Harriet Livermore
Encyclopedia
John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier was an influential American Quaker poet and ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. He is usually listed as one of the Fireside Poets...
poem Snow Bound. She travelled widely throughout America and four times to the Holy Land
Land of Israel
The Land of Israel is the Biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant, also known as Canaan and Palestine, Promised Land and Holy Land. The belief that the area is a God-given homeland of the Jewish people is based on the narrative of the...
.
Origins and early life
Harriet Livermore was born on April 14, 1788, in Concord, New HampshireConcord, New Hampshire
The city of Concord is the capital of the state of New Hampshire in the United States. It is also the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2010 census, its population was 42,695....
, the daughter of Edward St. Loe Livermore
Edward St. Loe Livermore
Edward St. Loe Livermore, son of Samuel Livermore and brother of Arthur Livermore), was a United States Representative from Massachusetts. He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on April 5, 1762...
, best known as a United States Representative from Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
; and granddaughter of Samuel Livermore
Samuel Livermore
Samuel Livermore was a U.S. politician. He was a U.S. Senator from New Hampshire from 1793 to 1801 and served as President pro tempore of the United States Senate in 1796 and again in 1799....
, a United States Senator for New Hampshire. Her mother died when she was five and at eight her father placed her in a boarding school in Haverhill, Massachusetts
Haverhill, Massachusetts
Haverhill is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 60,879 at the 2010 census.Located on the Merrimack River, it began as a farming community that would evolve into an important industrial center, beginning with sawmills and gristmills run by water power. In the...
, later sending her to Byfield Female Seminary in Byfield, Massachusetts
Byfield, Massachusetts
Byfield is a village in the town of Newbury, in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It borders West Newbury, Georgetown, and Rowley. It is located about 30 miles north-northeast of Boston, along Interstate 95, about 10 miles south of the border between New Hampshire and...
and Atkinson Academy
Atkinson Academy
Atkinson Academy is a public elementary school located in Atkinson, New Hampshire. It is the oldest standing co-ed school in the United States.-History:Atkinson Academy was founded in 1787 as an all-boys school. It began admitting girls in 1791....
in New Hampshire.
Preaching career
Livermore was raised a CongregationalistCongregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....
but showed little interest in religion until the year 1811 when she was twenty-three. She reflected later that:
It was in September, A.D. 1811, that tired of the vain, thoughtless life I had led, sick of the world, disappointed in all my hopes of sublunary bliss, I drew up a resolution in my mind to commence a religious life-to become a religious person....Neither fears of hell, nor desires for Heaven influenced the motion. I fled to the name and form of religion, as a present sanctuary from the sorrows of life.
By 1821, Livermore had decided she was called to be a preacher. "I felt under the most solemn obligations to dedicate the whole of my time to...God". A year later she had begun preaching in Christian Connection
Christian Connection
The Christian Connection or Christian Connexion was a Christian movement which began in several places during the late 18th and early 19th centuries and were secessions from three different religious denominations. The Christian Connection claimed to have no creed, instead professing to rely...
and Freewill Baptist
Free Will Baptist Church
Free Will Baptist is a denomination of churches that share a common history, name, and an acceptance of the Arminian theology of free grace, free salvation, and free will. Free Will Baptists share similar soteriological views with General Baptists, Separate Baptists and some United Baptists...
congregations in New Hampshire.
Nevertheless, her fame spread, and she was invited to speak in the House of Representatives Chamber of the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
in January 1827. Livermore was not the first woman to preach there (Dorothy Ripley
Dorothy Ripley
Dorothy Ripley was an English missionary and writer who spent thirty years in the United States trying to secure better conditions for the slaves...
was the first in 1806, but Livermore's sermon was such a success that she was able to speak before Congress three more times: in 1832, 1838, and 1843. President John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...
was in the audience for her first sermon and according to contemporary reports many of her listeners were deeply moved:
Her language was correct, persuasive, and judging by my own feelings, the profound attention and sympathy of the audience, extremely eloquent. Many wept even to sobbing....Judging, as I said, by my own feelings...I should say she is the most eloquent preacher I have listened to since the days of Mr. Waddell. But no language can do justice to the pathos of her singing. For when she closed by singing a hymn that might with propriety be termed a prayer...her voice was so melodious, and her face beamed with such heavenly goodness as to resemble a transfiguration, and you were compelled to accord them all to her.
Theological beliefs
Early in her preaching career, "Livermore focussed on a traditional Protestant message of conversion, repentance, and salvation."However, by 1831, Livermore was convinced that the Millennium
Premillennialism
Premillennialism in Christian end-times theology is the belief that Jesus will literally and physically be on the earth for his millennial reign, at his second coming. The doctrine is called premillennialism because it holds that Jesus’ physical return to earth will occur prior to the inauguration...
was at hand. She was apparently influenced by a published letter in which Joseph Wolff
Joseph Wolff
Joseph Wolff , Jewish Christian missionary, was born at Weilersbach, near Bamberg, Germany. He travelled widely, and was known as the Eccentric Missionary, according to Fitzroy Maclean's Eastern Approaches...
, a converted Jew, wrote of his belief that the Lord "would come in the clouds of heaven,and stand upon the Mount of Olives, in A.D. 1847." So taken by Wolff's work was Livermore, that she had two thousand copies of his letter published as Millennial Tidings, no. 1. in 1831.
