Elizabeth Ashbridge

Mary Sampson was a devout member of the Church of England, and raised her daughter and Thomas' two children from a previous marriage in adherence to her faith.

Upon finding life in accordance with his strict religious beliefs "gloomy", she moved to Ireland's west coast, where she stayed with Catholic relatives.

After completing three of the four years of servitude required to pay her passage to the colonies, she bought her freedom with money she earned performing odd jobs and sewing.

With her new-found freedom she considered a career on the stage, even going so far as to befriend members of local playhouses and study scripts in her spare time; instead, she married a school teacher surnamed Sullivan.

The nature of Sullivan's profession led the couple to travel widely throughout New England in search of schools in need of a schoolmaster.

The couple stayed some time in Delaware, then moved on to Mount Holly, New Jersey, home of the influential Quaker John Woolman.

[citation needed] Once in America, Ashbridge lived with a hypocritical master who outwardly demonstrated his religious practices; however, he was tyrannical and abusive toward his servant.

To survive, Ashbridge would sew, and she explains that "when I had Served near three years, I bought off the remainder of my Time & then took to my needle, by which I could maintain my Self handsomely.

At the age of fourteen, Ashbridge rejects patriarchy by abruptly leaving her father's house and entering into an improper marriage.

[16] While she was "not averse" to confessing her sins, she called the recital of beliefs the priest wanted her to swear by "ridiculous" and said they "made [her] sick of [her] new intention.

[17] Ashbridge's tendency to seek motherly figures is also shown when she naively trusts the "gentlewoman" who promises her passage to Pennsylvania.

In her final conversion experience, Ashbridge notes that a woman brings the invitation of salvation to her, as she states: "…there stood a grave woman, holding in her right hand a lamp burning…[she] said, ‘I am sent to tell thee that, if thou wilt return to the Lord thy God, who created thee, he will have mercy on thee…’"[21] Ashbridge begins her account by informing the reader that her life has been characterized by hardships and evil, not least of which came at the hand of her second husband, Sullivan.

Of her second marriage, she states, "I released myself from one cruel servitude, and, in the course of a few months, entered into another for life," an unwise decision which left her to view herself as "ruined".

[8] Although she describes feeling "more affectionate" toward Sullivan after being baptized and beginning to keep "the true sabbath",[23] this positive statement is one of the very few contained in her autobiographical account.

[24] In one particularly disturbing scene he demonstrates physical violence by forcing her to dance with him in front of a group of male friends, despite her resistance and weeping.

[24] Fortunately, however, Sullivan eventually abandoned her to military service, died, and she was able to remarry a man who was much more understanding of her religious convictions and aspirations.

[28] Chronologically, Ashbridge's narrative begins with her childhood in England and her subsequent moves to Ireland and America, and ends with the death of her second husband.

Ashbridge was at the forefront of writers employing this literary strategy, and would have been conscious of its specific writing style, although she does not explicitly follow its structure verbatim.

Her testimony narrates her exposure and acceptance of Quakerism, showing Ashbridge as not "the victim of her fears and doubts, but as an opponent engaged in an extended struggle", which she eventually overcomes.

I had also revealed to me the emptiness of all shadows and types, which, though proper in their day, were now, by the coming of the Son of God, at an end, and everlasting righteousness ... was to be established in the room thereof.

Ashbridge, conscious of this growing trend, configured her own writings to loosely follow this format, but conceptually remained focused on narrating her attempt to overcome her internal struggle.

[33] In 1753, she became a recorded minister of the church and, with the consent of her husband, traveled through England and Ireland speaking at meeting houses testifying to her spiritual journey.

In Cork, Ireland, Ashbridge fell sick with an unknown illness, attributing her poor health to "bodily hardship in traveling" and "spiritual exercise in mind".

[35] After several weeks she proceeded to Waterford, where she again fell ill. She spent three months indisposed at the home of fellow Quaker John Hutchinson.

Her ability to "embrace the interactions of minds, bodies, reason, and emotion" in her writing is often noted as a feminist way of making meaning.

While her conversion to Quakerism (a more gender-equal lifestyle and belief system than she was raised with) indicates a triumph over patriarchal society, the multi-faceted way in which she makes meaning marks an important contribution to women's writing in itself.

[40] The Quaker's belief that men and women are equally responsible for sharing their spiritual stories was somewhat unusual among the faiths present in New England in the eighteenth century.

In this way, the Quaker community challenged the dominant culture: in fact, for a time Rhode Island was the sole state in which anti-Quaker legislation did not exist.