History of slavery in New Jersey

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Slavery in New Jersey was instituted in the Seventeenth Century (1600–1700) shortly after Dutch first settled in the colony. The English also imported slaves from Africa and in early years impressed Native Americans into slavery, but the latter practice did not continue. Many Dutch and English laborers entered the colony as indentured servants, and worked for a period to pay back their passage. When conditions improved in England and the number of indentured laborers declined, colonists began to import more enslaved Africans to supply labor.

African American slaves fought on both sides of the American Revolution. Many found freedom by service to the British and Loyalists. New Jersey was the last of northern states to abolish slavery, which it did gradually. Starting in 1804, African Americans were born free but required to serve lengthy apprenticeships to adulthood for owners of their mothers.

African Americans fought with the Union Army from New Jersey in the Civil War. In the early 20th century, the number of African Americans in the state rose with the Great Migration, as people came North for jobs and freedoms from Southern segregation and disfranchisement.

Colonial Period

The first African slaves were imported to New Amsterdam (present day New York) and New Jersey by Dutch traders. While there no early Dutch records of slave sales have survived, a 1628 letter by a Dutch minister referred to "the Angolans". English traders continued the practice after taking the colony from the Dutch in 1664.

Early laws of the proprietorship encouraged settlers to import slaves for labor by headrights, or award of allocations of land based on numbers of slaves imported. The first African slaves appearing in English records were owned by Colonel Lewis Morris in Shrewsbury, Monmouth County.[1] According to historian Giles Wright, in 1790 New Jersey's enslaved population numbered approximately 14,000 people. They were virtually all African American.[2] The census, however, recorded 11,423 slaves, 6.2 percent of the total population of 184,139.[3] In the early decades before the Revolution, slaves were numerous near Perth Amboy, a major point of entry, and the eastern counties. Slaves were used for labor in areas of agriculture, including South Jersey, but they also filled skilled artisan jobs in shipyards and industry in coastal cities.

In an attempt to control the Negro slave trade early on, the New Jersey legislature enacted a prohibitive tariff in an effort to encourage white indentured servitude.[4] When the act expired in 1721, the British Government, and its Governor in the colony, countered attempts to renew it, mostly because the slave trade was a Royal monopoly, and thus a lucrative enterprise.[4]

American Revolution

African-American slaves fought on both sides of the Revolution. The British encouraged slaves to join their cause and promised them freedom. Some African Americans returned with the British to England after the close of the war; others were relocated to Nova Scotia, and some to the Caribbean.[1]

Abolition of slavery

New Jersey banned the importation of slaves in 1788, but it also forbade free Negroes from settling in the state.[5] In the years after the American Revolution, with its emphasis on legal equality and the rights of man, legislators in northern states were moved to abolish slavery. The New Jersey state legislature was the last of these, passing a law in 1804 for the gradual abolition of slavery in 1804.[6] The 1804 statute and subsequent laws freed only slaves born after the laws were passed. In addition, African Americans had to serve lengthy apprenticeships to the owners of their mothers. Women were freed at 21, but men were not freed until age 25. Slaves born before these laws were passed were "apprenticed for life."

Although at first New Jersey allowed black men to vote, in 1807 the legislature disfranchised them. In 1830 two-thirds of the persons enslaved in the North were in New Jersey. It was not until 1846 that New Jersey completely abolished slavery.[7]

The Civil War

There were 2,909 US Colored Troops who served with the Union Army from New Jersey during the Civil War. Because of the state's long-term apprenticeship requirements, at the close of the Civil War, there were still some African Americans in New Jersey who were in bondage. Although legally freed, a few African Americans stayed with their former owners after ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, which ended slavery in 1865.[1][8]

In the 1860 census, free colored persons in New Jersey numbered 25,318, about 4% of the state's population of 672,035. By 1870 the number of free colored had increased to 30,658, but they comprised a smaller percentage of the population. Overall population had increased rapidly to 906,096, because of the addition of nearly 200,000 immigrants.[9]

Just as it was slow to abolish slavery, New Jersey at first refused to ratify the 13th Amendment.[1] New Jersey ratified the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution and abolished slavery in January 1866. The fact that some of its industries, such as shoes and clothing, had strong markets in the South supplying planters for their slaves, was probably a factor in its legislative actions. [10]

The Great Migration

African American population in New Jersey grew more rapidly in the early 20th century during the phases of the Great Migration, from 1910-1960. African Americans migrated north for the growing numbers of industrial jobs and to get the right to vote, better education for their children, and improved living conditions. They fled disfranchisement in the South, lynchings, and Jim Crow laws.

1910 - 89,760 total colored, 3.5 percent of population of 2.5 million
1930 - 208,829 total colored, 5 percent of population of 4 million
1960 - 514,875 total colored, 8.5 percent of population of 6.1 million[11]

The New Jersey legislature has not passed formal resolutions of apology for its early support of slavery. It did not retract the last of its pro-slavery laws until 2005, although they had not been enforced for years.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Slavery in New Jersey by Nancy Shakir at Slavery in America. Accessed 24 January 2007. Cite error: The named reference "shakir" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Confronting New Jersey's slave past" by Lawrence Aaron in the Bergen Record, 10 February 2006. Accessed 24 January 2007.
  3. ^ [1] Historical Census Browser, 1790 census. Accessed 28 December 2007
  4. ^ a b Simeon F. Moss The Persistence of Slavery and Involuntary Servitude in a Free State (1685-1866) The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 35, No. 3 (Jul., 1950), p. 294
  5. ^ [2] Slavery in the North. Accessed 28 December 2007
  6. ^ "An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery" (15 February 1804), electronically transcribed text of act of the New Jersey State Legislature published by the New Jersey Digital Legal Library (hosted by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey). Accessed 24 January 2007.
  7. ^ [3] Slavery in the North. Accessed 28 December 2007
  8. ^ According to Snell, James P. History of Sussex and Warren Counties, New Jersey, With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. (Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, 1881). No ISBN (Pre-1964), several families in northwestern New Jersey (Sussex County) had slaves who while legally "freed" by their owners, refused to walk away from their life of servitude to those former owners.
  9. ^ [4] Historical Census Browser, 1860 and 1870 censuses. Accessed 28 Oct 2007
  10. ^ New Jersey ratified the 13th Amendment on 23 January 1866, after having rejected the amendment on 16 March 1865, according to 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, published by the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site Interpretive Staff, National Park Service (no further authorship information available). Accessed 24 January 2007
  11. ^ [5] Historical Census Browser, 1910, 1930 and 1960 censuses. Accessed 28 December 2007

Further reading

  • Burstyn, Joan N. (editor). Past and Promise: Lives of New Jersey Women. (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1997). ISBN
  • Price, Clement Alexander. Freedom Not Far Distant: A Documentary History of Afro-Americans in New Jersey. (Newark, New Jersey: New Jersey Historical Society, 1980). ISBN
  • Snell, James P. History of Sussex and Warren Counties, New Jersey, With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. (Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, 1881). No ISBN (Pre-1964)
  • Wright, Giles R. Afro-Americans in New Jersey (Trenton, New Jersey: Department of State, New Jersey Historical Commission, 1998). ISBN

External links

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