Certificate of Abandonment, Piscataway Township New Jersey, 1806
Courtesy: Special Collections/University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.



 

In this document dated June 6, 1806 and transcribed below, slave owner Mary Boice of Piscataway relinquished responsibility for the infant Sarah, born on November 16, 1805 to Boice’s slave Judi. Because the baby was born under the provisions of New Jersey’s Gradual Manumission Act of March 1804, she was legally a free person. However, under the terms of the Act, slave owners were entitled to the services of such children of their slaves born after July 4, 1804, until these children were either 21 years old (for females) or 25 years old (for males) unless they chose to relinquish their rights to that service. As this document shows, Boice abandoned her claim to Sarah’s services and is so doing she also absolved herself of any legal responsibility to care for the child. That responsibility for the child’s support was then placed in the hands of the overseers of the poor of her town. It is likely that Boice was illiterate, as the document bears her mark and not a signature. The document is transcribed below: