John Jasper

F-99

The Rev. John Jasper, one of the best known black preachers of the 19th century in Virginia, was born a slave in Fluvanna County on 4 July 1812. After working in a tobacco factory, Jasper had a religious awakening in the later 1830s and became a preacher. Self-educated, Jasper was renowned for his fiery oratorical style and for the sermon, "De Sun Do Move," first delivered in 1878 and preached to more than 250 audiences, including the Virginia General Assembly. He organized the Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church in Richmond in 1867. Jasper died in late March 1901 and is buried in Richmond.

Department of Historic Resources, 2001

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Mary J. Bratton, “John Jasper of Richmond: From Slave Preacher to Community Leader,” Virginia Cavalcade 29 (1979): 32-39; Howard H. Harlan, John Jasper---A Case History in Leadership (Charlottesville, Va.: University of Virginia, 1936), 16-29; William E. Hatcher, John Jasper: The Unmatched Negro Philosopher and Preacher (New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969); John Jasper, “De Sun Do Move”: The Celebrated Sermon, reprinted from the book by William E. Hatcher, (Richmond, Va.: Dietz Press, nd.), 5-7, 9-22; Rayford W. Logan and Michael R. Winston, eds., Dictionary of American Negro Biography (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1982), 343-344; Jack Salzman, David Lionel Smith, and Cornell West, eds., Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History (5 vols; New York: Simon and Schuster, Macmillan, 1996), 3:1428-1429; Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church, Virginia Historical Highway Marker Program Files, Virginia Department of Historic Resources.