Product Code Database
Absalom Jones (November 7, 1746February 13, 1818) was an American abolitionist and who became prominent in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Disappointed at the racial discrimination he experienced in a local Methodist church, he founded the Free African Society with Richard Allen in 1787, a mutual aid society for black Americans in the city. The Free African Society included many people newly freed from slavery after the American Revolutionary War.
In 1794, Jones founded the first Black Episcopal congregation, and in 1802, (2026). 9780898694109, Church Publishing. ISBN 9780898694109 he was the first African American to be ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church of the United States. He is listed on the Episcopal calendar of saints. He is remembered liturgically on the date of his death, February 13, in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer as "Absalom Jones, Priest, 1818".
By 1778, Absalom had purchased his wife's freedom so their children would be free; he asked for aid by donations and loans. (According to colonial law, children took the status of their mother, so children born to enslaved women were enslaved from birth.) Absalom also wrote to his enslaver seeking his freedom but was initially denied. Later, Jones applied for his freedom for the second time. Finally, on October 1, 1784, inspired by revolutionary ideals, Wynkoop Manumission Absalom. Absalom adopted the surname "Jones" as an indication of his American identity. "Absalom Jones' Marriage to Mary", Brotherly Love, PBS, accessed 14 January 2009
After being released from slavery, Absalom was ordained as a priest in September 1802. This made him the first Black person to be ordained in America by a well-known religion.
However, members of the church still practiced racial discrimination. In 1792, while at St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church, Absalom Jones and other African American members were told that they could not join the rest of the congregation in seating and kneeling on the first floor and instead had to be segregated first sitting against the wall and then in the gallery or balcony. After their prayer, Jones and most of the church's African-American members got up and walked out.
Jones and Allen founded the Free African Society (FAS), first conceived as a non-denominational mutual aid society, to help newly freed people in Philadelphia. Jones and Allen later separated, as their religious lives took different directions after 1794. They remained lifelong friends and collaborators. "A Discourse...African Church", Brotherly Love, PBS, accessed 14 January 2009.
As 1791 began, Jones started holding religious services at FAS, which became the core of his African Church in Philadelphia the following year. Jones wanted to establish an African-American congregation independent of Caucasian control while remaining part of the Episcopal Church. After a successful petition, the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, the first Black church in Philadelphia, opened its doors on July 17, 1794. Jones was ordained as a deacon in 1795 and as a priest in 1802, became the first African-American priest in the Episcopal Church.
A month after St. Thomas church opened, the Founders and Trustees published "The Causes and Motives for Establishing St. Thomas's African Church of Philadelphia," saying their intent was "to arise out of the dust and shake ourselves, and throw off that servile fear, that the habit of oppression and bondage trained us up in." "The Causes and Motives for Establishing St. Thomas's African Church...", Africans in America, PBS, accessed 15 January 2009.
Famous for his oratory, Jones helped establish the tradition of anti-slavery sermons on New Year's Day. His sermon for January 1, 1808, the date on which the U.S. Constitution mandated the end of the African slave trade, was called "A Thanksgiving Sermon" and published in pamphlet form. It became famous. "Absalom Jones", The Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History Rumors persisted that Jones had supernatural abilities to influence the minds of assembled congregations. Caucasian observers failed to recognize his oratory skills, perhaps because they believed rhetoric to be beyond the capabilities of people of African descent. Numerous other African-American leaders were similarly said to have supernatural abilities.
After becoming the first Black and freedman to be ordained as a priest, and as the Constitution's deadline for abolition of the slave trade passed, Jones took part in the first group of African Americans to petition the U.S. Congress. Their petition related to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which they criticized for encouraging cruelty and brutality, as well as supporting the continuing criminal practice of kidnapping free Blacks and selling them into slavery. Jones drafted a petition on behalf of four formerly enslaved people and asked Congress to adopt "some remedy for an evil of such magnitude." "The 1797 Petition", The Making of African American Identity: Vol. I, 1500–1865, National Humanities Center, 2007
The petition was presented on 30 January 1797 by U.S. Representative John Swanwick of Pennsylvania. Jones used moral suasion: trying to convince whites that slavery was immoral, offensive to God, and contrary to the nation's ideal. Although U.S. Representative George Thatcher of Massachusetts argued that the petition should be accepted and referred to the Committee on the Fugitive Law, the House of Representatives declined to accept the petition by a vote of 50 to 33. Jones submitted a similar petition two years later, which was also declined.
