New Jersey's Underground Railroad

From the Revolutionary War until the Civil War, the institution of slavery was on the decline. However, even with such a decline, New Jersey was the last northern state to abolish slavery and when it did so, it called for a gradual end to it.

Slaves were first recorded in New Jersey in 1680, when there were 60 or 70 on a plantation at Shrewsbury. In 1702, New Jersey became a royal colony with a strong desire to increase the crowns wealth. With this, the importation of slaves into New Jersey was highly encouraged. By 1726, nearly 2,600 slaves were in New Jersey, 8% of the colonys population. By 1745 that number more than doubled to 4,700 slaves, accounting for 7.5% of New Jerseys population.

Later, slave ships were calling at Camden and Perth Amboy, and in 1762, slaves were still being sold on the block at Camden. At Perth Amboy in 1776, there was but one household employing free white servants. Somerset County, in 1790, averaged one slave to every six free persons, and by 1800 the same average prevailed in Bergen County, totalling 12,422 slaves in New Jersey. With the exception of New York, no state north of the Mason and Dixon Line had so large a slave population.

But, during the years that slavery was growing in New Jersey there was also springing up a movement against it. That movement was particularly strong among the Quakers. The Quakers of Southwestern Jersey were members of the influential Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends, which had been against importing slaves since 1696. The campaign against slavery grew steadily stronger, until in 1776 the Philadelphia Meeting would not accept slaveholders as members. In 1780, the Quakers at Haddonfield disowned two members who refused to release their slaves. At last, in 1795, after a century of patient work, the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting could boast that not one slaveholder worshiped in its large congregation.

Thoughtful Jerseymen were well aware of the contradiction between revolutionary rhetoric and social realities, especially the discrepancy between the equality proclaimed by the Declaration of Independence and the inequality of slavery. John Cooper of Gloucester County is representative of the many men who opposed the institution of slavery for political as well as moral reasons. As a member of the Society of Friends, he was heir to traditional antipathy to human bondage. But having served on several local revolutionary committees, the Provincial Congress (1775-1776), the Continental Congress (1776), and the committee that drafted our State Constitution of 1776, he was concerned that the existence of slavery would undermine both the quest for independence and the experiment in republicanism.

In September, 1778, Cooper wrote:

"Whilst we are spilling our blood and exhausting our treasure in defense of our own liberty, it would not perhaps be amiss to turn our eyes towards those of our fellow-men who are now groaning in bondage under us. We say all men are equally entitled to liberty and the pursuit of happiness.; but are we willing to grant this liberty to all men? The sentiment no doubt is just as well as generous; and must ever be read to our praise; provided our actions correspond therewith. But if after we have made such a declaration to the world, we continue to hold our fellow creatures in slavery, our words must rise up in judgement against us, and by the breath of our own mouths we shall stand condemned."

The antislavery feeling among the Quakers spread gradually to other groups. This was brought about largely by John Woolman, a Jersey man and Anthony Benezet of Philadelphia. Woolman (1720-1772), a Mount Holly tailor and itinerant Quaker missionary, was born at Northampton in Burlington County. He was one of the first men to suggest publicly the abolition of the slave trade in America. Not only did Woolman speak at meetings all along the eastern seaboard, but he also wrote and published pamphlets attacking slavery. In time his ideas spread, eventually reaching New Jersey legislators, and in 1768, the special courts to deal with Negroes were abandoned. In 1769, a tax of £15 was laid on the purchase of each slave imported into the colony; and in 1778, the special criminal laws for Negroes were discarded.

New Jersey's first abolition society was organized at Trenton in 1786, and another was formed in Burlington in 1793. A year later the Abolition Society of Salem was active in the defense of kidnapped Negroes, purchasing their freedom if necessary. In 1786 New Jersey enacted legislation that essentially bans the further importation of slaves, thereby ending the African slave trade to New Jersey. In two letters, written in 1786, George Washington pointed out the existence of systematic attempts to aid and protect fugitive slaves in western New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Washington, a slaveholder who advocated the gradual abolition of slavery, wrote that it was not easy to capture fugitives "where there are numbers who would rather facilitate the escape of slaves than apprehend them when runaways".

