{"id":20,"featured":0,"modified":"2025-01-24 20:06:05","latitude":32.77640918215129062218693434260785579681396484375,"longitude":-79.9307287695627195489578298293054103851318359375,"title":"Jones Hotel, 71 Broad Street","address":"71 Broad St Charleston, SC 29401","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/dec9b180e01b2d6817ae7e9da27c7476.jpg","creator":["Mills Pennebaker"],"description":"The Jones Hotel illustrates the complexities of slavery in the city of Charleston and reveals much about elite Black Charlestonians during the Antebellum era. In Charleston, larger communities of free Black Charlestonians divided along economic and class lines as African Americans attempted to ward off white oppression in a variety of ways. Some formed small groups that defined their status through exclusion, seeking social advancement through economic wealth; others turned to religion for identity, liberation, and guidance.
\r\n
\r\nSome of these complexities are revealed by the story of the Jones Hotel and the hotel\u2019s owner, Jehu Jones. Born into slavery in 1769, Jones was enslaved by Christopher Rogers, a successful tailor. Growing up, Jones learned about the skills of tailoring and running a business from Rogers while developing his own knowledge through personal experience.
\r\n
\r\nBecause he lived in Charleston, a thriving urban center, Jones was able to utilize and capitalize upon urban modifications of slavery. Although not much is known about Jones\u2019s younger years, it is likely that he took advantage of the \u201chiring out\u201d system that typically characterized urban iterations of slavery. This system involved an enslaved person, an enslaver, a hirer, and a contract that specified pay, length of labor, and any other stipulations. Enslavers used the hiring out system because they usually took some, if not all, the pay earned by enslaved people. Hirers saw an opportunity to take advantage of enslaved labor without making the costly investment of purchasing enslaved workers. At the same time, enslaved people exploited the hiring out system to gain and increase autonomy and agency over their lives.
\r\n
\r\nIn Charleston, enslaved people were hired out to perform various forms of labor, including municipal jobs, domestic work, and\u2014in Jones\u2019s case\u2014tailoring services. While the details of Jones\u2019s involvement with the hiring out system are not known, the historic record reveals that Jones purchased his freedom in 1798 for $140, most likely with money he earned by using the hiring out system. Jones then established his own tailoring shop and enjoyed great economic success. By the early 1800s, Jones not only expanded his tailoring business but also delved into real estate ventures, purchasing property downtown and on Sullivan\u2019s Island in 1802.
\r\n
\r\nJones\u2019s real estate investments and expanding tailoring business proved very successful. Jones himself gained enough wealth and prestige to join the Brown Fellowship Society, one of the oldest benevolent societies for African Americans in South Carolina. The Brown Fellowship Society was founded in 1790 by Black and mulatto members of St. Philips Episcopal Church who were restricted from using the church\u2019s all white graveyard. The Brown Fellowship Society began as a way to support African American members, and their widows and children, but came to represent classism and elitism among African Americans in Charleston. Usually, only lighter-skinned free African Americans were allowed to join the Brown Fellowship Society. All members had to be relatively wealthy as initiation fees were $50 in addition to annual membership dues. In fact, some members of the Brown Fellowship Society\u2014including Jehu Jones\u2014were wealthy enough to purchase enslaved people. At the end of the Antebellum era in Charleston, 131 free African Americans enslaved a total of 338 people. This fact, combined with the elite Black community\u2019s attempts to separate themselves from enslaved communities, created an environment of tension among Black Charlestonians.
\r\n
\r\nJones continued to amass wealth and, in the 1810s, made another series of real estate transactions. In 1815, Jones purchased a house and land on Broad Street. The following year, he purchased the Burrows-Hall House (33 Broad Street), turning the building into an inn. Jones and his wife Abagail opened the Jones Hotel in 1816 and catered to elite whites only, using enslaved labor to create an exclusive and luxurious inn. As Jones invested more in innkeeping, he sold the first property to a nearby church. Jones also moved away from tailoring and tasked his son, Jehu Jones, Jr., with running the family business.
