Page 11
JACOB HODGES.
Jacob Hodges, the subject of the fol¬
lowing memoir, was born of African pa¬
rents, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, about
the year 1763. The family, though ex¬
tremely depressed, living in ignorance
and poverty, were not, as it is known,
ever subjects of slavery.*
Either from the poverty, ignorance,, or
wickedness of his parents5> Jacob was
suffered to spend his early years wholly
without education or moral restraint. Un¬
der the influences of such a condition, and
the common associations of poor coloured
children, nothing of good could be ex¬
pected. It is not known that Jacob had,
♦The place of Jacob's birth is not certainly
known. At one time he supposed it to be the city
of Philadelphia, subsequently he believed it to be
the city of Lancaster.
3