Gloucester-Atlantic County NJ Archives History .....Slavery In Old Gloucester 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 2, 2008, 12:15 pm

Slavery in Old Gloucester*
* By FRANK H. STEWART.

    Slavery existed here as elsewhere in New Jersey, but there is plenty of
evidence to show that many of the slave owners were opposed to it.

    In a dilapidated book in the basement vault of the Gloucester County Court
House, at Woodbury, is a record of a few of the slaves who were freed.

    According to this book it was somewhat of a formality to free a slave. The
owner would appear with the slave before two of the overseers of the township
and two of the Justices of the Peace, who would examine the slave for soundness
of mind and body and age, to determine capacity for self support. The names of
most of the slaves were fanciful or Biblical, such as Ishmael, Levi, Jeremiah,
Aaron, Roger, Tab, Flora, Violet, Rintha, Phillis, Boston, Coffee, Tabby, etc.,
etc.

    There were a few slaves in New Jersey at the outbreak of the Civil War, and
it is not unlikely that some of them were owned in the confines of Old Gloucester.

    The first record in the Manumission Book is John Gill, Sr., who freed a
slave on Nov. 23, 1787.

    Joseph Hugg, March 26, 1788.

    Lize Smith late Price, widow of Robert Friend Price, Esq., Blanche Price,
Hannah Albert late Price and Mary Price, freed a slave May 24, 1788.

    Hannah Wilkins, late Hannah Matlack, widow of Joseph, freed one on Dec. 7,
1789.

    Amy Hunter, Jan'y 6, 1791.

    Hugh Creighton, Apr. 18, 1791.

    David Cooper and Samuel Allinson, on Dec. 27, 1774 freed a negro woman named
Catherine, and her five children born on various dates ranging from 1758 to 1772.

    The following persons also set slaves free on the dates mentioned:

Joseph Bates, Aug. 12, 1791.
Joseph Hugg and Elizabeth Hugg, Dec. 1, 1789.
Susannah Taylor, Oct. 22, 1789.
James Hurley, Jan. 3, 1782.
John Gill, May 31, 1792.
Jacob Stokes, May 31, 1792.
Edward Gibbs, Aug. 30, 1792.
Marmaduke Cooper, Dec. 17, 1792.
Joseph Hugg, July 16, 1793.
David Davis and Rachel his wife, March 25, 1794.
Thomas Wilkins, June 9, 1794.
Joseph Cooper, Dec. 15, 1796.
Elizabeth Room and Barzilla Room, July 17, 1795.
William Eldredge, July 29, 1791.
Susannah Taylor, Oct. 11, 1791.
Thomas Carpenter, March 2, 1792.
Thomas Clark, July 4, 1800.
Joseph Hugg, Esq., Apr. 4, 1800.

    Abigail Ellis, John Blackwood and Samuel Ellis, Administrators of the estate
of Joseph Ellis, dec'd Aug. 20, 1801.

Henry Roe, Aug. 14, 1801
Elisha Clark, June 20, 1802.
Isaac Mickle, April 14, 1803.
James B. Caldwell and Solomon Combs, Dec. 3, 1803.
Elisha Clark, acting Execr. of Elijah Clark, Dec'd, Dec. 6, 1802.
Randall Sparks, Execr. of John Sparks, Esq., Dec'd Mar. 30, 1804.
Samuel W. Harrison, Sept. 8, 1804.
Joseph Hugg and Elizabeth Hugg, Dec. 1, 1790.
James Stratton, June 23, 1806.
John and Jacob Stokes, Execrs. of Jacob Stokes, May 14, 1805.
Beulah Graisebury, widow of James, Oct. 3, 1807.
Abigail Stokes, widow of Jacob, Oct. 3, 1807.
James Hurley, Dec. 24, 1807.
Henry Wood, Nov. 18, 1807.
John Browning, June 3, 1809.
Wm. Hugg, Aug. 4, 1812.
Stuard Beatty, Sept. 28, 1812.

    The slave record book is apparently very incomplete because it will be
noticed that some of the freedom papers were not recorded until several years
after they were granted. Any one interested in the question of slavery should
search the unrecorded papers that number thousands and are stowed away in fifty
large boxes in the Court House Building, covering a period of over two hundred
years.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

NOTES ON
Old Gloucester County
NEW JERSEY

HISTORICAL RECORDS PUBLISHED BY
THE NEW JERSEY SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA

VOLUME I

   Compiled and Edited by
FRANK H. STEWART
HISTORIAN OF THE SOCIETY
1917

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