Rebecca Cox Jackson (1795–1871) was a free Black woman, best known for her religious feminism and activism and for her autobiography, Gifts of Power: The Writings of Rebecca Cox Jackson, Black Visionary, Shaker Eldress, which was published in 1981 and edited by Jean McMahon Humez. Jackson worked as a seamstress and cared for her brother's children until she had a religious awakening in 1830. She divorced her husband when he failed to teach her how to read and write, but gained literacy as one of the spiritual gifts she believed were given to her by God; these gifts also included healing people, seeing the future, having visions, hearing God's voice, and acting as a medium. After leaving her husband, she joined the Shaker movement, which shared her values of egalitarianism and celibacy. Jac