But, in New Jersey, some Africans were enslaved as late as 1865. After the Revolutionary War, many northern states rapidly passed laws to abolish slavery, but New Jersey did not abolish it until 1804, and then in a process of gradual emancipation similar to that of New York. At its peak Bergen County enslaved 3,000 Africans in 1800, constituting nearly 20% of its total population. Others were transported to England and the West Indies.īergen County developed as the largest slaveholding county in the state, in part because many enslaved Africans were used as laborers in its ports and cities. The British refused to return the former enslaved to the Americans and they evacuated many Black Loyalists together with their troops and other Loyalists they resettled more than 3,000 freedmen in their colony of Nova Scotia. The number of Blacks in Manhattan increased to 10,000, as thousands of enslaved Africans escaped to the British for the promise of freedom. The British Crown promised freedom to slaves who would leave their rebel masters and fight for the British. : 44ĭuring the American Revolution, enslaved Africans fought on each side. In 1704, after East Jersey and West Jersey unified, the Province of New Jersey passed a slave code prohibiting slaves and free blacks from owning property, further restricting African-Americans in the state. To promote increasing the number of laborers and settlers in order to develop the colony, the colonial government awarded settlers headrights of 60 acres (24 ha) of land for each person transported to the colony. As conditions in England improved and the number of indentured laborers declined, New Jersey's colonists trafficked more Africans for needed labor. Most Dutch and English immigrants entered the colony as indentured servants, who worked for a fixed number of years to repay their passage. They also imported "seasoned" slaves from their colonies in the West Indies and enslaved Native Americans from the Carolinas. : 44 After England took control of the colony in 1664, its colonists continued the importation of slaves from Africa. Slavery in New Jersey began in the early 17th century, when Dutch colonists trafficked African slaves for labor to develop the colony of New Netherland. 1763 home of Thomas Cadmus in Essex County, New Jersey the loft of the smaller building was used as slave quarters.
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