New Jersey had five representatives at the first convention of abolition societies in 1796. One of them was Joseph Bloomfield, who became president of the convention. As Governor of New Jersey in 1804, Bloomfield signed the hard-fought act which provided that every child thereafter born of a slave was free, but must remain as servant of the mother's master until 25 if a boy, 21 if a girl. Soon waves of fugitive slaves were flowing over the borders of New Jersey and other northern states. The southern slaveholders fought the abolition societies; they had Congress pass the Fugitive Slave law of 1793, which punished anyone giving aid to fleeing Negroes, and sent spies and slave-catchers north to capture escaped slaves.

As our nation grew, it divided on the issue of slavery: Slavery haters strung out from Salem to Hoboken helped fleeing blacks escape their pursuers via the underground railroad. Camden County was an important point to the Underground Railroad because of the ferries. Tradition says that escaping slaves sometimes hid in the cellar of Haddonfields Indian King Tavern. Some freed slaves eventually found their way to Snow Hill (now Lawnside), a town setup by abolitionists in 1840. Agriculture was Bergen Countys 19^th century way of life. County farmers depended on slaves. In 1790, Bergen County counted 2,301 slaves, more than any other New Jersey county. Salem Countys proximity to the south, as well as the militant anti-slavery feelings of its Quakers settlers, gave it a prominent role in the drama leading up to the civil war. In common with the other colonies, New Jersey suffered from a shortage of labor which inhibited its economic growth.

During the 18th century, there were two types of cheap servile labor: European bond-servants and Negro or Indian slaves. Scottish and English servants comprised a considerable portion of the immigration to New Jersey in the late 17th century. In return for his passage, the indentured servant was bound to his master for a period of several years, that number usually being four. Upon the expiration of the term of service, the servant would receive a piece of land and "freedom dues" of ten bushels of corn, necessary apparel, two hoes and an ax. With this, the ex-servant was soon able to establish himself as a farmer in his own right. However, during the course of the term of service, the master was assumed to have property rights in a servant who could be bought and sold.

While under NJ law a servant could secure his freedom if his master abused him or denied him adequate food or clothing, there are only a few published cases in which masters are charged with the death of their servant. The frequency of runaways among servants would also suggest that many were dissatisfied with their treatment; and though the law provided for the apprehension and punishment of the fugitive runaway, few were ever returned to their masters. There was, though, a major difference in the status of servant and slave. A servant had civil rights. They could seek the protection of the court, hold property, and serve in the militia. More importantly, a servants service was temporary and once his time was up, he was free. Negro slaves were not only found on the many iron plantations throughout the State, but were also utilized in agriculture and commerce as well. During this proprietary period the distinction between slave and servant was rather vague. Gradually the special status of the slave was defined in a series of statutes such as the law of 1695, which provided special courts for slaves as well as more severe punishments.

Slavery came to be understood as a condition restricted to pagans, i.e. Africans and Indians. Thus, race and color became identified with permanent servitude. By 1800, 12,422 Negroes out of a total Negro population of 16,824 were still in a state of bondage. In 1804, an act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, the states first abolition law passes. It frees all black children born on or after July 4, 1804, after serving an apprenticeship to their mother's owners of 21 years (female) and 25 years (male).

Slavery in 18th century NJ was reputed to be humane and paternalistic in character. Working closely as laborer or domestic with master and mistress, the Negroes were often regarded as members of the family and as worthy of care and consideration. Such a favorable view of NJ slavery, however, is clouded over by various reminders that the institution at best was inherently brutal. Slaves after all were considered chattels to be bought sold and used to the advantage of the owner. Salem County out did even the cruelist of the notorious Salem, Mass punishments when in 1717, a young black slave woman was burned at the stake as an alleged accomplice in the murder of her master. Records indicate that the slave merely knew of the murder in advance, but was not involved in the commission. She was burned nevertheless.

