Pious Ambitions

The Story Behind Wake Forest’s Founding

In 1812, nineteen-year-old Sally Merriam Wait experienced her religious conversion, marking not only her spiritual awakening but also the beginning of her detailed personal journal. Growing up in New England during the fervor of the Second Great Awakening, Sally would eventually become the devoted wife of Reverend Samuel Wait, the first president and founder of Wake Forest University.

Through Sally’s own words—preserved in letters and journals passed down through generations—Pious Ambitions reveals the extraordinary journey of a northern-born woman navigating the complexities of the antebellum South. Her writings expose the moral tensions of living in a slave-holding society while maintaining anti-slavery convictions, and chronicle her embrace of the emerging market economy in Jacksonian America.

Sally’s decisions were shaped by a surging evangelical movement, dramatic changes in the American economy, the rise of women’s social agency, a fracturing of political traditions, and the inherent moral conflicts of a slave-based economy. Her story illuminates how one determined woman endeavored to make her mark on the world while striving to develop her faith during one of America’s most transformative periods.

At its heart, Sally’s life represents the tale of ambition meeting devotion—from young convert to influential partner in establishing what would become one of the South’s most prominent universities. This intimate portrait establishes Sally Merriam Wait as a significant figure in North Carolina and Baptist history, offering readers a rare glimpse into the spiritual education and unwavering determination that helped shape Wake Forest University.

Author Mary Tribble, Sally’s great-great-great-great granddaughter, brings this remarkable ancestor’s story to light using the treasure trove of documents housed in Wake Forest’s Special Collections and Archives.

Order Now

Reviews

“Pious Ambitions is a judicious, readable, and timely book in every way. What a pleasure to meet a latter-day heroine whose faith and heady portion of ambition left a legacy for a university and our region.”

Edwin G. Wilson
Wake Forest provost emeritus and professor of English

“From a riveting New England conversion-tale to a harrowing and hopeful backwoods North Carolina journey, Pious Ambitious stands among the handful of works that bring the early nineteenth century U.S. to life. Replete with fascinating details about Sally Merriam Wait’s world–her and surrounding figures’ passions, torments, sorrows, and joys–this beautifully-crafted study is an instant classic in the fields of historiography and gender studies alike.”

Rogan Kersh
Provost and Professor of Politics & International Affairs, Wake Forest University

“In this elegantly written and engaging cultural biography, we learn how young Sally Merriam Wait’s evangelical conversion in New England sent her on a south bound search for more voice and opportunity at the end of the Early Republic. This beguiling Baptist minister’s wife who once dreamed of serving as a missionary in Burma, fought against gendered inequalities and constraints, but too often to no avail, serving instead as exemplary help meet to her husband’s quest for opportunity and status. Tribble handles the complexities and disappointments of Wait’s transformation into a slave holding North Carolinian with clarity and honesty.”

Michele Gillespie
Presidential Endowed Chair of Southern History, Wake Forest University

“Ambition can propel us to achieve our highest aspirations. It can also blind us to injustices in our society and world. With deft insight and critical compassion Mary Tribble’s Pious. Ambitions: Sally Merriam Wait’s Mission South, 1813-1831 troubles the smooth texture of Sally Wait’s writings in revealing the complex and, at times, competing aims at work in her life and world.”

Corey D. B. Walker
Wake Forest Professor of the Humanities, Wake Forest University

“Mary Tribble’s fascinating study of Sally Merriam Wait gives voice to a remarkable 19th century woman as she encountered her times. Using journals and correspondence not previously studied, Tribble demonstrates how Wait becomes a case study in the way in which one Baptist woman appropriated and advocated for revivalistic spirituality, missionary imperatives, and the need for educational institutions in the American South. Sally Wait’s long neglected story needed to be told.”

Bill Leonard
Dunn Professor of Baptist Studies and Church History Emeritus, Wake Forest University

Connect with Mary

Follow Mary on Facebook