"The rediscovery of a long-forgotten slave narrative would be notable enough. But this one, scholars who have seen it say, is unique for its global perspective and its uncensored fury, from a man living far outside the trans-Atlantic network of white abolitionists who often limited what the formerly enslaved could write about their experiences."

Jennifer Schuessler | New York Times

"In Jacob’s memoir, which is accompanied by a biography by Jonathan D. S. Schroeder, who unearthed the original version from an 1855 newspaper, Jacobs decides to go for broke. His writing is wry, unforgiving, and full of fury. It’s hard to take your eyes off the page."

Electric Lit

"In rescuing Jacobs from history's lost-and-found, Schroeder introduces . . . readers to a writer who not only experienced the worst of America but pointed a righteous finger at all those responsible."

Raleigh News and Observer

"This is an important addition to both primary and secondary literature of Black abolitionist activism and ex-slave narratives."

Choice

"The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots is a memoir that can be divided into three major facets of the life of John Swanson Jacobs. Jacobs lived his life as an ensnared North Carolinian slave, a free mariner travelling the world, and a fugitive slave abolitionist lecturing in the northeast American states. . . . What is unusual about John Jacobs’s memoir is that it was completely written by the subject himself. Most slave narratives have been filtered through white abolitionists and editors, at times with the hard edges of slave life softened, to appeal to a white readership. . . . Jacobs’s story and manifesto will not only enlighten readers about the past, but also about the world as it is today. There are lessons to be learned."

Northern Terminus: The African Canadian History Journal

"Discovering forgotten or overlooked sources is always exciting. Jonathan D. S. Schroeder recently rediscovered John Swanson Jacobs’s narrative The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots: A True Story of Slavery. Jacobs’s narrative, which had been published in an Australian newspaper in 1855, had been largely forgotten. . . . Jacobs took to the sea and, like many other Black sailors, saw himself as a cosmopolitan and the world as his country. . . . Schroeder details how Jacobs challenged many of the conventions of enslaved narratives. . . .  Interestingly, in light of the recent discussion about 1619 vs. 1776, Jacobs mentioned another date entirely—1522. His use of 1522 should remind readers that slavery did not begin in the Americas in 1619 and that it had existed for more than a century when the first enslaved people were brought to what is now the United States. 'The history of the global slave narrative has yet to be told,' (xxx). Schroeder correctly concludes. Jacobs’s narrative will help scholars begin to tell this important story."

World History Encyclopedia

"The rediscovery and republication of Six Hundred Thousand Despots by Jonathan Schroeder. . . is a signal scholarly achievement. Given that millions toiled in American slavery until its final, constitutional abolition in 1865, the list of 100 or
so surviving works by freed or escaped slaves is regrettably short. Thus, the addition of this work, running 74 pages and containing much material worth pondering, is a rare and exciting event."

Claremont Review of Books