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Arts & Entertainment

Speakers: Slavery Went on for Years in NJ

Speakers discuss economic justifications used for slavery, and how black soldiers fought in Civil War

The history of the black community in North Jersey includes years of slavery, the struggle for emancipation and economic stability, and distinguished service in the Civil War.

Two speakers Monday presented part of the story at a lecture at Willow Hall, the historic home built by George Vail, co-owner of the Speedwell Iron Works, now Historic Speedwell. The site, operated by the Morris County  Park Commission, preserves parts of the ironworks, and is the site where the telegraph was perfected.

Arnold Brown, owner of Du Bois Bookstore in Englewood and a Bergen County historian, said the first record of African slaves in region was in 1626, when the Dutch, who had established New Amsterdam (now  New York) captured a Spanish ship that included as cargo 11 African slaves.

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Brown said the Dutch, who had established New Amsterdam as a commercial outpost, saw an economic advantage in using slave labor.

Eventually, he said, they established “Negroland,” an area north of Wall Street to allow the slaves a place to grow food because the Dutch had noticed the slaves were having a hard time caring and feeding their families.

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After the British took over New Amsterdam in 1664, there was an expansion of the slave trade into New Jersey, especially into the Bergen County area, then largely an agricultural county, he said.

The British rewarded property owners with land based on the number of slaves  they held, Brown said. They were trying to attract settlers with the offers of 150 acres of free land. But for a slave owner, he said, ownership brought a bonus—for example, 2,400 acres of land for the owner of 32 slaves.

The slave trade  flourished as part of the triangle trade between the American continent, Europe and Africa. American merchants shipped tobacco, cotton and molasses to Europe, which shipped finished good to Africa, which shipped humans to American for use as slaves.

Bergen County had the largest number of slaves, he said. In 1800, the county recorded 2,825 slaves, or 18.64 percent of the population.

Slavery was present in New Jersey up until the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865 after the Civil War, Brown said, despite efforts to legally ban the practice.

Brown, who said his great-great-great-great grandfather was a slave, said that in 1804 and in 1846 the New Jersey Legislature passed weak laws to stem the practice. Between 1820 and 1830, he said, the recorded number of slaves  in the state declined from 1,653 to 584, and by 1865, there were 18 “apprentices” left in the state. New Jersey’s 1846 law created that status for slaves who still worked for the former owners.

Susan Nanny, of the Passaic River Coalition, which hosted the lectures, said the Vails owned slaves, perhaps between four and 10, to work at the ironworks. She said after a period or indentured service, the slaves worked for the Vails as teamsters.

The black population of Morristown varied at the time from 3 percent to as high as 9 percent, she said.

The book “Setting up our own City” by Cheryl C. Turkington, said following the passage of the 1804 state law, the number of slaves in Morristown dropped from a high of 214 in 1810 to 80 in 1820.  In 1850, 278 freed blacks were recorded in Morristown’s population, the book said.

Joseph Bilby, a Civil War re-enactor and  author of “Freedom for All,” about the state’s black Civil War soldiers, said the history of integrated fighting units goes back to the French and Indian War of the 18th Century.

During the American Revolution black soldiers also fought along side white soldiers, he said.

But during the Civil War, after black-only units were created, with white officers, the races did not serve together.

He said while the 54th Massachusetts is well known, New Jersey also contributed important units to the cause of the Union Army. The 22nd New Jersey Colored Infantry, he said, was two-thirds Jersey soldiers, with the rest from Pennsylvania.

During the battle at Petersburg, Va., Bilby said, black infantry were used in  the initial attack and succeeded in breaking the Confederate line, but the Union Army general failed to follow up the success. Later, in  the battle of “the crater,” a large pit created by an explosion in a tunnel dug by Union soldiers, black soldiers again penetrated the Confederate line,  but were not supported, he said.

The debate over slavery in New Jersey was geographical, he said, with the eastern part of the state, especially Bergen County, with its mercantile interests, supporting the practice, and the western part, including part of Morris County, turning against it under the influence of Pennsylvania Quakers, who opposed the practice.

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