\r\n
\r\nThe events following the Denmark Vesey conspiracy of 1822 affected the Jones family. Free African Americans\u2014whether they were part of the elite Black society or not\u2014were closely scrutinized and subjected to stricter regulations. Adult African American men were supposed to be supervised by a white guardian. Free Black South Carolinians were not allowed to travel out of the state (and were barred from returning to the state if they traveled after the conspiracy) unless they sought express permission from the state government. Abagail Jones was traveling with her children and grandchildren in New York before 1822 and faced difficulty returning home, ultimately passing away in New York.
\r\n
\r\nJehu Jones, Sr. passed away in 1833. His estate, which included enslaved people but not Jones\u2019s real estate properties, was valued at $40,000 and was split between his three sons and his stepdaughter, Ann Deas, who had been traveling with Abigail Jones in the 1820s. Deas petitioned South Carolina\u2019s governor for a pardon and returned to Charleston. Deas and Eliza Johnson\u2014another free Black Charlestonian\u2014purchased the Jones Hotel in 1834 and operated the inn until 1847. During that time, Deas continued to use enslaved labor at the Jones Hotel for cooking extravagant cuisine, waiting on the inn\u2019s white clientele, and cleaning and maintaining the establishment.
\r\n
\r\nFinancial struggles in the 1840s forced Deas to sell the establishment to a free African American couple, John Lee and Eliza Seymour Lee. They opened Lee\u2019s Boarding House, continuing the property\u2019s use as an inn and site of fine cuisine. The building that once housed the Jones Hotel was taken down in the 1920s (with one room rebuilt in the Winterthur Museum), but the story of the inn and its owners reveals the complexities of Charleston society for African Americans.
\r\n","sponsor":null,"subtitle":null,"accessinfo":null,"lede":"The Jones Hotel illustrates the complexities of slavery in the city of Charleston and reveals much about elite Black Charlestonians during the Antebellum era.","website":null,"related_resources":["Bernard Powers, \u201cSlavery in Antebellum Charleston,\u201d in Black Charlestonians: A Social History, 1822-1855 <\/i>(Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas Press, 1994).
<\/span>","Harlan Greene, \u201cJehu Jones Hotel, 71 Broad Street,\u201d Charleston\u2019s Free People of Color, <\/i>College of Charleston\u2019s Special Collections, Charleston, SC.
<\/span>","Larry Koger, Black Slaveowners: Free Black Slave Masters in South Carolina, 1790-1860 <\/i>(Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995).
<\/span>","Manumission of Jehu Jones from Christopher Rogers of Charleston for 100 Pounds, January 22, 1798, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, SC.<\/span>","Michael Fate, \u201cJehu Jones Sr. (1769-1833),\u201d Black Past, (April 16, 2014).<\/span>","Roberta VH Copp, \u201cJones, Jehu,\u201d South Carolina Encyclopedia, last modified January 10, 2017.<\/span>","Sarah Bartlett, \u201cBrown Fellowship Society (1790-1945),\u201d Black Past, (September 14, 2010.)<\/span>"],"factoids":[],"files":{"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/fullsize\/dec9b180e01b2d6817ae7e9da27c7476.jpg":{"id":326,"mime-type":"image\/png","title":"Jones Hotel","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/dec9b180e01b2d6817ae7e9da27c7476.jpg","description":" This circa 1928 photograph depicts the Jones Hotel, which was owned and operated by Jehu Jones, Sr. from 1816 until his death in 1833. The Jones Hotel catered exclusively to elite white patrons and depended upon enslaved labor to operate. Jones owned enslaved people but likely hired out the services of some enslaved people employed at the hotel. Courtesy of South Carolina Historical Society. "},"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/fullsize\/c2e094908a182cb6b732ec1e75aa716e.jpg":{"id":359,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Jehu Jones's Manumission","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/c2e094908a182cb6b732ec1e75aa716e.jpg","description":"By exploiting the hiring out system, Jehu Jones was able to acquire enough money to purchase his freedom in 1798 for $140. This document is proof of Jehu Jones\u2019s manumission. After gaining his freedom, Jones opened a tailoring business, got married, invested in real estate, and had children before opening the Jones Hotel in 1816. Courtesy of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History."},"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/fullsize\/dedb9706bd185cc4921d744faec5f367.jpg":{"id":390,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Jones Hotel Historic Marker","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/dedb9706bd185cc4921d744faec5f367.jpg","description":"This historic marker sits next to the spot where the Jones Hotel once stood. Photograph courtesy of Noah Dubois."}}}