Jane Elizabeth Manning James

Jane Elizabeth Manning James (1822 – April 16, 1908), fondly known as "Aunt Jane", was an early African-American member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and traveled to Utah as a pioneer. She lived with Joseph Smith and his family for a time in Nauvoo, Illinois. She traveled with her family to Utah, spending the winter of 1846–1847 at Winter Quarters, and was among the first of the pioneers to enter the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.

Early life in Connecticut Jane Elizabeth Manning James was born in Wilton, Connecticut, to Isaac Manning and Eliza Phyllis Mead. Although late in Jane's life her brother Isaac stated that she had been born in 1813, there are source discrepancies that place her birthday anywhere from September 22, 1812, to the year 1820 or 1822 (the latter being asserted on her gravestone ). She was raised by the Fitches' daughter and lived with them for the next thirty years. Little is known about Jane's life with the Fitches other than she worked as a servant: cooking, cleaning, and ironing, etc. While with the Fitches, Jane was also brought up as a Christian, and she was baptized into the Presbyterian Church at about 14 years old. James' relationship with Perkins lasted less than two years, the couple divorced in 1876, after which time she reverted to her former married name. Church President Joseph F. Smith spoke at her funeral, where he declared that she would receive all her temple blessings in the eternities and become a "white and beautiful person," reflecting the theology of the Church on race at the time. According to The Deseret News, her funeral was attended by many.

Sealing as a servant in the Smith family James continued to ask that she and her family be given the ordinance of adoption so that they could be sealed together forever. Her justification for asking to be the exception to the church's rule was Emma Smith's offer in 1844 to have her sealed to the Smith family as a child. Referring back to Smith's original offer, James made a request to apostle John Taylor in 1884 to be sealed to the Smith family, which later denied. The ceremony took place on May 18, 1894, with Joseph F. Smith acting as proxy for Joseph Smith, and Bathsheba W. Smith acting as proxy for James (who was not allowed into the temple for the ordinance). In the ceremony, James was "attached as a Servitor for eternity to the prophet Josep Smith and in this capacity [...] connected with his family[, to] be obedient to him in all things in the Lord as a faithful Servitor."

James was dissatisfied with that unique sealing ordinance, and applied again to obtain the sealing that was offered to her by Emma. According to the diary of Franklin Richards, the LDS First Presidency met on August 22, 1895, to consider her appeal, but again turned her down. James made her final written petition in August 1903 to then-church president Joseph F. Smith, asking him to allow her to "finish the work I have begun for my dead." One side of the monument commemorates an incident documented in 1850, in which Jane shared half of her flour supply with by Mormon pioneer Eliza Partridge Lyman, who wrote:

April 13: Brother Lyman [Eliza's husband] started on a mission to California with O. P Rockwell and others. May the Lord bless and prosper them and return them in safety. He left us ... without anything to make bread, it not being in his power to get any.

April 25: Jane James, a colored woman, let me have two pounds of flour, it being about half she had.A second bronze plaque, containing quotations from James and significant dates and events from her life, was placed on the back of the monument. In April 2005, the graves and monument were again cleaned and sealed.

On October 12, 2018, a feature-length film was released about James's relationship with Emma Smith, entitled Jane and Emma. The film was directed by Chantelle Squires, with a screenplay by Melissa Leilani Larson and starred Danielle Deadwyler.