"Rebecca Cox Jackson"(February 15,1795-1871)

She was an African American woman woman who became eldress in the Shaker religion and founded a Shaker community in Philadelphia.
She was born to a free family,and lived until the age of three or four with her grandmama,who died when Rebecca was seven.Her mama was Jane Wisson (Wilson) a free African American woman,she never knew her daddy.From the time she was ten,Rebecca was responsible for the care of her two younger siblings.Rebecca mama died when she was thirteen,and her brother Joseph Cox,a thirty-one-year old AME minister,widower,and daddy of six children took her in.Sometime during the next twenty-two years,she married Samuel S.Jackson,who also lived in the Cox house.
In addition to managing her brother's home,she worked as a seamstress.In July 1830,Rebecca experience a religious awakeing during
a severe thunderstorm.On that day,she felt as though "the cloud burst," and the lighting had been "the messenger of death,was a messenger of peace,joy,and consolation."After her conversion,
Rebecca began to experience visions in which she discovered the presence of a divine inner voice that instructed her in the use of her spiritual gifts.She soon developed a large following among
a neighborhood "Convenant Meeting," typically comprised of women that in this case also included several men.
Her religious activism soon led to the dissolution of her marriage,as well as a separation from her brother.Rebecca became an intinerant preacher,inspiring both whites and African Americans.
During her travels,she discovered the Shakers.whose religious views were remarkably similar to her own.Impressed by her spiritual gifts,they embraced her as a prophet,and she remained in their New York community for four years.Devout in her commitment to Shaker doctrine,Rebecca was not satisfied with Shaker outreach to other African Americans.A conflict over authority soon led her return to Philadelphia with her companion and protégé,Rebecca Perot.
After six years in Philadelphia,they reconciled,and established a Philadelphia family of African Americans shakers,this time with the moral,legal,and financial support of Shaker society.
When Rebecca Jackson died,Rebecca Perot took the name "Mother Rebecca Jackson" and assumed leadership of the Philadelphia family,which carried on for another forty years.When Rebecca Perot and other elderly sisters retired to New York in 1896,it was believed that "Mother Jackon's colony had tocome to and end.That same year,in his pioneering study of Black Philadelphia,W.E.B. DuBois found two shaker households in the seventh ward;and in 1908,a shaker editor noted the discovery of "a colony Believers in 1980,Rebecca's were published in a single volume,called "Gifts of "Power."