Absalom Jones life defined what service to others looked like. While still enslaved at 16, Absalom worked during the day and went to school at night. Eventually, he earned enough money to “purchase” his wife’s freedom, fourteen years before purchasing his own. He was elected as the first ever African American priest of the Episcopal Church in October of 1804. Before he passed away, he petitioned the State of Pennsylvania and the US Congress to abolish enslavement, decades before its time.
