Jacob Carter was born into slavery in Albemarle County, Virginia, around 1847. He was owned by John Coles Carter, who owned 103 slaves in Albemarle County in 1850. In 1852, the Carter family migrated from Virginia to Missouri. By the eve of the Civil War, John Coles Carter had 126 slaves working his lands in Pike and Lincoln Counties in Missouri (part of the state’s “Little Dixie” plantation belt), growing tobacco, wheat, and corn.

Jacob Carter enlisted in the 67th USCT Infantry Regiment on January 18, 1864, in Louisiana, Missouri. At the time of his enlistment, he was only 17 years old, and stood 5 feet, 5 inches, with black hair, eyes, and complexion. His owner, John Coles Carter, later explained in a postwar claim that he could not produce records of enlistment for his former slaves because they had fled to Union lines, writing that they enlisted “away from home and without the knowledge of this applicant.”  He was mustered into Company E of the 67th USCT on January 29, at Benton Barracks, Missouri as a private. Shortly before Carter's regiment was formally organized, he contracted a disease and was sent to the Post Hospital in Benton Barracks. Carter passed away on February 17 due to complications from pneumonia.