Chat
|
Daily Search
|
My GenForum
|
Community Standards
|
Terms of Service
|
|
|
In February 1820 the Legislature of New Jersey passed as act for the gradual abolition of slavery in the State. At the time there were in the State 12,422 slaves. Under its operation the number rapidly diminished; but there still remained in New Jersey thirty slaves in 1860, the year before the commencement of the war which blotted out the system in our land, so that there cannot be a slave where float the Stars and Stripes.
Many of the oldest people around here can tell you of the days when slaves were in their households. Many of us not so old can remember those who had been slaves. It has always impressed me, since I could exercise any thought on the subject, that the kindly feelings among those who had been slaves, or whose parents had been, toward their former owners and their children, told more eloquently than words for the way they had been regarded and treated. They seemed to consider themselves part of the family, always present at weddings and funerals, sorrowing in their sorrow, rejoicing in their joys, clinging to them to the end. I remember well the house back of my grandfather's house, just in the edge of the orchard, in which the colored people lived, and in which I had some toothsome repasts. Dine and York and Jim, and I know not how many others, regarded me, I used to think, with a peculiar interest, because I was the great-grandson of their old master. That relic of barbarism was not in these parts wholly devoid of beneficent influence.
Notify Administrator about this message?
Followups:
|
| http://genforum.genealogy.com/mandeville/messages/339.html | ||
 |
Link to GenForum Add Forum |
|