 first half of the 19th century. When John Jacobs arrived, he probably actually knew both from the sailing men in his family and from his ancestors that New Bedford was the place to go to, because actually his great-grandfather in 1791 escaped to New Bedford too. There are some things that he did not expect, though. He probably didn't know that someone named Frederick Bailey, who became known as Frederick Douglass, had just escaped there himself in 1838.