John Jasper Birthplace

John Jasper (named by his mother, Tina, after the beloved disciple, John) was born on July 4, 1812, the youngest of twenty-four children. John’s father, Philip, was a Baptist preacher among the slaves of Fluvanna County, Virginia, located in the central part of the state just east of Charlottesville; unfortunately, John never knew his father because Philip died about two months before he was born. Both of his parents, though, had but one desire for their youngest, that he would grow up to be a preacher like his father.

Much of John’s childhood and teenaged years were spent working at both Peachy Plantations, one located in Fluvanna County and the other near the city of Williamsburg. At the age of twenty-five, he was sold to Samuel Hargrove, “a devout member and deacon of the First Baptist Church of Richmond.” (www.preaching.com) His relationship with Hargrove would forever change the trajectory of his life. Two years after his acquisition, on his birthday no less, the twenty-seven-year old John was born again while working at his master’s tobacco factory. In John’s own words:

“My sins was piled on me like mount’ns; my feet was sinkin’ down to de reguns of despar, an’ I felt dat of all sinners I was de wust. I tho’t dat I would die right den, an’ wid what I supposed was my lars breath I flung up to heav’n a cry for mercy. ‘Fore I kno’d it, de light broke; I was light as a feather; my feet was on de mount’n; salvation rol’d like a flood thru my soul, an’ I felt as if I could ‘nock off de fact’ry roof wid my shouts.” (Hatcher, pg. 25)