Slavery To Smith, Theobald (New Jersey)

Slavery. African slaves were conceivably present on New Jersey soil as early as the 1620s. It is likely that slave labor was used to construct and maintain Fort Nassau (in present-day Gloucester City, Camden County), a Dutch military post established around 1623 and occupied intermittently until 1651. More substantial documentation can be offered for the presence of black slaves by 1640 in the Dutch settlement of Pavonia (in or near present-day Jersey City), which was part of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. Certainly it was the Dutch who, after the English seized New Netherland in 1664, introduced African slaves into New Jersey in significant numbers. They were encouraged by the colony’s 1664 Concessions and Agreement, which offered settlers additional land for every slave imported before 1668. Eventually, it was the English who imported most of the colony’s slaves. They were acquired mainly from the West Indies, especially Jamaica and Barbados, until the mid-eighteenth century, when most arrived directly from Africa. New Jersey slaves came from the western, central, and eastern parts of Africa via the transatlantic slave trade.

Throughout the eighteenth century New Jersey slaves, who numbered about 2,600 in 1726, 4,700 in 1745, and 12,000 in 1790, constituted roughly 8 percent of the overall population, although in northern New Jersey, where most slaves lived, several counties had much higher percentages. Among the northern colonies, only New York had a higher number and proportion of slaves.

Although used for a variety of jobs, most bondspersons in New Jersey worked on small farms that averaged about three slaves and produced grains and raised livestock. Work conditions were generally less harsh than those on large plantations of the South. Still, many slaves absconded and engaged in other forms of protest. Indeed, New Jersey was one of the few northern colonies where true slave conspiracies occurred, perhaps the most significant being the one discovered in Somerville in 1734. Subsequent slave plots surfaced in 1741 in Hackensack, in 1772 in Perth Amboy, and in 1779 in Elizabethtown.

New Jersey’s slave population peaked in 1800 at 12,422, of whom only 507 lived in South Jersey, a fact attributable to the large presence there of Quakers, America’s first organized abolitionists. Quaker opposition to slavery, strengthened by the egalitarian ideals associated with the American Revolution, led in 1786 to a law that prohibited the importation of slaves into New Jersey, facilitated slave manumissions, and made owners punishable for the mistreatment of their slaves. This legislation helped to create a climate favorable to the passage in 1804 of An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, which made New Jersey the last northern state to manumit its slaves.

The 1804 act provided for the emancipation of all children born of slaves after July 4, 1804, but only after they served an apprenticeship to their mother’s owner—females after twenty-one years of age and males after twenty-five. The passage of An Act to Abolish Slavery freed all black children born after its passage in 1846, but made the state’s few remaining slaves, all elderly, "apprentices for life,” another form of bondage. They numbered eighteen in i860, making New Jersey the last northern state to have slaves. The ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in i865 ended the long history of black bondage in New Jersey.

Slee, Noah H. (b. 1861; d. June 22, 1943). Businessman and birth control advocate. In i922, Noah H. Slee, the president of the Three-in-One Oil Company, and Margaret Sanger, a birth control activist, were married. Although the Sanger name is more famous, her efforts would not have been possible without Slee’s generous donations both to the American Birth Control League and to doctors hired to make speeches before county medical societies all over the United States.

Born in South Africa, Slee made his fortune and his first marriage in the United States. After a divorce, Slee served as Sunday school superintendent at his Episcopal church. He was known as the "Good Executive,”who was neither a liberal nor an intellectual. Though Slee was strictly a businessman, Sanger felt his qualities suited her liberalism perfectly, saying, "He is a spiritual radical and revolutionist in common sense.” Slee is also known as an early manufacturer of contraceptive jelly, which he produced at a plant in Rahway.

Sloan, Samuel (b. Mar. 17, 1815; d. July 19, 1884). Architect. Born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Samuel Sloan, like many of his peers, trained as a carpenter. By i850 he was established as an architect in Philadelphia. He gained a national reputation through the publication of pattern books and the design of mental hospitals. In New Jersey in the i870s, he was responsible for extensive additions to the State House, most of which were destroyed in an i885 fire, and Greystone State Hospital in Morris Plains (1868-1876). Other New Jersey buildings included the West Jersey Academy, Bridgeton (i85i, demolished) and the Camden County Courthouse (1852, demolished). He also laid out the town of Riverton in Burlington County along the Delaware River, where he designed several villas. In his later years, Sloan received extensive commissions for mental hospitals and other buildings in the South. He moved to North Carolina a year before his death.

Slovaks. The Slovaks, a predominately Catholic and Lutheran Slavic ethnic group, began to settle in New Jersey in the late nineteenth century. They were only one of many Slavic groups who came to the United States during this period to escape economic and political unrest in their homelands. Although the majority of Slovak immigrants settled in the Midwest, a substantial number took up residence in New Jersey, their point of entry being Ellis Island. Many found work in the barrel factories of Bayonne and in the silk and textile factories of Garfield, Paterson, and Passaic. Waterhouse Mills in Passaic was the first and largest employer of Slovaks in that area. The working conditions at several of these mills were grim and led to strikes in the 1910s and 1920s. Slovaks also settled in Perth Amboy, Rockaway, Guttenberg, Newark, Elizabeth, Boonton, Jersey City, and Hibernia.

