SITE VISIT #3 at Marlpit Hall, Middletown
(137 Kings Hwy.; Middletown, NJ 07748)
Owned by Edward Taylor and descendants: enslavers and Anglicans / Episcopalians involved with Christ Churches of Shrewsbury and Middletown).[1]
Historical Reading[2]
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, 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.
Influential elite Anglican laity were prolific enslavers who participated fully in the “plantation economy” of New Jersey. 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.
Beyond these factors we must also remember that all the colonial era Anglican churches have significant ties to slavery through their connection with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG). 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 SPG ownership of the Codrington Plantation in Barbados starting in 1710. The plantation enslaved hundreds of Black people at any given time and operated in SPG hands for over one hundred years.
Further, the SPG missionary priests sent to New Jersey during the colonial period, almost without exception, supported the enslavement of Black people, and often enslaved Black people themselves, even as several of these priests encouraged the baptism of the enslaved. In general, however, the priests did not push this baptism agenda for the enslaved hard enough to result in the baptism of plantation field hands (the majority of enslaved Black people). Rather, Black baptisms were largely confined only to enslaved Black domestics in elite households, and even the extent of these was limited.
One of the priests mentioned in the exhibits here at Marlpit Hall is Thomas Thompson, who served in New Jersey for about five years in a number of congregations in Monmouth County. While he did baptize some enslaved black people, he also was a staunch defender of slavery, writing a well-known treatise in defense of the trade. He wrote this treatise on the heels of his service as the chaplain to the slave trading company based in Cape Coast Castle off the coast of West Africa, a post he took up immediately following his service in New Jersey.
Marlpit Hall was owned by generations of the Taylors, wealthy Anglicans and Episcopalians who served as leaders of local churches including Christ Church, Shrewsbury and Christ Church, Middletown. They enslaved several black people over the course of decades, and this exhibit focuses rightly on the experience of the enslaved. As you take the tour, as you look around this beautiful home, remember the words of U.S. Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen who, in 1824, said “survey… your comfortable habitations, your children rising around you to bless you. Who, under Providence, caused those hills to rejoice and those valleys to smile? … Remember the toils and tears of black men…”[3] and women.
Visit Museum[4]
Prayer refrain
Emmanuel, God-with-us,
give us courage to awaken to and repent for
our history of enslavement and systemic racism in New Jersey.
As we seek to repair and restore our communities,
may we trust that you charge us, O God,
with co-creating a world that is loving,
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ENDNOTES
[1] Address: 137 Kings Hwy.; Middletown, NJ 07748; call (732) 462-1466; email: pgithens@monmouthhistory.org (Open Fri-Sun 1-4pm. Other times for groups by appointment.) https://visitnj.org/marlpit-hall;
https://www.journeythroughjersey.com/sites/marlpit-hall/;
[2] From Pruszinski, Anglican Slavery in New Jersey.
[3] As quoted in Gigantino, The Ragged Road to Abolition, 189.
[4] If you have time, there is another home that belonged to the Taylor family (the Taylor-Butler House) that can be toured just uphill from Marlpit Hall. It provides ample evidence of the Taylors’ extreme wealth which was, in part, a product of their participation in enslavement.
