A. Hunt was an enslaver who resided in Sussex County, NJ, in the early 19th century. This person submitted two birth certificates for enslaved children to the Sussex County Clerk, both signed only "A. Hunt." These documents do not list a specific locality within Sussex County and do not indicate whether this enslaver was a man or a woman.
Aaron Burr Sr was an enslaver and the second president of Princeton University (then called the College of New Jersey). Born in 1716, he was a Presbyterian minister who pastored a congregation in Newark, New Jersey. He was elected president of the college in 1748 and served until his death in 1757. He initially taught students at his parsonage in Newark, and then in 1756, he oversaw the college's move to its new and permanent campus in Princeton.
Abraham Blauvelt (c. 1764-1838) was an alumnus and trustee of Queen's College (later Rutgers). He was born in Rockland County, NY, and lived most of his life in New Brunswick, NJ, where Middlesex County records indicate that he held people in bondage. He received a degree from Queen's College in 1789 and was elected to the Board of Trustees in 1800, assuming the position of the Secretary of the Board. From 1808 to 1810 he was the chairman of the Building Committee that oversaw the construction of the college's first permanent building, now known as Old Queens. He maintained the financial records related to the construction of the building, which document the college's use of enslaved labor.
Blauvelt was a printer in New Brunswick. He established a newspaper called the Guardian, or, New Brunswick Advertiser, in 1792 and published it for decades, delivering news and advertisements to the surrounding counties. Many advertisements for runaways and slave sales appeared in his newspaper over the years. Blauvelt helped facilitate slave sales for his subscribers. Some sellers did not want to publish their own name and contact information in the newspaper, preferring to keep the transaction more private. In such cases, Blauvelt acted as a middleman, publishing ads that said "Enquire of the printer," and encouraging prospective buyers to come to Blauvelt for more information about the sale.
Abraham S. Barkelew was an enslaver and yeoman who resided in North Brunswick, NJ, in the early 19th century. His family was associated with the area of North Brunswick Township known today as South River.
His family name is variously spelled as Barkelew or Buckelew in historical records.
Abraham Schuyler Neilson (1792-1861) of New Brunswick, NJ, owned at least two enslaved people according to the 1830 federal census. He was the son of Colonel John Neilson (1745-1833), a Revolutionary War hero from New Brunswick. Abraham was the younger brother of James Neilson (1784-1862), a benefactor of Queen's College (Rutgers).
He appears to have been working for a distant cousin named James H. Neilson in the 1820s. A manumission record from 1822 refers to Abraham as "Abraham S. Neilson of the firm of James H. Neilson." The firm of James H. Neilson is not to be confused with the business of Abraham's brother James Neilson (who did not typically use a middle initial). The James H. Neilson referred to here is likely the son of William Neilson (c. 1737–1820), a prominent New York City merchant.
Abraham Shaver (1754-1820) was an enslaver who resided in Stillwater, Sussex County, NJ. He was a prosperous mill owner and a prominent civic leader; he served as an assemblyman in the state legislature in the early 1800s.
His family name was variously spelled Shaver, Shafer, or Schaeffer in local histories and archival documents. He was the son of Casper Schaeffer (1712-1784), a German immigrant who was one of the founders of the village of Stillwater, and Maria Catrina Bernhardt. He married Sarah Armstrong (1761-1827).
In 1784, Abraham inherited from his father a property with a mill along Paulins Kill. This property is now on the National Register of Historic Places and is known as the Casper and Abraham Shafer Grist Mill Complex. See the related place record for the Shafer Grist Mill to learn more about the property and the work performed there. Abraham's work force at the mill included enslaved Black people. Enslaved women and children also performed domestic labor for Abraham and his wife Sarah in their home.
Sussex County birth records of enslaved children contain numerous documents related to Abraham Shaver and the enslaved women, Nance and Betty, who lived in his home in the early 19th century. These county records also mention Betty's husband Nun. Nance and a boy named Bob are also mentioned in Abraham's will, written in 1819, shortly before his death.
