Percussion Rifle and Bullet Mold

James Monroe Jones, a Black American from North Carolina born into slavery in 1821 and freed in 1842–43, made this rifle and bullet mold, probably around 1859. Over the course of his career, Jones worked as a gunsmith and engraver in Ohio, California, Oregon, and Chatham, Ontario, Canada. His firearms were celebrated during his lifetime through their display at international and domestic exhibitions, through prestigious commissions including a pair of pistols, now lost, for Prince Albert Edward (future King Edward VIII) (1841–1910), and through written accounts published in prominent periodicals.

Jones was one of the few Black gunsmiths working in North America during the mid-nineteenth century—a period when gun ownership by Black people was prohibited in the United States by state “Slave Codes” until the Civil War. He became known for his silver-mounted and engraved Derringer pistols, several of which survive in private collections. His long guns are rarer, and include examples in the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, and The Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society & Black Mecca Museum in Chatham. This rifle is distinguished by decorative elements his other known long guns lack, namely gracefully formed blued steel and silver furniture, fine engraving on the mounts, lock, and barrel, and platinum inlay. Both the rifle and bullet mold are signed “J. M. JONES CHATHAM.”

Jones’s gunsmithing accomplishments and remarkable life, including his involvement in significant abolitionist events and his close relationship with John Brown (1800–1859), as well as his views on contemporary political and social issues, are well documented through his preserved correspondence, newspaper articles, and opinion pieces that he published in periodicals [1].

Jones’s father, a blacksmith, purchased his son's freedom together with that of his two brothers and mother around 1842–43. In 1843 Jones moved with his family to Oberlin, Ohio where he enrolled in Oberlin College in 1844. He earned a BA in Classical Studies in 1849, becoming the college’s fourth Black graduate. Jones moved to Chatham, Ontario, in the early 1850s. Period accounts of his work confirm that by that time he had already established a reputation as an excellent gunsmith. In 1855, the African American abolitionist Samuel Ringgold Ward (1817–ca. 1866) wrote that Jones “stands head and shoulders above any gun-smith west of London,” and “has not his superior as a gunsmith in Canada, if indeed North America” [2]; and an 1858 New York Daily Tribune article described Jones’s gun-shop, detailing the quality of his firearms and their engraving and recounting a conversation between the author and Jones about his background and training [3].

A letter by Jones published in The New York Times describes John Brown’s month long stay in Jones’s family home in the lead up to the abolitionist convention Brown organized in Chatham in the late Spring of that year [4]. Jones, who became Brown’s friend and confidante, states that Brown “called almost daily at my gun-shop and spoke of the great subject that lay uppermost in his mind [i.e., the liberation of slaves in the United States], plans, &c, and I will also add that he brought his plans with him and presented them to the convention, and only asked for their approval” [5]. Jones also offers an account of Brown’s personal demeanor [6].

Jones signed what became known as the Chatham Constitution, which adopted the Provisional Constitution and Ordnances for the People of the United States. It called for the creation of a fortified haven in the Virginia mountains where enslaved people could arm and prepare themselves to fight for abolition. Jones also supported Brown’s cause by spending May 1858 “cleaning and repairing the revolvers and other arms belonging to the abolitionist’s party” [7]. The next year, Brown led the raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry in October 1859 with the intention of arming enslaved people and starting a liberation movement throughout the South. He was hanged for treason on December 2, 1859.

Jones, who did not participate in the raid, had left Chatham in August 1858 for the American Pacific Coast. The Chatham newspaper Provincial Freeman reported in an article titled “A Noble Act” that during one stop on this trip, in Charleston, South Carolina, Jones witnessed brutal treatment of group of enslaved people—a man, woman, and four children—who were about to be sent to Macon, Georgia. Jones and several of his associates followed the group to Georgia where, according to the article, “…J. M. Jones, went forward and purchased them all for the various sums, the man $1600, the woman $800, and the four children $2150…. paid for their passage to Liverpool, and sent them off in the first vessel. The children were taken from home by the Traders without their parents knowledge, and are now separated by a broad Ocean, but are free…” [8].

Jones arrived in San Francisco in September 1858 where he worked as a gunsmith for a short period. He moved on to Portland, Oregon, where he was selected to represent the State of Oregon at the 1859 California State Fair and asked to display a Derringer pistol. The pistol he made won a silver medal, praised as “a most excellent piece of work. It shows great perseverance, ingenuity and skill, having been made entirely with tools of his own manufacture…” [9]. Jones then moved back to Canada where he exhibited a pair of Derringer pistols at the Industrial Exhibition in Montreal in August, 1860. That year he also made the aforementioned pair of gold-mounted Derringer pistols for presentation to Prince Albert Edward on the occasion of the royal’s visit to Chatham in September. An article in the Chatham Daily Planet reported that the presentation was cancelled at the last moment, however [10]. From 1861 Jones permanently returned to Chatham to work as a gunsmith and continue to exhibit arms.

In September 1864, at the Provincial Exhibition held in Hamilton, Ontario, he was awarded a diploma and cash prize for “Best-fire-arms, an assortment” [11]. After a long career, Jones died in his son’s home in Ann Arbor, Michigan on November 7, 1905.


[1] For Jones’s biography, see Herbert Houze, “Canada's Black Gunmakers and their Work on the US Pacific Coast, 1850–62.” Man at Arms for the Gun and Sword Collector, Vol. 34, No. 4, August 2012, p. 14–20, 39–40. The biography provided here is summarized from Houze.

[2] Houze 2012, pp. 15–16, 40. Samuel Ringgold Ward. Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro: His Anti-Slavery Labours in the United States, Canada & England (John Snow; London: 1855), p. 192.

[3] Houze 2012, p. 16, 40. New-York Daily Tribune, “The Exiled Negroes in Canada…II. The Negroes of Hamilton and Chatham,” Vol. XVII, No. 5159 (November 2, 1857), p. 6, col. 2.

[4] Houze 2012, pp. 16–17, 40. James Monroe Jones, “John Brown’s Plans. The Meetings in Chatham, Ontario – Statement of One of His Confidential Friends,” The New York Times, August 19, 1883.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Houze 2012, p. 17, 40. James Cleland Hamilton, “John Brown in Canada,” The Canadian Magazine of Politics, Science, Art and Literature, Vol. IV, No. 2 (December, 1894), p. 132.

[8] Houze 2012, p. 18, 40. Provincial Freeman (Chatham, C. W.), “A Noble Act,” January 29, 1859.

[9] Houze 2012, p. 18, 40. Transactions of the California State Agricultural Society, during the Year 1859 (C. T. Botts; Sacramento, CA: 1860), p. 248.

[10] Houze 2012, p. 40. Chatham Daily Planet [Chatham, C. W.], “What about Pistols,” September 29, 1860.

[11] Houze 2012, p. 19. The Canada Farmer; a Fortnightly Journal of Agriculture, Horticulture, and Rural Affairs, “The Prize List…Class XLVIII. – Metal Work (Miscellaneous),” Vol. 1, Nos. 20 and 21 (November 1, 1864), p. 334, col. 1.