Exploring Black History at Trinity: Jacob Oson

Exploring Black History at Trinity

As a way of honoring Black History Month at Trinity, we will be providing a weekly biographical feature on a Black Episcopalian who has strengthened us collectively, as the Body of Christ. We have specifically chosen to explore the stories of people who have some connection to New Haven or to Trinity on the Green specifically - and we hope that these biographical features will be a starting point for deeper exploration in confronting racism and anti-Black bias in the Church.

Jacob Oson (?-1828)

While biographical information about Jacob Oson prior to 1821 is scarce, we know that Oson was living in the city of New Haven by the year 1805, most likely having moved there from the West Indies. Much of what we know about Jacob Oson today, we know through the diaries of the Rev. Harry Croswell, the rector of Trinity Church on the Green from 1815-1858. Croswell first met Oson in his pastoral care rounds attending to people in the Black community of New Haven. Croswell was soon impressed by Oson’s public speaking and his faith, recommending him for holy orders. In a letter to Bishop White in 1821, Croswell wrote: “I do not hesitate to express my opinion that Jacob Oson, a man of colour, ‘possesses extraordinary strength of natural understanding, a peculiar aptitude to teach, and a large share of prudence’... [having] had frequent opportunities to witness his manner of reading the prayers of the Church, and of instructing youth, both as a school-master, and as a Sunday-school teacher.” 

Oson encountered administrative roadblocks to his ordination, despite Croswell’s support and the eagerness of a Black parish in Philadelphia, St. Thomas Episcopal Church, to have Oson serve as rector. These setbacks were undoubtedly a manifestation of structural racism in the church. Oson persevered in his sense of calling, and gradually felt drawn to a different kind of ministry - aspiring to serve as a missionary in Africa. Oson’s call was finally affirmed, and he was ordained a deacon at Christ Church, Hartford on February 16, 1928. Oson was ordained a priest the very next day - the first person ordained for the African mission field, and the fifth African American ordained in the Episcopal Church. Oson never made it to Africa, that place where he felt so drawn to personally and in his ministry. He became sick later that year, and died on September 8, 1928. Croswell’s son wrote this poetic tribute to Oson in the Episcopal Watchman, a few weeks after his death: “the work for which thy bosom yearned / Shall never rest, though sin and death detail / Messiah from his many-peopled reign, / Till all thy captive brethren have returned.”

Source: Randall K. Burkett, “The Reverend Harry Croswell and Black Episcopalians in New Haven, 1820-1860” in The North Star: A Journal of African American Religious History (Fall 2003: Vol. 7, No. 1).