He was a remarkable African slave of Virginia. It is probable he was
brought to James River in the last slave-ship that brought slaves to
that State. Such was the regard in which he was held that, on the death
of his master, several benevolent persons subscribed a sufficient sum
to purchase his freedom.
Uncle Jack's talents were of a high order, and his knowledge of human
nature very remarkable. Dr. Rice, of Richmond, said of him, "The old
man's acquaintance with the Scriptures is wonderful. Many of his
interpretations of obscure passages are singularly just and striking."
He spoke pure English. A few anecdotes will convey a good idea of his
ready and apt mode of illustration. A person addicted to horse-racing
and card-playing, stopped Uncle Jack on the road and said, "Old man,
you Christians say a great deal about the way to heaven being narrow.
Now if this is so, a great many who profess to be travelling it will
not find it half wide enough."
"That's very true," was the reply, "of all that have merely a name to
live, and all like you."
"Why refer to me," said the man; "if the road is wide enough for any,
it is for me."
"By no means," said Uncle Jack. "You will want to take along a
card-table, or a race-horse or two. Now there is no room along this way
for such things."
A man who prided himself on his morality said to Uncle Jack: "Old man,
I am as good as I need to be. I can't help thinking so, because God
blesses me as much as he does you Christians; and I don't know what
more I want than He gives me."
To this the old preacher replied, with great seriousness, "Just so with
the hogs. I have often looked at them, rooting among the leaves in the
woods, and finding just as many acorns as they needed; and yet I never
saw one of them look up to the tree from whence the acorns fell."
On one occasion some unruly persons undertook to arrest and whip him,
and also several of his hearers, for holding religious meetings. After
the arrest one of the men thus accosted Uncle Jack, "Well, old fellow,
you are the ringleader of these meetings, and we have been anxious to
catch you; now what have you to say for yourself?"
"Nothing at all, master," was the reply.
"What! nothing to say against being whipped! how is that?"
"I have been wondering a long time," said the old Christian, "how it
was that so good a man as the Apostle Paul should have been whipped
three times for preaching the Gospel, while such an unworthy man as I
am should have been permitted to preach twenty years without getting a
lick." The young men immediately released him.
Uncle Jack died in 1843, aged one hundred years.
--_Blake's Biographical Dictionary._