1798-03-30 Term Indenture / Promise to Manumit: Rose

Identifier
NJS-EVE-01942
Source
Transcriptions of Early County Records of New Jersey: Gloucester County Series Slave Documents

New Jersey Historical Records Survey Project, Division of Professional and Service Projects, Works Progress Administration. Transcriptions of Early County Records of New Jersey: Gloucester County Series Slave Documents. Newark: Historical Records Survey, 1940. Certificates of Manumission, Document number 22.
Event Description
On 30 March 1798, Rose's enslaver, Solomon Combs, made an indenture agreement regarding Rose's term of service. Rose would serve a man named John Lawrence in Deptford, Gloucester County. (Whether Solomon Combs also lived in Deptford is uncertain.) The term of service was about five and a half years, although the exact expiration date is not known. At the start of this indenture agreement, Rose would have been about 28 years old. At the end of her term, Rose was supposed to be set free.

The details of this indenture agreement were recorded by a man named James B. Caldwell in the manumission documents that were filed for Rose in 1803 after she completed her term of service. Evidently, the indenture agreement gave James B. Caldwell the authority to manumit Rose on behalf of Solomon Combs at the end of Rose's term of service.
Event Type
Term Indenture
Promise to Manumit
Date
March 30, 1798 – 1803
Location of Event
Deptford
Following Event
1803-12-03 Manumission: Rose
Primary Participants

Rose (b. ca. 1770)
Person identifier: NJS-PER-05363
Role: Indentured Person
Age: 28
Status: Enslaved
Enslaver(s) of this participant:
- Solomon Combs
Additional Participants

Solomon Combs
Person identifier: NJS-PER-05357
Role: Enslaver, Grantor
Comment: primary legal owner of Rose promising to manumit after a term of service

John Lawrence
Person identifier: NJS-PER-05361
Role: Enslaver, Grantee
Comment: entitled to Rose's service until she is manumitted

James B. Caldwell
Person identifier: NJS-PER-05362
Role: Agent for Enslaver
Comment: oversaw the manumission of Rose at the end of the term of service
Record Contributor
Jesse Bayker
Resource class
Event