After fleeing slavery in 1839, abolitionist, miner and sailor John Swanson Jacobs embarked on a journey that would take him to Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and ultimately Australia. It was there that he published his life story in a local newspaper – a unique document that not only gave an account of his experience under enslavement, but also named his enslavers, criticized America’s founding documents, and called out the American citizens who allowed slavery to persist. A new book shares his manuscript in full, accompanied by a biography of Jacobs. It’s called “The True Story of Slavery: The United States Governed by Six Thousand Despots.” Morning host Luis Hernandez spoke with the book’s editor, Jonathan Schroeder, a literary historian at the Rhode Island School of Design.
The post ‘I had five different owners in 18 years’: New book features the story of John Jacobs, who fled slavery and denounced American tyranny appeared first on TPR: The Public's Radio.