Because Schenectady's schools were segregated, Julia's parents hired her out as a domestic servant to a prosperous white family, who used their influence to place her in a country school outside the city. She received the only formal education of her life between the ages of ten and twelve.
Julia moved with the white family to Albany in 1836, where she discovered the African Methodist Church. Her conversion came at the age of fifteen. She spent the rest of her teenage years caring for her younger siblings, but she read considerably, especially in the Bible.
At the age of eighteen, she married George Foote, a sailor, and moved with him to Boston, where she joined the African Methodist Episcopal Zion church of Reverend Jehiel C. Beman, a leading abolitionist.
Julia didn't have children, so she had plenty of time to devote to her faith and her church. First, she had visions, and heard the voice of God speaking directly to her. She began to testify about her experiences. Her husband and pastor disapproved, but she persisted.
Julia next heard the voice of God calling her to preach and share her faith with others. That put a strain on her relationships with those who believed it was inappropriate for a woman to be a preacher—which meant practically everybody.
She knew that a woman who claimed a divine calling to the ministry challenged Christian tradition and American social prejudice. Women were not expected to assume public leadership positions, nor were they allowed to speak in most Christian churches.
Yet Julia could neither deny her conscience nor shirk the work that she felt had been given her to do. She sought Reverend Beman's permission to preach in 1844. Instead she was excommunicated from his church.
She took her case to higher church officials, and when she received no support from them, she set out on her own. Convinced that she had to answer to a higher power, Foote persevered, finding pulpits, homes, revival camps, where her gifts were welcomed.
Julia became an itinerate preacher, traveling to Philadelphia, New York, Ohio, Michigan, California, and Canada. Preaching against slavery and appealing to women, her determination and eloquence drew a large following, white and black.
In 1851, she temporarily ceased her evangelistic work due to the loss of her voice and the need to care for her invalid mother. She didn't travel during the Civil War years. Then in she experienced a divine healing and began to preach again.
She participated in the holiness revivals that swept the Midwest during the 1870s, and later became a missionary in the A.M.E. Zion church. On one occasion in 1878, an estimated 5,000 people heard her preach at a holiness meeting in Lodi, Ohio.
Eventually, she settled in Cleveland, Ohio, where she published her autobiography, A Brand Plucked From the Fire, in which she detailed her conversion experience and her commitment to a Christian life.
Although her autobiography attacked racism and other social abuses, it was the subjugation of women and her desire to inspire faith in her Christian sisters that shone through.
In 1894 Julia A. Foote became the A.M.E. Zion Church's first woman deacon. In 1900, she became the second ordained female elder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Julia A. J. Foote died in 1901.