*********************

FOR SALE

A Negro Woman, about 35

years old, healthy, sober and

honest, and understands all

kinds of housework, will be

sold with or without

her child, a boy of two years old.

********************

This advertisement, in a Trenton newspaper on December notices appearing in periodicals all over New Jersey during the early 19th century. It was no rare occurrence to have slave mothers separated from their children.

By 1826, New Jersey passed legislation that authorized the return of fugitive slaves to their owners from other states residing or apprehended in New Jersey. In 1846, New Jersey set down into law its second abolition law. This law would now eliminate apprenticeships for all black children born after its passage and although formally outlawing slavery, makes the states remaining slaves (all of then elderly persons) "apprentices" for like, which is another form of slavery.

Slave flight to the North now prompted the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 which as a concession to the slave states, empowered federal agents to apprehend and return runaways who had fled to the free states. Public opinion in many parts of the North, however, increasingly turned against this legislation, some of its provisions (for example were for Federal Marshals to deputize individuals to assist in capturing fugitive slaves) being perceived as grave violations of civil liberties. Some free states therefore enacted personal liberty laws that sought to nullify the Fugitive Slave Act. Slaveholders and their sympathizers, in attempting to make slavery morally defensible, asserted that slaves were simple, child-like creatures who were very much contented with their bondage. Each fugitive who headed North therefore personally refuted the claim that bondspersons had no desire for freedom.

In 1830, John C. Calhoun, President James Monroe's Secretary of War and Vice President under John Quincy Adams, supported the institution of slavery. He firmly believed that the African race was physically, mentally and morally inferior to whites. He argued, "there is no instance of any civilized colored race of any shade being found equal to the establishment and maintenance of free government." He cited to the free blacks impoverished living conditions in the North as proof that they lacked the ability to exercise their freedom. Calhoun viewed slavery as a benefit to the Negro. "Never before has the black race from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually. It came to us in a low, degraded, and savage condition, and in the course of a few generations it has grown up under the fostering of our institutions. He believed that freeing the Negro and placing them in competition with the whites on a equal basis would only result in catastrophe.

Up from the Chesapeake Bay, from the banks of the Susquehanna, across from the slave state of Delaware and from all along the Pennsylvania border came "trains" of fugitives, thousands of them seeking transportation on the Underground Railroad in New Jersey. While the origin of the term Underground Railroad remains obscure, it can be dated back to roughly 1830, after the appearance of the first trains in the United States.

Between 30,000 and 40,000 runaways, 50,000 at the most, were involved. The overwhelming majority of southern slaves who absconded during the antebellum period remained in the South, gravitating to the regions urban centers where they often sought to pass themselves off as free blacks. Most fugitive slaves hailed from the states of the Upper South, in particular, Kentucky, Missouri, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. Most were males between the ages of 15 and 30 who traveled singly by foot, horseback, wagon, stagecoach, carriage, train and boat, and at night guided by the North Star.

In the North, free blacks acting individually, in vigilance committees common to many northern cities, or through their own churches and self-help organizations. These individuals were often in the forefront of efforts to provide shelter, financial help and general support to the runaways. Upon reaching the North, the passengers were fed, clothed, allowed to rest and cared for at the station, which would be any kind of a structure i.e. a house, church hotel or store. New Jersey, an integral part of the eastern corridor, received fugitives mainly from the Atlantic coastline states of Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.

New Jersey is also identified with the Underground Railroad two most celebrated figures, Harriet Tubman and William Still. No other northern state exceeded New Jersey in the number of all-black communities that served the sanctuaries for southern fugitive slaves Towns like Springtown (Cumberland County), Marshalltown (Salem County), Snow Hill (now Lawnside, Camden County) and Timbuctoo (Burlington County) were among such places located mainly in the rural South in which fugitive slaves settled. New Jersey was intimately associated with Philadelphia and the adjoining section in the underground system, and afforded at least three important outlets for runaways from the territory west of the Delaware River. Knowledge of these outlets is derived solely from the testimony of the Rev. Thomas Clement Oliver, who, like his father, traveled the New Jersey routes many times as a guide and conductor.

