© Columbia University Press
Faith in Their Own Color: Black Episcopalians in Antebellum New York City
November, 2005
Cloth, 256 pages, none
ISBN: 978-0-231-13468-2
$48.50
/ £28.50
"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
"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 Bushnell
"This 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