Content Description This collection contains a sermon written around 1898 regarding 35 years of slavery emancipation, first initiated during the United States Civil War in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation. The unidentified author speaks at length about the contemporary struggles of Black Americans--referred to in the sermon as "colored people," their contributions and representation throughout United States history and to civilization at large, and the responsibilities they...

Scope and Contents This collection contains over two hundred sermons, lectures, addresses and letters written by Rabbi Samuel Mendelsohn in the 1870s-1880s. Sermons were written for congregants at Beth-El in Norfolk, Virginia and later at the Temple of Israel in Wilmington. Rabbi Mendelsohn's lectures and addresses were often performed for his congregants, but he also made addresses at other synagogues or public venues, such as the Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts, then known as The Opera House, in...