E-Book of the Week: Persons of Color and Religious at the Same Time

Morrow, Diane Batts. Persons of Color and Religious at the Same Time: The Oblate Sisters of Providence, 1828-1860. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.

The Oblate Sisters of Providence were organized in 1828 in Baltimore as the first permanent community of Roman Catholic women religious of African descent in the United States. They founded St. Frances Academy for the education of young girls of color; this institution lives on today as a coeducational high school on East Chase Street in Baltimore. This study by Morrow (Associate Professor of History and African American Studies, University of Georgia) analyzes aspects of the relationships among the Oblate Sisters, the Catholic Church, and antebellum southern society, highlighting the critical role the sisters played in their own history.

Previewed by Jack Ray, Associate Director. Click here to read this book.