Phebe_Ann_Jacobs

Phebe Ann Jacobs

Phebe Ann Jacobs

American Congregationalist, laundress, and free woman

Phebe Ann Jacobs (July 1785 – February 28, 1850) was an American Congregationalist, laundress, and free woman. Best known for her posthumous biography Narrative of Phebe Ann Jacobs, Jacobs was born into slavery on the Beverwyck plantation in Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey.

Quick Facts Born, Died ...

During her life, she was enslaved by the family of the President of Dartmouth, then the President of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. In the final years of her life, she achieved emancipation and worked in Brunswick laundering clothes for students of Bowdoin.

In 1919, the New Jersey Historical Society claimed Jacobs was significant for "her rare attainments as a Christian, the strength of her faith, and her spirit of devotion."[1]

Life

Early life and enslavement

Jacobs was born enslaved on the Beverwyck plantation in Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey, in 1785.[2][3] Jacobs did not receive an education;[4] she was instead trained to become a domestic slave.[5] She had a sister named Peggy, who different persons presumably enslaved.[1] Her parents' names are not stated in sources.

When Jacobs was a child, she was enslaved by Maria Malleville, daughter of President Wheelock of Dartmouth college.[2] Maria Malleville was born on February 3, 1788; Malleville was three years younger than Jacobs.

On January 28, 1813, Maria Malleville married William Allen, president of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.[6][2][7] Jacobs was 28 years old and continued to be enslaved by the Allens after they moved to their new home in Pittsfield, Maine.[6]

Although some sources indicate Jacobs became free in Maine, her emancipation status was complicated. According to Professor of History James J. Gigantino II of the University of Arkansas, "Like many free blacks, [Jacobs] continued to serve her former owners as a domestic servant since, while free, she faced racism and a lack of economic opportunities."[8]

Later years

Likely due to indentured servitude, Jacobs remained with the family until the death of her enslaver, Maria Allen.[9]

For the last years of her life, Jacobs lived independently, washing and ironing clothes for students of Bowdoin.[5] She lived in Pine Grove in a small cabin on a blueberry plain, now an airport site.[9]

Shortly before 1850, Jacobs met Phebe Lord Upham, possibly because they both attended First Parish Church.[10][2] Upham was a theologian, poet, and social activist best known for The Crystal Fountain (1887).[11] A native of Kennebunkport, Upham married Bowdoin professor T. C. Upham.[10] Around this time, Upham may have begun writing Jacobs's biography. Some sources describe the narrative as dictated, so it can be assumed that Jacobs was telling Upham her life stories to be recorded.[12]

Jacobs died in Brunswick, on February 28, 1850, of an unspecified heart condition.[4]

Legacy

Jacobs's 1850 funeral was reported to have a significant amount of attendees. The Times Record reports, "At [Jacobs's] funeral, the First Parish Congregational Church was packed with people wanting to honor their beloved fellow citizen. Maine Gov. Robert Pinckney Dunlap served as one of the pallbearers. In fact, one person[who?] noted that Phoebe [sic] Ann Jacobs had as many people at her funeral as Joshua Chamberlain had."[9]

Among the funeral's attendees were Allen and his family - relatives of Jacobs's enslaver Maria Allen - who were informed via telegraph.[13] The Allens traveled over 200 miles to attend Jacobs's funeral.[14]

In 1850, after Jacobs's death, Upham completed a pamphlet describing Jacobs's life, titled Narrative of Phebe Ann Jacobs, also called Happy Phebe. It was published in 1850 by W. & F. G. Cash in London.[2][15][16] On September 25, 1850, the story was published in Volume VII of The Oberlin Evangelist, edited by Henry Cowles.[17] In 1850, it was also published by the American Tract Society of New York[1][10] and republished in 1854.[18] According to Bowdoin College, the biography "documents Jacobs’ life after emancipation and emphasizes her piety and reliance on her Christian faith...[but] does not, however, document the laborious nature of being enslaved to the Wheelock family."[10]

In 1854, Edinburgh catechism book The Shorter Catechism...with Proofs from the Scriptures advertised Jacobs's narrative in a collection of pamphlets for school use. This advertisement was for Johnstone & Hunter's Miniature Series of Interesting Narratives. Jacobs's narrative was sold in a pack of three pamphlets along with "John Rock, the Miner" and "Sabbath-School Fruit and a Death Song."[19]

