and to see it in a different light.

That it's not just this story of political and constitutional change that's happening in state houses. It's not just a story of the battlefield and the Revolutionary War. There's also this sort of social and religious and gendered dimension to the American Revolution. People are rethinking social relationships. They're rethinking what it means to be a man and a woman. They're rethinking religious faith and religiosity. These are the things that were on Paul's mind when he set out to write his book on the puff. Not gender. I wasn't so much interested in Jemima Wilkinson as some sort of, you know, transgender figure.

But after I wrote the book and I was talking to people about it, a lot of them really keyed into that. People have tuned into that in a way that they hadn't in the past. So both within the academic academy and outside of it, there is a growing interest in kind of transgendered identity, and I think it's almost natural that people begin to think, okay, well, where does this come from? Like, has this happened before in the past? I think that there is a belief that these issues

have just come up in the last couple years, but really there have been people who are transgendered or non-binary forever. And I think this is an early example of someone who lived that life in the 18th century publicly. In the West, we're used to having this binary gender system traditionally. And yeah, other cultures, in certain Native American cultures, they have three, four, five, or six different recognized gender categories. That generally wasn't the case, you know, in 18th century Rhode Island. So yeah, Jemima Wilkinson is kind of pushing the boundaries that way. You know, I think that there might be someone who is questioning their gender or confused and

i think hearing about this would make them feel you know less alone and also that this is a person who dealt with this over 200 years ago you know and i think it will also help people understand that this is not a new thing you know like i said it's it wasn't accepted in western culture at the time, certainly. But that doesn't mean it didn't happen. Yeah. And I wonder, like you're saying, in Yates County, if there's any little pondering gender queer or trans or non-binary kid who's going to come to the collection and have their mind

blown. I certainly hope so. Jamie York. Lawrence Wu. Lane Kaplan-Levinson. Lou Olkowski. Nigery Eaton. Fact-checking for this episode was done by Kevin Vogel. Thanks also to Anya Grunman and Joannika Kisses. And a special thanks to John Miller for his field recording. And to Samantha Schmidt, who wrote an article in the Washington Post about the public universal friend that inspired this episode. Music for this episode was composed by Ramtin and his band, Drop Electric, which includes Anya Mizani. Thank you. Janae West, Kara Frame, Michael Czaplinski, Steve Tyson, Dee Parboz, and Jackie Northam for their voiceover work. Also, we would love to hear from you.

Send us a voicemail to 872-588-8805 and leave your name, where you're from, and say the line, You're listening to ThruLine from NPR. And tell us what you think of the show. We might even feature your voicemail on a future episode. That number again is 872-588-8805. Thanks for listening. This message comes from NPR sponsor Grammarly. What if everyone at work were an expert communicator? Inbox numbers would drop, customer satisfaction scores would rise, and everyone would be more productive. That's what happens when you give Grammarly to your entire team.

Grammarly is a secure AI writing partner that understands your business and can transform it through better communication. Join 70,000 teams who trust Grammarly with their words and their data. Learn more at Grammarly.com. Grammarly. Easier said, done.