Anna Alexander Popular Books

Anna Alexander Biography & Facts

Anna Ellison Butler Alexander (c. 1865 – September 24, 1947) was the first and only African-American consecrated a deaconess in the Episcopal Church. She served in the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia during her entire career, and may be remembered in the Calendar of saints on September 24. Early life Alexander was born shortly after the American Civil War on St. Simon's Island, Georgia to former slave Daphne Alexander and her husband James Alexander (known by his nickname Aleck). Her parents had married in 1841 and Anna became their eleventh and last child. Her birth date was not recorded, and she later gave various different dates, in part because she feared that she would be forbidden to continue to work in her final years as too old (later diocesan records list it as 1878 and her death certificate lists 1880).Her father Aleck was the personal servant and aide of his master, Pierce Mease Butler (1810–1861), who owned several plantations inherited from his grandfather, founding father and U.S. Senator Pierce Butler. Aleck Alexander had learned to read and write (despite state laws to the contrary) from Butler's wife, the British actress Fanny Kemble.Alexander later wrote that her part-Native American paternal grandmother had received her freedom after nursing Pierce Mease and his brother John Mease, before they assumed their grandfather's surname in order to inherit his plantations.Her maternal grandmother was from Madagascar, and her mother was the result of a rape by a white overseer. Fanny Kemble became estranged from her husband after witnessing such activities at his plantations, particularly by that overseer. Kemble wrote the anti-slavery Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839, published in 1863 and which helped influence British public opinion against the Confederate cause.The Alexander family soon moved to Pennick, Georgia to take advantage of land south of the Altamaha River previously held by poor whites who had moved further south to Florida to obtain land under the Southern Homestead Act of 1866. Her father became a carpenter-builder and a community leader. In addition to building his own family's houses, and helping others learn that trade, Aleck Alexander helped build a school for the community and used his own land as an experimental farm. Career Anna first taught at the public school in Pennick. Later, she moved to Darien, Georgia, at the mouth of the Altamaha River, where her sister Mary founded a school affiliated with St. Cyprian's Episcopal Church, and all three sisters taught. Anna also visited Brunswick, Georgia and St. Athanasius' Episcopal Church. In 1894, with the cooperation of the Brunswick priest, Anna founded a mission in Pennick, while still teaching at Darien during the week, making a 40-mile round trip by boat and foot. The mission faltered when Anna accepted a position at St. Paul's Normal and Industrial School (as well as enrolled in the new teachers college there) in Lawrenceville, Virginia. In 1897, she returned to Pennick and revitalized the mission. The congregation was renamed Church of the Good Shepard, and Alexander also started a school. She supported herself by taking in sewing, and managed to buy property in 1902, where her brother Charles Alexander and other men then erected a church. In 1907, bishop Cleland Kinloch Nelson addressed the second annual meeting of the diocese's council of colored churchmen, held at the Church of the Good Shepherd. He described Alexander as a "devout, godly and respected colored woman" and consecrated her as a deaconess. She became the first and only African-American deaconess. She worked in Altamaha River area for the rest of her life, teaching not only academic subjects, but also moral values. Her Sunday School students always donated pennies to those worse off then themselves. When an earthquake devastated Tokyo-Yokohama in Japan in 1923, Alexander's mission diverted their own building funds to aid the overseas victims, donating more proportionally to assist other needy people than any other church in the diocese.The diocese of Georgia split in 1907 and Nelson chose to associate with the new Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta. His successor in the Diocese of Georgia, Frederick Focke Reese, excluded African-Americans from church government in the diocese, and extended almost no diocesan financial support to African-Americans. This forced Alexander and others to make do, as well as seek support from outside the diocese, including from the Episcopal Board of Missions. During the bad crop years of the late 1920s through the Great Depression, Alexander continued to work in her hardscrabble community, whose members built the current wooden church building in 1928. In 1934 only 2 of the 30 students could pay the nickel per week school fee. Alexander became the agent for governmental and private aid for both black and white residents, and enlisted neighbors of both races to help. Before his death, Reese recognized her decades of service. During the summers of her last decade, Alexander cooked for Camp Reese, the then-new (and now former) Diocesan summer camp on St. Simons Island, and brought small groups of African-American boys and girls – who were formally barred as campers but could enjoy the area. In her later years, Alexander worked alongside other deaconesses, including Madeline Dunlap of Chicago. Legacy Alexander died on September 24, 1947, and was buried at the cemetery at Camp Reese. In 1998, she was recognized as a saint by the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia and its Bishop Henry Louttit, Jr. Her diocese began advocating for larger recognition in the Episcopal Church. In 2004, she was reinterred at Good Shepherd Church in Pennick, which she had founded and where she had worked for many years, although now visiting priests only hold services twice a month. The General Convention of the Episcopal Church, meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah preliminarily recognized Alexander's service as a deaconess and teacher in 2015. A short documentary released by the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia in 2018 explains her life. Also in 2018, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry visited Pennick, Georgia and recognized her ministry. She was the winner of the "Golden Halo" in Lent Madness 2018, an educational tool hosted by Forward Movement Publications featuring the saints of the calendar of the Episcopal Church. She was added to the Episcopal Church's calendar of saints that year.On March 24, 2019, two churches in the Episcopal Diocese of California merged, naming their new congregation 'St. Anna's Episcopal Church' in her memory. References. Discover the Anna Alexander popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Anna Alexander books.

