African-American Resources for New Jersey

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Surnames/tags: New_Jersey black_heritage

US Black Heritage Project Home Page

African-American Genealogy Resources

African-American Resources by State

US Black Heritage Project New Jersey Team

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Links to online black heritage resources in New Jersey:

Contents 1 History and General Resources 2 Resources by Location 2.1 Bergen County 2.2 Burlington County 2.3 Essex County 2.4 Gloucester County 2.5 Hunterdon County 2.6 Mercer County 2.7 Middlesex County 2.8 Monmouth County 2.9 Salem County 2.10 Somerset County 2.11 Sussex County 2.12 Warren County 3 Slavery Resources

History and General Resources

• History of Slavery in New Jersey at Wikipedia
• African American Experiences in New Jersey: a Booklist
• New Jersey Cases Concerning Slavery and Manumission, also includes links to New Jersey Slave Laws of 1714 and 1798, and the two complex Abolition Laws of 1804 and 1820 that provided for gradual emancipation
• New Jersey Slavery Records database, created by the Scarlet and Black research team at Rutgers University.
• Van Wickle Slave Trade in New Jersey
  • https://youtu.be/y55aKDL93s8
• "Little Known Truths Regarding Enslavement in New Jersey"
  • https://youtu.be/1d6nwWDfVtk
• Slavery from Princeton University Princeton University

• Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project (MPCPMP)

Resources by Location

Bergen County

• Bergen County Manumission of slaves, 1804-1841, images 381-662
• Bergen County, Black births, 1804-1846, images 663-864; searchable in United States, Slave Birth Records, 1780-1846

Burlington County

• Burlington County Birth Certificates of Children of Slaves, 1804-1826
• Klett, Joseph R. (comp.) "Burlington County Records—Burlington County Slave Births, 1804–1824," Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey 72, 3 (Sep 1997): 109-110.

Essex County

• Essex County, Certificates and deeds of manumissions, 1805-1856, with index images 90-405 ; searchable in United States, Indenture and Manumission Records, 1780-1939
• Essex County, Slave receipts, 1787-1805, images 406-414
• Essex County, Birth records of Black children, 1804-1843, images 1-89; searchable in United States, Slave Birth Records, 1780-1846

Gloucester County

• Gloucester County Slavery Records
• Gloucester County, Manumissions of slaves, 1787-1813, 1817-1840 - freely available searchable database, part of United States, Indenture and Manumission Records, 1780-1939, with images only available at FamilySearch affiliated family history centers and libraries

Hunterdon County

• HCHS Manuscript Collection Slave Manumissions, Hunterdon and Mercer Counties
• Hunterdon County Manumissions of Slaves, 1788-1836
• Hunterdon County Birth Certificates of Children of Slaves, 1804-1835

Mercer County

• Slave Manumissions, Hunterdon and Mercer Counties, 1805-1830
• Mercer County was created in 1838 by annexing Trenton, Princeton, and their surrounding areas from four separate counties that intersected in the vicinity of Assumpink Creek. Sections were taken from Hunterdon County (where Trenton was originally located), Somerset and Middlesex Counties (area surrounding Princeton), as well as Burlington County (area south of Trenton along the Delaware River). See Hunterdon, Somerset, Middlesex, and Burlington counties for records related to this area prior to 1838.
• New Jersey Slavery Records database events for Mercer County. This link shows database records filtered by County (Modern): Mercer. This allows you to see locations that were previously in other counties, but are now in Mercer County. Records include births, manumissions, sales, runaway ads, and other forms of resistance.

Middlesex County

• Middlesex County Slavery Records research guide. Birth records, manumissions, and removal certificates for Middlesex County have been photographed, indexed, and published in the searchable New Jersey Slavery Records database, with links to relevant places and family groups. The research guide explains what records are available and how to browse Middlesex County records in the database by name, place, date, or book page number.
• Middlesex County, Births of slaves, 1804-1844, images 244-306; searchable in United States, Slave Birth Records, 1780-1846
• Middlesex County, Manumissions, 1800-1825 images 309-548; searchable in United States, Indenture and Manumission Records, 1780-1939

Monmouth County

• Slave Births, Monmouth County, 1804-1848
• Monmouth County Slave Manumissions, 1787-1844
• Watson, Judith Green. "Eighteenth-Century Free Negroes in Middletown Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey, from the Tax Ratables Lists," The Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey. volume 89, no. 1 (Jan 2014), pages 21-31

Salem County

• Salem County, Manumissions, 1800-1841; searchable in United States, Indenture and Manumission Records, 1780-1939

Somerset County

• Lamington Black Cemetery - Lamington Black Cemetery, Lamington, New Jersey category

• Honeyman, A. Van Doren (Abraham Van Doren), 1849-1936; Somerset County Historical Society (N.J.), Somerset County historical quarterly
  Somerville, N.J. : Somerset County Historical Society; 1912; page: (55 of 354)

Sussex County

• Sussex County, Manumissions of slaves, 1802-1838, images 224-347
• Sussex County, Births of slaves, 1801-1835, images 349-602
• Sussex County Slavery Records research guide. All birth records from the Sussex County Births of Slaves collection have been indexed and linked to relevant people and places in the New Jersey Slavery Records database. This research guide explains what information is available for Sussex County and how to find the birth records in the database.
• Brown, Virginia Alleman (comp.) "Warren and Sussex Counties Slave Births, 1804-1833," Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey 54, 2/3 (May/Sep 1979): 83-94.

Warren County

• Brown, Virginia Alleman (comp.) "Warren and Sussex Counties Slave Births, 1804-1833," Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey 54, 2/3 (May/Sep 1979): 83-94.
• Warren County was created from a portion of Sussex County in 1824. Records prior to 1824 will be found among Sussex County records. See the New Jersey Slavery Records database where you can identify events that took place in present-day Warren County by selecting the County (Modern): Warren filter. This link takes you to events filtered by Warren County.

Slavery Resources

• Amorosi, Francis, comp. 'Index to Slaves and Servants in The New Jersey Calendar of Wills 1670-1817 (Gloucester County Historical Society, Woodbury, NJ, 2011). PDF at Rootsweb. Archived link
• Hodges, Graham Russell, and Alan Edward Brown, eds. “Pretends to Be Free”: Runaway Slave Advertisements from Colonial and Revolutionary New York and New Jersey. Revised and Expanded edition. New York: Fordham University Press, 2019.
• Slavery in the North, New Jersey. Graham Russell Hodges.

Slavery and Freedom in the Rural North: African Americans in Monmouth County, New Jersey, 1665-1865 Madison, WI: Madison House, 1997. Clement Alexander Price; New Jersey Historical Society; New Jersey Historical Commission (December 1980). Freedom not far distant: A documentary history of Afro-Americans in New Jersey. The Society.

• http://slavenorth.com/newjersey.htm

See also: New Jersey Project for more New Jersey resources, as well as Sources - New Jersey