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19th-century African-American Mormon pioneer

Jane Elizabeth Manning James
Personal details
Born	1822 (1822) Wilton, Connecticut, U.s.a.
Died	Apr xvi, 1908(1908-04-16) (aged 94) Table salt Lake City, Utah
Resting identify	Salt Lake Urban center Cemetery 40°46′37″N 111°51′29″W  /  40.777°N 111.858°W  / forty.777; -111.858  (Common salt Lake City Cemetery)
Spouse(s)	Isaac James
Children	8
Parents	Isaac Manning Eliza Mead

Jane Elizabeth Manning James (1822 – Apr xvi, 1908),^{[1] [2]} fondly known equally "Aunt Jane",^[3] was one of the commencement recorded African-American women to enter Utah.^{[four] : 32–34} She was a member of the Church building of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and lived with Joseph Smith and his family unit for a time in Nauvoo, Illinois.^[five] She traveled with her husband to Utah, spending the winter of 1846–1847 at Winter Quarters. She petitioned the Beginning Presidency to be endowed and sealed; every bit a result of her requests she was adopted as a retainer into the Joseph Smith family unit through a specially created temple ceremony. Not satisfied to be an eternal servant in the Smith family unit, she continued to petition to receive her own temple endowment but was denied these rites during her lifetime. She was posthumously endowed past proxy in 1979.

Early life and life with Fitches [edit]

Jane Elizabeth Manning James was born in Wilton, Connecticut, to Isaac Manning and Eliza Phyllis Mead.^[5] Although late in James's life her brother Isaac gave her altogether equally 1813,^[6] there are source discrepancies that place her altogether anywhere from September 22, 1812, to the year 1820 or 1822 (the latter being asserted on her gravestone^[seven]). The Mannings were a free family living in rural Connecticut, and Jane had at least five siblings including Isaac, Lewis, Peter, Sarah, and Angeline.^{[half dozen]} At the age of six, Jane was sent away to alive with the Fitches, a wealthy Caucasian family. She was raised by the Fitches' daughter and lived with them for the adjacent xxx years. Piffling is known about Jane's life with the Fitches other than she worked every bit a servant: cooking, cleaning, and ironing, etc.^[5] While with the Fitches, Jane was also brought up as a Christian. She was baptized into the Presbyterian Church when she was about 14 years old.^[5] On March 1, 1835, Jane gave birth to a son, Sylvester.^[1]

Conversion and relocation to Nauvoo [edit]

In the fall of 1842, ii LDS missionaries, one of whom was Charles Wesley Wandell, were preaching in the surface area.^[5] Although forbidden past her Presbyterian preacher, James recorded that she "had a desire to hear them. I went on a Sun and was fully convinced that it was the true Gospel."^[6] James was baptized into the Latter Day Saint Church the following Dominicus, and afterward acquainted many friends and family members with her new behavior every bit well. A twelvemonth afterwards, James and viii other members of her family, including her female parent, iii brothers, two sisters, and a brother and sis-in-law- decided to motion from their home in Wilton to Nauvoo, Illinois, in order to live amidst other members of their new faith.^[vi] The group of nine began their journey with other Latter Solar day Saints under the direction of Wandell, but got separated from the group at Buffalo, New York when they couldn't afford to pay the railroad train fare from New York to Ohio. James and her family traveled the balance of their journey (approximately 800 miles) on foot.^[five] In her Life Sketch, recorded in 1893, James recalled that "We walked until our shoes were worn out, and our feet became sore and cracked open and bled until yous could come across the whole impress of our feet with claret on the basis."^[five] When James and her family unit arrived in Nauvoo, they were welcomed by Joseph Smith himself. Over the next year, her mother and siblings would constitute their own homes. James, however, lived with the Joseph Smith family unit in Nauvoo until Smith's assassination in 1844.^[eight]

