From the outside, Brooklyn’s historic Plymouth Church doesn’t seem very special: substantial but plain, with no hint of either the beauty or the history that live inside it.
Founded in 1847 by 21 transplanted New Englanders, all involved with the Abolition movement, it installed Henry Ward Beecher as its first minister. For the next forty years, his fiery sermons and active participation in Abolitionism made him and Plymouth among the best-known religious institutions in the country, and often among the most controversial.
Except for a series of stained-glass history windows installed in the early 20th century, the main sanctuary of the church has not changed since it was built in 1849 after a fire destroyed its original building just behind it. The church’s guided tours all begin at one pew, a few rows back from the front, where Abraham Lincoln sat when he visited at Beecher’s invitation, the day before giving his Cooper Union address in Manhattan.
Beecher’s sermons became such a draw that extra ferries ran on Sundays from Manhattan; the church could hold 2800, although packed quite tightly. Many of the church’s leading members were active in the Abolition movement, providing funds and encouragement and taking part in active roles, including the Underground Railroad, which grew especially after the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. Beecher’s words, in his handwriting, captured the theme:
And, lower levels of the church, with its many passages and small and large rooms became, as some put it, a “Grand Central Depot” of the escape route.
Immense publicity also grew out of ‘slave auctions’ staged in the church by Beecher. The dramatic acts both raised funds to purchase freedom for slaves, and drew constant attention to the barbarity of a commercial trade in human beings.
At one of these, in 1857, the ‘sale’ of a 6-year-old girl who had been brought from from Louisiana, a member of the congregation added her gold ring to the collection plate; Beecher put it on the young woman’s finger and declared she was now ‘wed to freedom.’ The woman, who took the name Rose Ward, She eventually attended Howard University and became a teacher. In 1927, on the 80th anniversary of Beecher’s first sermon, she returned to Plymouth, and returned the ring to the congregation, where it’s on display.
Beecher’s sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, was also well-known as an Abolitionist through her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which helped create broad sympathy for an end to enslavement.
Plymouth’s activism didn’t end with the Civil War; Beecher and members of the church were active in a number of post-War social reform movement in education, in justice for the formerly-enslaved and for women’s rights, including the right to vote. Also during that period, the church was the scene of intense controversy when a prominent member accused Beecher of adultery with his wife. The accusations were withdrawn and then made again; a famous trial followed and Beecher was acquitted.
The original building, which was rebuilt some years after the fire, has been used for a variety of offices, classes and more; at the moment it is extending Plymouth’s social involvement providing shelter and services for those without, especially during recent cold waves.
The space also includes some extraordinary stained-glass windows by the Tiffany Studio; they were originally installed at the nearby Church of the Pilgrims and moved here when the two churches merged.
The stained glass in the main sanctuary is based mainly on themes of ‘heroic’ and very white Protestant history in America, selected in 1908 by the then minister and executed by Frederick S. Lamb. The exception is the three above the balcony, which show, left to right, Beecher and congregation founders, Lincoln, and Beecher and his siblings.
An impressive early 20th-century gallery connects the original building to its extensions, and provides space for exhibits of Plymouth’s history, including material about the Abolitionist campaigns, correspondence and, perhaps a bit bizarrely, a small square of cloth from the coat Lincoln was wearing when he was shot, attached to an envelope that was used to send distinguished guests invitations to his funeral.
In the garden outside the gallery, two sculptures point to the church’s history, but both also raise questions. The statue of Beecher has two African-American children (not visible in this picture) at the foot of his pedestal, which many have found offensive, as if they have no active role. They can be seen in the picture from 1927 in which Rose Ward stands with the statue during her visit.
The other issue is the sculptor. Both works are by Gutzon Borglum, best known for Mount Rushmore, and for the Confederate memorial at Stone Mountain, Georgia, and also for deep-seated racist and nationalist views. History is never as clean as we might like.
