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"S" is for Stroyer, Jacob (ca. 1846- ca. 1908)

South Carolina From A to Z
SC Public Radio

"S" is for Stroyer, Jacob (ca. 1846- ca. 1908). Clergyman, author. Stroyer was born and raised a slave in antebellum South Carolina. After emancipation, he authored an engrossing autobiographical narrative, My Life in the South, first published in 1879.  Subsequently revised and expanded, the book is a collection of incidents that provides an intimate view of Stroyer’s life as a slave. In 1870 he moved to Worcester, Massachusetts where he studied at Worcester Academy. During this time he was a licensed preacher of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and he later was ordained as a deacon. Soon thereafter he was sent to Salem, Massachusetts, where he remained to “preach the gospel.” During this period, Jacob Stroyer became a much sought-after speaker regarding his life as a slave, and he was encouraged to write and publish these accounts.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.