{"id":395,"date":"2018-07-11T13:23:26","date_gmt":"2018-07-11T18:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/much-ado.net\/legislators\/?page_id=395"},"modified":"2026-04-24T16:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T21:48:13","slug":"henry-p-jacobs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/much-ado.net\/legislators\/legislators\/henry-p-jacobs\/","title":{"rendered":"Henry P. Jacobs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Henry
from The History of Negro Baptists in Mississippi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Henry P. Jacobs (Adams County)<\/h2>\n

State House:\u00a0<\/strong>1870-1879<\/p>\n

Born:<\/strong> 1825 in St. Clair County, AL
\nDied:\u00a0<\/strong>December 14, 1899 in Natchez, MS<\/p>\n

Jacobs and his family are listed on the 1860 census in\u00a0Ypsilanti, Michigan, and on the 1870 census in Natchez. On a freedman’s bank application, Jacobs stated that his mother was named Mary Dill.<\/p>\n

“Much more able than Aaron Moore was Henry P. Jacobs, Baptist preacher and organizer from Adams County. Born in Alabama, he learned to read and write from an insane man for whom he was caretaker. Thus prepared for freedom, he wrote his own pass, and in 1856 cleverly arranged an escape to the North for himself, his wife, three children, and a brother-in-law. After spending some time in Canada, he returned to Michigan. During the war, he went to Natchez, Mississippi, and there began the remarkable work of organizing Baptist Associations throughout the western portion of the state. Although the membership of his church was generally more radical than that of the other denominations, Jacobs himself, both in the [1868 constitutional] convention and in the legislature, was inclined toward moderation and compromise.”<\/em>
\n(Vernon Lane Wharton,\u00a0The Negro in Mississippi, 1865-1890<\/em>, 1965)<\/p>\n

“He also helped organize the Union League and in 1868 tried to negotiate the purchase of a large plantation for a group of freedmen, using veterans’ bounties for funding. When the Freedmen’s Bureau refused his plea to assist in the project, it collapsed.”<\/em>
\n(Eric Foner,\u00a0Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders during Reconstruction<\/em>, 1993)<\/p>\n

“M. D. was regularly conferred upon Rev. Jacobs in the sixty-fifth year of his age. It seems that he did not countenance all of the ways of worship practiced by his people. He wanted to preach against all unnecessary customs and practices; to do that he thought it necessary to be able to make a living independent of his ministerial work. He began the study of medicine and began to practice without ever going to college, since none was convenient which he could attend. After twenty years’ practice he entered the medical college opened for colored people at Louisville, Ky. On the 3d of May, 1890, he graduated with the degree M. D.”<\/em>
\n(A. W. Pegues,\u00a0Our Baptist Ministers and Schools<\/em><\/a>, 1892)<\/p>\n

\"Signature
Signature of Henry P. Jacobs from an 1871 petition to Governor Alcorn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Links:<\/strong>
\nMemorial on Find A Grave<\/a><\/p>\n

H.P. Jacobs: Ypsilanti’s Builder of African-American Worlds<\/a>\u00a0(includes portrait and extensive biography)<\/p>\n

\"School<\/a>
School report excerpt, April 1867<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Natchez Democrat, June 13, 1867<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Weekly Democrat, September 21, 1867<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Weekly Democrat, September 23, 1867<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"School<\/a>
School proposal, November 12, 1867<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Natchez Bulletin, June 14, 1869<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Weekly Democrat, August 26, 1869<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Weekly<\/a>
Weekly Democrat, September 16, 1869<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Vicksburg Daily Times, July 16, 1870<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Weekly Louisianian, April 11, 1872<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Times-Picayune, April 12, 1872<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Natchez<\/a>
Natchez Democrat, July 23, 1872<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Natchez Democrat, August 24, 1872<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
New National Era, April 3, 1873<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Weekly Mississippi Pilot, Jan 9, 1875<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Clarion Ledger, February 17, 1876<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Cincinnati Commercial, October 17, 1879<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Weekly Democrat, September 2, 1885<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Detroit<\/a>
Detroit Free Press, July 23, 1886<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Weekly Democrat, September 25, 1889<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Weekly Democrat, September 25, 1889<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Natchez Democrat, December 23, 1899<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Henry P. Jacobs (Adams County) State House:\u00a01870-1879 Born: 1825 in St. Clair County, AL Died:\u00a0December 14, 1899 in Natchez, MS Jacobs and his family are listed on the 1860 census in\u00a0Ypsilanti, Michigan, and on the 1870 census in Natchez. On a freedman’s bank application, Jacobs stated that his mother was named Mary Dill. “Much more … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Henry P. Jacobs”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":53,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"no","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-395","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/much-ado.net\/legislators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/much-ado.net\/legislators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/much-ado.net\/legislators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/much-ado.net\/legislators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/much-ado.net\/legislators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/much-ado.net\/legislators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6861,"href":"https:\/\/much-ado.net\/legislators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/395\/revisions\/6861"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/much-ado.net\/legislators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/much-ado.net\/legislators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}