Dorothy Ripley: first woman to speak to Congress

On January 12, 1806, preacher Dorothy Ripley conducted a remarkable Sunday church service in the chamber of the US House of Representatives.

It was a landmark day for women's speech. Before then, no woman had ever spoken formally to US legislators. In fact, nowhere in the country were women typically found speaking on the stage or pulpit, and particularly not before mixed or "promiscuous" audiences of men and women.

Ripley's unusual appearance that day drew a distinguished crowd that included President Thomas Jefferson and his former vice president, Aaron Burr.

But Ripley herself wasn't impressed with the crowd. She sized up the congregation and concluded that “very few” of her listeners had been born again — then proceeded to preach her impassioned evangelical message.

She traveled up and down the Eastern Seaboard, preaching and calling upon politicians and plantation owners to support her abolitionist cause.

Ripley was born in Yorkshire, in Britain. At age 30, she felt a calling from God to go to the United States and help the enslaved people. She traveled across the Atlantic, then up and down the Eastern Seaboard — from Rhode Island down to South Carolina — preaching and calling upon politicians, plantation owners, and ordinary folks to support her abolitionist cause.

She traveled thousands of miles, mostly alone, preaching in meeting houses, churches, and tent gatherings.

Remarkably, she insisted on ministering to the poor and disenfranchised such as prison inmates, Native Americans, and African-born slaves. Many times she preached before Black communities and in Black churches.

At the center of her missionary work was her fervent opposition to slavery. On her first trip to Washington DC in 1802, she managed to gain an audience with President Jefferson to ask his approval for her work — and rebuked him for owning slaves.

At the center of her missionary work was her fervent opposition to slavery. She gained an audience with President Jefferson and rebuked him for owning slaves.

Ripley never married. She remained single by choice, believing that her life's work and focus was her Christian ministry.

She died in 1831 in Virginia, age 65. In an obituary, one newspaper described her as “perhaps the most extraordinary woman in the world.”

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My name is Dana Rubin, and I help women put their ideas into the world powerfully and persuasively. I’m the founder of?The Speaking While Female Speech Bank , and the editor of the forthcoming?"Speaking While Female: 50?Extraordinary?Speeches by American Women"?(Real Clear | Spring 2022).

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