 I'm glad that you focused on the first line because one thing that most slave narratives have in common is they begin with the phrase, I was born. And after that, often they say something like, I can't tell you when. And this is a way of showing the injustice of slavery. However, John Jacobs, to show the injustice of slavery, points straight to the owners, not to knowing when his birthday is, but to the fact that he was owned.