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Slave to servant - the remarkable Jackson Hughes

The life of Jackson Hughes can be partially reconstructed thanks to a detailed account written by a Harvard educated Lieutenant in Company F of the 28th Massachusetts. Jackson Hughes was born a slave in Mississippi in the latter part of 1835 or early 1836. In the war he was hired out by his master at $160 a year to a "Maj. Bradley of the 17th Miss. Vols." [I cannot identify this Major]. Hughes escaped somehow, and as a contraband wound up in a Federal Provost Marshal's office. In May 1863, Hughes, along with at least two other contrabands, became servants of officers in the 28th Massachusetts. Hughes worked for the Lieutenant mentioned above and also for his tentmate, a fellow officer, for which they each paid him $4 a month - a total of $8. Jackson Hughes did the cooking, cleaning and laundry for the two Lieutenants. (To have someone do the laundry alone would have cost each officer $2 a month.) Our Harvard Lieutenant described Hughes as "modest, good looking, can read, and carries a watch ... he has accumulated a complete set of cooking utensils. He is far more intelligent than half my company, and very few indeed can get ahead of him or impose upon him. Add to this he is strictly honest." In his spare time Jackson Hughes taught his fellow contrabands in the regiment how to read and write [this when several soldiers in the company were illiterate]. At various times during the Gettysburg campaign, the Lieutenant praises Hughes for his cooking abilities and writes, "he is very neat in dress and wears a very tasty straw hat he lately purchased." Despite the Lieutenant's admiration, he also once noted that "I will sell him [Hughes] for $ 2500."

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Slave to servant - the remarkable Jackson Hughes
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