Sarah Pierpont Edwards
Sarah Pierpont Edwards was born in 1710 in New Haven, Connecticut, into a prominent family with strong educational and religious ties. She married Jonathan Edwards, a key figure in the Great Awakening, in 1727, and they settled in Northampton, Massachusetts. Sarah played an influential role in revitalizing her husband's church and was regarded as a paragon of piety by her contemporaries. Her involvement in the revivalist movement further elevated her status, with many preachers citing her as an ideal model of a virtuous woman. Notably, Sarah experienced a significant religious event while Jonathan was away on a missionary trip, which he later referenced in his work on the revivalist movement. Following a challenging period in their ministry, the Edwards family relocated to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where Sarah's leadership skills were essential during Jonathan's military duties. After Jonathan's untimely death in 1758, Sarah passed away a few months later. Her legacy may have continued to influence religious and literary narratives, particularly noted in comparisons to the characterizations in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s "Uncle Tom's Cabin."
On this Page
Subject Terms
Sarah Pierpont Edwards
Mystic
- Born: January 9, 1710
- Birthplace: New Haven, Connecticut
- Died: October 2, 1758
- Place of death: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Biography
Sarah Pierpont Edwards was born in 1710 in New Haven, Connecticut. Edwards’s father, James Pierpont, was a founder of Yale College, and her mother, Mary Hooker, was descended from one of the founders of Plymouth Colony. Her station in life likely afforded her an excellent education. She married Jonathon Edwards in 1727. The young couple moved soon thereafter to Northampton, Massachusetts, and lead the same church that Jonathan Edwards’s grandfather had lead after he died.
Sarah Pierpont Edwards was a charismatic figure who helped revitalize the church, and she was central to the church’s role as a hub of the revivalist movement called the Great Awakening. Numerous preachers referred to her a model of what a pious woman should be. As her husband’s renown as a revival preacher spread, so did Sarah Pierpont Edwards’s fame as a virtuous woman.
In 1742, while a visiting minister was preaching and eliciting rousing conversions in her husband’s church, Pierpont Edwards became defensive and protective of her husband’s abilities. Her behavior was criticized as prideful by Edwards, who left soon after for a missionary trip. While he was gone, Pierpont Edwards believed she had a rapturous religious experience, which she recounted for her husband on his return. Her story became part of Edwards’s 1742 Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New-England and the Way in Which It Ought to Be Promoted, Humbly Offered to the Publick in a Treatise on That Subject. Edwards would point to Pierpont Edwards’s lifelong episodes of religious animations and fits as evidence of the veracity of the experience.
Edwards fell out of favor with his church in 1750, and the family left for the frontier outpost of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, deep in Oneida Indian territory. Pierpont Edwards’s skill as a charismatic manager again came in handy when Edwards was in put charge of the troops at the frontier fort. After seven years, Edwards took a job as president of what would become Princeton University. By 1758, however, he had died from smallpox. Pierpont Edwards died a few months later. Pierpont Edwards’s legacy as a model of religious virtue and piety may have survived in literary work that came years after her death. Parallels were noted between Pierpont Edwards’s reported experiences and those depicted in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 Uncle Tom’s Cabin.