Cooper Street Ferry, Camden
- Identifier
- NJS-PLC-00401
- Place Type
- Port
- Alternate Name
- Old Ferry
- Located In
- Camden
- Description
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Cooper Street Ferry is a historical site in Camden where captive Africans were sold after disembarking from slave-trading ships. No physical features of the ferry site remain, but a historical plaque was erected in 2017 to mark the site. The historical marker is located in the southwest section of Johnson Park, at the corner of Cooper Street and Front Street. This location is part of the Rutgers University–Camden campus. Two related historical markers also memorialize the nearby Federal Street Ferry and Cooper's Poynt Ferry locations.
The historical marker text reads as follows:
"African slavery in New Jersey began with early European settlement. By 1766, circa 800 captive people had been sold here at Coopers Street Ferry and two other near ferry landings. In Africa, approximately 24 million men, women and children marched to coastal prisons. Only half survived the journey. These 12 million survivors then endured deplorable conditions on the Middle Passage ocean crossing, where an additional 2 million died from disease, malnutrition, dehydration, drowning, suicide and abuse. By 1800, New Jersey enslaved African population exceeded 12,000. New Jersey was the last Northern state to emancipate, adopting gradual abolition in 1804 and finally ratifying the 13th Amendment on January 23, 1866."
The ferry at the foot of Cooper Street was the oldest of the ferries operated by the Cooper family during the colonial era. It was the first river crossing to connect New Jersey and Philadelphia. After crossing the Delaware River, the ferry boat would stop at the foot of Arch Street on the Philadelphia side. The ferry crossing was originally established by William Roydon, who acquired a license to operate a ferry in 1688. By 1693, William Roydon sold the ferry and the surrounding land to William Cooper (1632-1710), who quickly transferred it to his son Daniel Cooper (1673-1715), setting up Daniel as the ferry operator. After Daniel Cooper's death, his son William Cooper operated the ferry and expanded the family's land holdings along the waterfront. It is during William Cooper's tenure that we find the earliest documentary evidence of slave trading at this location in 1727.
By 1728, William Cooper's cousin Benjamin Cooper (d. 1772) was operating a second ferry at Cooper's Poynt. William Cooper's original ferry location became known as "the old ferry." In the 1740s, William's son Daniel Cooper (d. 1776) also went into the ferry business, acquiring land from his father and establishing a ferry terminal at the foot of the present-day Federal Street. For information about these other ferry terminals and the slave trading activities that took place there, see the related records for Cooper's Poynt Ferry and Federal Street Ferry.
During the colonial era, the area surrounding the Cooper family's network of ferries was known as Newton Township, and it was officially part of Gloucester County. The waterfront area across from Philadelphia was generally referred to as Cooper's Ferry, but Cooper's Ferry was not incorporated as a distinct municipality. Thus, slavery records for this location may be found among Newton Township and Gloucester County records. The growth of Cooper's Ferry after the Revolution gave rise to the City of Camden, which was incorporated in 1828. Camden County broke off from Gloucester County in 1844. All of the Cooper family's ferries were located within the boundaries of present-day Camden City in Camden County. - Locality
- Camden
- County (Modern)
- Camden County
- County (Historical)
- Gloucester County
- State or Province
- New Jersey
- Country
- United States of America
- Latitude
- 39.948009
- Longitude
- -75.125982
- References
-
"Enslaved Africans Sold Here," Camden County Historical Society, https://cchsnj.org/enslaved-africans-sold-here/.
Garry Wheeler Stone, Coopers Ferry During the American Revolution, Report to the American Battlefield Protection Program, the National Park Service, September 28, 2015, https://www.camdennj.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Coopers-Ferry-during-the-American-Revolution-2015.08.17.pdf.
"Enslaved Africans Once Sold Here," Cooper Street Ferry location, Historical Marker Database, https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=145252.
- Record Contributor
- Jesse Bayker
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