Peter Williams

Peter Williams Jr. (1786–1840) was an African-American Episcopal priest, the second ordained in the United States and the first to serve in New York City. He was an abolitionist who also supported free black emigration to Haiti, the black republic that had achieved independence in 1804 in the Caribbean. In the 1820s and 1830s, he strongly opposed the American Colonization Society's efforts to relocate free blacks to the colony of Liberia in West Africa.

In 1808 he organized St. Philip's African Church in lower Manhattan, the second black Episcopal church in the United States. In 1827 he was a co-founder of Freedom's Journal, the first African-American owned and operated newspaper in the United States. In 1833, he co-founded the Phoenix Society, a mutual aid society for African Americans; that year he was also elected to the executive board of the interracial American Anti-Slavery Society.

Early life and education Williams was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the son of Peter Williams Sr., a Revolutionary War veteran, church sexton, and tobacconist; and his wife, Mary "Molly" Durham, an indentured servant from St. Kitts. After his family moved to New York City, Williams attended the African Free School, founded by the New York Manumission Society. He was also taught privately by Rev. Thomas Lyell, a prominent Episcopal priest.

In 1796, his father was among the organizers of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AME Zion) in New York. It developed as an independent black denomination, the second in the United States after the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), which was founded in Philadelphia. Williams continued in his leadership and was ordained as an Episcopal priest on July 10, 1826, the second in the United States and the first in New York.

In 1833, Williams co-founded the Phoenix Society, a New York City mutual aid society for African Americans. That same year he joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and was selected as one of the African-American leaders on the executive board of the interracial group.

Marriage and family Rev. Hobart presided at the wedding of Williams and his wife. Of their children, one daughter, Amy Matilda Williams, survived to adulthood.