James had several unique experiences while living with the Smith family unit in Nauvoo. She recorded that oft, as she went almost doing the washing and cleaning for the Smiths, either Emma (Joseph's wife) or Lucy (Joseph's female parent) would cease her and talk with her. One mean solar day while James was in Joseph'southward mother'due south room, the woman told her to "bring me that bundle from the bureau and sit downwardly here."^{[five] : 4} According to Jane, she was shown the Urim and Thummim, the tools used past Joseph Smith to translate the Book of Mormon. Lucy then said to her, "You lot will live long after I am dead and gone and y'all can tell the Latter-mean solar day Saints that you was permitted to handle the Urim and Thummim".^[6] Another time, Emma asked James if she would like to be adopted by and sealed to her and Joseph. Not understanding at the fourth dimension, James said nothing. Emma encouraged her to think most information technology. Two weeks later, she asked James again, at which time she said "no m'am".^[5] James would say later that she did not understand what that meant, or she would have taken the couple up on their offering.^[6] This early on decision had a significant impact on James's later life as a member of the Latter Day Saint church.

After Joseph Smith'southward assassination in 1844, James resided in Brigham Young'south abode. It was here where she met and married her husband, Isaac James.^{[4] : 56} Isaac was born a free homo and grew up in rural New Jersey. He converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1839. At the fourth dimension of his baptism Isaac was nineteen years old, and became i of the earliest immigrants to Nauvoo.^[five]

Pioneer life in Utah [edit]

When the Latter Day Saints began to migrate w in 1846, James prepared to move as well. Although many of her immediate family members, including her mother, 3 brothers, and 2 sisters, had joined the church building, she was the only one who chose to move West with the main body of saints from Nauvoo.^[5] At the time of the James family unit's departure, she was pregnant with a second son, Silas James, who was born at Hogg Creek, Iowa in June 1846.^[iv] James, her husband Isaac, and Sylvester were office of the original grouping of Latter Day Saints to spend the winter of 1846–1847 at Winter Quarters, Nebraska.^[four] They were also part of the Ira Eldredge company, the first Mormon pioneer company to enter the Salt Lake Valley in September 1847. At the time of their settlement in the Common salt Lake Valley, they fabricated up a third of the 12 African Americans living in Utah, and were the just ones who were free.^[4]

James was the first documented African-American woman to come to the Utah Territory every bit a Mormon pioneer.^[4] The family unit'due south first years in the valley were difficult: they lived in poverty and often did not even have the barest essentials for survival.^{[6] : xi} Yet, James exhibited remarkable charity and strength of character. In 1849, Eliza Lyman, a neighbor of hers, had no food to sustain her and her children until the harvest after she sent her husband on a mission to California. She records that "Not long after Amasa had gone, Jane James, the colored woman, allow me have two pounds of flour, it being half of what she had."^[5]

Despite trials, James'south life in Utah was punctuated by moments of joy. A daughter, Mary Ann, was built-in in May 1848—the first blackness child born in Utah.^{[4] : 57} Eventually things began to go better for the Mannings: by the mid 1860s they were able to build a comfortable home and had acquired both farmland and animals, including an ox, horses, and a small flock of sheep.^[nine] Past the stop of 1865 the Jameses, while not wealthy, were fairly prosperous. Only iv households in the area held more assets in 1865 than they did, while 31 held less.^{[v] : half dozen} The family was growing apace as well. Between 1848 and 1860 five children were born: Miriam, Ellen Madora, Jessie Jeroboam, Isaac, and Vilate.^[6] James'due south oldest son, Sylvester, was listed equally a fellow member of the Nauvoo Legion in 1861.^[5]

Petitions to be endowed and sealed; sealing as a servant in the Smith family [edit]

Isaac James left the family unit in 1869 afterwards selling virtually of the family'southward realty to his married woman.^[5] There is no bear witness that suggests that Isaac had whatsoever permanent relations with whatsoever members of the family again. Within iv years James was remarried to her son Sylvester's father-in-law, Frank Perkins. The union lasted less than two years, after which time she reverted to her erstwhile married name. It was at this fourth dimension that James became increasingly worried virtually her eternal welfare.^[v] She began to petition the First Presidency to exist endowed and to be sealed, forth with her children, to Walker Lewis, a prominent African-American Mormon Elder. Lewis, similar Elijah Abel, had been ordained to the priesthood during Joseph Smith'due south lifetime, and James therefore assumed that he would be eligible for temple ordinances. Withal, her petitions were consistently ignored or refused.^[x]

