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The Arrival
The first Africans arrive in Virginia. They appear to have been indentured servants, but the institution of hereditary lifetime service for blacks soon develops. The vast majority of slaves will be transported from Africa to the West Indies. -
Slaves = Land
The English proprietors who established New Jersey colony encouraged African slavery as a means to open up the land for agriculture and commerce. They offered 60 acres of land, per slave, to any man who imported slaves in 1664. -
Great growth
New Jersey's slave population grew to nearly 4,000. Slaves accounted for about 12 percent of the colony's population up to the Revolution. -
An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery
New Jersey Legislature passed "An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery." It provided that females born of slave parents after July 4, 1804, would be free upon reaching 21 years of age, and males upon reaching 25. -
Bergen County
Blacks made up 20 percent of the population in bergen county, the highest percentage in any NJ county -
Emancipation Proclamation
It proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the eleven states that were still in rebellion, excluding areas controlled by the Union and thus applying to 3 million of the 4 million slaves in the U.S. at the time.
