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Charles Morgan (1775-1848)
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Person
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Charles Morgan (1775-1848)
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Identifier
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NJS-PER-00073
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Given Name
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Charles
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Family Name
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Morgan
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Birth Date
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1775
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Death Date
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1848
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Biographical Description
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Charles Morgan was a slave trader and owner of a substantial sugar plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. He was originally from South Amboy, New Jersey, the son of Revolutionary War veteran Captain James Morgan Sr. (1734-1784). The area where he grew up later broke off from South Amboy and is now known as Sayreville. He went to Louisiana when he was in his 20s to establish a sugar plantation. By 1809, he had 28 enslaved people on his plantation. He also served as the sheriff of Pointe Coupee Parish.
In 1818, Charles Morgan came to South Amboy with $45,000 that he wanted to invest in an interstate slave trading operation. He knew that he could buy enslaved men, women, and children at cheap prices in New Jersey and sell them for huge profits in Louisiana. He organized an illegal slave trading ring together with his brother-in-law Jacob Van Wickle (the husband of Morgan's sister Sarah) and nephew Nicholas Van Wickle. Jacob Van Wickle exploited his position as Middlesex County Judge of Common Pleas and falsified legal documents to facilitate the shipment of enslaved people from Perth Amboy to Louisiana. The slave trading ring sent over a hundred enslaved people from New Jersey to the Deep South.
Charles Morgan's plantation was known as the Morganza Plantation, and the village of Morganza in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, still carries this name today. By the end of Morgan's life, there were over a hundred enslaved people working on the Morganza plantation.