| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.2

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 244 words from this article are provided below; about 541 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Diane Batts Morrow. Persons of Color and Religious at the Same Time: The Oblate Sisters of Providence, 1828–1860. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2002. Pp. xii, 336. Cloth $49.95, paper $19.95.
In 1828, a group of free black women in Baltimore organized a Roman Catholic religious sisterhood, the Oblate Sisters of Providence, to educate children of color. Diane Batts Morrow's account of their story manifests their prophetic stance within antebellum culture. Black and free in a racist country, female in a patriarchal church, Catholics in the midst of Protestants and celibate rather than married mothers, the Oblates lived to refute the bigotry that all black women were drawn toward immoral behavior. They gave quiet but effective testimony against many rationalizations for maintaining slavery in the United States. Their own exemplary record eventually prompted a reluctant hierarchy to acknowledge their claim to membership in the Catholic community, refuting the notion that nuns were passive recipients of whatever the church handed them.	1
Morrow uses the Oblates to challenge the idea that the humility practiced by religious sisters characteristically allowed them to assert themselves only on behalf of other women. For the Oblates, humility represented not self-effacement but a balanced understanding of both their strengths and weaknesses. For them, humility meant also the honesty of owning one's talents. They did so even when both church and white society showed them indifference and hostility.	. . .

There are about 541 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.