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Larson has written the first comprehensive account of the role of 18th-century Quaker women ministers. ( Choice ) Larson] provides a welcome corrective to popular historical accounts that underestimate the roles of women and religious diversity in early American history. ( Booklist ) Rebecca Larson offers a deeper and more daring probe into colonial religious life. ( New Republic ) Daughters of Light should be required reading for everyone engaged by present-day debates about whether the clergy should be open to women. ( Philadelphia Inquirer ) Larson provides a welcome corrective to popular historical accounts that underestimate the roles of women and religious diversity in early American history. ( Booklist ) Larson has given us the stories of thousands of women whose words and courageous deportment forced large numbers of British North Americans to admit female competence. ( Womens Review of Books ) Larson] provides a welcome corrective to popular historical accounts that underestimate the roles of women and religious diversity in early American history. ( Booklist ) [Larson] has given us the stories of thousands of women whose words and courageous deportment forced large numbers of British North Americans to admit female competence. ( Women s Review of Books ) Larson] provides a welcome corrective to popular historical accounts that underestimate the roles of women and religious diversity in early American history. ( Booklist)

[Larson] has given us the stories of thousands of women whose words and courageous deportment forced large numbers of British North Americans to admit female competence. ( Womena[s Review of Books )

Rebecca Larson offers a deeper and more daring probe into colonial religious life. ( New Republic ) Daughters of Light should be required reading for everyone engaged by present-day debates about whether the clergy should be open to women. ( Philadelphia Inquirer ) Larson has written the first comprehensive account of the role of 18th-century Quaker women ministers. ( Choice ) Larson] provides a welcome corrective to popular historical accounts that underestimate the roles of women and religious diversity in early American history. ( Booklist ) Larson provides a welcome corrective to popular historical accounts that underestimate the roles of women and religious diversity in early American history. ( Booklist ) Larson has given us the stories of thousands of women whose words and courageous deportment forced large numbers of British North Americans to admit female competence. ( Womens Review of Books ) Larson] provides a welcome corrective to popular historical accounts that underestimate the roles of women and religious diversity in early American history. ( Booklist ) [Larson] has given us the stories of thousands of women whose words and courageous deportment forced large numbers of British North Americans to admit female competence. ( Women s Review of Books ) Larson] provides a welcome corrective to popular historical accounts that underestimate the roles of women and religious diversity in early American history. ( Booklist)

Wonderfully researched and written history of 18th-century Quaker women preachers. Because Quakers held to a doctrine of Christ's Inward Light, which dwelt in all people, women as well as men, were viewed as potential instruments for the divine. As Quakerism became more established in England and America, the informal exhortations of the 17th century gave way to a more permanent network of public friends who traveled abroad and preached Quakerism's message. Women were a part of this spiritual elite, and Larson, who has a doctorate from Harvard, eloquently demonstrates the surprising influence women ministers wielded. Larson has narrowed her study to the approximately 1,500 English and American Quaker women in the 18th century who traveled across the Atlantic to preach and help establish Quaker meetings. In an era when few women wrote and only a scant handful were published, these women saw their sermons and tracts reach an eager transatlantic audience. When women scarcely traveled much distance beyond their hometowns, Quaker women with a concern for a particular destination journeyed thousands of miles through dangerous conditions to preach before mixed audiences. Believing that they were called of God to preach, they were absent from husbands and young children for years at a stretch. Larson shows that these preaching women were not simply novelties; they exerted real power over the direction of the midcentury Quaker Reformation. When the movement threatened to wax soft in the face of religious toleration and material prosperity, female Friends encouraged a return to the strict tenets of early Quakerism. Women ministers demanded a retrenchment of dress, a renewed commitment to pacifism, and a universal abolitionist stance when such opinions were unfashionable among successful Quakers. And the female reformers won. Largely because of their persistent message, colonial Friends renounced politics and slaveholding, and settled into Quakerism's now familiar trajectory of quiet activism and social justice. One of the best books ever on women and Quakerism. (Kirkus Reviews)

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Rebecca Larson is a historian who lives in Santa Barbara, California.

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