In Memoriam of the 1741 Project, Honoring the Lives Lost to Slavery & the Struggle for Freedom

In Memoriam of the 1741 Project

Honoring the Lives Lost to Slavery and the Struggle for Freedom

The current day Elizabeth, New Jersey was originally known as Elizabethtown, which was named to honor the wife of Sir George Carteret, one the Proprietors of the land given to him by King Charles II of England.

This coincided with the purchase of the land from the Leni-Lenape tribe of indigenous people in the area. These two conflicting grants gave rise to a controversy that would last for some time. Elizabethtown continued to grow in importance, and from the mid- 1660’s to 1680’s, Elizabethtown served as the seat of government of the province.

Around the 1660’s, as a way to encourage people to come to the English colonies, officials in England established a policy that promised the new settlers of this area 60+ acres of land for every slave that they brought with them. This practice perpetuated the need, and the growth of the system of slavery in this region that lasted for many years.

In 1741, there was an event that took place in neighboring New York City, that set off concerns in this region. A report of a “Negro Conspiracy to burn the city and murder the white population…” 1came out to the public.

This story scared the people in New York City and put the surrounding areas on high alert. Although some current day Historians believe that this scare was enflamed by investigator and “Recorder” Mr. Daniel Horsmanden and his published account entitled “History of A Negro Plot”.

Some critics argue his publication of the event was more about the self-importance of his work than getting to the actual facts of whether there even was an actual conspiracy. However, during this period between the spring and the summer of that year it was reported that over 154 “negroes” were sent to prison; 14 were burnt at the stake, and 18 were hanged in New York City.

These events lead to panic among both whites and negroes. It has been documented that “In desperation some Negroes fled to Elizabethtown. Soon several of them were apprehended and brought to trial, found guilty of conspiracy to murder people, and sent to the flames”2

Three men each were burned at the stake, and it has been documented that some of the leading towns people were reimbursed for the payment of the wood used for that burning.

Unfortunately, the system continued in New Jersey into the 19th Century. The beginning of the end started with the passage of the Gradual Abolition Act of 1804. This Act established that “every slave child born in the state would be free. However, the child was to remain the servant of its mother’s master until it is twenty-five years of age if male, and twenty-one years old if female.3

What followed next was a bill that passed in 1846, and it abolished the term slavery and called it apprentice for life. While it didn’t give these folks freedom immediately it did provide them with more rights for education and the ability to take the master to a court that heard their grievances. Also, the children of these folks were freed and no longer property of the Mother’s owner.

We remember the three men that were put to death, and horrible institution of chattel slavery that they were assigned to.

  1. Rev. Edwin F. Hatfield Book, History of Elizabeth, New Jersey; Including the Early History of Union County; 1868 ↩︎
  2. Theodore Thayer, Book; As We Were: The Story of Old Elizabethtown; 1964 ↩︎
  3. Spencer R. Crew, Ph. D Thesis Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Black Life in Secondary Cities: Comparative Analysis of the Black Communities of Camden and Elizabeth, New Jersey 1860-1920; 1979 ↩︎