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Autobiographical book by Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, alias James Albert. The autobiography is widely recognized as the first book published by an author of African descent in Britain. In his narrative, Gronniosaw recounted his time as an enslaved man in New Jersey, providing a rare glimpse of what life was like for enslaved people on the Raritan in the middle of the 18th century.
Rutgers researchers who created records about Gronniosaw in the New Jersey Slavery Records database relied on the full-text digital edition created as part of the North American Slave Narratives collection, published by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Abraham Blauvelt used this account book to record the expenses of the Queen's College Building Committee from July 6, 1808, to March 30, 1810. Blauvelt was the chairman of said committee and oversaw the construction of the first permanent building erected for Queen's College (later Rutgers University). This building is now known as Old Queens. There are 148 entries (excluding several corrections) for the building.
Entry 15 and entry 130 (see photographs) indicate payment to Jacob Dunham for the labor of Dunham's enslaved man on the construction site.
The account book also contains a list of subscribers to the newspaper Blauvelt owned, called the Guardian or New Brunswick Advertiser, for the years 1794-1797. Additionally, the book contains a number of miscellaneous memoranda.
Minute book maintained by the Secretary of the African Association of New Brunswick from 1817 to 1824. This bound manuscript volume includes the constitution of the organization, meeting minutes, member rolls, and dues paid. The book contains copies of two speeches given by guests at the annual meetings of the association: the address delivered by the Rev. Jeremiah Gloucester of the Second African Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, on January 1, 1820, and the address delivered by Gustavus V. Caesar, then a student at the Parsippany African School, on January 1, 1821. Additionally, a copy of a letter from Gustavus V. Caesar, read at a meeting of the association's standing committee on February 3, 1821, is in the minute book.
Related to the minute book are several permission slips from enslavers who allowed enslaved Black persons to join the organization. One permission slip is glued inside the book, and several loose permission slips are kept in an unmarked folder inside the same archival collection. Permission slips have been digitized as separate items in the New Jersey Slavery Records database and are listed under Linked Resources.
Page listing the baptisms of Rachel and her children in 1756, from the Christ Episcopal Church Shrewsbury Parish Register for the Colonial era.
The name Robert is inserted in an unusual manner in the date column on the left side of the page, on the same line as the name Johnson. The insertion of the name "Robert" in the date column is not entirely clear in its intent. It is possible that "Robert Johnson" was the full name of the child listed on that line or, alternatively, Robert may have been another (fifth) child of Rachel who was baptized that day.
A transcript of the bill of sale for Genny is published in the 1914 book Memorials of Eminent Yale Men by Anson Phelps Stokes. Stokes does not explain where the original document was found. This note appears below the transcript: "This is a bill of sale to Dickinson of a negro girl. It is entirely in his handwriting, and being dated 1733, is an early document of American slavery."
A hand-written bill of sale for York, a fifty-year-old enslaved man sold by Theodorus Van Dyck to Hendrick Van Dyck. The document is dated July 30th, 1742, and includes the signatures of Theodorus Van Dyck and two witnesses including John Hastier, a prominent silversmith in New York City who frequently used slave labor in his workshop.
The letter was written in Dutch and has been translated by the Rev. Gerard Van Dyke. The translation was printed in the book titled The Diary of Dina Van Bergh. The book indicates that the original letter is housed at Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.
Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh (1736-1790) mentions an enslaved man in a letter to his father Col. Johannes Hardenbergh (1706-1786).
Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh was one of the chief founders of Queen's College (later Rutgers) and served as the school's first president from 1786 to 1790. In 1777, during the Revolutionary War, in a letter to his father, Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh mentioned that he was "writing these words in a hurry while the negro is getting ready to leave," suggesting that an enslaved man was working in the Hardenbergh household at this time.
The letter was written in Dutch. A Dutch transcript and English translation have been provided by archivist Helene Van Rossum.
Letter from Col. John Neilson of New Brunswick to Robert Finley of Princeton, dated February 25, 1794, asking Finley about the possible purchase of an enslaved Black man owned by a Mr. Mattison in Princeton for the price of 90 pounds.
This letter does not mention the name of the Black man, but Robert Finley's reply dated February 27, 1794, provides further details about the man and states that his name is Jef.
Letter from Robert Finley of Princeton to Col. John Neilson of New Brunswick, dated February 27, 1794, in response to Neilson's letter of February 25, 1794. The letter gives Finley's account of speaking with Samuel Snowden and Mr. Mattison about an enslaved man named Jef. The letter mainly details Jef's personal qualities and skills, as Neilson wishes to purchase Jef but has no prior account of him.
The name Samuel Snowden mentioned in the letter likely refers to the Rev. Samuel Finley Snowden (1767-1845), a Presbyterian minister who was studying theology in Princeton at the time and would become the pastor of the Princeton church in 1795.
Original certificate of manumission for Miller, preserved in Neilson Family Papers. A copy of same can be found in the Middlesex County Book of Manumissions on page 359.
Bound manuscript volume containing records of births for African American children born in bondage in Middlesex County after 1804. Beginning on July 4, 1804, enslavers had to report to the County Clerk when an enslaved mother in their household gave birth to a child.
These county records were necessary to prove the child's age and eligibility for emancipation at age 21 (for female children) or age 25 (for male children) under the provisions of the 1804 Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery.
To browse this book, see the link in the "Browse Records" field.
Bound manuscript volume containing copies of legal documents pertaining to slaves in Middlesex County for the period 1800–1825. Legal and historical records often refer to this volume as the "Book of Manumissions." However, only 75% of the records contained in this book are copies of manumissions. The remaining 25% are copies of removal certificates, i.e. documents recording the removal of black children, women, and men out of the State of New Jersey, primarily destined for Louisiana.
These records were maintained by the Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas for Middlesex County. The vast majority of the records are written in the hand of William P. Deare, who was the Clerk of the Court from 1801 to 1825, and who was also a long-time trustee of Queen's College.
The book contains an alphabetical index by first name of the Black person being manumitted or removed. The index is in the front, followed by 438 numbered pages of legal records. Pages 1-10 and 15-22 are blank. Additionally, page 146 is blank and page 147 was skipped by the Clerk, who resumed pagination with number 148. All non-blank pages of the book have been scanned and processed by the Scarlet and Black Research Center team.
See links in the "Browse Records" field for multiple methods of browsing these records.
Sojourner Truth's autobiographical narrative was originally published in the 1850s and subsequently went through many editions during her lifetime and after. Rutgers researchers who created records about Sojourner Truth in the New Jersey Slavery Records database relied on the full-text digital edition created as part of the North American Slave Narratives collection, published by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This digital edition is an annotated reproduction of the 1884 edition of Truth's book; the 1884 edition was the first one published after Truth's death and contained a memorial chapter that highlighted her last years of life. A scan of the 1884 edition is also available through Archive.org.
