Continued from Part 3: Colonial Era...
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Figure 1: Detail from page 1 of the original manuscript of the "Black Birth Book of Monmouth County,
New Jersey." Published in The Black Birth Book of Monmouth County New Jersey, 1804-1848
(Freehold, NJ: Office of the Monmouth County Clerk, 1989), viii. |
PART 4: Early Republic (Antebellum) Era Considerations and Leads (and After)
Just as it is important for many churches founded after the colonial era to consider the histories of antecedent colonial parishes for understanding their own history, so is it necessary not merely for churches founded during the early Republic to research their histories of slavery, but for churches founded after the Civil War to consider the history of connected parishes founded during the early Republic. Many post-Civil War churches were birthed, or planted, with the support of an early Republic era parish, so the financial establishment of the founding parish and its relation to slavery is critical to appreciate. And, as previously mentioned, many churches operating today formed through mergers between older parishes, and the slavery-related entanglements of the parent churches bears directly on the generational responsibility born by daughter churches.
The good news about researching this era is that there are many more documents and resources that have been preserved. The difficulty is that there are so many, and they are so widely dispersed and poorly catalogued that it can be difficult to track them down, and even to survey them all adequately. But do not be daunted by these difficulties, as the work is important to attempt even if we are not always entirely equal to the task.
During this period following the Revolutionary War, New Jersey kept slavery intact even as increasing strictures were placed on the institution. Under pressure from abolitionists, New Jersey was the last northern state to enact a gradual abolition law (1804), though the law is generally seen as having served to buttress the institution rather than undermine it. It wasn’t for another twenty-one years that any enslaved person in the state became free as a result of the legislation, and once formerly enslaved Blacks became free, they still faced horrible prejudice and a legal (and extra-legal) system of oppression that continued to conspire to limit their freedom. In spite of modest limitations that were enacted over time[1] to slavery, the institution persisted in the state, and White sentiment in favor of it, and against the increasing prospect of living alongside freed Black Americans, persisted as well.
Newspapers of the time are full of White fearmongering on the issue. Many churches in the Diocese of New Jersey eagerly participated in the American Colonization Society (ACS), which sought to remove freed Black slaves from the United States and send them to Africa, in order to “solve” the “problem” they saw resulting from the presence of the formerly enslaved.[2] A few churches developed segregated schools at this time, but often these were viewed as a means to continue to control both enslaved and free Black people. Generally speaking, during this time, the Diocese made little effort at ministry to and with Black people, and the funding that did go toward Black ministry was generally dedicated to the ACS and Episcopal mission to Liberia.[3]
A further difficulty researchers will encounter with material from this period is the prevalent use of euphemism and indirect language for slavery. This requires careful analysis and reading (often between the lines). In documents of this time, the enslaved are regularly referred to as “servants” rather than slaves. In fact, even New Jersey state legislation from 1846, which claimed to “end slavery” in the state, only renamed the enslaved as “apprentices for life” who could still be bought and sold and whose practical status had changed not at all. Ultimately the population of enslaved Black Americans in the state did dwindle into the period of the Civil War,[4] but support for the institution remained strong. Slavery, except as legal punishment for a crime, was only ended in the state once the necessary number of other states had ratified the thirteenth amendment. The Democrat-controlled New Jersey legislature refused to ratify the amendment, and abolition through the thirteenth amendment became the law of the land in spite of New Jersey legislators.[5]
As with the colonial era, determining prominent members of each congregation is an important first step in the research process. There is comparatively more material to work with here, as many churches from this era have preserved their records, or local church histories were written that are still kept in parish or local libraries. As these histories are all old enough to have entered the public domain, they should be scanned and made available online whenever possible. Diocesan records are rather helpful for this period as well, with the vast majority of diocesan convention journals, which typically in this period include parochial reports, available online.[6] Once you determine who many of the key priests and parishioners were, you can begin to look at whether they enslaved anyone, whether their wealth was derived from slavery, and whether they used their respective positions of authority (either secular or churchly) to support the institution.
Government records are more robust for this period as well, including at the municipal, county, and state level. Under gradual abolition local New Jersey governments were required to keep an account of births of the enslaved, as well as who their enslavers were. This is a trove of important information, in some instances published in book form (e.g. in the Black Birth Book of Monmouth County [1989]),[7] but otherwise held in local or county archives.[8] A great deal of U.S. Census data is also available online and is searchable.[9] As previously mentioned, many newspaper archives have been scanned and can be accessed through university libraries, and even local libraries. Again, various institutions have begun to collate their material related to slavery and you will likely have some success connecting with local librarians, museums, and historical societies. Also, use NESRI. Some journals to examine as you research this history of the members of your parish include:
New Jersey Studies
Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society
Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey
Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies
Pennsylvania Magazine of History & Biography
New York History
The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record
Along with the need for careful discernment in interpreting euphemistic language, is the need to be aware of the tendency of writers with a Christian bias (e.g. church historians, priests, or diocesan officials) to promote the good things that were done during this period and to downplay the problems. Church histories are full of glowing depictions of the faithful and forgetfulness of the people they have harmed.[10] And even when the faithful did indeed do good, such as in the case of prominent New Jersey Episcopalian Hon. James Parker[11] (who helped stop the Van Wickle slave ring), the way their actions are described in church documents can allow the facts to be misconstrued. For example, the biographical notice[12] on Parker from 1889 states that he was “very prominent in advocacy of the abolition of Slavery within the State,” seeming to suggest that slavery was actually abolished during that time, even though the slavery laws were never meaningfully altered as a result of his advocacy. Rather it appears that the main thing he accomplished was raising awareness of the need to enforce the slavery laws already on the books in New Jersey[13] (which had not yet, at the time of the operation of the Ring, resulted in freeing even a single enslaved person). All this is to say, the primary documents of the time require careful handling in order to ensure honest treatment of the history and avoid misinterpretation. And as with the colonial era, care is required to capture the full geographic scope of the practices of enslavement. Various elite Episcopalians owned large estates in the American South on which they enslaved hundreds of Black Americans. Those holdings account for a great deal of their wealth, even as they may be hard to track down due to geographic removal from New Jersey.
What about after the Civil War?
Racism did not cease with the passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, even as the ratification of the amendment (over the protestations of the New Jersey legislature) did make slavery illegal in New Jersey except as punishment for a crime (so slavery did not in fact cease entirely either). And just as slavery had dramatic negative effects on the lives and livelihoods of Black Americans, so has the ongoing operation of racism. There have been many ways that New Jersey residents and citizens of African descent have continued to be harmed through unjust laws, unjust enforcement of laws, and prejudicial treatment, not only through secular avenues, but also by the Episcopal Church. Research in this area at the diocesan level is ongoing, but there is much work to be done. Whenever possible, individual parishes should devote themselves to researching their part in the history as well.[14]
Continued in Part 5: Moving Forward.
Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, Ph.D.
Reparations Commission Research Historian
Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey
Such as records held by the Middlesex County Clerk, e.g. “Middlesex County Book of Manumissions and Removals... 1800-1825.”
Many resources of this kind are available at the Newark Public Library, including “Essex County Slave Records,” and scans of other county and municipal “slave books.”
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