Jared Maurice Arter was born into slavery on January 27, 1850 in Jefferson County, West Virginia

Jefferson County, West Virginia

Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of 2010, the population was 53,498. Its county seat is Charles Town...

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

Arter lived near Harpers Ferry during the early part of his life, and when he was nine, he witnessed the hanging of four of the abolitionist John Brown

John Brown (abolitionist)

John Brown was an American revolutionary abolitionist, who in the 1850s advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery in the United States. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre during which five men were killed, in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas, and made his name in the...

's men: Cook, Coppie, Green, and Stephens. A couple years after this, in the midst of the Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, Arter saw both Union and Confederate troops march past where he lived.

Under the Emancipation Proclamation

Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly...

 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.

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., Store College, Harper's Ferry. He received a PhD

PHD

PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 at Pennsylvania State College, and a BD

Bachelor of Divinity

In Western universities, a Bachelor of Divinity is usually an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course taken in the study of divinity or related disciplines, such as theology or, rarely, religious studies....

 at Hillsdale, Michigan, and Chicago Theological Seminary

Chicago Theological Seminary

The Chicago Theological Seminary is a seminary of the United Church of Christ. It prepares women and men for leadership in the church and society through Master of Divinity , Master of Arts in Religious Studies , Master of Sacred Theology , Doctor of Ministry , and Doctor of Philosophy programs...

.

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 1895-1898 Arter was an instructor at the Virginia Theological Seminary and College in Lynchburg, Virginia

Lynchburg, Virginia

Lynchburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 75,568 as of 2010. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains along the banks of the James River, Lynchburg is known as the "City of Seven Hills" or "The Hill City." Lynchburg was the only major city in...

. He also taught at Storer College

Storer College

Storer College was a historically black college located in Harpers Ferry in Jefferson County, West Virginia. It operated from 1865 until 1955.-Storer School:...

 and was the superintendent of a school in Hilltop in Fayette County, West Virginia

Fayette County, West Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 47,579 people, 18,945 households, and 13,128 families residing in the county. The population density was 72 people per square mile . There were 21,616 housing units at an average density of 33 per square mile...

.

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.

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 had a love of 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."

In 1921 Arter was serving as pastor of Curtis Free Will Baptist Church in Harpers Ferry.

Arter is the author of the slave narrative

Slave narrative

The slave narrative is a literary form which grew out of the written accounts of enslaved Africans in Britain and its colonies, including the later United States, Canada and Caribbean nations...

, Echoes From a Pioneer Life.

At the time of Arter's funeral, Dr. N. C. Brackett said, "If we had two or three William Arters in every community of this country the race problem would be settled."

External links

• Echoes from a Pioneer Life. Atlanta, Georgia: A. B. Caldwell Publishing Co., 1922.
• African American National Biography entry on Arter