Some historians have expressed doubts over these claims (the likelihood of an entire African family managing to survive capture and the high death rate of the Middle Passage, then to be sold collectively to a single owner, is extremely low), and suggested that they may have been fabricated or embellished.
His masters were members of the conservative Dutch Reform Church, which were against converting enslaved people to Christianity around the time they bought Jea.
For example, his master quoted from the Bible "bless the rod, and him that hath appointed it," as the reason why the enslaved people should thank him for their punishment.
[4] In the 1790s Jea traveled to Boston, New Orleans, New Jersey, South America, and various European countries, where he worked as an itinerant preacher and as a mariner and shipboard cook.
[6] Instead of attributing these murders to the authoritarian pressures inflicted on Elizabeth by her boss because of her husband's "intense piety," Jea saw "temptation and sin" as the root cause.
There was an opportunity to leave this imprisoned state by joining the American consul, however, Jea's pacifist nature deterred him.
[9] From Hodges' knowledge, Jea failed to compromise to participating in the war, which he described as sinful, and returned to England where he settled in Portsea around 1815.
[3][10] Later, Jea married his fourth wife Jemima Davis in 1816 and had a child named Hephazabah, who was later baptized in an Anglican chapel.
[3][10] Hanley speculates that Jea had his daughter baptized in an Anglican chapel, despite the numerous Methodist churches nearby, because he was in a rush to attend the Grand-Parade’ located in St. Helier, Jersey.
Indeed, Jea describes his acquisition of literacy as the result of a miraculous visit from an angel, who teaches him to read the Gospel of John.
[6] But political themes are mixed together with these religious aspects, and the work consistently argues that slavery is a fundamental injustice in need of abolition.
This trope can be identified in the narrative when Jea acquired his literacy after praying for six weeks after his master and mistress admonished him for his baptism.
"[4] Parallels between Lazarus, a poor man unbeknown by much of society, and Jea, who was formerly enslaved and resentful of Christianity, contributed to his own understanding that even the most abject can gain passage to "salvation and eternal life" by God.
[3] On one of Jea's trips across the Atlantic ocean, there came a turbulent storm that led to two men being struck to death by lightning.
However, a sharp contrast between the two is that Jonah tried to disobey God, whereas Jea obeyed Him and sought to preach in England as directed.
[4] In the same event, Pierce made parallels between Elisha and Jea because of how those around them faced God's punishment for their taunts on the works of Christ.
[4] After Jea's conversion, his narrative shifts from a view of his everyday life to a compilation of "mini-sermons" that he connects with himself, and calls this new semantic/syntax Canaan.