Despite these trials, James neither renounced her faith nor gave up hope that one twenty-four hour period she would have the blessings she desired. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, she struggled to treat the remaining children at home equally a single parent. In 1872, she sold the family farm and moved closer to the metropolis in order to relieve money. During these years James both managed a household of children and small grandchildren, merely also worked equally a domestic retainer in order to make ends encounter. In addition, she fabricated the family's soap, article of clothing, and raised vegetables in a modest garden.^[5] James remained active in the church at this time too. She participated in the Relief Society doing all-encompassing charitable piece of work. She also contributed financially to the building of the Logan, Manti, and St. George temples; temples that, every bit an African-American, she was not allowed to enter.^[9] The members of her congregation, however, did recognize her faith and sacrifice. In her later life, both she and her brother Isaac J. Manning received reserved seats near the front and center of the Utah Tabernacle for church building services.^{[5] : 8} James remained a strong supporter of Joseph Smith, calling him "the finest man I ever saw on earth."^[half-dozen]

James continued to inquire that she and her family unit be given the ordinance of adoption and so that they could be sealed together forever. Her justification for asking to be the exception to the church's rule was Emma Smith's offer in 1844 to have her sealed to the Smith family as a child. James was now reconsidering her determination, and asked to be sealed to the Smiths. Her requests were over again refused. Instead, the Beginning Presidency "decided she might be adopted into the family unit of Joseph Smith as a servant, which was done, a special ceremony having been prepared for the purpose."^[xi] The ceremony took place on May 18, 1894, with Joseph F. Smith interim as proxy for Joseph Smith, and Bathsheba W. Smith interim as proxy for James (who was not allowed into the temple for the ordinance).^[12] In the ceremony, James was "attached as a Servitor for eternity to the prophet Josep[h] Smith and in this capacity . . . connected with his family[, to] be obedient to him in all things in the Lord equally a true-blue Servitor."^[thirteen]

James was dissatisfied with that unique sealing ordinance, and applied again to obtain the sealing that was offered to her by Emma. According to the diary of Franklin Richards, the LDS Starting time Presidency met on Baronial 22, 1895, to consider her appeal, but again turned her downward. James would petition the leaders of the church for the residue of her life, but with no success. She continued to accept trials: all just two of her eight children (Sylvester & Ellen) preceded her in death, as did 6 of her 14 grandchildren.^[6]

Jane Elizabeth Manning James died April 16, 1908, in Salt Lake Urban center. Despite her circumstances, it is credible that she died on good terms with the LDS Church building. Church President Joseph F. Smith spoke at her funeral.^[5] There, he declared that she would receive all her temple blessings in the eternities and become a white and beautiful person, reflecting the Church building's contemporary theology on race.^[14] According to The Deseret News, her funeral was attended by many.^{[1] : xi}

Legacy [edit]

In 1979, well-nigh 72 years afterwards her death, James was endowed by proxy.^[xv]

A 20-minute documentary based on James's life, Jane Manning James: Your Sister in the Gospel, premiered in 2005, and has been shown at This Is The Identify Heritage Park in Salt Lake Urban center, Utah, the 2005 annual conference of the Foundation for Atoning Information & Research (Fair), and on public television (PBS).^[sixteen] The film was directed by Margaret Blair Young, co-writer with Darius Gray of the Standing on the Promises trilogy of historical fiction that draws on the facts of James'due south life.^[16]

In June 1999, a monument to James's life was dedicated near her grave in the Salt Lake City Cemetery by the Genesis Grouping (an official organisation begun under LDS President Joseph Fielding Smith to support Latter Day Saints of African descent) along with the Missouri Mormon Borderland Foundation. The original headstones of Jane and Isaac James were supplemented with a granite monument faced with two bronze plaques.^[17] I side of the monument commemorates an incident documented in 1850, by Mormon pioneer Eliza Partridge Lyman, who wrote:

April 13: Brother Lyman [Eliza's husband] started on a mission to California with O. P Rockwell and others. May the Lord anoint and prosper them and return them in safe. He left u.s.a. ... without annihilation to brand bread, it not being in his power to go any.

