Absalom Jones

Absalom Jones was born into slavery in Sussex County, Delaware, in 1746 and as a boy taught himself to read. He was taken to Philadelphia, where he worked in his enslaver's shop, attended a night school, and married. He bought his wife's freedom first and later his own, gaining it in 1784. Jones became a lay preacher at St. George's Methodist Church, and in 1787 he and Richard Allen founded the Free African Society, a mutual aid society for Black Philadelphians. During the yellow fever epidemic of 1793, members of the society nursed the sick and buried the dead, and Jones and Allen afterward wrote a narrative defending their work against public criticism. In 1794 Jones founded the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, and in 1802 he became the first African American ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church. He died in Philadelphia in 1818 and is remembered on the Episcopal calendar on February 13.

Absalom Jones is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Raised in slavery and active in Methodism; founded the first Black Episcopal congregation (1794) and in 1802 became the first African American ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church. Source: Wikipedia