John Jasper: A Remarkable Preacher Raised from the Shadows of Slavery

Let’s talk before you start this book. We want to tell you a few things that might help you decide whether to keep reading. These pages tell the story of one Black man—not to praise or criticize the entire Black race, but simply to focus on him. He had no distinguished ancestry and left no true successors, though many tried to imitate him. Some thought they were like him, but in reality, they were of a different and lesser kind. This man was Black, and if you cannot recognize greatness in dark skin, you may want to read something else. He was shaped by the habits and ways of the Old South, having lived forty years before the Civil War and another forty after. Though he grew remarkably as a free man, he never abandoned the speech, tastes, and manners of the days of slavery. He was a remnant of the past, untouched by the changes of the new era. The educated Black preachers of the time did not welcome him. He dismissed their learning as empty noise, calling it the new “ish.” In return, they saw him as outdated, an embarrassment to the church and the ministry. Yet, for all their schooling, none of them ever gained the fame or accomplished the things that this uneducated, unpolished son of Africa did.