In 2016, a scholar from the University of Chicago made a significant discovery of a lost piece of writing dating back nearly two centuries. This work, authored by John Swanson Jacobs, an escaped slave from North Carolina, is one of the few firsthand book-length accounts of slavery that was not influenced by white editors. Jacobs' narrative was published in an Australian newspaper in 1855 during his time there to escape the threat posed by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

This summer marked the publication of "The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots: A True Story of Slavery; A Rediscovered Narrative" as its first stand-alone edition. Jonathan D. S. Schroeder, who completed his PhD at UChicago in 2016, compiled Jacobs's letters and writings while providing a comprehensive biography for this release. Bill Brown from UChicago praised the text as "an extraordinary contribution to the canon of slave narratives—thus a contribution to American history and to the history of the Black diaspora."

Schroeder discovered this singular piece while researching Harriet Jacobs, John’s sister and author of her own autobiography on slavery. The document found was never referenced before and offered unique insights into Jacobs's life and views on slavery without mediation from white abolitionists.

Jacobs' life journey began with his escape from slavery in 1839 when he left his enslaver during a trip to New York City. After escaping via steamship to Rhode Island, he joined maritime work before becoming active on the abolitionist lecture circuit alongside notable figures like Frederick Douglass.

Following threats imposed by new fugitive slave laws passed in California in 1852, Jacobs relocated to Australia where he wrote "Despots." His work provides a critical perspective focusing on systemic injustices rather than personal sufferings.

Jacobs later settled in London and continued traveling worldwide as a sailor while supporting abolitionist causes through correspondence with antislavery organizations.

Despite these revelations about John S. Jacobs's life, Schroeder emphasizes that much remains unknown due to historical records often treating people like him impersonally as part of larger populations rather than individuals with their own stories.