Essex County
- Identifier
- NJS-PLC-00058
- Place Type
- County or Parish
- Description
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Essex County is located in Northern New Jersey within the New York metropolitan area. Its county seat is Newark, the state's most populous city today.
Essex was one of the original counties formed in 1683 during the colonial era, and its boundaries have shifted considerably over time, shrinking the county territory. Sections of Essex were given to Bergen and Somerset counties in the first half of the 18th century. The area surrounding Patterson was split off from Essex and given to Passaic County when Passaic was formed in 1837. Then in 1857, half of Essex County split off to form the new Union County. Thus, slavery era records related to present-day Union County and to Patterson (which is in Passaic County today) would be found among Essex County records.
County demographics from the 1800 U.S. census, when slavery in New Jersey reached its peak:
In 1800, Essex County had 1,719 Black residents, ranking 6th in the state by Black population. The number of enslaved persons in the county was 1,521. In terms of population percentages, 7.7% of the residents were Black, and 6.8% of the residents were enslaved. About 88.5% of the county's Black residents were living in slavery, while 11.5% of Black residents were free; this percentage breakdown closely resembles the bordering counties of Morris and Middlesex. Essex had 198 free Black residents. It was the second most populous county in the state (after Sussex) with a total population of 22,269. - County (Modern)
- Essex County
- State or Province
- New Jersey
- Country
- United States of America
- Related Place
- New Barbadoes
- Latitude
- 40.737696
- Longitude
- -74.179065
- Record Contributor
- Jesse Bayker
- Linked Places
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Places located in Essex County:
Places that were historically in Essex County, but are now associated with a different county:
- Acquackanonk
- Elizabeth (formerly Elizabethtown)
- Little Falls
- Paterson
- Rahway
- Scotch Plains
- Springfield (Union County)
- Union (formerly Connecticut Farms)
- Westfield
Places formed from a portion of Essex County or formerly associated with this place:
- Linked Events
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To see all events that occurred in this county, visit the Events browsing page and filter the records by county.
- Resource class
- Location