April 25: Jane James, a colored woman, let me have two pounds of flour, it being about half she had.

A second statuary plaque, containing quotations from James and significant dates and events from her life, was placed on the back of the monument. In Apr 2005, the graves and monument were again cleaned and sealed. The inscription on her grave marker reads:

Front end side

Back side

Jane Manning's grave marking

Jane Elizabeth Manning James

"I effort in my feeble way to set an example for all."

Born costless in 1882 [The marking incorrectly states her birth year. Information technology should say 1822], Fairfield County, Connecticut

Baptized LDS in 1841, she led a grouping of family members to Nauvoo, Illinois in 1843

"Our anxiety cracked open and bled until you could run into the whole prints of our anxiety with blood on the ground."

Jane lived with Joseph, Emma and Female parent Smith

"Blood brother Joseph sat down by me and said, 'God anoint you lot. Yous are amongst friends."

Married Isaac James around 1845

Arrived in Salt Lake September 22, 1847

"Oh how I suffered of cold and hunger, merely the Lord gave us organized religion and grace to stand up it all."

Shared half her flour with Eliza Partridge Lyman, who was near starving.

Died Apr 16, 1908, outliving all but two of her eight children.

On Oct 12th, 2018, a feature-length film was released about James'southward relationship with Emma Smith, entitled "Jane and Emma." The movie was directed by Chantelle Squires, with a screenplay by Melissa Leilani Larson.^[18]

References [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b c} Carter, Kate B. The Story of the Negro Pioneer. Harold B. Lee Library; Provo, Utah: Utah Press. p. nine.
2. ^ "Death Certificate". State of Utah. April 17, 1908. Archived from the original on August 11, 2011. Retrieved December 14, 2009.
3. ^ "Document 7: Minutes of a Coming together of the Council of the Twelve Apostles" (January ii, 1902) [Textual tape]. A Examination of Faith: Jane Elizabeth Manning James and the Origins of the Utah Black Community, Series: MSS SC 1069. Provo, Utah: L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.
4. ^ ^{a b c d east f thou} Coleman, Ronald Gerald (March 1980). A History of Blacks in Utah, 1825–1910. L. Tom Perry Special Collections; Harold B. Lee Library; Provo, Utah. p. 32.
5. ^ ^{a b c d e f grand h i j k fifty m n o p q r s} Wolfinger, Henry J. "A Test of Organized religion: Jane Elizabeth Manning James and the Origins of the Utah Black Community" (1893) [textual record]. A Test of Faith: Jane Elizabeth Manning James and the Origins of the Utah Black Community, Series: MSS SC 1069, pp. 2–iii. Provo, Utah: L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.
6. ^ ^{a b c d east f k h i j} Roundy, Elizabeth J.D. "Document ix: Life Sketch of Jane James" (1893) [textual record]. A Examination of Faith: Jane Elizabeth Manning James and the Origins of the Utah Black Community, Serial: MSS SC 1069, p. 4. Provo, Utah: L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Immature University.
7. ^ "Jane Elizabeth "Aunt Jane" Manning James". Observe A Grave . Retrieved August 31, 2020.
8. ^ "Jane Manning James: Blackness Saint, 1847 Pioneer". Ensign Magazine. August 1979. Retrieved June ii, 2016.
9. ^ ^{a b} Barrett, Ivan J. (2000). Heroic Mormon Women. American Fork, Utah: Covenant Communications. p. 99. ISBN978-1577346760.
10. ^ Woodruff, Wilford. "Certificate 5: Entry of Oct 16, 1894, Journals of Wilford Woodruff" (Oct xvi, 1894) [Textual tape]. A Examination of Organized religion: Jane Elizabeth Manning James and the Origins of the Utah Blackness Community, Series: MSS SC 1069. Provo, Utah: 50. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.
11. ^ "Servant Sealing". wheatandtares.org. Wheat & Tares. February 22, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
12. ^ Quinn, D. Michael (1997). The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Ability. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. p. 795. ISBN978-1-56085-060-1. Archived from the original on July 14, 2012. Retrieved September 19, 2011.
13. ^ "120 years agone today - May 18, 1894". todayinmormonhistory.com. Today In Mormon History. May 18, 2014. Retrieved June fifteen, 2020.
14. ^ Cowley, Matthias (1909). Wilford Woodruff: History of His Life and Labors. Salt Lake Urban center, UT. p. 587.
15. ^ Burch, Alice Faulkner. "Black Women in the LDS Church and the Role of the Genesis Group". world wide web.mormonwomenshistoryinitiative.org. Archived from the original on August 10, 2016. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
16. ^ ^{a b} Immature, Margaret Blair. "The Making of Jane Manning James: Your Sister in the Gospel". Segullah.org. Archived from the original on July 18, 2015. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
17. ^ Young, Margaret Blair (July 27, 2004). "Household of Organized religion: A Monument to Jane Manning James. There was Nothing Feeble in Her". ldsmag.com. Archived from the original on August 15, 2016. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
18. ^ Fletcher Stack, Peggy (May 31, 2018). "New film 'Jane & Emma' captures the friendship betwixt a black convert and the dear wife of Mormonism'due south founder". world wide web.sltrib.com. The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved October 22, 2018.