The oldest son of Abraham Shaver, Rev. Dr. Casper Schaeffer, wrote a historical sketch about Abraham (and other enslavers in Sussex County). These recollections were penned in 1855 and later published by another descendant William M. Johnson in 1907:
"Slavery formerly existed here to a limited extent. The Van Campens over the mountains, my father and his brothers and my uncles Armstrong, all held slaves of the African race, more or less. My father held at one time, eight or ten of them." (p. 75)
The 1881 book History of Sussex and Warren Counties, New Jersey, by James P. Snell, notes that as many as a dozen enslaved people worked at Abraham Shaver's mill property:
"In 1816 Abraham Shaver and his sons Nathan and Peter had a store, grist-mill, tannery, blacksmith shop, oil mill, carding machines and distillery, at Stillwater, and were largely engaged in farming. They employed a good many people, and among the rest had, in 1816, as many as a dozen slaves. Samuel J. Squires was their blacksmith, and James Beatty their miller." (p. 387)
Abraham Staats (1743-1821) was an enslaver who resided in Franklin Township, Somerset County, in the present-day area of South Bound Brook. His wife was Margaret Du Bois (1749-1822). When Abraham and Margaret married in 1770, they moved into a farmhouse that is now known as the Abraham Staats House, and they lived there for the rest of their lives. Several enslaved people lived and worked in the household with the Staats family well into the 19th century.
The Abraham Staats House is now on the National Register of Historic Places and is open to the public for visitation and educational programming. See the Abraham Staats House website for more information about the Staats family and the ongoing historical research and interpretation work at the site.
Abraham Veghte (1791-1865) was a farmer from Griggstown in Franklin Township, Somerset County, NJ. According to the 1830 federal census for Franklin Township, Abraham Veghte's household consisted of 5 free white persons, 2 enslaved men between the ages of 24 and 35, and 3 persons who were listed as "free colored persons" under the age of 23. The 3 young persons listed as "free" were probably actually "slaves for a term" who awaited their emancipation under New Jersey's gradual abolition program. Since the federal census did not have a category of "slave for a term," these young people would have been listed as "free" belying the reality of their life in bondage.
In December 1838, Abraham Veghte purchased a 20-year-old enslaved man named Mark Harris Jr. from James Neilson (1784-1862) for $20. Under the terms of the sale, Mark Harris Jr. was bound to serve Abraham Veghte for a partial term of 4 years and 7 months. Mark Harris Jr. was a "slave for a term" and would become eligible for emancipation once he attained the age of 25.
Abraham Woodruff was a white man who resided in Trenton, NJ, in the early 19th century. He had a Black boy named Charles Thompson in his household whom he described as an "apprentice" in an 1817 runaway ad.
Absalom Brainbridge was an enslaver who lived at the Bainbridge House in Princeton in the 1770s. He was born in Maidenhead (now Lawrence) in 1742 and graduated from Princeton University (then called the College of New Jersey) in 1762. After pursuing medical training in New York, came back to New Jersey to practice medicine in Maidenhead and then in Princeton, where he lived at the aforementioned Bainbridge House on Nassau Street. There he held in slavery a Black man named Prime. Bainbridge was a British Loyalist, and he relocated to Flatbush in Kings County (present-day Brooklyn) during the American Revolution in 1777, taking Prime with him. Prime ran away from Bainbridge in 1778 and eventually attained freedom for his patriotic service during the Revolutionary War.
Albert P. Voorhees was an enslaver who resided in Somerset County, NJ, in the early 19th century. He lived around the area of Harlingen (in present-day Montgomery Township).
Alexander Robinson was an enslaver who resided in Morristown, New Jersey, in the late 18th century. In a 1792 newspaper ad, he identified his residence as Belment Farm in Morristown.
Allen Reynolds was an enslaver who resided in Palmyra, Mississippi (present-day Davis Island). Removal certificates issued in Middlesex County, New Jersey, show that his associate Lewis Compton intended to bring a group of enslaved people from New Jersey to Allen Reynolds as part of a slave trading operation assisted by the legal machinations of Judge Jacob Van Wickle.
