Jacob was born into slavery with 113 other slaves on a plantation in Queen Ann's County, Maryland,[2] with only his mother as family.
Judge Charles Earle put Jacob to work at age eight running chores and giving water to the other slaves.
This triggered a deep hatred within Jacob and when he finally got the chance, he managed to replace Mr. Burmey's smoking tobacco with gunpowder.
[3] In Jacob's later years he did many "awful" things, but also made daring choices that would lead to his freedom.
Instead of going himself he found himself a loophole and got one of the other slaves to deliver the letter in his place, this caused the other man to be beat while he avoided it.
Later (time unspecific), he left the barn door open and allowed eight of his masters horses escape on purpose.
After howling and yelling eventually the strength in his arms couldn't hold the rope off any longer and he blacked out.
The two brothers tied him down and burned him alive, slowly cooking him in a pile of crudely placed wood.