Hidden History: This nonbinary minister was a hero of the American Revolution

Not Your Founding Father: How a Nonbinary Minister Became America’s Most Radical Revolutionary by Nina Sankovitch is a thrilling celebration of Public Universal Friend, a forgotten hero from the American Revolution, and a nonbinary renegade whose life illustrates just how radical the American experiment could have been. Their story begins in October 1776, in the small farming community of Cumberland, Rhode Island, when 23-year-old Jemima Wilkinson nearly died from illness — and Public Universal Friend, who said Wilkinson did indeed die and her body was reanimated with a new spirit, was born. Public Universal Friendpublic domainOver the course of the American Revolution, Universal Friend gathered followers for a sect called the Society of Universal Friends. The young minister seemed to embody the possibilities offered by the revolution, especially the right to total self-determination. Hundreds of men and women from all walks of life joined the growing sect and pledged themselves to ideals of equality, piety, and love. To authorities, however, the minister was “the devil in petticoats,” a threat to the men who sought to keep America’s power for themselves. And so, after the war, Public Universal Friend ventured west to create an Eden on the frontier, a place where, in their vision, everyone would have the right to not only life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but also peace and shared prosperity. But into every Eden comes a snake. And soon, financial scams, contested wills, adultery, plagiarism, allegations of murder, and murmurs of another war with England would threaten to destroy this new American utopia, forcing Universal Friend to fight even harder for the mission of salvation and for the good of all Americans. 'Not Your Founding Father' by Nina SankovitchRead an exclusive excerpt from Not Your Founding Father below:On the morning of October 10, 1776, a young Quaker woman named Jemima Wilkinson woke up and spoke to the brother sitting bedside.?