Circa 1850, Jacobs's biography inspired author Harriet Beecher Stowe as she wrote 1852 anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.[20][21]

In 2010, Jacobs was added to the Brunswick Women's History Walking Trail alongside American Arctic explorer Miriam MacMillan, milliner Dolly Giddings, botanist and artist Catherine Furbish, St. John's teacher Sister Pauline Langelier, restaurateur Pauline Siatras, and abolitionist author Harriet Beecher Stowe.[22]

In 2021, Jacobs's narrative was included in Bowdoin's There Is a Woman in Every Color: Black Women in Art exhibition as part of Black history month.[23][24]

References

  1. [1]
    Society, New Jersey Historical (1919). Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society. New Jersey Historical Society.
  2. [2]
    "Mrs. T. C. Upham Narrative of Phebe Ann Jacobs". docsouth.unc.edu. Retrieved 2022-02-10.
  3. [3]
    II, James J. Gigantino (2014-09-15). The Ragged Road to Abolition: Slavery and Freedom in New Jersey, 1775-1865. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-9022-6.
  4. [4]
    JACOBS, Phebe Ann (1854). P. A. Jacobs, or, Exalted Piety in Humble Life.
  5. [5]
    Smyth, Egbert Coffin (1858). Three Discourses Upon the Religious History of Bowdoin College, During the Administrations of Presidents M'Keen, Appleton, & Allen. J. Griffin. p. 66.
  6. [6]
    HILL, WILLIAM CARROLL. "The Five Maries | Dartmouth Alumni Magazine | December 1942". Dartmouth Alumni Magazine | The Complete Archive. Retrieved 2022-07-21.
  7. [7]
    Art, Bowdoin College Museum of; Sadik, Marvin S. (1966). Colonial and Federal Portraits at Bowdoin College. Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
  8. [8]
    II, James J. Gigantino (2014-09-15). The Ragged Road to Abolition: Slavery and Freedom in New Jersey, 1775-1865. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-9022-6.
  9. [9]
    Old, David TreadwellJust a Little (2021-06-18). "David Treadwell: Pine Grove Cemetery celebrates 200th anniversary". Press Herald. Retrieved 2022-07-21.
  10. [10]
    "Narrative of Phebe Ann Jacobs, or, "Happy Phebe" / by Mrs. T.C. Upham, c. 1850". Bowdoin College Museum of Art - There Is a Woman in Every Color: Black Women in Art. 2021-01-28. Retrieved 2022-07-21.
  11. [11]
    "Phebe Lord Upham". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2022-07-21.
  12. [12]
    Perry, Carolyn; Weaks-Baxter, Mary (2002-03-01). The History of Southern Women's Literature. LSU Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-2753-7.
  13. [13]
    Beedy, Helen Coffin (1895). Mothers of Maine. Thurston Print.
  14. [14]
    Upham, T. C. (1850). Narrative of Phebe Ann Jacobs. J. S. Stewart.
  15. [15]
    Sumner, Margaret (2014-06-10). Collegiate Republic: Cultivating an Ideal Society in Early America. University of Virginia Press. ISBN 978-0-8139-3568-3.
  16. [16]
    Andrews, William L. (1988). To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-American Autobiography, 1760-1865. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-06033-5.
  17. [17]
    The Oberlin Evangelist. R.E. Gillett. 1849.
  18. [18]
    Society, American Tract (1850). Annual Report of the American Tract Society. printed at the Society's House.
  19. [19]
    Divines (England), Assembly of (1854). The Shorter Catechism ... with Proofs from the Scriptures. With Additional Scripture References. Johnstone & Hunter.
  20. [20]
    "Summary of Narrative of Phebe Ann Jacobs". docsouth.unc.edu. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  21. [21]
    II, James J. Gigantino (2014-09-15). The Ragged Road to Abolition: Slavery and Freedom in New Jersey, 1775-1865. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-9022-6.
  22. [22]
    The Cupola - News from the Pejepscot Historical Society - Fall 2010
  23. [23]
    There Is a Woman in Every Color: Black Women in Art, retrieved 2022-07-21
  24. [24]
    "There Is a Woman in Every Color: Black Women in Art". Art Museum. Retrieved 2022-07-21.
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