Persons of Color and Religious at the Same Time: The Oblate Sisters of Providence, 1828-1860

Founded in Baltimore in 1828 by a French Sulpician priest and a mulatto Caribbean immigrant, the Oblate Sisters of Providence formed the first permanent African American Roman Catholic sisterhood in the United States. It still exists today. Exploring the antebellum history of this pioneering sisterhood, Diane Batts Morrow demonstrates the centrality of race in the Oblate experience.By their very existence, the Oblate Sisters challenged prevailing social, political, and cultural attitudes on m…