你妹妹的福音

“亲爱的哥哥,”简曼宁詹姆斯·约瑟夫·f·斯密在1903年写道,“我借此机会写信问你如果我能得到我的捐赠并完成这项工作我已经开始为我死....你姐姐在福音上,简·e·詹姆斯。”A faithful Latter-day Saint since her conversion sixty years earlier, James had made this request several times before, to no avail, and this time she would be just as unsuccessful, even though most Latter-day Saints were allowed to participate in the endowment ritual in the temple as a matter of course. James, unlike most Mormons, was black. For that reason, she was barred from performing the temple rituals that Latter-day Saints believe are necessary to reach the highest degrees of glory after death. A free black woman from Connecticut, James positioned herself at the center of LDS history with uncanny precision. After her conversion, she traveled with her family and other converts from the region to Nauvoo, Illinois, where the LDS church was then based. There, she took a job as a servant in the home of Joseph Smith, the founder and first prophet of the LDS church. When Smith was killed in 1844, Jane found employment as a servant in Brigham Young's home. These positions placed Jane in proximity to Mormonism's most powerful figures, but did not protect her from the church's racially discriminatory policies. Nevertheless, she remained a faithful member until her death in 1908.你妹妹的福音:简的生活曼宁詹姆斯,一个十九世纪的黑人摩门教徒(牛津大学出版社,2019年)是第一个学术的传记简曼宁詹姆斯。昆西·纽厄尔记录这非凡的生活很大程度上是未知的图,揭示了为什么詹姆斯的故事改变了我们对美国历史的了解。

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丹尼尔·p·斯通博士在美国宗教历史从曼彻斯特城市大学(英国)的作者威廉Bickerton:忘记一天先知(签名书,2018)。他在底特律大学教历史课程和佛罗里达大西洋大学,目前,他的工作作为一个私人图书馆/研究档案管理员归档在底特律,密歇根州。