This is part one of a series based on the rhetorical contributions of two 19th through early 20th century women I have written about previously in the fall. Check out the website section on their poetry. This first article focuses on the importance of studying the lives of early African-American women and the subsequent sections will focus on their specific contributions to the temperance movement and work as lay leaders in the Free Methodist Church. In the years prior to the Civil War the Methodist Episcopal (ME) was torn apart over the issue of slavery. Though the Methodist Church in … Continue reading Sunshine in My Soul: African-American Women’s contributions to Free Methodism