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{{Cquote|On this date in 1827, Elmina Drake, the daughter of a Shaker preacher expelled for becoming a "[[Liberal]]," was born in La Grange, New York. She wrote for nearly all the Liberal (meaning [[Freethinker|freethinking]]) journals of her era, and knew many of the reformers. She advertised, successfully, for an egalitarian husband in the Water-Cure Journal and married Isaac Slenker, Quaker-style. Elmira preached alcoholic and sexual temperance, adopting a philosophy called "Dianaism," which taught sexual sublimation and practices to avoid unwanted pregnancies in a manner too plain-spoken for the guardians of the Comstock Act. At the age of 60, in April 1887, Elmina was arrested for mailing sealed letters of advice on sex and marriage to private correspondents. With bail set at $2,000, she was shown into a cold cell with a blanket on the floor. The ''[[New York Times]]'' critically reported in its coverage of her newsworthy arrest that Elmina refused to swear on a bible and testified at a preliminary hearing that she did not believe in [[God|god]], [[ghost]]s, [[heaven]], [[Hell|hell]], the [[Bible|bible]] or [[Christianity]]. The pleasant, ordinary looking woman was vilified as "homely" for sporting a radical, short haircut. Unable to raise bail she spent 6 months in jail and was indicted on July 12, 1887. Freethinking attorney Edward W. Chamberlain represented her during her October trial, where a jury found her guilty. She was set free on a technicality by the judge on November 4, 1887. Truth Seeker readers paid her legal expenses. She wrote Studying the Bible in 1870, edited Little Freethinker and wrote several novels, including The Clergyman's Victims, The Infidel School-Teacher and The Darwins. She died in Snowdon, Virginia, in her early 80s. D. 1908.<ref>[https://ffrf.org/component/k2/item/14720-elmina-d-slenker Elmina D. Slenker], complied by  Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freedom From Religion Foundation</ref>}}

{{Cquote|On this date in 1827, Elmina Drake, the daughter of a Shaker preacher expelled for becoming a "[[Liberal]]," was born in La Grange, New York. She wrote for nearly all the Liberal (meaning [[Freethinker|freethinking]]) journals of her era, and knew many of the reformers. She advertised, successfully, for an egalitarian husband in the Water-Cure Journal and married Isaac Slenker, Quaker-style. Elmira preached alcoholic and sexual temperance, adopting a philosophy called "Dianaism," which taught sexual sublimation and practices to avoid unwanted pregnancies in a manner too plain-spoken for the guardians of the Comstock Act. At the age of 60, in April 1887, Elmina was arrested for mailing sealed letters of advice on sex and marriage to private correspondents. With bail set at $2,000, she was shown into a cold cell with a blanket on the floor. The ''[[New York Times]]'' critically reported in its coverage of her newsworthy arrest that Elmina refused to swear on a bible and testified at a preliminary hearing that she did not believe in [[God|god]], [[ghost]]s, [[heaven]], [[Hell|hell]], the [[Bible|bible]] or [[Christianity]]. The pleasant, ordinary looking woman was vilified as "homely" for sporting a radical, short haircut. Unable to raise bail she spent 6 months in jail and was indicted on July 12, 1887. Freethinking attorney Edward W. Chamberlain represented her during her October trial, where a jury found her guilty. She was set free on a technicality by the judge on November 4, 1887. Truth Seeker readers paid her legal expenses. She wrote Studying the Bible in 1870, edited Little Freethinker and wrote several novels, including The Clergyman's Victims, The Infidel School-Teacher and The Darwins. She died in Snowdon, Virginia, in her early 80s. D. 1908.<ref>[https://ffrf.org/component/k2/item/14720-elmina-d-slenker Elmina D. Slenker], complied by  Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freedom From Religion Foundation</ref>}}

''Christianity Today'' wrote about Elmina Slenker entitled ''A Portrait of America’s First Atheists'':

''Christianity Today'' wrote about Elmina Slenker in an article entitled ''A Portrait of America’s First Atheists'':

{{Cquote|When a village did manage to raise an atheist, it was almost always a boy. In his lively, informative study, Village Atheists: How America’s Unbelievers Made Their Way in a Godly Nation (Princeton University Press), historian Leigh Eric Schmidt includes a chapter on Elmina Drake Slenker, a 19th-century woman from Upstate New York. Many readers today disapprove of books solely about men, but organized atheism hasn’t always been terribly concerned with gender parity. Slenker confessed that every place she went, she was the first woman atheist anyone there had ever seen. When the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism (4As) surveyed its membership in 1930, it was 93 percent male.<ref>[A Portrait of America’s First Atheists] by Timothy Larsen, Christianity Today, August 22, 2016</ref>}}

{{Cquote|When a village did manage to raise an atheist, it was almost always a boy. In his lively, informative study, Village Atheists: How America’s Unbelievers Made Their Way in a Godly Nation (Princeton University Press), historian Leigh Eric Schmidt includes a chapter on Elmina Drake Slenker, a 19th-century woman from Upstate New York. Many readers today disapprove of books solely about men, but organized atheism hasn’t always been terribly concerned with gender parity. Slenker confessed that every place she went, she was the first woman atheist anyone there had ever seen. When the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism (4As) surveyed its membership in 1930, it was 93 percent male.<ref>[A Portrait of America’s First Atheists] by Timothy Larsen, Christianity Today, August 22, 2016</ref>}}