* Introduction *Memoir of James Jackson * Preface * Chapter I * Chapter II * Chapter III * Chapter IV * Chapter V * Chapter VI * Chapter VII *"The Little Lind Boy" *"Am I to Blame?" * Chronology * Articles and Letters * Notes
Lois Brown is Assistant Professor of English, Mount Holyoke College.
Fortunately now restored to publication, this significant cultural
artifact still makes meaningful reading today. Paul was a young
black teacher in Boston who, when she published an account of one
of her little students in 1835 titled Memoir of James Jackson, made
history as the author of the first African American biography… The
Memoir itself is a heartfelt profile, easy to immerse oneself into,
and from it the contemporary reader not only meets a special child
but also gathers information on black education in the antebellum
North.
*Booklist*
The Memoir of James Jackson is a significant antebellum
biographical narrative because it documents the interior life of a
black male child in a way that had never been done previously. It
illuminates and emancipates James's subjugated spiritual and
intellectual 'voice,' serving as a reminder that the complex
experiences and voices of black children, both past and present,
are often silenced and neglected. Thus, the Memoir offers a
valuable chapter to the unfolding history of black education,
African American history, and the black religious experience.
*The North Carolina Historical Review*
This fascinating little book is a two-for-one: it offers a
remarkably instructive, 63-page introductory essay by Brown and a
66-page biography written in 1835 as a didactic spiritual
narrative—a work of evangelical juvenilia—by Paul, then the
26-year-old daughter of a leading black New England family… Paul's
extended eulogy unveils a black child's socialization at home,
church, and school in the 1830s—a process too rarely glimpsed in
any documented detail. Brown's adept annotations combine with her
introduction and Paul's text to produce an explication and
exposition that command attention from a wide range of scholars and
general readers interested in African Americans, women's studies,
children's literature, social history, regional history, the
antebellum era, and more.
*Library Journal*
A fascinating look at an African-American child's life over a
century and a half ago.
*Africana.com*
Lois Brown's rediscovery of the story of James Jackson is a
stunning and important contribution to the history of African
American childhood. Her reading of this early text helps us to
understand the complex moral and social burdens of children of
color in antebellum America.
*Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Cornell University*
[Lois Brown,] the editor and author of the introduction to The
Memoir of James Jackson makes a compelling case for its uniqueness.
What we have here is an 1834 memoir written by Susan Paul, an
African American teacher in Boston, about her special and
precocious, and apparently deeply pious, young six-year-old
student, James Jackson. This narrative is unique. It is about the
domestic and religious lives of Northern free blacks. Most slave
narratives are, of course, about the story of 'from slavery to
freedom.' Indeed, this is not a slave narrative at all. This work
fits so squarely into the context of the evangelical abolitionism
of the early 1830s that it may, indeed, be original not only
because of its quality as a spiritual narrative, but because it is
about a free black child. Brown has succeeded very well in
demonstrating that this book is distinctive as a work that
illuminated the free black domestic, religious, and educational
worlds of a Northern city.
*David W. Blight, Amherst College*
The Memoir of James Jackson by Susan Paul is an extraordinary
document and is an important addition to the literature in black
and American educational history. The publication of this unique
religious or spiritual biography of a Black child in antebellum
Boston written by his school teacher, a woman from a prominent free
Black family, makes a significant contribution to African American
History, Black women's history, and African American religious
studies. Just as scholars discovered Incidents in the Life of a
Slave Girl, edited by Jean Fagan Yellin, to be of enormous value as
a window on the inner lives of women in bondage, so too will they
find in the moving and insightfully edited Memoir of James Jackson
a lens to the inner life of a free Black child. [This is] a gem of
a contribution to African American history, and combines with Lois
Brown's thoughtful introduction to enrich the emerging fields of
Black women's and Black children's history.
*Darlene Clark Hine, Michigan State University*
Fortunately now restored to publication, this significant cultural
artifact still makes meaningful reading today. Paul was a young
black teacher in Boston who, when she published an account of one
of her little students in 1835 titled Memoir of James
Jackson, made history as the author of the first African
American biography... The Memoir itself is a heartfelt
profile, easy to immerse oneself into, and from it the contemporary
reader not only meets a special child but also gathers information
on black education in the antebellum North. -- Brad Hooper *
Booklist *
The Memoir of James Jackson is a significant antebellum
biographical narrative because it documents the interior life of a
black male child in a way that had never been done previously. It
illuminates and emancipates James's subjugated spiritual and
intellectual 'voice,' serving as a reminder that the complex
experiences and voices of black children, both past and present,
are often silenced and neglected. Thus, the Memoir offers a
valuable chapter to the unfolding history of black education,
African American history, and the black religious experience. --
Karen A. Johnson * The North Carolina Historical Review *
This fascinating little book is a two-for-one: it offers a
remarkably instructive, 63-page introductory essay by Brown and a
66-page biography written in 1835 as a didactic spiritual
narrative-a work of evangelical juvenilia-by Paul, then the
26-year-old daughter of a leading black New England family...
Paul's extended eulogy unveils a black child's socialization at
home, church, and school in the 1830s-a process too rarely glimpsed
in any documented detail. Brown's adept annotations combine with
her introduction and Paul's text to produce an explication and
exposition that command attention from a wide range of scholars and
general readers interested in African Americans, women's studies,
children's literature, social history, regional history, the
antebellum era, and more. -- Thomas J. Davis * Library Journal
*
A fascinating look at an African-American child's life over a
century and a half ago. -- Henry Louis Gates, Jr. * Africana.com
*
Lois Brown's rediscovery of the story of James Jackson is a
stunning and important contribution to the history of African
American childhood. Her reading of this early text helps us to
understand the complex moral and social burdens of children of
color in antebellum America. -- Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Cornell
University
[Lois Brown,] the editor and author of the introduction to The
Memoir of James Jackson makes a compelling case for its
uniqueness. What we have here is an 1834 memoir written by Susan
Paul, an African American teacher in Boston, about her special and
precocious, and apparently deeply pious, young six-year-old
student, James Jackson. This narrative is unique. It is about the
domestic and religious lives of Northern free blacks. Most slave
narratives are, of course, about the story of 'from slavery to
freedom.' Indeed, this is not a slave narrative at all. This work
fits so squarely into the context of the evangelical abolitionism
of the early 1830s that it may, indeed, be original not only
because of its quality as a spiritual narrative, but because it is
about a free black child. Brown has succeeded very well in
demonstrating that this book is distinctive as a work that
illuminated the free black domestic, religious, and educational
worlds of a Northern city. -- David W. Blight, Amherst College
The Memoir of James Jackson by Susan Paul is an
extraordinary document and is an important addition to the
literature in black and American educational history. The
publication of this unique religious or spiritual biography of a
Black child in antebellum Boston written by his school teacher, a
woman from a prominent free Black family, makes a significant
contribution to African American History, Black women's history,
and African American religious studies. Just as scholars discovered
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, edited by Jean Fagan
Yellin, to be of enormous value as a window on the inner lives of
women in bondage, so too will they find in the moving and
insightfully edited Memoir of James Jackson a lens to the
inner life of a free Black child. [This is] a gem of a contribution
to African American history, and combines with Lois Brown's
thoughtful introduction to enrich the emerging fields of Black
women's and Black children's history. -- Darlene Clark Hine,
Michigan State University
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