Probably the most important of these routes was that leading from Philadelphia to Jersey City and New York. From Philadelphia the runaways were taken across the Delaware River to Camden, where Mr. Oliver lived, then conveyed northeast following the course of the river to Burlington, and then in the same direction to Bordentown. In Burlington, sometimes called Station A, a short stop was made for the purpose of changing horses after the rapid driver of twenty miles from Philadelphia. The Bordentown station was denominated Station B east. Here the road took a more northerly direction to Princeton, where horses were again changed and the journey continued to New Brunswick. Just east of New Brunswick the conductors sometimes met with opposition in attempting to cross the Raritan River on their way to Jersey City. To avoid this the conductors arranged with Cornelius Cornell, who lived on the outskirts of New Brunswick, and, presumably, near the river, to notify them when there were slave-catchers or spies at the regular crossing. During the 1850s, the Eagleswood Academy at Perth Amboy was an important Underground station and the meeting place of prominent abolitionists as well as advocates of women's suffrage.

Situated on the Raritan River, the school was a natural hideout for fugitives who could be put on barges during the night and carried to Canada and freedom. Living at the Academy were the secret agents of the Railroad, two elderly Quaker teachers, Sarah Grimke and her sister, Mrs. Angelina Weld, and Angelina's husband, Theodore. If it happened that the road between New Brunswick and Perth Amboy was also being watched, the escaping Negroes were brought to Matawan and lodged by Quakers in a large, red brick house on the main street. Under a huge four-post bed on the second floor, a trap door, covered by a rug, led to a secret chamber, 9 by 15 feet. One barn of the main line outside of Newark was on the farm of Alexander McLean, a Jersey City newspaperman. McLean's place was used when the bridges over the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers were being watched. Fugitives came during the night, sometimes without notice. Early in the morning food was brought to them in the hay loft, where horse blankets had been provided in advance. A ladder at the rear of the barn was used for emergency exits. Children were taught to be silent about strange Negroes who came and went by night. After spending the day in the barn, fugitives were sent onto the ferries at Jersey City by way of Newark or Belleville Turnpike and Newark Avenue.

The fugitives were brought to New York City just in time to make the night trains for Albany and Syracuse. At the piers, spies watched the wagons and coaches night and day. Many captures occurred here because drivers had to show how many passengers they were carrying when paying fares. When slaves were detected, Underground conductors who mingled with the crowd drew close to the frightened Negro and led them to hideaways close by. Often the fugitives were hurried into a house by the front door and out on another street through the back. Then off to the waterfront they rushed to be hidden on Hudson River coal barges in which they almost choked to death from coal dust. Some skippers risked taking on a slave to get extra help, for water had to be pumped constantly from the loaded canal boats. Small sloops and schooners were also used to ship the slaves to safe ports farther north.

The Jersey City Underground station very often gave assistance to 25 or 30 runaway slaves in one night. This cost a hundred dollars for fares alone. Contributors' names were kept secret, and an agent might not even know who his coworkers were in towns a few miles away.

The protection of secrecy was especially necessary in the large towns of Trenton, Newark and Jersey City where public opinion was unfriendly to abolitionists and escaped slaves. In 1848 a meeting of the Newark Abolition Society was broken up by a riot. A mob entered the meeting hall, broke all the seats and windows and burned all the books and papers. The City Marshal and other officers were present but did nothing to restore order or prevent the destruction of property.

In Jersey City, not only were there riots, but the anti-abolition feeling grew so strong that the churches refused to permit anyone to speak from their pulpits against slavery or to condemn Congress for passing the harsh Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Later the abolitionists grew in number, and in 1857 the congregationalists organized a church society were free speech was encouraged. Out of this society came the Tabernacle, the most popular church in Jersey City during the Civil War. When the way was clear at the Raritan, the company pursued its course to Rahway; here another relay of horses was obtained and the journey continued to Jersey City, where, under the care of John Everett, a Quaker, or his servants, they were taken to the Forty-Second Street railroad station, now known as the Grand Central, provided with tickets, and placed on a through train for Syracuse, New York.

