John Jack, an enslaved man, died in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1773, but in 1796, more than 20 years after his death, his epitaph appeared in a Greenfield, Massachusetts, newspaper. Why might this be? The turn of the 18th into the 19th century was a time of social reform when some were rethinking whether the promises of the American Revolution- especially liberty and equality for all, had been realized. The epitaph’s emphasis on enslaved people and kings being on an equal plane in the eyes of God must have had renewed resonance.
Greenfield Gazette. “Ingenious Epitaph.” September 22, 1796. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/l12-005/. Accessed on February 7, 2025.
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