New Jersey Anglicans and Slavery in the Colonial Period – A Brief Sketch

Summary: The Anglican Church in Colonial New Jersey supported and sought to benefit from slavery. Many wealthy Anglicans were prolific enslavers and used their financial gains from enslaved labor to establish churches. Many New Jersey priests enslaved Blacks as well. The S.P.G. funding for priest salaries in New Jersey was derived in part from the profits of its Codrington Plantation in Barbados. And while the Anglican church did teach and baptize some Blacks enslaved by Anglican parishioners, for the most part field hands were excluded, Blacks were not treated as equals, and they were typically segregated in worship.

New Jersey Anglicans and Slavery in the Colonial Period: A Brief Sketch

In general, the relation of the Anglican Church to slavery in New Jersey during the colonial era was a product of the Church as an arm of the state. Of course, the Church of England was never formally established in New Jersey, but her authorities and adherents were acculturated to her operation as a support to the Crown and Crown policies. Rather than a possible force for significant moral accountability in the direction of political power, church authorities viewed the role of the Church as bringing morality and order, in addition (of course) to spiritual nourishment, to the people. As such, slavery was generally viewed as a scheme that prospered the state,[1] its power and authority, and her most faithful subjects – a state of affairs that most Anglicans either viewed as salutary, or with which they were entirely willing to cooperate.

Lewis Morris, courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum.

            The earliest prominent lay booster of the Anglican Church in New Jersey was Lewis Morris. He was likely named for his uncle, who had moved to the American colonies from Barbados to care for Lewis when his father died. When he emigrated, Morris’ uncle was sure to capitalize on the plantation land grants available in New Jersey for those who brought slaves, bringing forty enslaved Blacks in 1677.[2] He established a mine at Tinton Falls that by 1690 enslaved at least sixty-seven Blacks.[3] The younger Lewis Morris inherited his uncle’s holdings when he died in 1691. The younger Morris heavily supported the Church of England as a “staunch patron” and “shining light,”[4] contributing to the establishment of St. Peter’s (Perth Amboy)[5] and Christ Church (Shrewsbury),[6] St. Michael’s Church (Trenton), and even attempting to establish the Church of England through the New Jersey legislature.[7] He was an early member of the S.P.G. in New Jersey, served on the first vestry of Trinity Church (now known as Trinity Church, Wall Street), and ultimately became governor of the Province of New Jersey. He was one of the most influential lay Anglicans in New Jersey during the colonial period and may have been the most prolific enslaver in the American colonies at the time.[8] Lest we think that the Morrises’ practice of enslavement was somehow enlightened by a significant moral sensibility, we should note that his cousin (and business partner) of Passage Point, also named Lewis Morris,[9] was murdered in 1696 in revenge for abusing one of the Black Americans he had enslaved.[10] The baptism records of the enslaved during this period in Monmouth County similarly show that Anglican “masters” were not above raping the Black women they enslaved.[11]

            Another celebrated[12] East-Jersey Anglican lay-person, Colonel Peter Schuyler, derived a large portion of his wealth from enslaved labor. He inherited a large share in the Schuyler copper mine in Belleville, which was operated for decades in a state of heavy dependence on the labor of enslaved Blacks.[13] His large plantation (over 700 acres) also operated with enslaved labor. The mine was so prosperous that Schuyler’s father, before he died, was probably the wealthiest British subject in the American colonies.[14] Peter Schuyler was the primary donor responsible for giving the glebe and rectory for Trinity Parish, Newark,[15] helped establish the church there,[16] served as a warden,[17] and supported the parish at Second River.[18]