Alpheus Freeman was an enslaver in New Brunswick, NJ. He was born in 1766, probably in Metuchen, NJ (which was part of Woodbridge Township at the time). He attended Queen's College (now Rutgers University), receiving his degree in 1788, after which he established a law practice in New Brunswick. He married Mary Parker in Philadelphia in 1803. He owned several properties in New Brunswick, including a large building on the corner of George Street and Prince (now Bayard) Street. He died suddenly on December 29, 1813, aged 47, and was interred with military and masonic honors. Archival documents show that he was the enslaver of a young man named Dick (who ran away) and a young woman who was sold by the executors of his estate to settle Freeman's accounts.
Amy (or Amey) Cheston née Walker was an enslaver who resided in Stony Brook, in the vicinity of Princeton, New Jersey, in the early 19th century. She was the widow of John Cheston.
Andrew Bray was an enslaver who lived in Hunterdon County, NJ, in the early 19th century. His exact place of residence is unclear from the historical records. Several men known as Andrew Bray lived in Hunterdon County at that time, all grandsons and great-grandsons of the Baptist minister Rev. John Bray. The Bray family was associated with Kingwood, Locktown, and Lebanon localities in Hunterdon County, and primarily engaged in farming.
Andrew Kirkpatrick (1756-1831) was a prominent New Brunswick lawyer and politician with deep ties to Queen's College (later Rutgers University). He enslaved multiple people in his household. In the first two decades of the 19th century, he manumitted several individuals.
In the 1780s, Andrew Kirkpatrick was a teacher at the Queen's College grammar school. In 1783, he was the first person to receive an honorary degree from Queen's College. In 1797 be became a member of the New Jersey General Assembly, and a year later he was appointed as a judge to the New Jersey Supreme Court. He served as the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court from 1804 to 1825.
Andrew Kirkpatrick served as a trustee of Queen's College from 1792 to 1809. During his time as a trustee, he was instrumental in reviving the struggling college. He worked with the Reverend Ira Condict to raise funds for the erection of a new building for the college (now called Old Queens building). Andrew Kirkpatrick then sent his son John Bayard Kirkpatrick to study at the college in the 1810s.
Andrew Kirkpatrick's oldest son Littleton Kirkpatrick carried on his father's legacy in supporting the college; he served as a trustee of the college from 1841 until his death in 1859. Having no surviving heirs when they died, Littleton Kirkpatrick and his wife Sophia Astley Kirkpatrick left their fortune to the college. Their donation was used to build the Kirkpatrick Chapel on campus.
Andrew McDowell was a resident of Middlesex County, New Jersey. He served as the Justice of the Peace for the county and the Overseer of the Poor of South Brunswick in the early 19th century. In this official capacity, he issued manumission certificates for residents of South Brunswick whose enslavers agreed to set them free.
Middlesex County records indicate that Andrew McDowell was an enslaver.
Ann Henderson was an enslaver who resided in Alexandria, Hunterdon County, NJ, in the early 19th century. She died circa 1805, and her will (written in 1802) required that her estate should be sold off and proceeds divided among her heirs. There was at least one enslaved Black woman in her household at the time of her death, whose name has not been confirmed.
Ann Henderson was the widow of Nathaniel Coleman, who died circa 1756, and widow of James Henderson, who died in circa 1792.
Ann Berrien (née Hepburn) was the wife of Samuel Berrien (c. 1766-1830) of East Windsor, NJ. Jointly with her husband, she manumitted a woman named Martha Richards in 1805.
Middlesex County records contain several birth certificates and manumission certificates for an enslaver named Ann Parker, who was listed as a widow and dowager in the 1810s, residing in the City of New Brunswick within North Brunswick Township. These county records likely refer to Ann Parker née Lawrence (daughter of John Lawrence), the wife of John Parker (1763–1801). By marriage to John Parker, she was related to the prominent Parker family of Perth Amboy: she was the sister-in-law of U.S. Congressman and Rutgers University benefactor James Parker Jr. (1776-1868), and the daughter-in-law of James Parker Sr. (1725–1797) and Gertrude Parker née Skinner (1739-1811).
Anna Manning was an enslaver who resided in Piscataway in the early 19th century. She was the wife of William Manning. The Mannings had at least 8 enslaved people in their household in 1814 (as enumerated in the will of William Manning who died that year).
