‘Live While You Preach’: The Autobiography of Methodist Revivalist and Abolitionist John Wesley Redfield (1810-1863)

John Wesley Redfield (1810-1863), controversial lay evangelist in the Methodist Episcopal and later Free Methodist churches, was the cofounder of the Free Methodist Church and in the 1840s and 50s had a broad ministry in the M.E. Church and beyond. An outspoken abolitionist, Redfield was controversial among Methodist leaders and in the M.E. press as his revivals typically were marked by dramatic emotional manifestations, including people being slain in the Spirit and dramatic conversions. This book makes available for the first time his autobiography, a 425-page handwritten manuscript Redfield wrote shortly before he died. Redfield’s manuscript details (briefly) his early life; his conversion; his brief stormy marriage and divorce; his abolitionist activities; his contacts with Phoebe Palmer, one of the founders of the Holiness Movement; his occasional practice of medicine; and his remarkable revivals, which are further clarified and documented by the author’s footnotes. This book presents Redfield’s manuscript in its entirety-with critical and contextual notes-and serves as an important primary source for the study of the Wesleyan Holiness tradition, American Methodism, revivalism, and abolitionism.