Queen Anne

            Such examples are indicative of the state of affairs in eastern New Jersey, which was home to a robust slave economy, but the Anglican churches of western New Jersey were also implicated in the enslavement of Blacks even as slavery was less firmly established there. A cursory look at some of those involved in the establishment of St. Mary’s Church in Burlington provides an illustrative example. One of the largest early benefactors of the Church was Governor (then of Virginia) Francis Nicholson, who not only enslaved Blacks himself, but helped establish the legal system that supported slavery in Virginia. His largess to the church was made possible through his profit from slavery. Queen Anne was also a significant benefactor, giving “lead and glass, a silver chalice and salver, a pulpit cloth, and a brocade altar cloth.”[19] As her wealth was significantly derived from the profits of slavery these gifts must be considered encumbered. A later benefactor in the colonial period who also enslaved Blacks was Governor William Franklin (son of Benjamin Franklin). He committed a “handsome subscription” for the rebuilding and repairing of the church in the early 1770’s.[20] Without doubt, many of the other forms of support the church in Burlington received in the colonial period were given by enslavers, even as a significant portion of the critical mass for the parish came from early followers of George Keith, perhaps the most anti-slavery Anglican priest of the era in New Jersey.

William Franklin

            Such dynamics however were not limited to the establishment of particular parishes. George Whitefield, the traveling Anglican priest who fostered much of the spirit of the so-called “Great Awakening” in the colonies, spent a good deal of time in New Jersey, though he was affiliated with no particular parish. As the highest profile Anglican priest in the colonies at the time, he had a significant popular influence in all areas, and certainly attitudes toward slavery among them. His perspective was indicative of that of many Anglicans at the time,[21] including many of those who would later become Methodists when that denomination formed immediately after the Revolutionary War. In a letter[22] written in New Brunswick on April 27, 1740 he describes how he purchased slaves to use for his mission, seeing no problem with this practice. He viewed Blacks as human, but criticized S.P.G. attempts to reach them, remaining dubious that “converted” Blacks were in earnest in their profession when preparedness for conversion was measured “only” in knowledge of the Lord’s Prayer, the ten Commandments, and the Nicene Creed.[23]

The title page of Thompson's Treatise

            More convinced of the legitimacy of the conversion of Black Americans’ was the influential Anglican priest Thomas Thompson. He was a highly educated and respected missionary of the S.P.G. who served in New Jersey for five years (1745-1750) before leaving the state to become the first formally commissioned Anglican missionary to West Africa. While in New Jersey he served as the S.P.G. missionary to Monmouth County, ministering to the parishes in Shrewsbury, Middletown, Freehold, and Allentown, and baptizing dozens of enslaved Blacks (including his own),[24] most of whom were the domestic slaves of parishioners. In his opinion, slavery was not inherently wrong, and he wrote a very influential treatise, “The African Trade for Negro Slaves shewn to be Consistent with Principles of Humanity and with the Laws of revealed Religion,”[25] arguing in favor of the use of slavery for the purpose of converting Blacks to Christianity. This pro-slavery position no doubt accounts for his popularity in a parish like Christ Church Shrewsbury which was home to dozens of church-going, Black-enslaving Anglicans.[26] After its publication (1772) the treatise circulated widely in New Jersey, due in part to his pre-existing reputation in the state, and was influential enough that the nascent abolitionist Quaker movement felt the need to respond to it in print.[27]

            Such a brief survey can only depict aspects of a general picture, but of this general picture several key elements emerge. While it may be true that average Anglicans did not account personally for a very significant level of enslavement, influential elite Anglican laity were prolific enslavers who participated fully in the “plantation economy” of New Jersey.[28] As a result, the best-established churches inevitably had significant ties to slavery as a result of this support from wealthy Anglicans. Further, as previously mentioned, these elite Anglicans had a significant early role in establishing the legislative codes related to slavery for the Province. 

Slaves cutting cane at a plantation similar to Codrington from "Ten Views of the Island of Antigua"
by William Clark, published in London, 1823. Courtesy British Library
(Accession Number 1786,c,9, plate IV) 

            Beyond these factors we must also remember that all the colonial era Anglican churches have significant ties to slavery through their connection with the S.P.G. The organization provided essentially all of the clergy for New Jersey in the colonial era and the bulk of the financial support for that clergy. That support was made possible in part through profits derived from the direct S.P.G. ownership of the Codrington Plantation in Barbados starting in 1710.[29] The plantation enslaved hundreds of Blacks at any given time and operated in S.P.G. hands for over one hundred years. 

