Rev. Absalom Jones of the African Church, Philadelphia

This rare portrait silhouette represents Absalom Jones, the first Black Episcopal minister in America. Born enslaved in Delaware, Jones was separated from his family as a teenager and taken by his enslaver, Benjamin Wynkoop, to Philadelphia. There, Jones attended night school, accumulated savings, and pursued his freedom, leading to his mature career as a prominent abolitionist, clergyman, and advocate for Philadelphia’s Black community. The artist, Samuel Folwell, and his wife, Elizabeth, were practitioners and instructors in Philadelphia, responding to a competitive market for visual representation. Silhouettes were an inexpensive, portable form of portraiture in the eighteenth century, and very few have survived.