‘Mormon Land’: The life of Jane Manning James — from her quest to be sealed to Joseph Smith to her patriarchal blessing by Hyrum Smith and her legacy for black Latter-day Saints | The Salt Lake Tribune

When historian historian Quincy Newell was researching 19th-century African American Mormons, one name kept popping up: Jane Manning James.

This African American convert, who worked in church founder Joseph Smith’s household and eventually was “sealed” to him as a “servant,” probably still ranks as the most famous black female member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this side of Gladys Knight.

So Newell wrote a full-fledged biography of this pioneering black woman. Titled “Your Sister in the Gospel,” it was released earlier this year by Oxford University Press.