John Jasper, The Unmatched Black Philosopher and Preacher, Annotated

This book is about an extraordinary black preacher. He began to preach the gospel as a slave in Virginia. About a half of his preaching career was as a slave and about half was as a free man. He had no formal education or seminary training, but was legendary in his time. He often drew large crowds to his meetings of both black and white folk. Governors, judges, legislators, and “learned” white ministers were greatly moved by the power of Jasper’s preaching. The Sixth Mount Zion Church in Richmond, Virginia stands to this day as a memorial to John Jasper, and nearby is his grave which is marked by a splendid monument. This book was written by Rev. William E. Hatcher, who heard about Jasper and went to hear him preach out of curiosity. He went back again and again and continued going for twenty years, forging a close friendship with the black preacher. It has been erroneously reported on a liberal state university website that Hatcher only heard Jasper preach one time. There is abundant proof to the contrary. Rev. Hatcher did not at once sit down to write a book about John Jasper; rather this book developed over the years of their friendship and is taken in a great part from Hatcher’s journal observations of the friend he so much admired. According to Walter Bowie, Jr., a modern-day Baptist pastor, “The reflections and insights of this book give us a rare view of race relationships in the South both during and after slavery. There is a hint that race relations were not all negative as suggested by much contemporary literature.” Although John Jasper was fully capable of speaking standard English, his most poetic and moving orations and sermons were delivered in the old Virginia slave dialect. To have translated these into standard English would have been an injustice to the genius of Jasper, and the beauty and poignancy of the sermons would lose much in the translation. Therefore they have been presented as they were preached. However, the editor, realizing that as time passes this old Virginia dialect is becoming archaic and hard for many, especially those outside the American South, to understand, has made the effort to explain those expressions and dialect which might frustrate the modern reader. Great care has been taken to keep these to a minimum and it is hoped that the annotations add to the understanding and appreciation of the orations and brilliance of John Jasper.