It was probably from Wolff also, that Livermore took her belief in the lost ten tribes of Israel
Ten Lost Tribes
The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel refers to those tribes of ancient Israel that formed the Kingdom of Israel and which disappeared from Biblical and all other historical accounts after the kingdom was destroyed in about 720 BC by ancient Assyria...
. Unlike Wolff however, Livermore became convinced that the American Indians
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
were the lost tribes, and in 1832 she set out alone to evangelize them. She faced stiff opposition by government officials at Fort Leavenworth
Fort Leavenworth
Fort Leavenworth is a United States Army facility located in Leavenworth County, Kansas, immediately north of the city of Leavenworth in the upper northeast portion of the state. It is the oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D.C. and has been in operation for over 180 years...
but spent enough time there that the Osage Indians
Osage Nation
The Osage Nation is a Native American Siouan-language tribe in the United States that originated in the Ohio River valley in present-day Kentucky. After years of war with invading Iroquois, the Osage migrated west of the Mississippi River to their historic lands in present-day Arkansas, Missouri,...
named her Wahconda's Wakko (God's woman).
Again from Wolff, Livermore seems to have accepted the idea of the literal, premillennial return of Jesus Christ to earth in 1847. In this date she differed from the Millerites
Millerites
The Millerites were the followers of the teachings of William Miller who, in 1833, first shared publicly his belief in the coming Second Advent of Jesus Christ in roughly the year 1843.-Origins:...
, who predicted Christ's return first in 1843, then in 1844. Livermore recorded her millennial beliefs in verse:
"Millennium! the days are near,
When wicked ones shall quake with fear,
and in consuming fire wail.
That they did Joseph's peace assail."
Also contrary to the teachings of the Millerites, Livermore believed that the site of Christ's return would be the Mount of Olives
Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem with three peaks running from north to south. The highest, at-Tur, rises to 818 meters . It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes...
in Jerusalem; and in 1837 she made the first of five journeys there.
Her changing and increasingly radical beliefs increasingly ostracised her from mainstream Christianity and even from fringe groups such as the Millerites and Mormons.
- Elizabeth F. Hoxie, "Harriet Livermore: 'Vixen and Devotee'", The New England Quarterly, 18:1. (1945), 40.
- Catherine A. Brekus, "Harriet Livermore, the Pilgrim Stranger: Female Preaching and Biblical Feminism in Early-Nineteenth-Century America", Church History 65:3 (1996), 392.
- Harriet Livermore, A Narration of Religious Experience (Concord, NH: 1826), 15-16.
- "Harriet Livermore", The Essex Antiquarian (Salem, Mass.), V (1901), 7-9.
- Samuel T. Livermore, Harriet Livermore, the "Pilgrim Stranger" (Hartford, CT: 1884).
Publications
Scriptural Evidence in Favor of Female Testimony in Meetings for the Worship of God. (Portsmouth, NH, 1824).A Narration of Religious Experience. (Concord, NH, 1826).
An Epistle of Love. (Philadelphia, PA, 1826).
A Wreath From Jessamine Lawn; or, Free Grace, the Flower that Never Fades, 2 vols. (Philadelphia, PA, 1831).
Millennial Tidings, no. 1. (Philadelphia, PA, 1831).
Loud Echo in the Wilds of America. (Philadelphia, PA, 1835).
A Letter to John Ross, the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. (Philadelphia, PA, 1838).
Millennial Tidings, no. 3. (Philadelphia, PA, 1838).
Millennial Tidings, no. 4. (Philadelphia, PA, 1839).
A Testimony for the Times. (New York, NY, 1843).
The Counsel of God, Immutable and Everlasting. (Philadelphia, PA, 1844).
Addresses to the Dispersed of Judah. (Philadelphia, PA, 1849).
The Anointed Shepherd at the War Camp of Israel. (1856).
Thoughts on Important Subjects. (Philadelphia, PA, 1864).
See also
- AdventistAdventistAdventism is a Christian movement which began in the 19th century, in the context of the Second Great Awakening revival in the United States. The name refers to belief in the imminent Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It was started by William Miller, whose followers became known as Millerites...
- MillennialismMillennialismMillennialism , or chiliasm in Greek, is a belief held by some Christian denominations that there will be a Golden Age or Paradise on Earth in which "Christ will reign" for 1000 years prior to the final judgment and future eternal state...
- Christian eschatologyChristian eschatologyChristian eschatology is a major branch of study within Christian theology. Eschatology, from two Greek words meaning last and study , is the study of the end of things, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, or the end of the world...
- Second ComingSecond ComingIn Christian doctrine, the Second Coming of Christ, the Second Advent, or the Parousia, is the anticipated return of Jesus Christ from Heaven, where he sits at the Right Hand of God, to Earth. This prophecy is found in the canonical gospels and in most Christian and Islamic eschatologies...
- Second Great AwakeningSecond Great AwakeningThe Second Great Awakening was a Christian revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1800, had begun to gain momentum by 1820, and was in decline by 1870. The Second Great Awakening expressed Arminian theology, by which every person could be...
External links
- http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/aww_03/aww_03_00732.html
- http://seacoastnh.com/arts/please062301.html