His great great-grandfather owned two slaves in Rutherford County, Tennessee, before the Civil War. In 2008, author Ben Jobe met and became friends with the grandson of one of them, who is also named Ben Jobe. Common Threads, a history of the author's family, spans five generations from the Civil War to the present. The author is a college professor in the Nashville area and a volunteer abolitionist with End Slavery Tennessee, a faith-based nonprofit which fights the growing epidemic of human trafficking in the Volunteer State. His Jobe ancestors include a Civil War hero, merchants and business owners who steered their family's retail store in Paris, Tennessee through the Depression, two World Wars and the Civil- Rights Movement to achieve success over nearly a century. Author Ben Jobe has been a journalist, advertising copywriter and jingle writer, book copy editor and with this book--a published author. He holds graduate degrees in communications and music. Come share the true story of faith, family and friendship that endures through a century and a half of changing times and shows the Common Threads that connect us all.