VIDEO: The DNA of Racism: Jim Crow in NJ

 

The Reparations Task Force of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Cherry Hill, New Jersey recently hosted a forum on February 2, 2023 with Dr. Walter Greason entitled "The DNA of Racism: Jim Crow in NJ" (click here for video). Dr. Greason is a professor of history at Macalester College and author of several books, including Suburban Erasure: How the Suburbs Ended the Civil Rights Movement in New Jersey.

Christ Church, Shrewsbury (NJ) Investigates its History with Slavery

Christ Church, Shrewsbury, an Episcopal Parish in Monmouth County, New Jersey has recently published its investigative work into its history with slavery. The research was conducted by a significant team including Parish historian Robert Kelley and Shrewsbury Historical Society Trustee and author Rick Geffken. It involved the investigation of the parish register from the colonial era, and other colonial era documents, and turned up evidence that both parishioners and priests at the church routinely enslaved Blacks. The Rev. Thomas Thompson, who served at Christ Church in the mid-eighteenth century, was an influential defender of slavery. The Rev. Samuel Cooke, who served up until the Revolutionary War was among the priests at the church who kept slaves. Parish documentation from the era has been digitized to facilitate further research. Among the conclusions of the study are the following: 

"This study indicates that Christ Church parishioner slaveholders were usually from the upper, wealthy classes of 18th century Shrewsbury Town society. These slaveholders were also prominent citizens, involved in the political issues of their time... Perhaps surprising to modern readers, several clergymen were slaveholders, as abhorrent as “America’s original sin” seems to us now. Yet men like the Rev. Samuel Cooke (1723-1795) were representative of the broad acceptance of slavery in colonial East Jersey... Missionary priests also recoiled from challenging slave-owning parishioners due to a possible loss of congregants for economic concerns... Owners of large tracts of farmland justified slavery to support their families and to accumulate more wealth. This was compounded by eighteenth century attitudes which saw Africans as savages, less than human, and therefore exploitable as 'farming machines.' Often families of the time were multi-generational slaveholders, passing their 'chattel property' down to their heirs, as described in numerous Last Wills... It is our belief that in order to understand the racial tensions remaining in America today, we must face the uncomfortable truths of our shared past. We trust these articles will help that understanding."

VIDEO: Trinity Church's (Princeton, NJ) History with Slavery (Initial Findings)

VIDEO: Past Reckoning: Exploring the Racial History of the Moravian and Episcopal Churches

 

The Moravian-Episcopal Coordinating Committee’s Racial Reconciliation Working Group presented “Past Reckoning: Exploring the Racial History of the Moravian and Episcopal Churches.” This webinar series included three sessions. The first, held Jan. 25, 2023, looked at the history of the two churches, from colonial times to the Civil War. The session was entitled "Evangelizing Enslaved People: Good News or Control?" Click here for video. The second installment of this webinar series was held on February 1, 2023 and looked at the history of the two churches from Reconstruction to Jim Crow. The session was entitled "The Silent Protest Parade: Responses to Racial Violence and Black Leadership in the Church." Click here for video. Part three of this webinar series was held on February 8 and looked at the history of the two churches, particularly from the Civil Rights Era to today. This session was entitled "The Church and the City: Integration, Segregation, and White Flight." Click here for video. Connections were made between our past and present to encourage the anti-racism work in which we are engaging now. (Videos are password protected due to copyright. Please contact the conveners for access. Copyright-free non-password protected versions are forthcoming.)

EVENT: Black Heritage Presentation 7pm February 15, 2023

 Coming this week, sponsored by Christ Church, New Brunswick:

Join us Wednesday, February 15 at 7pm via Zoom

for a special presentation

by Melbourne Garber

Sierra Leone – Its Unique Transatlantic Slave Trade,

Connection to America and Early Church History

  

This presentation recounts the unique history Sierra Leone had during the transatlantic slave trade and highlighting why its connection to America was so vitally important. It relates the history of the first African Americans who returned to Africa and to Sierra Leone, its settlement by other freed enslaved Africans and the start of the early churches in West Africa. Having grown up in Sierra Leone and being an active parishioner here at Christ Church alongwith a few others, and being a descendant of these Settlers, I am passionate about telling this exceptional history to a wider audience.

 

Join us via Zoom:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81418722026?pwd=eHFMS2d4aVprNXlmMk9HeGNCWHNRdz09

 

Meeting ID: 814 1872 2026

Passcode: 470723

One tap mobile

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Meeting ID: 814 1872 2026

Passcode: 470723

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/keHFPBSmAk

VIDEO: Diocesan Reparations Webinar (1/24/23): Journeying Towards Reparations

 

VIDEO: The Entanglements of the Anglican Church and Plantation Economy in Colonial New Jersey