Black Itinerants of the Gospel: The Narratives of John Jea and George White

John Jea (b. 1773) and George White (1764-c.1830) were two of the earliest African-American autobiographers, writing nearly a half-century before Frederick Douglass published his famous narrative chronicling his experiences as a slave, a freedman, and an ardent abolitionist. Jea and White represent an earlier generation of African-Americans that were born into slavery but granted their freedom shortly after American independence, in the 1780s. Both men chose to fight against slavery from th...