Page:Black Jacob, a monument of grace.djvu/11

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JACOB HODGES.


Jacob Hodges, the subject of the following memoir, was born of African parents, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, about the year 1763. The family, though extremely depressed, living in ignorance and poverty, were not, as it is known, ever subjects of slavery.[1]

Either from the poverty, ignorance, or wickedness of his parents, Jacob was suffered to spend his early years wholly without education or moral restraint. Under the influences of such a condition, and the common associations of poor coloured children, nothing of good could be expected. It is not known that Jacob had,


  1. The place of Jacob's birth is not certainly known. At one time he supposed it to be the city of Philadelphia, subsequently he believed it to be the city of Lancaster.

3