Dan has an interesting hypothesis regarding the father of Gentleman Jim, however, I have a different hypothesis. First of all the Jim he speaks of could very well be James Robinson, who took on the Robinson name in honor of the private tutor of Bladen and Tasco Carter who also taught Jim. Yes, Landon Carter of Sabine Hall has been noted as Jim's father, which is not possible, because of his untimely death, long before he could have possibly fathered Jim. Landon Carter, Jr.s sons could have fathered Jim, but if that was that's unlikely, because Jim stated under oath that he was born free, which means that his mother would have had to have been fred prior to his birth. If that's true then Landon Carter, Jr. would have "lost" two slaves because of the indiscretion of one of his sons, which seems unlikely. He also gave him approximately 4 acres of land at birth. So, here we have him not only losing the service of two valuable slaves, but also given away a precious commodity and then allowing him to be educated by a private tutor. When I add all of this up it does not seem likely that he went to all this trouble, expense and defiance of practiced norms because of the indiscretion of one of his sons. The ability of a 60 year old man to father a child is certainly not unheard of. I have a cousin of that age who could certainly fall into that category. In my estimation the father of James Robinson was definitely Landon Carter, Jr. By the way the information you found on the Natl. Park Service website may be based on a genealogy that was produced by the Robinson-Naylor-Harris Family that had a number of inaccuracies, including the father of James Robinson. I haven't come across the information you mentioned about who owned Susan Gaskins prior to Gentleman Jim's birth. What source are you using for Susan Gaskins owner?

Kofi Khemet