Jacob Stroyer

Jacob Stroyer
Frontispiece of My Life in the South
Born	ca. 1846 Eastover, South Carolina
Died	February 7, 1908 Salem, Massachusetts
Occupation	Preacher
Nationality	African American
Genre	Autobiography
Notable works	My Life in the South

Jacob Stroyer (ca. 1846 - February 7, 1908) was an African-American former slave who became preacher in Massachusetts. He is best known for his autobiography, My Life in the South.

Stroyer was born on the Kensington Plantation in Eastover, South Carolina in either 1846 or 1849. Stroyer's father, Jacob, was born in Sierra Leone and was captured and brought to America as a youth. The younger Stroyer knew little about his father's family background, other than the names of his paternal grandparents. Stroyer's mother, Chloe, was born in South Carolina where her family had been enslaved for several generations. As a youth, he worked as a hostler. After the Civil War, he attended schools in Columbia and Charleston.

Stroyer moved to Worcester, Massachusetts in 1870. He attended Worcester Academy for two years. He was licensed as an African Methodist Episcopal preacher. In Newport, Rhode Island, he was ordained a deacon. He moved to Salem, Massachusetts to preach.

He first published his autobiography, My Life in the South, in 1879. This was revised in 1898.

Jacob Stroyer died in Salem Hospital in Salem on February 7, 1908 of heart disease. His death certificate states that the information used to fill out the "statistical remarks" on the certificate was derived from "Book written by himself." He is buried in Greenlawn Cemetery in Salem.

Bibliography

• Doughton, Thomas L.; McCarthy, B. Eugene; From bondage to belonging: The Worcester slave narratives. Univ of Massachusetts Press, 2007, ISBN 1-55849-623-8

External links

• Works by Jacob Stroyer at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Jacob Stroyer at the Internet Archive
• Works by Jacob Stroyer at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Sketches of My Life in the South. Part I. Salem: Salem Press, 1879.
• My Life in the South. Salem: Salem Observer Book and Job Print, 1885.