Anthony Lispenard Bleecker was a shipping merchant and real estate auctioneer in New York City. He served as a major during the Revolutionary War, and his family lived in New Jersey while the British troops occupied New York City during the war. He was one of the wealthiest and most powerful real estate and stock brokers in New York City in the late 18th century. Bleecker Street in Manhattan is named for him.
In 1787, he sold an enslaved woman named Flora and her daughters Ann and Phillis to John Neilson, an early trustee and benefactor of Queen's College (later Rutgers University).
Appollo Woodward was an enslaver who resided in Upper Freehold Township, Monmouth County, NJ, in the early 19th century. He identified his residence as being "near Arney's Town."
Archibald Read was the son of the Rev. Israel Read. He grew up in the 18th century in Bound Brook, NJ, where his father was the pastor of the Presbyterian Church for many years. He and his brother Thomas inherited a man named Tony from the pastor's estate and sold Tony several years later in 1798. The sale took place in New Brunswick, NJ, but Archibald did not personally appear to sign the sale documents. He may have moved away from the area by this time.
His family name is variously spelled Read or Reed in historical documents.
Arietta Smock was an enslaver who resided in North Brunswick, New Jersey, in the early 19th century. She passed away circa 1814, and by her last will and testament she set free a Black woman named Betty.
Asher Applegate was an enslaver who resided in East Windsor, NJ. He wrote his last will and testament in 1832, two years before his death. The will has been transcribed by The Applegate Project. Asher Applegate did not mention enslaved people in his will. Aside from a piece of land in Hightstown, Asher Applegate left all the residue of his estate to his wife Sarah Applegate (who outlived him by about a year and a half). This would include the enslaved persons in the Applegate household, including Jane and her children Francis, Jude, and Tabitha. Asher Applegate's son Abijah Applegate was one of the executors of the estate and handled affairs related to the enslaved people, including reporting the births of Jane's children to the Middlesex County Clerk.
Austin Davis Blackwell was an enslaver who resided in Mapletown in South Brunswick Township, NJ. He was the son of Thomas Blackwell (1741-1825) and Bathsheba Davis Blackwell. He signed a manumission deed for a Black man named Samuel in 1824 as an agent on his father's behalf. Additionally, in 1830, several years after his father's death, Austin reported to the Middlesex County Clerk that a Black woman named Jane had given birth to 6 children between 1809 and 1817 in the Blackwell household. From these birth records, it can be inferred that Jane and her children were enslaved by Thomas Blackwell during Thomas's lifetime and then by Austin Davis Blackwell after 1825.
Barnt DeKlyn was an enslaver who was born in Boston. He moved to New York in the 1760s and subsequently moved to the Trenton area in the 1780s.
DeKlyn acquired his wealth by trading textiles to the Continental Army during the American Revolution. In the 1780s, DeKlyn bought land along the Delaware River outside of Trenton. He is known for building a mansion called Bow Hill, which is on the National Register of Historic Places in present-day Hamilton Township, Mercer County. The mansion was built in 1790 and was a site of enslavement well into the 19th century. The Black woman named Tine, who ran away from DeKlyn in 1818, likely lived and worked at Bow Hill prior to her escape.
Captain Benajah Osmun was a Revolutionary War veteran originally from Hunterdon County, New Jersey. After the war, he worked as the overseer managing the Black labor force for General David Forman, who had an estate in the area of present-day Manalapan (then part of Freehold), Monmouth County, New Jersey. In 1789, Osmun was principally responsible for securing the convoy that took over 60 people from Forman's estate in Monmouth County to Natchez, Mississippi, where David Forman and his brother Ezekiel Forman aimed to establish a tobacco plantation. He settled in Natchez and died there in 1815.
Benjamin James was a Black man born around 1782. He grew up in slavery and was manumitted by enslaver Samuel Eli (or Ely) of East Windsor, NJ, on April 17, 1807. Benjamin James was aged 25 at the time of manumission.
On June 10, 1820, when Benjamin James was about 38 years old, he manumitted an adult Black man named George Wiles. This 1820 manumission certificate listed the enslaver as "Ben James blackman of the township of East Windsor." This is one of two manumissions recorded in Middlesex County where the enslaver performing the manumission is a Black person. It is possible that Benjamin James and George Wiles may have been related. African Americans in the early 19th century sometimes purchased and then manumitted their own family members as a way to secure freedom for their relatives. It is uncertain whether a familial relationship existed between Benjamin James and George Wiles.
