The Memoirs of Old Elizabeth presents a rare and important slave narrative in which the stories of African American women intersect with the experiences of African Americans in religious leadership roles. Elizabeth broke many conventions of the society of the time by preaching and holding religious meetings despite being a woman. Her religious work met with negative reaction from the church and many other people who did not accept the idea of ​​a woman leading religious services, however she continued to practice until her health no longer permitted it. This is unusual in that it devotes most of the narrative to the time after her liberation rather than focusing on the period in which she was enslaved as many slave narratives do. Although Elizabeth lived under slavery, there is evidence in her memoir suggesting that she had at least some level of agency and was able to exercise it relatively freely, although not without consequences. At one point in her youth, Elizabeth was able to leave the plantation she lived on without her master's knowledge, as she had been denied permission to see her mother. This shows that although she was definitely bound to her master's will, and although she was harshly punished for disobeying the overseer, there was nothing physically stopping her from leaving the plantation if she really wanted to. She managed to stay with her mother for several days before returning to her mother's plantation and then being sent back to her own plantation. Upon her arrival she was harshly punished with flogging and was able to dedicate at least some of her time to doing what she wanted, as evidenced by her ability to go out into the haystacks and pray. The level of autonomy she exercised throughout… middle of the paper… her gender, paying less attention to how her race affected how she lived her life. The Memoirs of Old Elizabeth is an important historical document as it both presents the history of enslaved women and provides great information about how religion influenced the lives of slaves and how it played a role in their daily lives. This intersection of religion and gender shows the additional difficulties women faced compared to their male counterparts. Elizabeth's narrative is typical in that it places emphasis on her gender rather than her race, which directly conflicts with typical slave narrative which focuses primarily on the ways in which race influences the author's life or of the subject of the narrative.Works CitedOld Elizabeth, Memoirs of Old Elizabeth: A Colored Woman. (Philadelphia: Collins Printer, 1863) 4.