Dorothy Ripley becomes first woman to speak at U.S. Capitol, Jan. 12, 1806
On this day in 1806, Dorothy Ripley conducted a Sunday church service in the temporary House chamber. In doing so, she became the first woman to preach at the U.S. Capitol and the first woman to speak there officially under any circumstances.
Both Thomas Jefferson, the nation’s third president, and Aaron Burr, whose term as Jefferson’s vice president had ended in March 1805, came to the Capitol to hear Ripley speak. Sizing up the congregation, Ripley concluded that “very few” of her listeners had been born again and broke into urgent, evangelistic exhortations.
At the time, the Capitol often served as a base for itinerant missionaries and members of the clergy drawn from local congregations. The House chamber, in particular, was often utilized as a place of worship because, until the mid-19th century, Washington had few buildings large enough to accommodate sizable public gatherings.
In 1806, the House itself was hard-pressed for meeting space. Since the eventual House of Representatives chamber, located then and now in the south wing of the Capitol, was still under construction, its quarters were temporarily crammed into the Library of Congress reading room, which was located in the north wing, where the Senate chamber was also being built.
Ripley, the daughter of a lay Methodist preacher, was born in 1767. At age 30, she had a spiritual experience during which she felt that God commanded her to leave her home in England and travel to the United States to help the slaves who had been taken there from Western Africa and the Caribbean.
Ripley crossed the Atlantic at least nine times, mostly traveling alone. She traveled up and down the Eastern Seaboard, from Rhode Island to South Carolina, exhorting politicians and plantation owners alike to support her anti-slavery cause. On her first trip to Washington in 1802, she sought to acquaint Jefferson, a deist, with her views and, especially, to highlight the plight of slave women.
Attracted as well to the Quakers, Ripley began to attend their meetings, identifying with their doctrine of inner guidance. While Ripley treasured the Society of Friends, their feelings were not always reciprocal. She applied for membership with them three times, but they repeatedly refused to accept her. Several members of the society, however, supported Ripley financially, believing she was called by God to preach, and giving their personal and practical support.
Most of her theological understanding reflected her Methodist background. Her father had hosted John Wesley at their home on several occasions. Ripley also met Bishop Francis Asbury, who encouraged her in her preaching. She associated with many other prominent Methodists, including Richard Whatcoat (1736–1806), the third bishop of the American Methodist Episcopal Church.
At her death in 1831 at age 64, one newspaper wrote in her obituary that she was “perhaps the most extraordinary woman in the world.”
SOURCE: HISTORY.HOUSE.GOV