JONES, ABSALOM. Absalom Jones (November 6, 1746–February 13, 1818), the first African American priest ordained in the Episcopal Church, is commonly associated with the event that led to the formation of the African Methodist Episcopal denomination. Jones and Richard Allen (1760–1831) led a group of black worshippers out of Saint George's Methodist Church on a Sunday in November 1787 in protest of the church's decision to segregate black worshippers in the upstairs gallery.

Jones was born a slave in Sussex, Delaware. He taught himself to read during his early teens and learned to write after being taken to Philadelphia to work in his master's store as a clerk and handyman. In 1766 he began attending Anthony Benezet's school in the evenings. In 1770 Jones married another slave, whose freedom he purchased with the assistance of Quaker friends and his father-in-law. Jones later purchased his own freedom in 1784, after which he continued to work...