“His long and fruitful episcopate ended with fame and some notoriety when he became a major general in the Confederate forces and was killed by a cannon ball in Pine Mountain, Georgia.”
The students of Rock Point School in Burlington have removed a portrait of the Rt. Rev. John Henry Hopkins, first bishop of the Diocese of Vermont. Hopkins believed the controversy over slavery could be remedied by proving that it had a biblical basis. He is perhaps best known for his 1861 pamphlet, Bible View of Slavery. A second portrait of Hopkins remains on display with context written by the students.
“Ms. Thomas, 65, said her mother remembered growing up in a little white house on the campus. She said her grandfather had dreamed of becoming a minister but had been barred from applying to the seminary because of his skin color. Eventually, near the end of World War II, he moved to Washington and became a minister before his death in 1967.”