Almost immediately, the Slovak immigrants began to form cultural and religious organizations. Fraternal unions included the Benefit Society of Saint Stephen (1884), the First Cooper’s Beneficial Society (i887), and the Slovak Catholic Sokol (i905). The last was unusual in that it was primarily a social institution that promoted physical fitness. Founded in Passaic, this organization also provided Slovaks and other eastern Europeans a means of obtaining insurance and other financial assistance. The Passaic branch still exists and serves as a fraternal organization and a life insurance provider. Two other organizations that serve the needs of Slovaks are the New Jersey Slovak Heritage Foundation and the Slovak League of America.

By the early 1900s, the Slovaks had also established their own newspapers, churches, and parochial schools. Among the Catholic churches in New Jersey that have Slovak roots are Saint Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Passaic, the Slovak National Catholic Cathedral in Passaic, and Holy Family Parish in Linden.

Slovak emigration to the United States largely stopped after 1924. The descendants of these immigrants assimilated into society through intermarriage with other central European ethnic groups. But after World War II, a new generation of Slovaks, many of them political refugees, began to arrive in the United States. Unlike their predecessors, who had been mainly farmers and laborers from rural areas of Slovakia, these new immigrants were largely professionals, and many found work in the New York-New Jersey area. In the i970s, Slovaks in the United States took a new interest in their cultural heritage. Slovak cultural influences remain in evidence in multicultural cities like Passaic, and in the cultural and religious traditions of New Jerseyans of Slovak descent. Their largest ethnic affiliation is through their houses of worship and their cultural traditions, such as foods like paska (an Easter bread), folk traditions, and dancing.

Sluyter, Peter (b. 1645; d. 1722). Religious leader and travel writer. In 1679, Peter Sluyter and Jasper Danckaerts were sent from Holland to seek a location for a Labadist Pietist settlement in the American colonies. Their travels, recorded in a journal, described their horseback journey through western New Jersey and include interesting comments on what are now Passaic County, the Delaware River, and Trenton. Despite its caustic tone toward other Christians, this work presents a fascinating picture of colonial New Jersey. In 1683, the two missionaries founded a Labadist colony in Maryland, which Sluyter administered until his death.

Designed by Arthur Hotchkiss, the Bicycle Railway connected Smithville to Mount Holly, carrying thousands of riders between 1892 and 1898.

Smith, Alfred P. (b. July 6,1832; d. Nov. 27, 1901). Editor, publisher, and printer. Alfred P. Smith was born in Saddle River, where his father, Peter Smith, worked as a day laborer and owned a small farm. In 1876, Smith bought a printing press and started a printing business in his home. In 1881, he began to publish A. P. Smith’s Paper, soon renamed The Landscape: A Country Newspaper. The Landscape, a monthly publication, was among the earliest known newspapers in New Jersey published by an African American. According to Smith, The Landscape was "intended as a letter to our friends on matters of interest.” Although Smith referred to The Landscape as "our colored supplement,” his readership was largely white. The paper chronicled Saddle River’s local news, and Smith also included political commentary. A staunch Republican, Smith lamented the return of Democratic rule in the post-Civil War South and chastised southern leaders for Jim Crow laws, disfranchisement, and lynching. Smith cast the labor movement, anarchists, socialists, Populists, and "yellow journalists” as institutions and individuals who wrongly pitted class against class and heightened class tensions. The Landscape continued publication until July 1901.

Smith, Hezekiah Bradley (b. July 24, 1816; d. Nov. 3, 1887). Businessman, inventor, and politician. Originally a tradesman, Hezekiah Smith became an affluent industrialist, an inventor with more than twenty patents, a U.S. congressman, and a New Jersey state senator. In 1865, he purchased the Burlington County town of Shreveville for $23,000 and renamed it Smithville. Smithville was the home of his firm, the H. B. Smith Machine Company, a large producer of machine tools and bicycles. Smithville was also a progressive workers’ community whose character was shaped by Smith and his friend and partner, Agnes Gilkerson. When Hezekiah Smith died, he left his estranged wife, Eveline, and a son, Captain Elton A. Smith. The company failed during the Great Depression, and the site is now Smithville County Park.

Smith, James, Jr. (b. June 12,1851; d. Apr. 1, 1927). Manufacturer, U.S. senator, and politician. During the Progressive Era, James Smith was an influential member of the State Democratic Committee. In 1910 the Newark native led the state’s Democratic bosses in promoting the gubernatorial candidacy of Woodrow Wilson. When Wilson took office in 1911 he carried with him a Democratic legislature, and Smith expected to be reelected to the U.S. Senate, where he had served from 1893 to 1899. Wilson, however, supported the candidacy of James Martine, a progressive Democrat who recently had won a nonbinding preferential primary. This political struggle, which cost Smith the leadership of the State Democratic Committee, was seen by both the Smith forces and many regular Democrats as a betrayal by Wilson. Progressives of both parties, however, saw the incident as Wilson’s bold defiance of machine politicians. The so-called Martine affair helped propel Wilson to the presidency. After this dispute Smith withdrew from politics and returned to running his Newark factory.

