1797 Registration: primarily French households with enslaved people in Burlington
- Identifier
- NJS-EVE-01986
- Source
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Report of Blacks in Burlington and Willingborough
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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 created a report enumerating Black people who lived in Burlington, Burlington County, New Jersey. The report is undated. Other documents in the same file suggest that the society collected these reports circa 1797–1798.
The report enumerated people in three separate columns: free Black American households, American (primarily English-speaking) households with slaves, and French (Francophone) households with slaves. This Registration event compiles data from the third column of the report, which was marked "French." This represents primarily Francophone families that held people in slavery. The French residents of Burlington at this time were planter expatriates from Saint-Domingue who relocated to New Jersey during the Haitian Revolution. For additional information about the other people mentioned in the report, see the two related events (linked below) for free Black people and American (English-speaking) enslaved people.
The "French" column enumerated a total of 24 enslaved people, 12 male and 12 female. The households are listed by family name only. The names of the enslaved Black people were not written down; only the name of the enslaver is provided. Following the name, the scribe recorded how many male and female enslaved people were in each household (written as "mail" or "femail"). The ages of the enslaved people are not indicated, so it is not possible to know whether most of these people were adults or children.
Note that the scribe who compiled the Burlington report used highly idiosyncratic spellings, and the author's handwriting was less neat than the other reports received by the New Jersey Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. The New Jersey Slavery Records team has attempted to decipher as many names as possible, but some unusual spellings and errors of transcription are sure to persist. We invite local researchers to contact us with any corrections or additional information about the people whose names are listed here.
The full transcript of the "French" column is as follows:
"2 - 1 Mail 1 Femail
Barbaroosh 5 - Mail 2 femail 3
Hodkinson 1 femail
Convershier 1 Mail
Decrabo 3 Mail 2 femail 1
Kings 2 femail
Treet 1 Mail
Rosses 6 Mail 3 femail 3
at Bridg 1 Mail
Elton House 1 femail
Factory 1 Mail"
The first row did not contain a name, and simply listed 2 people (1 male and 1 female) without indicating which household they belonged to. This was followed by the names Barbaroosh (undoubtedly referring to the area's most prominent French enslaver Jean Andre Barbarroux), Hodkinson (probably Hodgkinson), Convershier (a possible bastardization of a French name), Decrabo (matching a Monsieur Decrabo in Burlington tax ratables), King (matching Madam King in Burlington tax ratables), Treet, and Rosses.
The last three rows are referring to places, rather than family names: at Bridge, Elton House, and Factory. Whether the people who served at these locations were from the French households is not known. This is the only place in the document where several enslaved people were listed by location rather than by household name. - Event Type
- Registration
- Date
- 1797 – 1798
- Date Certainty
- Approximate
- Location of Event
- Burlington
- Related Place
- Haiti
- Related Event
- 1797 Registration: free Black people in Burlington
- 1797 Registration: English households with enslaved people in Burlington
- Primary Participants
-
1 male and 1 female enslaved persons
Role: Registered Person
Status: Enslaved
Comment: household name not recorded, listed as: 2 - 1 Mail 1 Femail2 male and 3 female persons enslaved by Jean Andre Barbarroux
Role: Registered Person
Status: Enslaved
Enslaver(s) of this participant:
- Jean Andre Barbarroux (d. 1825)
Comment: listed as: Barbaroosh 5 - Mail 2 femail 31 female person enslaved in the Hodkinson household
Role: Registered Person
Status: Enslaved
Enslaver(s) of this participant:
- Hodkinson
Comment: listed as: Hodkinson 1 femail1 male person enslaved in the Convershier household
Role: Registered Person
Status: Enslaved
Enslaver(s) of this participant:
- Convershier
Comment: listed as: Convershier 1 Mail2 mail and 1 female persons enslaved in the Decrabo household
Role: Registered Person
Status: Enslaved
Enslaver(s) of this participant:
- Monsieur Decrabo
Comment: listed as: Decrabo 3 - Mail 2 femail 12 female persons enslaved in the King household
Role: Registered Person
Status: Enslaved
Enslaver(s) of this participant:
- Madam King
Comment: listed as: Kings 2 femail1 male person enslaved in the Treet household
Role: Registered Person
Status: Enslaved
Enslaver(s) of this participant:
- Treet
Comment: listed as: Treet 1 Mail3 male and 3 female persons enslaved in the Ross household
Role: Registered Person
Status: Enslaved
Enslaver(s) of this participant:
- Ross
Comment: listed as: Rosses 6 Mail 3 femail 31 male person enslaved at Bridge
Role: Registered Person
Status: Enslaved
Comment: listed as: at Bridg 1 Mail1 female person enslaved at Elton House
Role: Registered Person
Status: Enslaved
Comment: listed as: Elton House 1 femail1 male person enslaved at Factory
Role: Registered Person
Status: Enslaved
Comment: listed as: Factory 1 Mail - Additional Participants
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Jean Andre Barbarroux (d. 1825)
Person identifier: NJS-PER-02612
Role: EnslaverHodkinson
Person identifier: NJS-PER-05610
Role: EnslaverConvershier
Person identifier: NJS-PER-05611
Role: EnslaverMonsieur Decrabo
Person identifier: NJS-PER-05612
Role: EnslaverMadam King
Person identifier: NJS-PER-05613
Role: EnslaverTreet
Person identifier: NJS-PER-05614
Role: EnslaverRoss
Person identifier: NJS-PER-05615 - Record Contributor
- Jesse Bayker