Best Seller Anna Alexander Books of 2024

  • Anna of Byzantium synopsis, comments

    Anna of Byzantium

    Tracy Barrett

    For fans of Joan of Arc and Alexander the Great, comes "a gripping saga of alliances, intrigues, deceits, and treacheries" about Anna Comnena of the Byzantine Empire.   A...

  • Essential Novelists - Alexander Pushkin synopsis, comments

    Essential Novelists - Alexander Pushkin

    Alexander Pushkin & August Nemo

    Welcome to the Essential Novelists book series, were we present to you the best works of remarkable authors. For this book, the literary critic August Nemo has chosen the two most ...

  • Royal Passion synopsis, comments

    Royal Passion

    Geneva Lee

    Jetzt der Serienstart zum Kennenlernpreis.Clara & Alexander – ein Blick, ein Kuss und nichts ist mehr wie zuvor ... Sie kommen aus verschiedenen Welten. Und sind doch füreinand...

  • Jerry Cotton 3139 synopsis, comments

    Jerry Cotton 3139

    Jerry Cotton

    Ein Filmteam stieß bei Dreharbeiten in einer einsamen Bucht in Tampa Bay an der Westküste Floridas auf die Leiche einer verstümmelten Frau. Da an den Küsten von Georgia und South C...

  • The Marlboro Man synopsis, comments

    The Marlboro Man

    Anna Alexander

    Hot damn! This cowboy found a use for that necktie after all.The plan was simple. Find her brother, lick her wounds, and spend the time until her divorce was final figuring out wha...

  • Royal Love synopsis, comments

    Royal Love

    Geneva Lee

    Die große ROYALSaga von Geneva Lee: Über 1 Millionen verkaufte Bücher der SPIEGELBestsellerreihe im deutschsprachigen Raum!Clara & Alexander – sie sollte die glücklichste Frau ...

  • Hero Revealed synopsis, comments

    Hero Revealed

    Anna Alexander

    Sure, he was sexy, but she'll never trade her badge for his bed.Earth was to have been my prison, but for some reason I have developed extraordinary powers and found a woman with w...

  • An Unofficial Marriage synopsis, comments

    An Unofficial Marriage

    Joie Davidow

    For Fans of Alexander Chee's bestselling novel, The Queen of the Night and opera fans everywhere. Set against the backdrop of the tumultuous events of 19th century E...

  • A Visible Man synopsis, comments

    A Visible Man

    Edward Enninful

    From one of our culture's most important changemakers, a memoir of breaking barriers.When Edward Enninful became the first Black editorinchief of British Vogue, few in the world of...

  • The Book-Makers synopsis, comments

    The Book-Makers

    Adam Smyth

    The fivehundredyear history of printed books, told through the people who created them Books tell all kinds of storiesromances, tragedies, comediesbut if we learn to read the signs...

