Religion

Episode 3: The Public Universal Friend in Philadelphia

This week we begin with one of the widows on Elfreth's Alley, who housed a nonbinary Quaker minister titled the Public Universal Friend and the Friend's group of followers. Along the way we will talk about Quakerism, gender norms and gender variance in Philadelphia, explore how the Public Universal Friend's gender ambiguity and religious ideas unsettled societal norms and learn how the Friend navigated a city whose inhabitants who felt threatened by this queer gender expression.