1797 Registration: free Black people in Willingboro
- Identifier
- NJS-EVE-01981
- Source
-
Report of Blacks in Burlington and Willingborough
-
Report of Blacks in Burlington and Willingborough. Archival location: Burlington County Historical Society. Abolition Collection (MSS 5). Box 1, Folder 1: Negroes Census Records.
- Event Description
-
The New Jersey Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery received a note about the number of Black people in the township of Willingboro, Burlington County, New Jersey. The document is undated. Other documents in the same file suggest that the society compiled reports about free and enslaved residents of Burlington County circa 1797–1798.
No names were recorded for Willingboro, only this brief note suggesting that there was a handful of free Black residents in the township and none enslaved. The note was scribbled on the back of a much more extensive and detailed report for the city and township of Burlington.
Transcript of the note:
"In Willingborough there does not appear to be more than 5 or 6 Blacks, among them one Housekeeper, but no Slaves"
The term "housekeeper" indicates that one person had their own independent home (whether owned or rented) and probably had other family members living with them, while the rest of the Black people in Willingboro lived as servants within white households. - Event Type
- Registration
- Date
- 1797 – 1798
- Date Certainty
- Approximate
- Location of Event
- Willingboro
- Primary Participants
-
5 or 6 free Black residents in Willingboro
Role: Registered Person
Status: Free
Verbatim description from source:
"5 or 6 Blacks among them one housekeeper" - Record Contributor
- Jesse Bayker
