Brooklyn: Plymouth Church, Beecher and the Civil War a Photo Essay UPDATED

Here is the church from the balcony. In Beecher's day the church held 2,000 people for ordinary services. There were two services every Sunday. Up to a thousand additional folding seats could be set up for special occasions.
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The lecturn was made from olive tree wood brought back from a church trip to the Holy Land in 1867. The raised platform it is on is where Beecher preached and where he held his "slave auctions."
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The church has a substantial balcony, and a smaller balcony at the very back of the church. Under the upper balcony are stained glass windows of Beecher, Lincoln, and women in education.

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Here is the first of the three windows over the rear balcony. This is Beecher speaking in England in 1863. He was sent by Lincoln to speak in manufacturing cities to try to win workers and merchants over to the Union cause even though unemployment in these cities had spiked due to the blockade.

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Here is the third window. It represents Women in Education. The seated woman on the left is Beecher's sister Harriet Beecher Stowe. She lived in Hartford, but she was a member of the church and worshiped there many times.

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At the time of the Civil War, the windows were plain glass. The three dozen beautiful stained glass windows were installed over the decades after the war.
 
The side windows are essentially "Great Moments in Protestantism." There are windows at both the ground level and above the first balcony.

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I will post shots of a few of the windows. The first is John Milton calling for religious freedom for Protestants and the second shows the Pilgrims landing in Plymouth.

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Even though the church is in New York, it was founded by transplanted New Englanders, Congregationalists transplanted from Mass, RI, and Ct. A lot of the windows commemorate New England, not New York.

Here is a window showing the founding of Harvard. There is another showing the founding of Williams College.

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So, you also see windows giving tribute to people like Jonathan Edwards, the leader of the Great Awakening, who were important New England religious figures.

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Here is Lyman Beecher, father of Henry Ward Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Lyman set off the first large anti-Irish riots in Boston with his repeated anti-immigrant sermons.

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Here is the platform where Beecher held his "slave auctions." He sold escaped slaves to the congregation and used the proceeds to pay for their freedom.

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Here is the platform seen from the altar. The podium was made from olive tree wood brought back from a church pilgrimate to the Holy Land in 1867.

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The pews you see in the church today are the same ones there in Beecher's day. Lincoln worshiped at the church twice in 1860. This is where he sat.

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