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187 8 It is often assumed that slavery was the South’s “peculiar institution,” but actually until the American Revolution slaves were present in all of the thirteen colonies that would become the United States. Even after the Revolution, slavery continued in some areas of the North. In the end, New Jersey was the last northern state to pass an abolition law, and because that law provided for gradual emancipation there were still eighteen slaves left in 1865. They were freed by the Thirteenth Amendment. From the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century the dominant historical view of slavery in the United States was that it had not been so bad. An example of this is a 1924 statement by D. H. Gardner in the Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society that New Jersey slaves in the colonial period were “in the main, quite happy and contented.” By the 1950s and 1960s, historians, reading such sources as advertisements for runaway slaves and narratives written by back abolitionists, presented a much darker picture, one of slaves with scars from beatings, forcibly separated from their families, and determined to escape. They also emphasized that slavery destroyed the African heritage and family structure. By the 1970s, new arguments appeared noting that in many places family life was re-created and African culture continued dispute the hardships of enslavement. Recent history has added an Atlantic or even global perspective to discussions of slavery. The selection by Giles Wright on slavery and the American Revolution in New Jersey reflects the studies of the past half century, incorporating new information and interpretations. The story he tells is a mixed one, documenting the difficulties of slavery while noting the perseverance and accomplishments of slaves, as well as cultural continuities from Africa. While he concentrates on the impact of the Revolution, his piece can be used to examine a whole range of issues about slavery in the North. These include how the lives of northern slaves were different from those in the South; what, if any, changes the Revolution brought; why abolition took so long in New Jersey; and how blacks were treated once they obtained their freedom. 188 / Giles R. Wright New Jersey is described as a “slave-owning society” rather than a “slave society” because, while it had the second highest proportion of slaves in the North (after New York), the numbers did not approach that of the South or Caribbean. In 1680 there were 200 slaves in the Jerseys, in 1770 there were 8,200, or possibly about 7 percent of the population compared to over 50 percent in places like South Carolina. Nor was slave labor essential to the economy as it was in areas producing tobacco, cotton, or sugar. Rather, New Jersey’s farms were smaller, its crops more diversified, and its winters longer. That said, slave labor was used on farms, in iron manufacturing, and for domestic work in homes. By the time of the Revolution, Quakers no longer viewed slavery as acceptable, with the consequence that most slaves were held in East Jersey, while the number of free blacks increased in West Jersey, where many Quakers had settled. With these distinctions in mind, how does New Jersey slavery compare to that of other places, including the South? How did New Jersey laws treat slaves? In what ways was this different from how whites were treated? Were slaves whipped, hung, burned at the stake? Did they ever run away, try to revolt, or resist in other ways? Did the African heritage of slaves survive in New Jersey? What kinds of evidence can be used to answer these questions? Chapter 4 of this volume, “Caught in the Middle: New Jersey’s Indians and the American Revolution,” deals with what happened to the Delaware Indians during and after the American Revolution, and similar questions can be asked for blacks, both free and slave. First, which side did they take, loyalist or patriot? Second, what was the consequence, were they better or worse off? The answer can depend on whether one sees the glass half empty or half full. Larry Greene, writing about blacks in New Jersey, concludes, “Most New Jersey slaves experienced little change in their status after the Revolution.” Wright, on the other hand, sees the Revolution as a “watershed” moment. He emphasizes the active agency of those who used the chaos of the American Revolution to free themselves, the spread of ideas about equality, and the...

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