Farther reading [edit]

• Barrett, Ivan J. (2000). Heroic Mormon Women. American Fork, Utah: Covenant Communications. ISBN978-1577346760.
• Blackness, Susan Easton; Woodger, Mary Jane (2011). Women of Grapheme: Profiles of 100 Prominent LDS Women. American Fork, Utah: Covenant Communications, Inc. pp. 147–150. ISBN978-1-60861-212-three.
• Carter, Kate B. The Story of the Negro Pioneer. Harold B. Lee Library; Provo, Utah: Utah Printing. pp. 11–13.
• Coleman, Ronald Gerald (1980). A History of Blacks in Utah, 1825–1910. Harold B. Lee Library; Provo, Utah.
• Embry, Jessie Fifty. (1994). Black Saints in a White Church: Contemporary African American Mormons . Salt Lake Urban center, Utah: Signature Books. ISBN978-1-56085-044-one.
• Johnson, Karen A. (2006). "Undaunted Courage and Faith: The Lives of Iii Black Women in the Due west and Hawaii in the Early 19th Century". Periodical of African American History. 91 (1): 4–22. doi:ten.1086/JAAHv91n1p4. JSTOR 20064044. S2CID 148934939.
• Wolfinger, Henry J. A Exam of Faith: Jane Elizabeth James and the Origin of the Utah Black Community. L. Tom Perry Special Collections; Harold B. Lee Library; Provo, Utah.
• James, Jane Eastward. Manning. Transcribed past Elizabeth J. D. Roundy. "My Life Story". Wilford Woodruff Papers.
• Mueller, Max (Wintertime–Spring 2011). "Playing Jane: The history of a pioneer blackness Mormon woman is alive today". Harvard Divinity School Message. 39 (1 & 2). Archived from the original on April xx, 2011.
• Newell, Linda King; Avery, Valeen Tippetts (August 1979). "Jane Manning James: Black Saint, 1847 Pioneer". Ensign.
• O'Donovan, Connell (2006). "The Mormon Priesthood Ban & Elder Q. Walker Lewis: 'An case for his more whiter brethren to follow'". John Whitmer Historical Clan Periodical. (Online reprint with writer updates)
• Smith, Becky Cardon (April 15, 2005). "Remembering Jane Manning James". Meridian Magazine. Archived from the original on February half dozen, 2010.

External links [edit]

• Jane Manning James at Find a Grave
• Wolfinger, Henry J.; A Test of Faith: Jane Elizabeth James and the origins of the Utah black customs; : MSS SC 1069; 20th Century Western and Mormon Manuscripts; 50. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young Academy.
• Jane Manning James: Your Sister in the Gospel

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Manning_James

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