When Pharaoh Jackson Chesney dictated his narrative to John Coram Webster in 1902, he claimed to be approximately 120 years old. Born a slave in Clarksville, Virginia, Chesney eventually married and had four children. Around the age of sixty, he was separated from his wife and children when he was sold to John Chesney in east Tennessee. Pharaoh Jackson Chesney was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation after living in slavery for eighty years.

Chesney's narrative Last of the Pioneers contains many vignettes about slave and rural life in the 18th and 19th centuries. Much of the narrative focuses on the economic, societal, and cultural changes that occurred during Chesney's long life, including the development of cities and expansion of the west, changes in farming and manufacturing techniques, and the impact of the Civil War on the United States. Chesney also tells about various rural traditions and customs, including harvest traditions, quilting bees, religious life, and superstitions. He discusses slavery only briefly, primarily to point out that in his experience, slaves were generally well-treated. He also describes the Underground Railroad and what it was like to be a slave working on plantations during the Civil War.

Monique Prince