Memoir of James Jackson

by Susan Paul (Abolitionist), Lois Brown (Editor)

“The design of this Memoir is, to present the incidents in the life of a little colored boy.” So begins the life story of James Jackson, as set down by his African American teacher, Susan Paul , in 1835, as an example to other children and adults who might learn from the boy’s goodness. This remarkable document―the first African American biography and a work that predates Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by almost thirty years―is a lost treasure from the annals of African American history. With its combination of eyewitness accounts, personal testimony, and excerpts from traditional Sunday school texts, the memoir is an extraordinary social history rooted in both nineteenth-century evangelicalism and the experiences of free African Americans. Susan Paul’s portrayal of James Jackson’s Christian sensibility, his idealism, and his racial awareness emphasizes his humanity and exemplary American character over his racial identity, even as it embeds him in his African American community.

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 25, 2000

About the author

Librarian Note: More than one author in the database with this name.

Susan Paul (1809–1841) was an African American abolitionist from Boston, Massachusetts. A primary school teacher and member of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, Paul also wrote the first biography of an African American published in the United States. The book, Memoir of James Jackson, was published in 1835.

Reviews

[Deb Urbano]

Probably one of the first pieces of literature written by a Black female author in America. Sunday School publishers passed it by due to abolitionist ideas. I learned a lot in the introduction about the author's life and racial relations in 1830's Boston. Written for children with evangelical purpose.