The Legacy of Catholicism as Practiced by African Americans

The Haitian Revolution (1791-1803) and the accompanying slave revolt transplanted many refugees from the revolution into North America. Both former slaves and free people of color began to arrive in cities like Baltimore and New Orleans in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. The Maryland Gazette published an announcement of â€Å"six ships [one a Guineaman, with negroes] four brigs, and four schooners, being part of the fleet which sailed from Cape Francois on the 23d ultimo. The passengers and crews amount to 619 persons†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The blacks on board the Guineaman would become the center of the black religious community that was established in the â€Å"chapelle basse† or lower chapel of St. Mary’s Seminary. It was this black†¦show more content†¦Our people should help her to do it. Mary Elizabeth Lange and the Oblate Sisters of Providence In 1829 the Haitian community, which met in the lower chapel of St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, produced the first black American religious community. Mary Elizabeth Lange born circa 1800 in Cuba to Haitian parents arrived in the Baltimore areas sometime after 1817. Lange enlisted the aid of three other women, all of African descent, and began teaching the black children of the community. Jacques Joubert, a French Sulpician priest, was given the task of the religious education of the children of the free, French speaking people of color. His sole purpose of teaching the children of color to read was so that they could recite the catechism, however in the black community’s vision, this education could serve as the solution for overcoming the trials of the black American experience. In 1827 Joubert initiated the Holy Family Society, a lay organization, to support the spiritual growth of Baltimore black Catholics. The priest formed this project among the immigrant black French speaking Haitians of Baltimore just as Lange was already running her own school. Not wanting to alarm anyone with the establishment of an official religious society of women of color, Joubert carefully put in the constitution that the women of color would not make vows but simply make a promise of obedience. The Oblate Sisters of Providence formed the firstShow MoreRelatedA Study Of African History1384 Words   |  6 PagesWest Africa, but little do they know African Americans were trading themselves way before then. Portuguese explorer Prince Henry, known as the navigator, was the first European to methodically explore Africa and the oceanic to the Indies.[1] Many Europeans thought that Africa s history was not important. They argued that Africans were inferior to Europeans and they used this to help justify slavery. However, the reality was very different. 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