Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Niidae Wiki
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
New Brunswick, New Jersey
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==== Slavery in New Brunswick ==== The existence of an African-American community in New Brunswick dates back to the 18th century, when racial slavery was a part of life in the city and the surrounding area. Local slaveholders routinely bought and sold African American children, women, and men in New Brunswick in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century. In this period, the Market-House was the center of commercial life in the city. It was located at the corner of Hiram Street and Queen Street (now Neilson Street) adjacent to the Raritan Wharf. The site was a place where residents of New Brunswick sold and traded their goods which made it an integral part of the city's economy. The Market-House also served as a site for regular slave auctions and sales.<ref name=SlaveryAndDispossession>{{Cite book|jstor=j.ctt1k3s9r0.9|title=Scarlet and Black: Slavery and Dispossession in Rutgers History|last1=Armstead|first1=Shaun|last2=Sutter|first2=Brenann|last3=Walker|first3=Pamela|last4=Wiesner|first4=Caitlin|publisher=Rutgers University Press|year=2016|editor-last=Fuentes|editor-first=Marisa|location=New Brunswick, NJ|chapter="And I Poor Slave Yet": The Precarity of Black Life in New Brunswick, 1766–1835|pages=91–122|isbn=9780813591520|editor-last2=White|editor-first2=Deborah Gray}}</ref>{{Rp|101}} By the late-eighteenth century, New Brunswick became a hub for newspaper production and distribution. ''The Fredonian'', a popular newspaper, was located less than a block away from the aforementioned Market-House and helped facilitate commercial transactions. A prominent part of the local newspapers were sections dedicated to private owners who would advertise their slaves for sale. The trend of advertising slave sales in newspapers shows that the New Brunswick residents typically preferred selling and buying slaves privately and individually rather than in large groups.<ref name=SlaveryAndDispossession />{{Rp|103}} The majority of individual advertisements were for female slaves, and their average age at the time of the sale was 20 years old, which was considered the prime age for childbearing. Slave owners would get the most profit from the women who fit into this category because these women had the potential to reproduce another generation of enslaved workers. Additionally, in the urban environment of New Brunswick, there was a high demand for domestic labor, and female workers were preferred for cooking and housework tasks.<ref name=SlaveryAndDispossession />{{Rp|107}} The [[New Jersey Legislature]] passed An Act for the [[History of slavery in New Jersey#Abolition of slavery|Gradual Abolition of Slavery]] in 1804.<ref>[http://njlegallib.rutgers.edu/slavery/acts/A78.html An act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180430132826/http://njlegallib.rutgers.edu/slavery/acts/A78.html |date=April 30, 2018 }}, [[Rutgers University Libraries]]. Accessed December 12, 2019.</ref> Under the provisions of this law, children born to enslaved women after July 4, 1804, would serve their master for a term of 21 years (for girls) or a term of 25 years (for boys), and after this term, they would gain their freedom. However, all individuals who were enslaved before July 4, 1804, would continue to be slaves for life and would never attain freedom under this law. New Brunswick continued to be home to enslaved African Americans alongside a growing community of free people of color. The [[1810 United States census]] listed 53 free Blacks and 164 slaves in New Brunswick.<ref name=":0">[http://www.africanafrican.com/folder11/world%20history1/african%20and%20african%20american/african_american_guide.pdf ''New Jersey's African American Tour Guide''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200328043449/http://www.africanafrican.com/folder11/world%20history1/african%20and%20african%20american/african_american_guide.pdf |date=March 28, 2020 }}, New Jersey Commerce and Economic Growth Commission. Accessed December 17, 2014. "At the southern edge of the Gateway Region is New Brunswick, a town with much culture to offer and African American history to explore. African Americans were living here as far back as 1790, and by 1810, the Census listed 53 free Blacks—and 164 slaves—out of the 469 families then living in town. One of the state's oldest Black churches, Mt. Zion A.M.E., at 25 Division Street, was founded in 1825."</ref>
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Niidae Wiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Encyclopedia:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
New Brunswick, New Jersey
(section)
Add topic