Benjamin Marsh lived in Falls, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in the 1810s.
He was the son of John Marsh of Woodbridge, New Jersey. Benjamin inherited ownership of an enslaved man named Peter Furman from his late father. Benjamin proceeded to manumit Peter Furman in Woodbridge in 1814.
Benjamin Taylor was a marine captain who resided in New Brunswick, NJ, in the 1810s. Taylor was the enslaver of a man named Mark Harris. Taylor sold Mark Harris to James Neilson in 1816.
Bowdewine Decker was an enslaver who resided in Wantage, Sussex County, NJ. He was a prosperous farmer who owned over 400 acres of land. He had a store and a distillery on his property.
Mr. Dusenbery was an enslaver who resided in Mansfield Township, Sussex County (now part of Warren County), New Jersey, in the early 19th century. He submitted one birth certificate for an enslaved child to the Sussex County Clerk, and he signed the document with the first initial of his given name, which appears to be "C." His full name is uncertain.
Caesar Trent was a Black man who lived in Princeton, NJ, in the 18th century. His name appeared on the Somerset County tax list starting in 1789. His name also appeared on the 1801 poll list for Montgomery Township, indicating that Ceasar Trent exercised his right to vote. He was married to a woman named Caty.
It appears that Caesar Trent held at least two Black persons in bondage. He published an advertisement offering to sell a Black man in 1795. Additionally, in 1793, a runaway ad for an indented Black man named Will Grigg, published by Edward Dunant in the Trenton newspaper New-Jersey State Gazette, mentioned that Will Grigg had "lately belonged to Caesar Trent, a negro in Princeton."
Caesar Trent is featured in the virtual exhibit When Women Lost the Vote: A Revolutionary Story, 1776-1807, at the Museum of the American Revolution. The virtual exhibit notes that Trent was accused and convicted of receiving stolen goods in 1808 and went to prison in Trenton for a year. The exhibit also discusses his properties in Maidenhead and Princeton and his death and estate settlement in 1813.
Casper Shaver (also Schaeffer, Shafer) immigrated from Germany to Philadelphia around 1738, and shortly thereafter came to settle in Sussex County, New Jersey. He was one of the founders of Stillwater, a rural community in Sussex County. He established a prosperous mill operation and was a civic leader before and during the American Revolution, serving as a delegate to New Jersey's Provincial Congress of 1776. He was an enslaver, according to local and family history books.
He built a mill on the Paulins Kill and a stone house on Main Street. The mill is now on the National Register of Historic Places and is known as the Casper and Abraham Shafer Grist Mill Complex. See the related place record for the Shafer Grist Mill to learn more about the property and the work performed there by enslaved laborers.
Local historians also attribute to him another dwelling, located across the Paulins Kill on Cedar Ridge Road, that is known locally as Casper Shafer's slave quarters, although less information is available about this dwelling and its use.
Charles Hardenbergh (1765-1808) was the son of Johannes Hardenbergh Jr. (1729-1799). He was the nephew of Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh (1736-1790), the first president of Queen's College (later Rutgers).
Upon the death of his father in 1799, Charles Hardenbergh inherited much of his father's estate in Swartekill (near present-day Rifton), a hamlet in Hurley, Ulster County, New York. This estate included Sojourner Truth (who was then an infant known by the name Isabella) and her parents James and Betsey Baumfree.
After Charles Hardenbergh died in 1808, Sojourner Truth and her mother Betsey were both listed as part of his estate inventory, and Sojourner Truth was soon sold as part of the process of settling the estate.
Charles Morgan was a slave trader and owner of a substantial sugar plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. He was originally from South Amboy, New Jersey, the son of Revolutionary War veteran Captain James Morgan Sr. (1734-1784). The area where he grew up later broke off from South Amboy and is now known as Sayreville. He went to Louisiana when he was in his 20s to establish a sugar plantation. By 1809, he had 28 enslaved people on his plantation. He also served as the sheriff of Pointe Coupee Parish.