  • Eight Seconds to Forever synopsis, comments

    Eight Seconds to Forever

    Anna Alexander

    Melody Webber is done with the men in her small town. Why was it so difficult to find a Mr. suitable enough to make her a Mrs.? After seeking the answers in a bottle of wine, her f...

  • The Refuge synopsis, comments

    The Refuge

    Jérôme Loubry

    'Wickedly Twisty.' Laurence, Amazon reviewer'Mindbending.' Tambok, Amazon reviewerWhere to hide when there's nowhere left to run?Sandrine is asked to empty her late grandmother's ...

  • Jerry Cotton 3142 synopsis, comments

    Jerry Cotton 3142

    Jerry Cotton

    Ein Transportflugzeug der Deutschen Bundesbank verschwand vor der Küste von Cape Cod vom Radar. An Bord befanden sich Goldreserven im Wert von 1,2 Milliarden USDollar, die die Bank...

  • The Cowboy Way synopsis, comments

    The Cowboy Way

    Anna Alexander

    Welcome to the Sprawling 'A' Ranch, where the men are as hot as the August sun.The doctor's say the amnesia shouldn't be permanent. Shouldn't. Right. But he was grateful. His ...

  • Jerry Cotton 3141 synopsis, comments

    Jerry Cotton 3141

    Jerry Cotton

    Mara ein Name, der einem das Fürchten lehrte. Denn die Jugendbande, eine der gefährlichsten weltweit, hinterließ zahllose Leichen im Kampf um Waffen und Drogen. Die Organisation h...

  • Fashion Climbing synopsis, comments

    Fashion Climbing

    Bill Cunningham & Hilton Als

    The New York Times bestseller“[An] obscenely enjoyable romp.” The New York Times Book ReviewThe untold story of a New York City legend's education in creativity and style...

  • The Compatriots synopsis, comments

    The Compatriots

    Andrei Soldatov & Irina Borogan

    The authors of The Red Web examine the shifting role of Russian expatriates throughout history, and their complicated, unbreakable relationship with the mother countrybe it antagon...

  • The Glossy Years synopsis, comments

    The Glossy Years

    Nicholas Coleridge

    'The most entertaining book of the year' Sunday Times Diana touched your elbow, your arm, covered your hand with hers. It was alluring. And she was disarmingly confiding."Can I ask...

  • The Final Chapter synopsis, comments

    The Final Chapter

    Jérôme Loubry

    Whatever you do, DON'T give away that ending..."Terribly addictive" Three good friends.One tragic summer.A book that tells it all."A tremendously compelling pageturner" Wh...

  • Genesis synopsis, comments

    Genesis

    Anna Alexander

    People suck, at least according to reclusive inventor Max Madden, except for his friend and mentor Anthony. But now Anthony is dead after uncovering evidence that an avaricious fin...

  • The Concubine of Shanghai synopsis, comments

    The Concubine of Shanghai

    Hong Ying

    China, 1907. Sixteenyearold orphan Cassia is sold by her aunt to a brothel. There, she works as a lowly maid for Madame Emerald until a powerful and dangerous client plucks her fro...

  • Deadly Intent synopsis, comments

    Deadly Intent

    Lynda La Plante

    From awardwinning author Lynda La Plante comes the latest detective story involving Anna Travis, who must juggle old and new love affairs while tracking down one of the world’s dea...

  • Only at the Cavern synopsis, comments

    Only at the Cavern

    Anna Alexander

    Captain Marco DeWinter is a cop on a mission when a brush with death lands him in the hospital. Regulated to mandatory time off, he begins to reexamine his priorities and entertain...

  • Sibirisch Rot synopsis, comments

    Sibirisch Rot

    Sam Eastland

    September 1939: Inspektor Pekkala bekommt von Stalin einen neuen, höchst unliebsamen Auftrag. Wieder soll er einen Mord aufklären. Doch es ist kein gewöhnliches Verbrechen. Der Mor...

  • Glossy synopsis, comments

    Glossy

    Nina-Sophia Miralles

    'Dame Anna Wintour might be one of the bestknown and most successful journalists on the planet. But it wasn't always like that. When she started out on Vogue she was often so miser...

