1798-02-22 Registration: free Black people in Nottingham
- Identifier
- NJS-EVE-01998
- Source
-
Letter from George Anderson to Robert Smith: Report of Blacks in Nottingham
-
Letter from George Anderson to Robert Smith: Report of Blacks in Nottingham, February 22, 1798. Archival location: Burlington County Historical Society. Abolition Collection (MSS 5). Box 1, Folder 1: Negroes Census Records.
- Event Description
-
George Anderson provided a report of free and enslaved Black people in Nottingham Township (present-day Hamilton and South Trenton area) to Robert Smith Jr of the New Jersey Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery in 1798. Anderson's letter gave the overall numbers of free, enslaved, and indentured people in the township, but did not list their names or the names of the enslavers.
There were 7 free black families with about 25 people in total, most of whom maintained their own separate households (rather than living as servants with white families), but they did not own their land.
The following is a transcript of the relevant section from Anderson's letter that mentions free people:
"There is Seven families of Free Blacks amounting in the whole to about Twenty five persons, They are home keepers, but I believe own no land They are all in low circumstances, but have hitherto Supported fair Characters as to Honesty & Temperance Some of them are so far advanced in age as to render them in a great measure unable to Labour, some Others are Reasonably industrious & frugal" - Event Type
- Registration
- Date
- February 22, 1798
- Location of Event
- Nottingham
- Related Event
- 1798-02-22 Registration: English households with enslaved people in Nottingham
- 1798-02-22 Registration: French households with enslaved people in Nottingham
- 1798-02-22 Registration: 2 indentured men in Nottingham
- Primary Participants
-
25 free Black people in Nottingham
Role: Registered Person
Status: Free
Verbatim description from source:
"Seven families of Free Blacks amounting in the whole to about Twenty five persons, They are home keepers, but I believe own no land"
Comment: this number includes people of all ages and sexes - Additional Participants
-
George Anderson
Person identifier: NJS-PER-04842
Role: Reporter or Certifier
Comment: abolitionist who reported the information to the New Jersey Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery - Record Contributor
- Jesse Bayker