The second route had its origin on the Delaware River, forty miles below Philadelphia, at or near Salem. It had an independent course for sixty miles before it connected with the more northern route at Bordentown. This distance of sixty miles was ordinarily traveled in three stages, the first ending at Woodbury, twenty-five miles north of Salem, although the trip by wagon is said to have added ten miles to the estimated distance between the two places; the second stage ended at Evesham Mount; and third, at Bordentown. The third route was called, from its initial station, the Greenwich line. This station is vividly described as having been made up of a circle of Quaker residences enclosing a swampy place that swarmed with blacks. One may surmise that it made a model station. Slaves were transported at night across the Delaware River from the vicinity of Dover, in boats marked by a yellow light hung below a blue one, and were met some distance out from the Jersey shore by boats showing the same lights.

Landed at Greenwich, the fugitives were conducted north twenty-five miles to Swedesboro, and thence about the same distance to Evesham Mount. From this point they were taken to Mount Holly, and so into the northern or Philadelphia route. Still another branch of this Philadelphia line is known. It constitutes the fourth road, and is described by Mr. Robert Purvis as an extension of a route through Bucks County, Pennsylvania, that entered Trenton, New Jersey, from Newtown, and ran directly to New Brunswick and so on to New York.

The Civil War deeply divided the people of New Jersey. Many of the State's industries depended on the southern market for their prosperity. Newark, for example, was a "Southern Workshop" selling the bulk of its shoes, carriages, saddlery, and clothing in the slave states. Economic interest, therefor, aligned manufacturers and workmen against any policy which would cause a cessation of southern trade. Proposals were made seriously in December 1860 that New Jersey had more to gain by joining a southern confederacy than by staying with the North. Jerseymen also prided themselves on their conservatism and there was little abolitionist sentiment in the State. While there was some anti-slavery feeling in the Quaker areas, the New England Churches and among the Germans, the dominant attitude appeared to be one of animus against the Negro.

The Civil War ended the need for the Railroad; its aim was realized in 1863 when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. But before the war more than 50,000 slaves had been led to freedom by the New Jersey operators of the Underground Railroad.

Directory of the Names of NJ Underground Railroad Operators Burlington * Coleman, John. Evans, Robert Middleton, Enoch. * Stevens, Samuel. Cumberland Bond, Leven. Cooper, Ezekial. Murry, Nathaniel. Sheppard, J.R. Sheppard, Thomas R. Stanford, Alges. Stanford, Julia. Gloucester Douden, Wm. * Louis. Pompey. * Sharper, Jubilee Hudson Everett, John Mott, Dr. James Phillips, Peter James. Mercer Conove, Elias Earl, J. J. Plumly, B. Rush. Middlesex Freedlyn, Johathan. Sickler, Adam. Salem Goodwin, Abigail. * Oliver, Rev. Thomas Clement Union Garrison, Joseph. Miscellaneous Reeve, Wm.

******************************************************

SOURCES

*"New Jersey Gazette", September 20, 1780

*"Stories of New Jersey, New Jersey Writers Project" Work Projects Administration, Bulletin No. 9 1939-40 Series

*"The Underground Railroad From Slavery to Freedom" (1898) by Wilbur H. Siebert

*"New Jersey Underground Railroad Heritage, 'Steal Away, Steal Away'" A Guide to the Underground Railroad in New Jersey, New Jersey Historical Commission

*"Jersey Journeys" February 1994, No. 4, Slavery in New Jersey

*"This is New Jersey" by John T. Cunningham, 4^th Edition, Rutgers University Press

*"He Started the Civil War", by Ethan S. Rafuse, Civil War Times, Vol. XLI#5, October 2002