Brooklyn’s Plymouth Church in the Civil War Era: A Ministry of Freedom

Placeholder author icon
By Frank Decker ’58

Published Jan. 21, 2016

(The History Press) This book examines the Brooklyn-based bastion of anti-slavery sentiment: Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, led by Henry Ward Beecher. Plymouth Church was not only publicly important in the fight for abolition, but it also was a busy Underground Railroad station and a strong supporter of the Union during the Civil War. Decker is a longtime member of Plymouth Church, serving as its president for three years, and succeeding in having it listed as a site on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom in 2007.

Paw in print

Image
Terri Sewell ’86 at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, stands next to a portrait of civil rights leader John Lewis.
The Latest Issue

November 2026

History is in Terri Sewell ’86’s hands; campus mental health culture; the two Princetons.