Former Enslaved Virginia Man Considered the ‘Last of the Pioneers’

Pharaoh “Ferry” Jackson Chesney eye-witnessed and chronicled almost a century of political, economic, and geographic turmoil before he died July 4, 1902, somewhere between 100 and 125 years of age.

When an enslaved Virginia native named Pharaoh Jackson was sold in November 1841 by his owner, Corbin Jackson, to John Chesney for $421, Jackson recorded on the bill of sale that Ferry was 50 years of age. Almost everyone, however, disputed that estimate. In his 1902 biography of Ferry, Dr. John Coram Webster wrote that “Several gentlemen, whose ages now range from seventy-five to ninety-three years, [attest] that Uncle Ferry was an old man, too old to do a regular slave’s work when purchased by Mr. Chesney.” According to them, he was more likely 60 years of age.

Claims of extreme longevity, however, frequently stretch the limits of credulity.

Historians generally accept that Pharaoh — or “Ferry” — was born in Clarksville, in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, sometime between 1786 and 1805. The 1900 census lists his age as 114, indicating a 1786 birth. Other sources cite his birth in 1782, and a wire service death notice that circulated nationwide in newspapers…