CONCLUDING SITE VISIT (#5) at PERTH AMBOY FERRY SLIP
(300 Front Street, Perth Amboy, NJ)
Opening prayer:
Saving God, you bring us out of our worst actions and help us to return to your loving vision, as we remember “where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also,” (Matt. 6:21) let us repent the greed that continues to misshape the world you have made and guide us to be “repairers of the breech and restorers of streets to live in,” (Isaiah 58:12) that we may build the Beloved Community in which all your people flourish, through the Holy Spirit who guides us, and Jesus Christ, our liberator. Amen.
Historical reading[1]
Perth Amboy’s history with respect to the slave trade did not stop with the colonial era. Throughout 1818, public outrage grew as a result of newspaper reporting on the ongoing operation of the Van Wickle slave ring. Among those who petitioned for enforcement of the slavery laws on the books which, should have prevented the operation of the ring was Episcopal lay-leader James Parker. Jr. With the increased scrutiny, the ring sought to remove the last of the people it had enslaved from the state.
On October 26, 1818 the ring smuggled forty-eight people out of Perth Amboy aboard the Schoharie. These are their names:
Jafe Manning, 21; Robert Cook, 17; Ben Morris, 22; Sam Prince, 19; Sam Peter, 30; George Phillips, 18; James Thompson; Edward Gilbert, 22; Dan Francis, 20; James, 15; Charles, 19; Susan Wilcox, 36; Nelly, 18; Betsey Lewis, 28; Jane Clarkson, 23; Eliza Thompson, 21; Jane Cook, 15; Ann Moore, 29; Julian Jackson, 21; Jane Smith, 33; Peggy Boss, 21; Mary Harris, 21; Sally Cross, 20; Rosanna Cooper, 22; Mary Simmons, 18; Hannah Jackson, 18; Hanna Crigier, 18; Harriet Silas, 15; Fanny Thompson, 14; Elizabeth Ann Turner, 16; Susan Jackson, 20; Hanna Johnson, 20; Hannah, 18; Cane, 22; William Stone (New York); Jack, 22; Lewis, 22; Peter 14; Frank, 21; Caleb Groves, 50; John, 21; Collins, 35; Othello, 16; Anthony Fortune, 21; Joseph Henricks, 19; Jane, 23; Susan 21; Lena, 38.[2]
Van Wickle was never indicted for his crimes, even though some of his indicted co-conspirators were found guilty after public outcry came to a head in 1818.[3] However, the sentences these co-conspirators received were exceedingly mild. Citizen petitions and legislative action[4] put an end to the operation of the ring, but not before at least 137 enslaved and free Blacks had been removed from the state against their will and sold into a lifetime of slavery by the group.[5]
The honor in which he was held in the church, and the leadership he was allowed to exercise, were not a result of Van Wickle’s actions in the ring being unknown to his church community. The court case was very high profile, being both initiated by printed newspaper allegations and covered extensively thereafter.[6] Moreover, Van Wickle’s fellow church leaders actually helped him cover up his crimes. A former St. Peter’s vestryman, Cornelius Johnson,[7] testified before a Justice of the Peace that he was “well acquainted with the house of Jacob Van Wickle” and the condition of the “colored people” there, claiming that he “never saw anything like a garrison or a guard, or cruel treatment, but the reverse, they all appeared to have their liberty and to be well-satisfied.”[8] His testimony, and that of five other men, was taken by Oliver Johnston,[9] who was a then- and long-serving, vestryman at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.[10] Johnston submitted this testimony to the New Brunswick Fredonian for printing alongside Van Wickle’s aforementioned public statement disavowing any illegal activity.
It is clear from the complicity of fellow church leaders in the cover-up, from his seamless participation in St. Peter’s leadership before, during, and after the affair, and his election to the Standing Committee of the Diocese from 1822-1824[11] that Jacob Van Wickle’s horrific actions against free and enslaved African-Americans in New Jersey for the sake of his own family’s profit were not widely considered untoward or unchristian in the Episcopal Church in New Jersey at the time.
Prayer of resolution
Leader: Righteous God, in humility and repentance we bring the injustice of the church and society of which we are a part, to the transforming power of your grace. Grant us the courage to turn again to the sunrise of your reign, that we may go out and make known the promise of peace and justice you have willed for all the children of the earth in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Holy God, Creator of heaven and earth,
Have mercy on us.
Holy and Mighty, Redeemer of the world,
Have mercy on us.
Holy Immortal One, Sanctifier of the faithful,
Have mercy on us.
Holy, blessed and glorious Trinity, One God,
Have mercy on us.
The Reparations Commission[12] gives thanks to the Lord that you have taken this pilgrimage today. The journey of reparations is long. Today we have taken one small step. Let us go forth in the Name of Christ to walk towards justice and healing.
Thanks be to God.
[1] Partly drawn from Pruszinski, Anglican Slavery in New Jersey.
[2] https://lostsoulsmemorialnj.org. The manifest also lists “Willam M. Clare, 25; John C. Marsh (New York); John C. March (on board).”
[3] It is possible that this was due to his practice of attributing ownership of the enslaved Black people held on his property to his family members rather than to himself. It is also possible that he was not indicted simply because he was a sitting judge and such an indictment would have tarnished the reputation of the justice system generally. But he also turned on his fellow conspirators and testified against Charles Morgan and others in the ring in the trial, all the while publicly claiming that nothing illegal had been done. See Gigantino, The Ragged Road to Abolition, 160. Van Wickle’s public letter to this effect was published in the New Brunswick Freedonian on August 13, 1818.
[4] “An act to prohibit the exportation of slaves or people of color out of this State,” November 4, 1818.
[5] According to the documentation of The Lost Souls Memorial Project.
[6] Including in The True American (Trenton, NJ), the Trenton Federalist (Trenton, NJ), The Fredonian (New Brunswick, NJ), and The Times and New-Brunswick General Advertiser (New Brunswick, NJ).
[7] Grace, History of St. Peter’s, 75.
[8] The Fredonian, New Brunswick, NJ, August 13, 1818.
[9] That is, the aforementioned Justice of the Peace.
[10] Grace, History of St. Peter’s, 76.
[11] See Diocesan convention journals from 1822-1824.
[12] This pilgrimage guide was produced by Dr. Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski and the Rev. Beth Rauen Sciaino in cooperation with the Reparations Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey.
