1810-09-11 Term Indenture / Promise to Manumit: Cato
- Identifier
- NJS-EVE-01243
- Source
-
Middlesex County Manumissions and Removals, page 321
-
Middlesex County Manumissions and Removals, page 322
-
Manumission of Cato (deed dated 1819-12-13), recorded in Manumissions and Removals Book, p. 321-322. Middlesex County (N.J.) Records, 1688-1929, Vol. XI (MC 784.1). Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.
- Event Description
-
On September 11, 1810, enslaver Elijah Hunt signed a covenant promising to free his enslaved man named Cato after a period of 9 years from this date. Cato was about 21 years old when this agreement was made.
Although the original covenant has not been found, information about this document was recorded when Cato was manumitted in 1819 by the executors of the estate of Elijah Hunt, who was by then deceased. The manumission deed filed in Middlesex County in 1819 stated: "Elijah Hunt late of the Township of North Brunswick in the County of Middlesex New Jersey dec'd, did in his lifetime by writing under his hand & seal covenant & bind himself on the 11th Sept. 1810 to manumit and set free his Negro Slave Cato in nine years from the date thereof, which term hath now expired."
Although Elijah Hunt died in North Brunswick in 1818, he had been a resident of South Brunswick Township in the early 1810s. Thus, the original covenant was most likely signed in South Brunswick. - Event Type
- Term Indenture
- Promise to Manumit
- Date
- September 11, 1810 – September 11, 1819
- Location of Event
- South Brunswick
- Related Place
- North Brunswick
- Following Event
- 1819-12-13 Manumission: Cato
- Primary Participants
-
Cato (b. 1789)
Person identifier: NJS-PER-01430
Role: Indentured Person
Age: 21
Status: Enslaved
Enslaver(s) of this participant:
- Elijah Hunt (1781-1818)
Verbatim description from source:
"Negro Slave Cato" - Additional Participants
-
Elijah Hunt (1781-1818)
Person identifier: NJS-PER-00210
Role: Enslaver, Grantor - Record Contributor
- Jesse Bayker