Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847 – April 3, 1882) was an
American outlaw in the state of
Missouri and the most famous member of the
James-Younger Gang. Already a grand celebrity when he was alive, he became a legendary figure of the
Wild West after his death. Recent scholars place him in the context of regional insurgencies of ex-Confederates following the
American Civil War rather than a manifestation of
frontier lawlessness or economic justice.
[1]The James brothers, Frank and Jesse, were Confederate guerrillas during the Civil War, during which they were accused of participating in atrocities committed against Union soldiers. After the war, as members of one gang or another, they perpetrated many bank robberies which often resulted in the murder of bank employees or bystanders. They also waylaid stagecoaches and trains.
Although James has often been mythically portrayed, even prior to his death, as a kind of Robin Hood, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, this is incorrect. His robberies enriched only him and his gang.[2]
Jesse Woodson James was born in Clay County, Missouri, near the site of present day Kearney, on September 5, 1847. Jesse James had two full siblings his older brother, Alexander Franklin "Frank" and a younger sister, Susan Lavenia James. His father, Robert S. James, was a commercial hemp farmer and Baptist minister in Kentucky who migrated to Missouri after marriage and helped found William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri.[1] He was prosperous, acquiring six slaves and more than 100&_160;acres (0.40&_160;km2) of farmland. Robert James travelled to California during the Gold Rush to minister to those searching for gold[3] and died there when Jesse was three years old.[4] After the death of Robert James, his widow Zerelda remarried twice, first to Benjamin Simms and then in 1855 to Reuben Samuel, a doctor. Dr. Samuel moved into the James home.
