May 5-29, 1884 — 17th Quadrennial Session, General Conference, A.M.E. Zion Church, Bethel Church, Baltimore MD

[In response to members of the male-dominated AMEZ Church objecting to the fundraising activities of the Ladies’ Home and Foreign Missionary Society, and the prominent role of women in missionary fundraising. . . ]

I do not think I felt quite so Christian-like as my dear sisters. I come from Old Massachusetts, where we have declared that all, not only men, but women, too, are created free and equal. . . .

If I would go back to Boston and tell the people that some of the members of this conference were against the women, it might have a tendency to prejudice our interests in that city.

If you commence to talk about the superiority of men, if you persist in telling us that after the fall of man we were put under your feet and that we are intended to be subject to your will, we cannot help you in New England one bit.

Source: Journal of the 18th Session and 17th Quadrennial Session of the General Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, In the World, Held in Bethel Church, Baltimore, MD, May 5th to 19th, 1884 (Philadelphia: Rev. James C. Embry, 1884).