In 1818, Charles Morgan came to South Amboy with $45,000 that he wanted to invest in an interstate slave trading operation. He knew that he could buy enslaved men, women, and children at cheap prices in New Jersey and sell them for huge profits in Louisiana. He organized an illegal slave trading ring together with his brother-in-law Jacob Van Wickle (the husband of Morgan's sister Sarah) and nephew Nicholas Van Wickle. Jacob Van Wickle exploited his position as Middlesex County Judge of Common Pleas and falsified legal documents to facilitate the shipment of enslaved people from Perth Amboy to Louisiana. The slave trading ring sent over a hundred enslaved people from New Jersey to the Deep South.
Charles Morgan's plantation was known as the Morganza Plantation, and the village of Morganza in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, still carries this name today. By the end of Morgan's life, there were over a hundred enslaved people working on the Morganza plantation.
The Rev. Cornelius C. Vermeule was a Dutch Reformed minister and the son of Revolutionary War Captain Cornelius Vermeule Jr. (1757-1824). He graduated from Queen's College (later Rutgers University) in 1812. After receiving his degree, he served as a tutor at Queen's in 1812-1814, and was the professor of languages in 1814-1815. He then left New Brunswick and became the pastor of the Harlem Reformed Church in 1816.
He was an enslaver. During the time when he taught at Queen's College, he sold a Black man named Prince to John Neilson.
He was the first cousin of Dr. John Vermeule whose house in Green Brook Township is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Cornelius Van Horne (1693-1770) was born into a wealthy slave-trading family in New York. His father, Jan (or John) Van Horne (1669-1735), as well as his uncles Gerrit (1671-1737) and Abraham (1677-1741) and other family members, invested heavily in the slave trade. In the early 18th century, the family's ships transported captives between Africa and the Caribbean (primarily the islands of Barbados and Jamaica) and the ports of New York and Perth Amboy. Sometime in the 1720s, one of these ships brought the captive African named Ukawsaw Gronniosaw from Barbados to New York. Gronniosaw published his autobiography in England in the 1770s, where he made mention of "Vanhorn, a young Gentleman" who bought him from a slave-trading captain in Barbados and would eventually go on to sell him to the Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen, a New Jersey minister.
Ryan Henley's research identifies Cornelius Van Horne as the likely enslaver of Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, and Helene van Rossum further confirms this connection using Somerset County historical documents and maps that intersect with Gronniosaw's narrative. Cornelius Van Horne may have been the merchant who originally brought Gronniosaw to New York from Barbados, or he may have acquired Gronniosaw upon the arrival of one of his family's ships in New York. After Gronniosaw's disembarkation, Van Horne brought him to New Jersey.
Cornelius Van Horne married Elizabeth French in 1718 at the Reformed Dutch Church in New York City and, by this marriage, soon acquired a large property in Somerset County, New Jersey. The property came from the estate of Elizabeth's father, Philip French, who left his children thousands of acres of land in Somerset County. In the 1720s, Cornelius Van Horne and Elizabeth French moved to Somerset County, although it appears that Cornelius continued spending time in New York City, because an advertisement published in 1724 mentioned that he had a "Plantation...on Rariton River" and could also be contacted in New York. The plantation was in a community then known as Raritan (now the area of Finderne in Bridgewater Township). Van Horne's house, known as "Kells Hall," was located very close to the Raritan Church (Reformed Dutch Church of Raritan), which was pastored by the Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen, and the Van Hornes were members of the church. This connection between Van Horne and Rev. Frelinghuysen's Raritan Church is the reason that Cornelius Van Horne is believed to be the enslaver "Mr. Vanhorne" mentioned in Gronniosaw's autobiography.
Gronniosaw's autobiography also mentioned another Black person in Van Horne's household: an old man named Ned, who received a whipping from Van Horne on at least one occasion. Gronniosaw also mentioned multiple other servants, but did not specify whether they were Black.
Cornelius Van Horne was the father of Philip Van Horne (1719-1786), and his son purchased a nearby property in 1751. That property has been preserved and is now on the National Register of Historic Places, known as the "Van Horne House" in Bridgewater.
Cornelius Van Horne died circa 1770, as judged from the fact that his will was proved in May of that year.
