Jared Maurice Arter (January 27, 1850 – 1930) was a former slave, who was a writer, Christian missionary, and academic.

Early life

Jared Maurice Arter was born into slavery in

Jefferson County, Virginia Jefferson County, Virginia has existed twice in the U.S. state of Virginia's history. Formed in 1780, and 1801, respectively, both counties were named for one of that state's most celebrated residents, Thomas Jefferson, and each was separated from ...

(now in

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

). His father, Jeremiah Arter, was not very present in Arter's life because of his slave status and his work in the mills in Jefferson County. When Arter was about seven, his father died after falling down some stairs and being paralyzed at a mill. His mother was Hannah Frances Stephenson Arter, who was a slave that was thirty-eight years younger than his father. Arter lived near

Harpers Ferry Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia. It is located in the lower Shenandoah Valley. The population was 285 at the 2020 census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, where the U.S. stat ...

during the early part of his life, and when he was nine, he witnessed the hanging of four of the abolitionist John Brown's men: Cook, Coppie, Green, and Stephens. A couple years after this, in the midst of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, Arter saw both Union and Confederate troops march past where he lived. Under the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, Arter's family was freed from slavery. Shortly after being freed, Arter's mother took most of the family, including Arter, to Washington, D.C. There a family was found for Arter by the name of Wealch where he stayed for short while.

Education

In 1865, Arter's mother got a proposition from a businessman from New York to educate her two older boys, on the condition that they would be bound to him until they were twenty-one. Arter jumped at the opportunity to get a good education, and spent the next several years working for the Ayer family and beginning his education. Even after leaving the Ayer residence, Arter continued his education for many years while working along the way. He attended Newfield and Ithaca, a private school in New York, Washington, D.C.,

Storer College Storer College was a historically black college in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, that operated from 1867 to 1955. A national icon for Black Americans, in the town where the 'end of American slavery began', as Frederick Douglass famously put i ...

, Harper's Ferry. He received a PhD at

Pennsylvania State College The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

, and a BD at Hillsdale College and

Chicago Theological Seminary Founded in 1855, the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) is the oldest higher education institution in the City of Chicago and was established with two principal goals: first, to educate pastors who would minister to people living on the new west ...

Career

In 1873, Arter came to accept Christianity as his sole faith, and became a soldier of the cross. In 1887, he was ordained to the gospel ministry, and was given work at Curtis Free Baptist Church. From 1895 to 1898, Arter was an instructor at the

Virginia Theological Seminary and College Virginia University of Lynchburg is a private historically black Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia. The university is accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools and offers instruction and degrees, ...

in Lynchburg,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. He also taught at

and was the superintendent of a school in Hilltop in Fayette County, West Virginia. After getting an education himself, Arter devoted his life to educating others. He did not finish his own schooling until the spring of 1894. Though he loved teaching others about the Bible he also loved history, biology, and literature of modern missions and Negro advancement. After being questioned on his views of human progress, he said: "Urge above all things else regenerated lives and loyalty to God, patriotism, true home building, economy, education, race consciousness and unceasing efforts to deserve and to secure all rights." Arter was the author of the

slave narrative The slave narrative is a type of literary genre involving the (written) autobiographical accounts of enslaved Africans, particularly in the Americas. Over six thousand such narratives are estimated to exist; about 150 narratives were published as s ...

,
Echoes From a Pioneer Life
'. In 1921, Arter was serving as pastor of Curtis Free Will Baptist Church in

Personal life

Arter married twice: once on July 10, 1890, to Emily Carter, and once on December 29, 1910, to Maggie Wall. In his first marriage he had five children, four of whom died before they were twenty. He was a Republican, missionary baptist, and mason. At the time of Arter's funeral,

Nathan Cook Brackett Nathan Cook Brackett (1836–1910) was an abolitionist, Free Will Baptist pastor, first president of Storer College, and chairman and co-founder of Bluefield State College. Nathan Brackett was born in Phillips, Maine in 1836 and starting in 1857 ...

said, "If we had two or three William Arters in every community of this country the race problem would be settled."

External links

*
Jared Maurice Arter in the African American National Biography

* ttp://www.wvculture.org/hiStory/histamne/arter.html "Jared Maurice Arter", West Virginia Division of Culture and History.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arter, Jared Maurice 1850 births 1928 deaths 19th-century African-American people 19th-century American slaves 20th-century African-American people African-American educators African-American history of West Virginia Baptist ministers from the United States Baptists from West Virginia Chicago Theological Seminary alumni Educators from West Virginia Hillsdale College alumni Pennsylvania State University alumni People from Jefferson County, West Virginia People who wrote slave narratives Storer College alumni Storer College faculty 19th-century African-American writers