Tim Richards Slaves Of 55
Christelle Stdenny
Good question, and one that we are still exploring. Stockton staff have been identifying and interviewing past administrators, faculty, and board members to learn more about the circumstances surrounding the naming of this institution.
The documents above include minutes from the College Board of Trustees dated September 8, 1969 with a list of possible names for the soon-to-be-formed school. Richard Stockton State College is crossed out as it was not one of the top choices. By October 1, 1969, however, the same board passed a resolution supporting Richard F. Stockton State College as the name of record. College Board of Trustee Minutes, Bjork Library Special Collections, Stockton University.
Richard Stockton is best known as one of the five New Jersey signers of the Declaration of Independence as a member of the Second Continental Congress in the summer of 1776. It was a time of tremendous uncertainty, when a new nation was founded that celebrated the ideals of individual freedom and self-governance.
It is difficult to reconcile that while a new nation was founded on principles of liberty and equality almost twenty percent of the population lived in bondage. But that they did so is not in question. Indeed, most of the signers of the Declaration enslaved people.
Another question with a complex answer. Stockton signed the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, but he was captured by the British five months later and imprisoned. Within a month, he was released and traveled home carrying a pardon from two commanders of the British forces. The conditions of his imprisonment and what led to his release are questions that this project will also examine.
A careful analysis of surviving Stockton family papers, as well as government collections, will provide a more thorough understanding of Richard Stockton. We will explore both the context of the eighteenth century, as well as his mid-twentieth-century legacy, when Stockton was transformed from a person of the past into a symbol of the present as the namesake of a new college in the Pinelands of Galloway.
The Stockton Exhibition Project is continuing its research both about Richard Stockton, the man, and Stockton, the university, and will share what it finds through this website and public programming. There will be several opportunities to participate in these discussions, and we encourage anyone interested in being part of the process to contact us for more information.
"I, Richard Stockton of Morven in the county of Somerset and State of New Jersey, Counsellor at Law, being in a declining state of health, but of sound and disposing mind & memory, do this twentieth day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty, make and ordain this to be my last Will & Testament, which is written in my own hand."
"And whereas I have heretofore mentioned to some of my negro slaves, that upon condition of their good behavior and fidelity, I would, in some convenient period, grant them their freedom--this I must leave to the discretion of my wife, in whose judgement & prudence I can fully confide, and therefore I do will, that in case my sd [said] slaves shall behave to her with that obedience & fidelity which I have before mentioned as the condition of..."
The following is information found in the records of the National Archives and Records Administration. It identifies the record group and series, with brief descriptions and locations. It does not provide actual documents. Some of the records are microfilmed, and have been noted.
For further insight, see Walter B. Hill Jr.'s Prologue article on this topic.
RG 29 Records of the Bureau of the Census (crop schedules)
RG 36 Records of the United States Customs Service, 1745 - 1982
Congress created the Custom Service on July 31, 1789 and made it a part of the Department of Treasury (September 1789). The service assisted other agencies in the enforcement of the slave trading laws that were passed between 1794 to 1820. In particular, the 1807 law prohibited the transportation of slaves after 1808, and section 9 required that all vessels of 40 tons or more carrying slaves in the coastwise trade file duplicate manifests (ports of origin and destination) showing name, age and description of each slave, the name and residence of exporter and consignee, and pledge that the slave had not been imported after 1807. Manifest records exist for four ports.
By an act of Congress, March 3, 1849, the Department of Interior consolidated in one department the General Land Office (under the Secretary of Treasury), Commissioner of Indian Affairs and Office of the Commissioner of Pensions (under the Secretary of War), Patent Office (under the Secretary of State), Commissioner of Public buildings, and assumed the jurisdiction over census taking, marshals and court officers, charitable and penal institutions in the District of Columbia.
Records Relating to the Suppression of the African Slave Trade and to Negro Colonization, 1854-72
Several laws were passed in the 19th century for the suppression of the African slave trade and for support of the colonization of recaptured and free Africans. In 1861, the Interior Department assumed responsibility of administering the anti-slave trade laws and those providing for the colonization of recaptured and free Africans in Liberia and other countries. The Secretary of Interior accumulated much correspondence related to a variety of issuesand subjects surrounding the suppression of the trade from the President, Congress, various executive departments, 1858-72, and from U.S. agents for liberated Africans in Liberia, 1860-65.
