In Nancy A. Hardesty’s book, Great Women of Faith, she lists two Free Will Baptist women, Sally Parsons and Clarissa Danforth. Clarissa Danforth spoke at the Yearly Meeting in Tunbridge, Vermont, in 1818, along with Charles Bowles, a black minister. A black and a woman—Free Will Baptist women cite these as evidence of the “great foresight” of Free Will Baptists.
“Neither color nor sex was regarded with prejudice, for the lost condition of the wicked and the fullness of the atonement engaged their whole attention.” According to I.D. Stewart, Clarissa Danforth was the popular preacher of the fourth decade of Free Will Baptist history.
Sally Parsons gave her life to Christ in 1792. By 1797 she had established a reputation as a traveling preacher. The New Durham Yearly Meeting in 1797 took an offering to buy Sally a horse, saddle and bridle so that she could travel, exhort and pray.
When Sally married Benjamin Walton Randall, the Yearly Meeting gave her the horse, saddle and bridle as a wedding gift.
About the Writer: Mary Wisehart served as chairman of the Free Will Baptist Historical Commission
