Benedictine missionaries and the intersection of religion and race on Skidaway Island, Georgia

In March, 1877, two Benedictine monks, Father Oswald Moosmueller and Father Maurice Kaeder arrived in Georgia with the hope of establishing a successful school and monastery for freedmen and women. The ensuing struggle of the Benedictine missionaries in their endeavors and the eventual closure of the school and monastery in 1889 shed light on the Catholic Churchs relationship to race and the position of Catholics within postbellum southern society. Furthermore, this examination of the short-lived Benedictine mission on Skidaway Island reveals the ways in which religion and race impacted African Americans fight for autonomy over their education and their livelihoods following emancipation.