"Provides much needed information about a topic little known and researched. Scholarship on Catholic sisters, parishes, and the larger Catholic story is often ignored in the larger context of women religious and the growth and influence of the American Catholic Church, particularly in the deep south."—Carol K. Coburn, Avila University
"Teaching in Black and White is a readable and at times compelling account of French Catholicism in the religious and educational history among the African American Community in St. Augustine, Florida. The jewel in this account is the battle between Catholics and Protestants for the souls and minds of formerly enslaved African Americans. Well written and researched, Barbara Mattick has a gift for storytelling. The story of the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine is a notable one."—Maxine Jones, Florida State University
"Teaching in Black and White is the right book, at the right time, by the right author. Barbara Mattick brings to life an extraordinary story: French nuns immigrate to St. Augustine, Florida, shortly after the Civil War. The well-researched book brings together volatile topics of race, religion, gender, education, epidemics, immigrants, and nativism across Florida."—Gary R. Mormino, University of South Florida
"Deeply researched and clearly written, Teaching in Black and White spotlights a little-examined chapter of the Catholic presence in the postbellum American South. It documents how the Sisters of St. Joseph coped with ignorance, epidemics, anti-Catholicism, racism, and arbitrary episcopal authority as they expanded Catholic educational and social welfare institutions in Florida and Georgia. It thus contributes to our understanding of not only the history of American Catholicism but also the intersection of race, gender, and religion in the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras."—Joseph Mannard, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
"Sisters of St. Joseph left their native France for Florida in 1866 to teach freed Blacks after the U.S. Civil War. The nuns' successes in education were not matched by religious conversions. Barbara Mattick locates the Sisters' educational and nursing activities within the work of contemporary White missionary efforts. Teaching in Black and White advances the role of these little-known Catholic women religious beyond local history into their rightful place in the history of the post-bellum nation."—Susan Richbourg Parker, Historic St. Augustine Research Institute
