A ‘disguised scheme for compensated emancipation’: Accounting for gradual abolition in nineteenth century New Jersey

Abstract

Contributing to the expanding examination of the accounting policies that facilitated slavery's persistence in the United States, this study examines the Gradual Abolition Act of 1804 of New Jersey, the last Northern state to emancipate enslaved humans. New Jersey's Act included a provision for payments to white ‘masters’ for the care of children born after the Act to mothers who were – and remained – enslaved. These payments were considered a form of ‘compensated abolition’ and were included in the Act because prior efforts to persuade enslavers in New Jersey to agree to an eventual end to human enslavement had failed. With a focus on the children in Montgomery Township, this article investigates how the State of New Jersey disbursed the funds for this provision, and expands on previous research on the role of accounting for slavery by examining the crucial role states – including Northern states that are often overlooked in studies of United States' slavery – played in perpetuating this brutal system.