Jones, Absalom
1746-1818 · Contribution: 1792-1802
First African American ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church; founded the first Black Episcopal congregation in the United States
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Impact on the world
Co-founded the Free African Society with Richard Allen in 1787, then after a 1792 incident in which church ushers physically attempted to remove him mid-prayer for refusing to sit in a segregated gallery, led a mass walkout and founded the African Church of Philadelphia, later affiliated with the Episcopal Church as St. Thomas; in 1802 he became the first African American ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church of the United States, and remains honored today on the Episcopal Church's official calendar of saints.
Life & background
Born enslaved in Sussex County, Delaware in 1746, Jones was recognized as an unusually intelligent child by the enslaver who held him and was consequently trained for household rather than field work, where he taught himself to read using a primer, a spelling book, and a Bible purchased with money he saved from work given to him; he purchased his own freedom through a formal manumission in 1784. He became close friends with fellow preacher Richard Allen at St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, and together they founded the Free African Society in 1787, a non-denominational mutual aid organization serving Black Philadelphians regardless of religious affiliation. In 1792, when church ushers attempted to physically remove Jones from his knees mid-prayer for refusing to move to a newly built segregated gallery, he and most of the church's Black membership walked out in protest, going on to found the African Church of Philadelphia, which became, upon its 1794 affiliation with the Episcopal Church, the first Black Episcopal congregation in the United States. He was ordained a deacon in 1795 and, in 1802, became the first African American ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church of the United States; he and Allen also worked together, at great personal risk, nursing the sick and burying the dead during Philadelphia's devastating 1793 yellow fever epidemic, after doctors spread the false claim that Black residents were immune to the disease. Jones remains commemorated today on the Episcopal Church's official calendar of saints, observed annually on the date of his death.
Sources
- African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas; National Archives; Rediscovering Black History (National Archives)
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