From Slavery to the Pulpit: The rise of Absalom Jones as first ordained African American priest, by Gift Luckson Abraham Jones (November 7, 1746 – February 13, 1818) was an African-American abolitionist and clergyman who became prominent in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Life of Absalom Jones Disappointed at the racial discrimination he experienced in a local Methodist church, he founded the Free African Society with Richard Allen in 1787, a mutual aid society for African Americans in the city. The Free African Society included many people newly freed from slavery after the American Revolutionary War. In 1794, Jones founded...