When Mathew Carey published a popular pamphlet accusing African Americans of profiting from nursing sick Caucasian citizens, Jones and Allen published a protest pamphlet in response. They described sacrifices that they and the Free African Society members made for the city's health. Philadelphia Mayor Matthew Clarkson, who had called upon them for help, publicly recognized that Jones and Allen acted upon their desires to improve the entire community. Jones' responses to the overall crisis strengthened ties between "free" African Americans and many progressive European Americans, aiding him later on when he established St. Thomas' Episcopal Church."Confession of John Joyce, Alias Davis, Who Was Executed on Monday, the 14th of March, 1808, for the Murder of Mrs. Sarah Cross"; With an Address to the Public, and People of Colour (Philadelphia, 1808). Photograph. Accessed October 13, 2016. http://www.librarycompany.org/blackfounders/section7.htm. Almost twenty times more black people helped the plague-struck than whites, which proved crucial in helping St. Thomas Church gain social acceptance. America: History & Life, EBSCOhost (accessed November 12, 2013), 560–564.
The national Episcopal Church remembers his life and service annually with a Lesser Feast on the anniversary of his death, February 13.
The Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania honors his memory with an annual celebration and award.
African Methodist Episcopal Church
On a parallel path, Richard Allen (1760–1831) founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), the first independent Black church within the Methodist tradition. He and his followers converted a building and opened it on July 29, 1794, as Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church. In 1799, Allen was ordained as the first Black minister in the Methodist Church by Bishop Francis Asbury. In 1816, Allen gathered other Black congregations in the region to create a new and fully independent denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1816, Allen was elected as the AME's first bishop.
Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793
Yellow fever repeatedly struck Philadelphia and other coastal cities in the 1790s, until sanitary improvements advocated by Dr. Benjamin Rush were adopted and completed. In the meantime, Allen and Jones assisted Rush in helping people afflicted by the plague, for people of African descent were initially rumored to be immune. Many Caucasians (including most doctors except for Rush and his assistants, some of whom died) fled the city, hoping to escape infection. Allen and Jones' corps of African-American Philadelphians helped nurse the sick, as well as bury the dead. Jones, in particular, sometimes worked through the night. However, Rush's reliance on bleeding and purging as a medical treatment proved misplaced.
Death and legacy
Jones died on February 13, 1818, in Philadelphia. He was initially interred in the St. Thomas Churchyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His body was relocated to Lebanon Cemetery and then to Eden Cemetery. In 1991, his remains were exhumed, cremated and placed in a reliquary in the Absalom Jones altar of the current African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas (now located at 6361 Lancaster Avenue in Philadelphia). The chapel is named in his honor, as is the church's rectory.
See also
Further reading
External links
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Official Web site of the Diocese of Pennsylvania
Categories: 1746 Births, 1818 Deaths, People From Milford, Delaware, Clergy From Philadelphia, African-american Abolitionists, Abolitionists From Pennsylvania, Activists For African-american Civil Rights, People From Pennsylvania In The War Of 1812, African-american Methodists, African Methodist Episcopal Church Clergy, 19th-century American Episcopal Priests, 18th-century American Slaves, American Freemasons, Methodist Abolitionists, Activists From Philadelphia, People From Colonial Delaware, People From Colonial Pennsylvania, Literate American Slaves, American Former Slaves, African-american People With Free Status Before 1865, Burials At Eden Cemetery, Burials At Lebanon Cemetery, Anglican Saints
|
|
