The Memoir of James Jackson, the Attentive and Obedient Scholar, Who Died in Boston, October 31, 1833, Aged Six Years and Eleven Months

This document—the first African American biography and a work predating Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by almost 30 years—is an historical treasure. Paul’s portrayal of Jackson’s Christian sensibility, his idealism, and his racial awareness emphasizes his humanity and exemplary American character over his racial identity.