Understanding Removal Certificates, Kidnappings, and the Interstate Slave Trade

One of the key Event Types in our database is Removal Registration, based on information found in removal certificates that we digitized from early 19th-century county records. These removal certificates and related sources document the interstate slave trade and kidnappings.

Check out our research guides to learn more:

What is a Removal Certificate? Explains the removal registration system in New Jersey and provides a gateway for browsing removal records.
Van Wickle Slave Trading Ring highlights the most notorious slave trading ring in New Jersey history, organized by Middlesex County Judge Jacob Van Wickle and his brother-in-law Charles Morgan.
Understanding Ship Manifests provides a detailed explanation of the manifest for Charles Morgan's Sloop Thorn, which took 39 Black people from Perth Amboy to New Orleans in 1818.
Kidnapping and Slave Trafficking in the Press presents a collection of newspaper articles that reported about human trafficking and kidnappings in the region.