Absalom Jones
Portrait of Absalom Jones (alt. title)
Peale, Raphaelle, American painter, 1774-1825
1810
oil on paper mounted to board
Gift of Absalom Jones School, 1971

Jones (1746-1818), an early civil rights activist, was born a slave in Sussex County, Delaware, and ordained as the first African American Episcopal priest in 1804. His role as a leader in church arose from harassment by white trustees of Saint George’s Church who ordered African Americans to a segregated gallery upstairs. When someone attempted to physically remove Jones he responded, Wait until the prayer is over and I will trouble you no more. As a result, he was among the founders of Saint Thomas’s African Episcopal Church for the purpose of advancing our friends in a true knowledge of God, of true religion, and the ways and means to restore our long lost race to the dignity of men. Jones believed that the church was not only a place of worship and religious education but also for general education, mutual aid and protest.