William Van Deursen (1791-1873)

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This white person has 2 related events in the database, listed at the bottom of this page.

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Identifier
NJS-PER-00632
Given Name
William
Family Name
Van Deursen
Birth Date
May 16, 1791
Death Date
February 16, 1873
Sex
Male
Occupation
Medical and Funerary
Government
Policing and Corrections
Biographical Description
William Van Deursen was an enslaver who resided in New Brunswick, NJ. He was a graduate of Queen's College (now Rutgers University), class of 1809, and he served as a trustee of the college for fifty years from 1823-1873. He was a prominent local physician and was active in the New Jersey Medical Society and the Middlesex County Medical Society.

His father Willem (William) Van Deursen (1736-1816) had also been one of the early trustees of Queen's College, and his older brother Staats Van Deursen was the treasurer of the college.

In 1817, William Van Deursen and his brother Staats decided to sell two young Black women to a man named Jacob Klady who was moving from New Brunswick to Ouachita, Louisiana, to establish a plantation there. As the result of William Van Deursen's actions, a 22-year-old woman named Dinah was taken away from New Jersey to Louisiana to work on Klady's plantation. At the same time, his brother Staats sold a woman named Phillis, who was also taken to Louisiana by Klady.

William Van Deursen also served on the New Brunswick City Council. As a councilman, starting on November 7, 1823, he was on a committee that was charged with rounding up free Black people and removing them from New Brunswick. According to City Council minutes for March 5, 1824, his committee was also charged with enforcing a racially specific curfew that prohibited any Black people from being out in the street after ten o'clock on Saturday evenings.
Keywords
white person
enslaver
Rutgers University history
government official
police or jailer
Places
New Brunswick
Organization
Rutgers University
Relationship to Rutgers
Alumnus 1809
Trustee (1823-1873)
Enslaver of
Dinah (b. 1795)
Child of
Willem (William) Van Deursen (1736-1816)
Sibling of
Staats Van Deursen (b. 1773)
References

Bayker, Jesse, Christopher Blakley, and Kendra Boyd. "His Name Was Will: Remembering Enslaved Individuals in Rutgers History." In Scarlet and Black: Vol. 1, Slavery and Dispossession in Rutgers History, edited by Marisa Fuentes and Deborah Gray White, 58–81. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2016. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1k3s9r0.7

Van Deusen, Albert Harrison. Van Deursen Family. Vol. 1. New York: Frank Allaben Genealogical Co, 1912. Page 213. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Van_Deursen_Family/lY1YAAAAMAAJ

Minutes of the New Brunswick N.J. Common Council, 1796-1819. New Brunswick, NJ: New Brunswick Historical Society, 1910. http://archive.org/details/minutesofnewbrun00newb
Record Contributor
Jesse Bayker
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