            Further, the S.P.G. missionary priests sent to New Jersey during the colonial period, almost without exception,[30] supported enslavement of Blacks, and often enslaved Blacks themselves,[31] even as several of these priests encouraged baptism of enslaved Blacks. In general, however, the priests did not push this baptism agenda for enslaved Blacks hard enough to result in the baptism of plantation field hands (the majority of enslaved Blacks). Rather, Black baptisms were largely confined only to enslaved Black domestics in elite households, and even the extent of these was limited.[32]

Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, Ph.D.

Reparations Commission Research Historian

Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey

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[1] The language used for S.P.G. missionaries’ commission was generally that they were being sent “into the plantations,” which is to say, to the British lands run as plantations using enslaved labor, for the benefit of the Crown and her supportive elite. For instance, in 1727, Bishop Gibson of London gave several addresses and wrote letters to promote the work a few of which were titled: “An Address to Serious Christians among ourselves, to Assist the Society for Propagating the Gospel, in carrying on the Work of Instructing the Negroes in our Plantations abroad,” and “Letter to the Masters and Mistresses of Families in the English Plantations abroad; Exhorting them to encourage and promote the Instruction of their Negroes in the Christian Faith,” and “Letter to the Missionaries in the English Plantations; exhorting them to give their Assistance towards the Instruction of the Negroes of their Several Parishes, in the Christian Faith,” as recorded in C. F. Pascoe, Two Hundred Years of the S.P.G. (London: 1901), 1:8.

[2] John Robert Strassburger, "The Origins and Establishment of the Morris Family in the Society and Politics of New York and New Jersey, 1630-1746" (PhD diss., Princeton University, 1976), 67. See also Graham Russell Hodges, Slavery and Freedom in the Rural North: African Americans in Monmouth County, New Jersey, 1665-1865 (Madison: Madison House, 1997), 9.

[3] Dean Freiday, “Tinton Manor: The Iron Works,” Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society 74 (1952): 250-61. There were “60 or 70” enslaved Blacks there according to George Scot, The model of the government of the province of East-New-Jersey in America and encouragements for such as designs to be concerned there : published for information of such as are desirous to be interested in that place (Edinburgh: John Reid, 1685; Ann Arbor: Text Creation Partnership, 2022), 128-129, http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A58781.0001.001. See also Hodges, Slavery and Freedom in the Rural North, p. 9.

[4] Burr, The Anglican Church in New Jersey, 8, 216.

[5] William McGinnis, A History of St. Peter’s Church in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, 1686-1956 (Woodbridge, N.J.: Woodbridge Publishing Company, 1956), 21.

[6] Keith, A Journal of Travels, 34, 46; David Humphreys, An Historical Account of the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, to the Year 1728 (London: J. Downing 1730), 57.

[7] Burr, The Anglican Church in New Jersey, 157, 10.

[8] The mine at Tinton Falls accounted for approximately half of the enslaved Black population of Monmouth County at the time (Hodges, Slavery and Freedom in the Rural North, 12).

[9] Passage Point was a location within Shrewsbury. 

[10] Daniel J. Weeks, Not for Filthy Lucre’s Sake: Richard Saltar and the Antiproprietary Movement in East New Jersey, 1665-1707 (Bethlehem: Lehigh University Press, 2001), 113.

[11] The parish register of Christ Church Shrewsbury shows evidence of baptisms of 4 “bastards” and 12 “mulatto” “servants,” suggesting impregnation by Anglican heads of household. Parish register of Christ Church, Shrewsbury, N.J. See also Robert M. Kelley, “Slavery Evidenced in the Parish Register,” in The Crown (Shrewsbury, N.J.: Christ Church, Shrewsbury, 2018).

[12] Described in the S.P.G.’s Proceedings (Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, Abstract of Proceedings, 1750 [London: 1751], 50), as having a name held “very deservedly in high Esteem.” This estimation is repeated uncritically by Burr, The Anglican Church in New Jersey, 149. 

[13] Otis E. Young, Jr., “Origins of the American Copper Industry,” Journal of the Early Republic 3.2 (1983): 121-22.