  • Royal Desire synopsis, comments

    Royal Desire

    Geneva Lee

    Die große ROYALSaga von Geneva Lee: Über 1 Millionen verkaufte Bücher der SPIEGELBestsellerreihe im deutschsprachigen Raum!Clara & Alexander – es schien zu Ende zu sein, bevor ...

  • Acting the Song synopsis, comments

    Acting the Song

    Tracey Moore & Allison Bergman

    Acting the Song offers a contemporary, integrated approach to singing in musicals that results in bettertrained, smarter performers everyone wants to work with. In this new, thorou...

  • Fear synopsis, comments

    Fear

    Byron Clark

    This mustread new book maps New Zealand's altright underworld and unearths the roots of the occupation that ended in a violent protest on the grounds of Parliament.Speaking after t...

  • Jerry Cotton 3143 synopsis, comments

    Jerry Cotton 3143

    Jerry Cotton

    Bei einem Einsatz hatte ich mich am Arm verletzt. Deshalb schickte mich Mr High kurzerhand in den Urlaub, um mich auszukurieren. Ich entschied mich für Thunder Key, eine winzige In...

  • Focus synopsis, comments

    Focus

    Michael Gross

    “This thoroughly absorbing narrative dazzles with the most profound investigation and research. Focus is an enthralling and riveting read.” Tim Gunn“Smart, wellresearched…engaging…...

  • How to Make a Dress synopsis, comments

    How to Make a Dress

    Jenny Packham

    ‘From inspiration to sketch, pattern to fabric, the making of a dress has been the structure that has held me, and my passion to dress others is the momentum of my life.’ Jenny Pac...

  • Jerry Cotton 3140 synopsis, comments

    Jerry Cotton 3140

    Jerry Cotton

    Bei einer Explosion starben in Los Angeles mehrere Menschen. Die Öffentlichkeit glaubte an einen Terroranschlag. Doch unter den Toten befanden sich auch die Agents Vince Stewart un...

  • Run For Your Life synopsis, comments

    Run For Your Life

    Sue Williams

    The remarkable true story of a family forced into hiding after leaking Russian secrets What started out as a great adventure turned into a terrifying nightmare when Nick Stride and...

  • Tales from the Back Row synopsis, comments

    Tales from the Back Row

    Amy Odell

    A keenly observed collection of personal essays about what it’s like to be a young woman working in the fashion industry, Amy Odell’s Tales from the Back Row offers “a backstage pa...

  • Acting the Song synopsis, comments

    Acting the Song

    Tracey Moore & Allison Bergman

    Used in tandem with Acting the Song: Performance for the Musical Theatre, this Student Companion Ebook guides students through three semesters (beginning, intermediate, and advance...

  • The Fashion Show synopsis, comments

    The Fashion Show

    Iain R Webb

    This is your invitation to the front row.  Spanning over seven decades and 300 shows, this beautiful book tells the story of the high fashion catwalk. Through this inspiratio...

  • Jerry Cotton 3138 synopsis, comments

    Jerry Cotton 3138

    Jerry Cotton

    In Detroit war angeblich die seit über dreißig Jahren verschollene Totenberg Stradivari auf dem Dachboden eines kürzlich verstorbenen Musiklehrers entdeckt worden. Die einzige Pers...

  • Die Akte Skripal synopsis, comments

    Die Akte Skripal

    Mark Urban

    Es ist ein TrueLife Le Carré: Im Frühjahr 2018 werden der ehemalige russische Doppelagent Sergej Skripal und seine Tochter Julija in England mit lebensbedrohlichen Vergiftungsersch...

  • Instinct synopsis, comments

    Instinct

    Anna Alexander

    Ripley Jorgensen had believed the biggest shock in his life was developing shapeshifting powers, but that was nothing compared to learning that one of his teammates, the woman he l...

  • Vogue The Shoe synopsis, comments

    Vogue The Shoe

    Conde Nast Publ Ltd & Harriet Quick

    Shoes fascinate women of all ages and have the power to crystallize a moment in fashion. In Vogue: The Shoe, Harriet Quick has curated more than 300 fabulous images from a century ...