Description
Book SynopsisCraig D. Townsend tells the remarkable story of St. Philip’s, the first African American Episcopal church in New York City, and its struggle for autonomy and independence.
Trade ReviewCraig Townsend's superb work,
Faith in Their Own Color, has made a significant impact on readers through the years. The book's exploration of the interaction of race and religion is needed now more than ever, and I hope it will continue to reach as many people as possible. -- The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church
The story of St. Philip's church in New York is not the story of one congregation but of the intersection of key issues of religion and race in antebellum America. It is an intriguing and gripping story and Townsend has told it well. This is an illuminating book and fills an important gap in our understanding of the dynamics of African American participation in Euro-American churches. -- Robert Bruce Mullin, General Theological Seminary, author of
The Puritan as Yankee: A Life of Horace BushnellThis study of the second-oldest black Episcopal congregation in the United States takes religious ideas no less seriously than the political and social realities of racism that permeated the Protestant Episcopal Church during the first half of the nineteenth century. Townsend deftly peels back the layers of obfuscation, divergent strategies, and political maneuverings that intersected with a passion for the unity of the denomination evidenced by virtually all parties in dispute over the admission of St. Philip's Church to the diocesan convention. Simultaneously, the author opens a window onto the life and inner workings of this prominent African American parish, providing a view that is as rare as it is fascinating. -- Randall K. Burkett, curator of African American Collections, Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University
A fascinating encounter with the dynamics of social and religious change impating African Americans in antebellum New York. -- A.J. Williams-Myers * Multicultural Review *
Townsend's book is invaluable to any scholar... and has wide application for students of religion and race. -- Graham Russel Gao Hodges * The Journal of American History *
I highly recommend this very useful text. -- Sandy Dwayne Martin * Church History *
[An] important contribution to our understanding of a neglected chapter of New York City religious history. -- Kenneth A. Scherzer * H-Net Reviews *
Faith in Their Own Color will be of interest to all historians of the antebellum North and deserves a wide readership. -- David Brown * Ecclesiastical History *
Faith in Their Own Color represents an incredibly detailed story of the trials and tribulations of a single black parish in antebellum New York, one historians of race and religion will surely find useful. -- John Garrison Marks * New York History *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
1. Improper Associates
2. Freedom's Defects
3. Hobart and the High Church
4. One of Their Own Colour
5. An Orderly and Devout Congregation
6. A Bitter Thralldom
7. A Godly Admonition
8. Peculiar Circumstances
9. The Chains That Bind
10. Promoting Improvement
11. Partaking of the Heavenly Gift
12. To Employ a Colored Clergyman
13. A State of Schism
14. A Bishop's Trials
15. Exciting the Deepest Feelings
16. Vouchsafed to All Men
17. The Heart Must Be Changed
18. The Beauties of Freedom
19. Economic Opportunity and Religious Choice
20. Attentive to Their Devotions
21. The Express Wishes of Nearly All
22. Injurious to the Cause of Religion
23. A Fulness of Assent
24. But One Fold and One Chief Shepherd
Appendix. Parishioners of St. Philip's Church
Notes
Index
