Abraham Jackson

Quick Facts

Significance:

Freedom Seeker on the Planter, 2nd South Carolina Volunteer Soldier

Place of Birth:

Petersburg, Virginia

Date of Birth:

Approximately 1838

Place of Death:

Unknown

Date of Death:

November 10, 1873

Abraham Jackson was born in Petersburg, Virginia around 1838, where he may have been enslaved by John Walker Tomlin. At some point he was sold to a slave trader in North Carolina. While there, he began a relationship with a woman named Anna Maria Kenny, and around 1855 they had a daughter, Violet. By 1862, Anna and Violet were still in North Carolina, but Abraham had been sent to Charleston – a destination that would change his life. He was a fireman, responsible for tending the boilers on a steamship. And that put him in connection with the crew of the Planter, a small steamship operating in the Charleston Harbor. 

It's unclear how much Abraham Jackson had to do with the actual escape plan of the Planter. There are two accounts that place Jackson on the Etiwan with Charles Chisolm and the families of the crew, where they waited on the North Atlantic Wharf, for the Planter and its crew to launch its strike to freedom. According to John Smalls’ account in the Black River Gazette, “Jackson having charge of [the] boat, and no white folks in her.” may show that Jackson was a trusted member of the Etiwan and not the Planter. But in the early morning hours of May 13, 1862, Abraham Jackson was one of sixteen freedom seekers aboard the Planter quietly navigating out of the Charleston Harbor towards the US Navy’s South Atlantic Blockade Squadron.   

After the Planter reached the US Navy Blockade, the ship and her crew were brought to Beaufort, South Carolina. Alongside Robert Smalls, Alfred Gourdin, and Abram Allston, Jackson continued to serve on the Planter as a civilian fireman. On March 20, 1863, Jackson enlisted in the 2nd South Carolina Volunteers alongside John Smalls and William Morrison. Although there is no record of it, it is probable that Jackson was with the rest of the 2nd South Carolina when they made their daring late-night raid up the Combahee in June, under the command of Harriet Tubman and Col. James Montgomery. At some point during the war, Anna and Violet made their way to Union lines as well. At the Battle of Honey Hill in November 1864, Anna was serving as a nurse with the 35th United States Colored Infantry, while her husband fought in the same battle. Serving on the frontlines of freedom was a family affair for the Jacksons. 

Abraham Jackson mustered out of the Army with the rest of the 34th, in Jacksonville, Florida in 1866 and the family settled there. In 1902, Robert Smalls wrote, “Abraham Jackson, who came out in the steamer and was one of her crew. He went to Jacksonville, Fla. Immediately after war and I have never heard from him since.” It would not appear Jackson had any more contact with his fellow freedom seekers from the Planter after the war. Later that year, on November 15, 1866, Abraham Jackson and Anna Maria Kenny were legally married at Mount Zion AME Church in downtown Jacksonville. Violet was baptized there a few years later. Abraham Jackson and his family were not alone in Jacksonville. Many USCTs were mustered out in the city, and The Black population of Jacksonville quadrupled from 1,000 to 4,000 following the war. Jacksonville was a Black majority city until the outbreak of World War I. However, Abraham Jackson didn’t get to experience the arc of Reconstruction era Jacksonville. He worked as a laborer in some of Jacksonville’s lumber mills until he was put on bedrest in 1872. He suffered from a chronic cough that he had developed during the Honey Hill campaign. Unfortunately, his cough was tuberculosis, and on November 10, 1873, Abraham Jackson died at the age of 36.  

References

1. Records of the Adjutant General's Office, U.S., Colored Troops Military Service Records,1863-1865, 34th U.S. Colored Infantry, Abraham Jackson, NARA, accessed through Ancestry.com.

2. “A Jackass in Lion’s Skin,” The Charleston Daily Courier, October 13, 1870, Pg. 1. & W.A. Bacon, “Old Papers,” Black River Gazette, Fri, Jul 12, 1872, Pg. 1.

3. IBID

4. Robert Smalls, Letter to E.T. Ware Commissioner of Pensions, August 22, 1902.

5. James B. Crooks, “The History of Jacksonville Race Relations Part 1: Emancipation and Jim Crow” The Florida Times Union, September 5, 2021.
6. Widow Anna Maria Jackson pension claim Cert no. 384352 service of Sgt. Abraham Jackson 34th US Colored Infantry citing "US Civil War Pension and Bounty land Warrant Application Files, compiled ca. 1860-1865, Record Group 15, National Archives, Washington, D.C.