John S Jacobs (abt. 1815 - 1873)

Born about 1815 in Edenton, Chowan, North Carolina, USA

Husband of Elleanor (Ashland) Aspland — married about 1865 in London, England, United Kingdom

Died 19 Dec 1873 at about age 58 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA

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Biography

John Jacobs is Notable.

John S. Jacobs was an American author and abolitionist. After escaping from slavery he published his autobiography entitled A True Tale of Slavery in the four consecutive editions of the London weekly The Leisure Hour in February 1861. He also features prominently in the classic Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, authored by his sister Harriet Jacobs.^[1]

John Jacobs was born into slavery in Edenton, North Carolina in 1815. His mother was Delilah Horniblow, a slave of the Horniblow family who owned a local tavern. The father of John and his sister Harriet (born 1813) was Elijah Knox.

John was sold at New Year's Day auction 1828, with his grandmother Molly and Molly's son Mark.

In 1838, John accompanied his new owner Sawyer as his personal servant on his honeymoon trip through the North and got his freedom by simply leaving Sawyer in New York where slavery had been abolished.

In the mid-1860s, aged about 50, John S. Jacobs married Englishwoman Elleanor Ashland, who had two children from a previous relationship. The only child they had together, Joseph Ramsey Jacobs, was born about 1866^[2]. In 1873, he returned to the U.S. together with his wife and the three children to live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, close to his sister and her daughter Louisa Matilda.

He died the same year with his cause of death listed as "unknown, on December 19, 1873^[3]. He is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, ^{[4] [5]}.

Sources

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_S._Jacobs
2. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1871", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VBDK-T1Z : 25 June 2022), John Jacobs, 1871.
3. ↑ "Massachusetts State Vital Records, 1841-1925", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NWQF-B2K : 17 November 2022), John S. Jacobs, 1873.
4. ↑ Massachusetts "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK16-GB7L : 10 September 2021), John S. Jacobs, ; Burial, Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States of America, Mount Auburn Cemetery; citing record ID 137801529, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.
5. ↑ "Massachusetts State Vital Records, 1841-1925", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NWQF-B2K : 17 November 2022), John S. Jacobs, 1873.

"A True Tale of Slavery" by John S. Jacobs in the four consecutive editions of the London weekly The Leisure Hour in February 1861