A Note on Large Slaveholdings in the North

Philipsburg Manor, Upper Mills has the dubious distinction of being one of the largest slaveholdings in the north during the 18th century.

In Westchester County, New York. Lewis Morris' farm "Morrisania" was the location of a large community of enslaved people. The 1755 so-called "Slave Census" for the county lists twenty-nine slaves there. Morris' 17th-century ancestor, also called Lewis, lived in Monmouth County, New Jersey and operated the Tinton Falls ironworks. At the time of his death in 1691 there were 67 slaves listed on his inventory. It was quite common for slaves and/or free blacks to labor in the iron furnaces and foundries around here, probably because it was extremely hard work and because many African cultures had highly developed metals manufacture. We know that Robert Livingston used enslaved African labor at his ironworks in Ancram, New York. Another example in the north of a large community of enslaved Africans at an ironworks is Hopewell Furnace in Pennsylvania, where there were 18 slaves in 1780 - the very year Pennsylvania began legislating manumission.

There was another large slaveholding on Sylvester Manor plantation on Shelter Island, New York. In 1680, when Shelter Island was still a part of New England rather than New York, 24 enslaved people were listed on Nathaniel Sylvester's will, arranged in family groupings. As at Philipsburg Manor, they would have been involved in a wide variety of labors necessary on a diversified plantation. Richard Shannon Moss' doctoral dissertation on "Slavery on Long Island" mentions several families on Long Island with more than 20 slaves in the 18th century.

Along New York's Mohawk River, Sir William Johnson held large numbers of people in bondage. Between 1738 and 1774, at least 40 different names of enslaved people appear in his documents. At one point he had 24 slaves baptized all at once in St. George's Church in Schenectady. They were engaged in farm labor and domestic work, and served as coachmen and messengers among other tasks. Johnson owned several hundred thousand acres of land.

Rhode Island was heavily involved in the West Indies provisioning trade. There, several planters around Narragansett Bay had slaveholdings numbering in the 20s and 30s. As at Philipsburg Manor, the captives grew and processed foodstuffs for the provisioning trade, including hardtack and butter.

Compared to the average-sized slaveholding in New York (one or two slaves), Philipsburg's community of 23 slaves is highly atypical. (After the inheritance by Frederick II of his Uncle Adolph's slaves, the number of slaves owned by one member of the family leapt upwards of 50. But Frederick Philipse II tried to disperse his Upper Mills human inheritance as quickly as possible through sale.) But compared to other large plantations with lots of acreage, or to industrial situations such as iron furnaces, its size is not unique.

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