John Jasper: The unmatched Negro philosopher and preacher

The biography follows an uneducated Black preacher who rises from slavery-era habits to become a powerful, idiosyncratic pulpit figure; it recounts his conversion, informal schooling, early preaching under bondage, emancipation, founding of a vigorous congregation, and memorable sermons—especially his controversial sermon asserting that the sun moves. The account emphasizes his dialect, theatrical rhetoric, and vivid sermonizing, shows congregational responses from laughter to convulsive repentance, and documents daily routines, theology, visions of heaven, and the social setting that both limited and propelled his ministry.