By an act of Congress, July 27, 1789, ( 1Stat.28), the President approved establishing the first executive department of the Federal Government. Designated the Department of Foreign Affairs, (an Act of September 1789 changed the name to the Department of State), the new Department was established to help the President carry out his constitutional responsibility for conducting the U.S. relations with foreign governments. Domestic functions were assigned to the Department, but with the expansion of the Government most of these were passed to other agencies.
The Works Projects Administration, established May 6, 1935, was responsible for the Governments work relief program. It succeeded both the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Civil Works Administration, which were established in 1933. The WPA was officially abolished June 30, 1943These records are located at Archives II in College Park, Maryland
Following arbitration by the Emperor of Russia in 1822, a mixed claims commission was provided for in a convention signed to settle U.S. claims against Great Britain concerning slaves and property lost during the War of 1812. Because of difficulties faced by the commission, a new convention was signed in 1826 in which Great Britain agreed to pay a sum in satisfaction of all claims awarded under the arbitration of the Emperor. A domestic claims commission was established by an act in 1827 to handle the disbursement of awards. In 1853, another mixed claims commission was established to settle claims presented to either government since December 24, 1814.
There are several series that pertain to the business of the mixed claims commissions and the domestic claims commission. These records are located at Archives II in College Park, Maryland.
Letters received by the Solicitor of the Treasury from U.S. district attorneys, marshals, and clerk of court, 1801-1898The Office of the Solicitor of the Treasury (1830-1934) was created in the Department of the Treasury to supervise all legal proceedings involving the collection of debts due the United States. This record group includes letters relative to suits for the forfeiture of vessels involved in the slave trade. These records are located at Archives II in College Park, Maryland.
Established within the Department of Treasury by an act of 1817 that authorized four additional auditors and an comptroller. The 1789 Act that established the Treasury provided for a comptroller to superintend the adjustment and preservation of the public accounts and auditor to supervise disbursements.
There are several series that account for the Department of Treasury involvement with the African slave trade. These records are located at Archives l in Washington, D.C.
Settled Accounts of Claimants and Disbursing Officers of the First Auditor. 1790-1894.
Claims case files include: African shipping;the bounty on Blacks illegally imported;the support of captured Africans illegally entering the United States; bounty for the capture of illegal slave ships; expenditures of the American Colonization Society in support of persons of African descent.
Abstract of Accounts for Bounty for the capture of ships in the Slave Trade. 1857-60, 1 vol.
Gives name of the claimant, name of captured and capturing ships, and name of the payee. There is a list of vessels captured for engaging in the slave trade, 1857-60, date of seizure, names of vessels making seizure, the squadron, and the locality of the capture.
Records of the Board of Commissioners for the Emancipation of Slaves in the District of Columbia, 1862-63
An act of April 12, 1862 (12 Stat.376) abolished slavery in the District of Columbia. The President was authorized to appoint a board of commissioners to examine petitions for compensation from former owners of freed slaves in the District. Petitions disclosed name of petitioner, slaves, and value of slaves claimed in the petition. Bound volumes also show summary of action taken,number of the petition, amount awarded, and signature of the claimant. These records are microfilmed under Microfilm Number 520. There are 6 rolls.
This record group is a collection of selected publications of U.S. Government agencies, arranged according to a classification system (SuDoc System) devised by the Office of the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office (GPO). The core collection is a library that was maintained by GPO's Public Documents Division during the period 1895-1972, and whose contents were arranged according to the SuDoc System. The library began in 1895 following the establishment of GPO of the position of Superintendent of Documents by an act of January 12, 1895 (28 Stat. 601), with responsibility for the cataloging, slae, and distribution of Federal Government publications. By 1972, when the National Archives acquired the library, it included official publications dating from the early years of the government. After January 1, 1808, slave trading by American citizens became illegal
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