Freedman. A native of Africa, he was sold into slavery and came into the possession of Benjamin Barron, a shoemaker, of Concord, Massachusetts. Upon her husband’s death, the Widow Barron allowed Jack to pay for his freedom from wages earned as a shoemaker. Dying, he named lawyer Daniel Bliss as the executor of his will. Shortly thereafter, it became necessary for Bliss to write an epitaph for Jack. A dozen Concord families, including the town pastor, owned slaves at the time, and Bliss, a Tory, felt it was hypocritical that those who clamored for freedom from England denied freedom to others. This opinion figured prominently into Jack's epitaph, which was printed in a London newspaper and became world famous.
Freedman. A native of Africa, he was sold into slavery and came into the possession of Benjamin Barron, a shoemaker, of Concord, Massachusetts. Upon her husband’s death, the Widow Barron allowed Jack to pay for his freedom from wages earned as a shoemaker. Dying, he named lawyer Daniel Bliss as the executor of his will. Shortly thereafter, it became necessary for Bliss to write an epitaph for Jack. A dozen Concord families, including the town pastor, owned slaves at the time, and Bliss, a Tory, felt it was hypocritical that those who clamored for freedom from England denied freedom to others. This opinion figured prominently into Jack's epitaph, which was printed in a London newspaper and became world famous.
Inscription
God wills us free; man wills us slaves.
I will as God wills; God's will be done.
Here lies the body of
JOHN JACK
a native of Africa who died
March 1773 aged about 60 years
Tho' born in a land of slavery,
He was born free.
Tho' he lived in a land of liberty,
He lived a slave.
Till by his honest, tho' stolen labors,
He acquired the source of slavery,
Which gave him his freedom;
Tho' not long before
Death, the grand tyrant
Gave him his final emancipation,
And set him on a footing with kings.
Tho' a slave to vice,
He practised those virtues
Without which kings are but slaves.
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