[14] Henry Latrobe, "Description of the Schuyler Copper-Mine in New Jersey," The Medical Repository 6 (Nov., Dec. 1802, and Jan. 1803): 319-21.

[15] Burr, The Anglican Church in New Jersey, 111-12, 129, 149.

[16] Burr, The Anglican Church in New Jersey, 537.

[17] Burr, The Anglican Church in New Jersey, 216.

[18] Burr, The Anglican Church in New Jersey, 233.

[19] Burr, The Anglican Church in New Jersey, 493-94.

[20] Burr, The Anglican Church in New Jersey, 495.

[21] Even if his attitudes toward “enthusiasm” were not shared by many other Anglican priests.

[22] George Whitefield, Three Letters from the Reverend George Whitefield viz. Letter I. Written from Georgia, to a Friend in London; wherein he vindicates his Asserting, That Archbishop Tillotson knew no more of True Christianity than Mahomet. Letter II. To the same, on the same Subject. Letter III. To the same, dated at New Brunswick in New-Jersey, April 27, 1740 (Glasgow: James Duncan, 1740), 16-20.

[23] See letters from George Whitefield to the Bishop of Oxford from the summer of 1741 (June 9, June 18, July 28) and the Bishop’s responses (June 15, Sept. 17). Stewart M. Robinson Collection of Colonial Sermons, C0513, Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

[24] Parish register of Christ Church, Shrewsbury, N.J., 1:166-71. Held at Christ Church, Shrewsbury.

[25] Thomas Thompson, The African Trade for Negro Slaves shewn to be Consistent with Principles of Humanity and with the Laws of revealed Religion (London: Baldwin, 1772).

[26] As evidenced in the early parish registers. Parish register of Christ Church, Shrewsbury. 

[27] See Granville Sharp, The just limitation of slavery in the laws of God, compared with the unbounded claims of the African traders and British American slaveholders. With a copious appendix: Containing, An Answer to the Rev. Mr. Thompson’s Tract in favour of the African Slave Trade. - Letters concerning the lineal Descent of the Negroes from the Sons of Ham. - The Spanish Regulations for the gradual Enfranchisement of Slaves. - A Proposal on the same Principles for the gradual Enfranchisement of Slaves in America. - Reports of Determinations in the several Courts of Law against Slavery, &c. (London: B. White, 1776).

[28] But in general, the most common pattern of enslavement in this period was for a household to enslave one or two Blacks. See Gigantino (The Ragged Road to Abolition, 14) and Hodges (Slavery and Freedom in the Rural North, 8). There is no reason to believe that this was not also the most common pattern among Anglicans in New Jersey.

[29] See Travis Glasson, Mastering Christianity: Missionary Anglicanism and Slavery in the Atlantic World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 141-70. To say nothing of the private donations to the organization, many of which were made possible through the labor theft inherent to enslavement.

[30] George Keith being the primary exception. He is most explicit in his views before becoming Anglican, as evidenced in An Exhortation and Caution to Friends Concerning Buying or Keeping Negroes (New York: William Bradford, 1693).

[31] Such as Rev. Samuel Cooke at Shrewsbury, who baptized his own enslaved Blacks, Rev. Thomas Thompson (as mentioned above), and Rev. Alexander Innes, unassigned priest resident in Monmouth County, owned a sizeable plantation (150 acres) which he managed via enslaved labor. A large proportion of the S.P.G. priests either owned plantations themselves (including at least Innes, Cooke, Beach, Vaughn, Skinner, and Lindsay) or received income from glebe or Church-owned plantation land (e.g. Blackwell, Ogden, Odell, Frazer) often worked by enslaved Blacks. Sporadic, brief references to these situations occur throughout Burr’s The Anglican Church in New Jersey. Rev. Thomas Haliday did not think the state of affairs adequate and suggested a more regularized and comprehensive plantation funding scheme employing enslaved Blacks to better ensure the comfort of the S.P.G. priests assigned to New Jersey (Burr, The Anglican Church in New Jersey, 132).

[32] Hodges, Slavery and Freedom in the Rural North, 69.