John Jasper was born into slavery on July 4, 1812, in Fluvanna County, Virginia. He was the youngest of twenty-four children born to Philip and Tina Jasper, who were enslaved by the Peachy family. His father was a well-known Baptist preacher, but he died two months before John’s birth. Jasper grew up without knowing him, and his mother raised him within a system that gave enslaved parents little security over their children’s futures.
John’s large family also brings attention to the practice of slave breeding, through which some enslavers pressured or forced enslaved African men and women to reproduce to increase the number of people they could exploit and sell.
As he became older, he was hired out to different people and made to work wherever his enslavers sent him. His life was not his own to direct, and even the direction of his future depended on the decisions of people who regarded him as property.
When Mrs. Peachy died, he was assigned to her son, John Blair Peachy, as part of the division of her estate. Peachy was a lawyer and farmer who owned large cotton plantations in Louisiana and planned to take Jasper there. Before the move could happen, however, Peachy died, and Jasper was returned to Richmond, Virginia.
One of the most painful episodes in Jasper’s life began with his marriage to Elvy Weaden in Williamsburg, Virginia. Their time together was short. On the very night of their wedding, Jasper was sent to Richmond and was never permitted to return to Williamsburg to see his wife.
The separation left Elvy with little hope of seeing her husband again. Eventually, she wrote to Jasper to explain that she intended to remarry. He later sought and received permission from his church to marry again, and in 1844 he married Candus Jordan. They had nine children together, although their marriage eventually ended in divorce.
Jasper married Mary Ann Cole in 1863. She died on August 6, 1874, and on March 24, 1892, he married Mary Cary.
His separation from Elvy remains a painful example of what enslaved people endured in their personal lives. Marriage offered no guarantee that a couple would be allowed to remain together. Jasper could promise himself to a woman, but he had no power to prevent others from taking him away from her.
Finding His Calling While Enslaved
In 1839, Jasper experienced a religious conversion in Richmond’s Capitol Square. He became convinced that God had chosen him to preach the gospel. With help from a fellow enslaved African, he learned to read and write, giving him the ability to study the Bible for himself.
In 1840, he shared his conversion experience with members of the First African Baptist Church and began preaching. For more than two decades, he continued his ministry while enslaved, travelling throughout Virginia with his enslaver’s permission and frequently preaching at the funerals of fellow enslaved people. He also preached regularly at Third Baptist Church in Petersburg.
Jasper’s ministry brought him into the lives of people who were grieving the loss of family members and friends. His sermons offered religious comfort to Black communities living under slavery, and his reputation as a preacher gradually grew.
His work was not without danger. On one occasion, white men threatened to shoot him if he preached at the funeral of an enslaved African who had died on a local farm. Even so, Jasper continued to preach and develop the religious calling that would define the rest of his life.
He spent years studying Scripture and speaking before congregations while his own circumstances remained beyond his control. His position as a preacher did not spare him the restrictions of slavery or give him the freedom to determine where he would live.
Freedom and a New Beginning
Jasper gained his freedom in April 1865, near the end of the American Civil War. He had spent more than fifty years enslaved and had been preaching for approximately twenty-five years before emancipation.
After gaining his freedom, he devoted himself more fully to religious work. In 1867, he returned to Richmond and helped establish Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church. The congregation grew under his leadership, becoming an important institution in the city’s Black community. By 1887, it reportedly had about 2,500 members and provided Sunday school and other community services.
Jasper’s powerful voice and dramatic preaching style attracted large audiences. His reputation spread beyond Richmond, and invitations took him to different parts of the United States and overseas.
His most famous sermon was The Sun Do Move, which he first delivered in March 1878. Drawing on his interpretation of the Bible, Jasper argued that the sun moved around the Earth. The sermon became a major part of his public reputation, and he delivered it 273 times, sometimes before thousands of people. His audiences included listeners in London and Paris, as well as members of the Virginia General Assembly.
Although the sermon brought him widespread attention, Jasper’s influence extended beyond his views about the movement of the sun. He had built a congregation that served thousands of Black people and established himself as a prominent religious leader.
John Jasper died on March 30, 1901, at the age of eighty-eight. He preached his final sermon only days before his death, bringing to a close a lifetime devoted to his ministry.
Sources:
https://www.nps.gov/places/6th-mount-zion-baptist-church.htm
https://www.lva.virginia.gov/collections/educator-resources/changemakers/items/show/12
