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The English themselves were not at all averse to the ownership of a good serviceable slave; and about the middle of the eighteenth century a young gentleman in England wrote to his father in New Jersey, begging that he might “be favored with a young negro boy to present to the brother of the then Duke of Grafton, to whom he was under obligations, as ‘a present of that kind would be very acceptable.'”

Of course, the existence of slavery made the state of society in New Jersey and the other Colonies very different from what it is now; and this difference is strongly shown by the advertisements of runaway negroes, which we can find in some old newspapers. It seems very strange to see in a Boston paper of one hundred years ago a picture of a black man running away with a bag over his shoulder, and under the picture the statement of the reward which would be given for his capture; and in the New Jersey papers there were frequent advertisements of runaway slaves and of negroes for sale. One of these, published in Burlington two years after the Colony had declared itself free and independent, reads as follows:–

“TO BE SOLD–For no fault–but a saucy tongue for
which he is now in Burlington jail–A negro man
about 39 years of age. He is a compleat farmer,
honest and sober. For further particulars enquire
of the subscriber in Evesham, Burlington Co. Feb. 4, 1778.”

When Washington was in Morristown in 1777, one of his aids wrote a letter to a friend in Elizabethtown, which states,–

The General will esteem it as a singular favor if you can
apprehend a mulatto girl, servant and slave of Mrs.
Washington, who eloped from this place yesterday, with
what design cannot be conjectured, though as she may
intend to the enemy and pass your way I trouble you
with the description: her name is Charlotte but in all
probability will change it, yet may be discovered
by question. She is light complected, about thirteen
years of age, pert, dressed in brown cloth wescoat and
petticoat. Your falling upon some method of recovering
her should she be near you will accommodate Mrs.
Washington and lay her under great obligations
to you being the only female servant she brought from
home and intending to be off to-day had she not been
missing. A gentle reward will be given to any soldier
or other who shall take her up.

I am with respect your most obedient servant

—- —-

After a time, negro slaves became so plentiful in New Jersey, that laws were passed restricting their importation, and a considerable tax was laid upon each African brought into the country.

But the negroes were not the only slaves in New Jersey during those early days. Here, as well as in many of the other Colonies, was a class of white people, generally from England, who were called “redemptioners.” These were poor people, although often persons of fairly good station and education, who desired to emigrate to America, but who could not afford to pay their passage.

A regular system was then established, by which a poor person desiring to settle in New Jersey would be brought over free. When one of these emigrants took passage on a ship, he signed a contract which gave the captain of the vessel the right to sell him, as soon as he arrived in America, for enough money to pay his passage. This white man was thus bought, when he reached New Jersey, exactly as if he had been a negro slave; and he was subject to the same rules as those which governed other slaves. Of course, he was made the subject of great imposition; for the captain would naturally desire to get as large a sum of money as possible for each redemptioner, and therefore would be perfectly willing to sell him for a long term.