Book Description

Excerpt from A Study of Slavery in New Jersey An accurate and thorough knowledge of slavery as it developed in the United States can best be gained by a comparative study of the institution as it has existed in the various States. Preparatory to such a study, the experience of each of these commonwealths needs to be investigated separately. This has been done in several instances very satisfactorily. The writer has aimed to follow lines of investigation already opened, and has pursued the history of slavery in New Jersey, his native State. New Jersey history is conveniently studied in three periods: the period of the Proprietary Colony, 1664-1702; the period of the Province of the Crown, 1702-1776; and the period of the State. These divisions have not been adopted in the plan of this monograph, an arrangement by subject appearing more desirable; but it is hoped that they have been sufficiently recognized throughout the paper. In general, in the Proprietary Colony we find the early beginnings of slavery; in the royal Colony, a steady increase in the number of slaves, and special forms of trial and punishment for slaves prescribed in the criminal law. This was also the period of a strong abolition movement among the Friends, ending in 1776 with the denial by Friends of the right of membership in their Society to slaveholders. In the State the anti-slavery movement, largely under the leadership of the abolition societies, grew to greater and greater strength. Its influence showed itself in practical ways in the support given to negroes before the courts, in the extinction of the slave trade, and in the passage of the gradual abolition law of 1804. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.