The Welsh Revival (1904-1905): Recovering the Role of Welsh Women
The Welsh Revival of 1904-05 marked a period of social and religious change throughout Wales. For eighteen months, chapels were filled and public houses emptied as the country was engulfed in an emotional, religious frenzy, which many believed to be the work of God. Previous research has focused on the role of Evan Roberts, the enigmatic revivalist who was portrayed as the divinely appointed leader of the movement. My original contribution to knowledge is an analysis of the role of women during the Revival, an aspect of the Revival’s history which has remained unexamined. In particular, this work analyses the contribution of Jessie Penn-Lewis, Allen Raine and the revivalist women who worked both alongside, and independently of, Roberts. Although Penn-Lewis has been included in most Revival studies, she has been wrongly portrayed as a divisive woman who sabotaged the movement by deliberately ending Roberts’s ministry, acting as a spiritual Jezebel. Although a popular author at the turn of the twentieth century, Allen Raine’s Revival critique, told through her novel Queen of the Rushes, has yet to be included within an examination of the Revival. Although Roberts was a key figure in the development and success of the movement, the 1904-05 Revival was the first of its kind to allow women to lead meetings and address congregations. This work examines the role of these women, questioning why so little is known of their wider identities or what happened to them once the Revival ended, following Roberts’s departure from Wales in August 1906. The final chapter considers the afterlife of the Revival, questioning the way in which the movement enabled women to move beyond the role of wife and mother, assessing its role in the emancipation of Welsh women.
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