Growing Up
The events of James's childhood deeply impacted his favor of the Confederacy over the Union.
Jesse and Frank James
- Jesse was born on the 5th of September, 1847 to Reverend Robert James and Zerelda Elizabeth Cole
- He had an older brother, Frank, and a sister would be born two years later
- The James family was part of the Southern economy system, heavily reliant on slave labor
- In early 1850, when Jesse was still two, the California Gold Rush impacted the young boy's family
- Reverend James agreed to serve as a chaplain for a group going out to find gold, but before he returned, he died of cholera
- His mother remarried to Dr. Reuben Samuel
- When the Civil War began, Jesse was fourteen years old
- Too young to fight, Jesse worked the farm with the family’s slaves
- Four years older than his brother, Frank joined a guerrilla* group of Confederates
- During May of 1863, Jesse experienced his first encounter with Union soldiers:
“Jesse was only sixteen [actually only fifteen]. They beat him up. Then they went to the house and asked where Frank was. Mother and father didn’t know [or pretended not to], but the soldiers wouldn’t believe them. They took father out and hung him by the neck to a tree. After a while they took him down and gave him another chance to tell. Of course he couldn’t. So they hung him up again.”
–James T. Samuel, Jesse’s step-brother.
–James T. Samuel, Jesse’s step-brother.
- Influenced by his family’s history, his brother Frank’s actions, and this event, Jesse’s hate of the Union grew
- At the age of sixteen, Jesse joined Frank in a guerrilla group to fight back against the Union
Union soldiers similar to the
ones who harassed the James family
ones who harassed the James family
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