Jones, Absalom (1746-1818), was a leader of the struggle to end slavery and the movement to give black Americans control over their religious worship. He founded the St. Thomas African Episcopal Church, the first Episcopal Church for African Americans in the United States, and also became the first black Episcopal priest.
Jones was born a slave on Nov. 6, 1746, in Sussex County, Delaware. In 1762, he moved with his master to Philadelphia, where he worked in his master’s grocery store. With money he had saved, Jones bought his and his wife’s freedom in 1784. He became a lay preacher at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. In 1787, Jones and Richard Allen, another lay preacher at St. George’s, established the Free African Society, a self-help organization for African Americans. Later in 1787, he and Allen led black members of the church in a walkout protesting a new church policy that required blacks to sit at the back of the balcony.
In 1794, the Free African Society split into two groups. One group, led by Jones, formed the St. Thomas African Episcopal Church. Allen and the other group formed the Bethel African Methodist Church. Jones, who was popular for his antislavery sermons, became a priest in 1804. He died on Feb. 13, 1818.
