The Duty and Relation of the Church to the Colored Population of the United States. A Part of the Annual Address of the Bishop to the Convention of the Diocese of Alabama

Alabama: s.i., 1884. Very Good -. [Alabama?]: s.i., 1884. First Edition. Octavo; printed wraps; 16pp. Wrappers soiled and worn; vertical crease; text block separated from wraps; mild spotting but text legible throughout; Good to Very Good.

An intriguing publication highlighting the racism and social complexity of the Jim Crow South, in which the theologically conservative Wilmer espouses, "the genius of the mission of this our Church... to bind together in a common faith and discipline all races, orders, and conditions of men," (p. 2). Wilmer then continues, condescendingly, "Ethiopia is at our doors, in our homes, and stretches out her hands to us, and by her very ignorance, helplessness and low estate appeals to our hearts." An uncommon look into post-Reconstruction white religious thought; we locate five holdings in OCLC, at Emory, Sewanee, Trinity Episcopal, Massachusetts Historical, and the Huntington.