Smith, John Bernhard (b. November 21, 1858; d. Mar. 12,1912). Mosquito control expert. Though trained as a lawyer, J. B. Smith was fascinated by insects. He abandoned his law practice in 1884 and established a career in entomology despite having no previous formal scientific training. Smith served as state entomologist at the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station from 1889 until his death in 1912. He solved numerous entomological problems, but he is remembered mainly for his system to eliminate the mosquito nuisance through salt marsh drainage. Smith’s unique combination of scientific and legal expertise allowed him to write laws that mandated mosquito control in the state. Smith’s laws exist to this day and form the cornerstone for modern-day mosquito control.

The caption reads: "State Entomologist Dr. John B. Smith has been requested by the Government to go to the Isthmus [of Panama] and use his system for the extermination of the mosquito pest,” c. 1906.

Smith, Kevin (b. Aug. 2,1970). Filmmaker. Kevin Smith’s first feature film, Clerks (1994), was shot after closing time at the convenience store where he worked in Leonardo. After winning prizes at the Cannes and Sundance film festivals, this low-budget, black-and-white, cheerfully vulgar independent film was picked up for distribution by Miramax. Since then, writer/director Smith and his production company, View Askew (based in Red Bank), have released Mallrats (1995), Chasing Amy (1997), Dogma (1999), Jersey Girl (2004), and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001). This last film’s title characters, played by Smith’s boyhood buddy Jason Mewes and Smith himself, have appeared as minor characters in all of Smith’s other films. New Jersey’s suburban convenience stores, malls, highways, and amusement arcades are also perennial settings in Smith’s films; in the controversial Dogma, God relaxes by playing Skee-Ball on the boardwalk in Asbury Park. Besides films, Smith’s other major interest is comic books. The main characters in Chasing Amy are comic book writer/artists; Smith himself has written for the Batman and Spider-Man series, among others, and he owns a comic book store, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, in Red Bank.

Smith, Norman J. (b. 1928; d. Dec.27, 1996). Agricultural innovator. Recognized for introducing drip irrigation to the United States and pioneering the adoption of plastic mulch for vegetable production, Norman J. Smith worked as Cumberland County agricultural agent for Rutgers Cooperative Extension from 1968 to 1982. He was a founding member of the American Society for Plasticulture. This technology increases vegetable yields by warming the soil for earlier crops, reducing weed pressure, and conserving water by delivering it directly to the roots. His introduction of plasticulture to the desert farms of both the Middle and the Far East earned him international distinction.

Smith, Oberlin (b. Mar. 22,1840; d. July 18, 1926). Inventor and businessman. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and educated at Polytechnic College, Philadelphia, Oberlin Smith founded a machine shop in Bridgeton in 1863, followed by the Ferracute Machine Company in 1878. Ferracute manufactured and nationally distributed industrial canning machinery and large stamping presses. Smith was awarded more than seventy patents for mechanical inventions, and in 1878 he was the first person to suggest the concept of magnetic recording. He served as the president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1889 and as the New Jersey commissioner to the Pan-American Exposition in 1901. He was an active supporter of abolition and woman suffrage as well as a pioneer in progressive worker compensation plans at Ferracute. Smith died in Bridgeton.

Smith, Patti (b. Dec. 30, 1946). Musician and poet. A Chicago native, Patti Smith was raised in Woodbury and first came to prominence the early 1970s at New York City poetry readings. She invited New Brunswick guitarist and writer Lenny Kaye to augment her readings with improvised music. In 1975 they recorded "Piss Factory,” a single that laid out the foundations of what would characterize her subsequent work: the melding of unpolished rock with poetic lyricism heavily influenced by nineteenth-century French romantic writers. In 1976, with a full band backing her, Smith recorded the influential album Horses, which placed her at the forefront of the developing New York City punk rock scene. She achieved her highest commercial success in 1978 with the hit "Because the Night” (co written with Freehold native Bruce Springsteen). Smith retired from active music making in 1979. After her husband’s death in 1994, she reemerged in performance and recordings and has released three albums since 1996. She has also written numerous books of poetry.

Smith, Robert (b. Jan. 14, 1722; d. Feb. 11, 1777). Architect-builder. Most likely Robert Smith was born in Dalkeith, Scotland. By 1749 he had immigrated to Philadelphia, where he became one of the city’s most prominent architect-builders. He designed what remain among Philadelphia’s landmark buildings: the steeple of Christ Church (1751-1753), Saint Peter’s Church (1758), and Carpenters’ Hall (1768-1774), where the First Continental Congress met in 1774.

In 1754, Smith was called upon to prepare a plan and lay out the ground for Nassau Hall for the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), which was moving to Princeton from its second home in Newark. He also designed a house for the president of the college. Now called Maclean House and somewhat altered, it nevertheless remains the best surviving example of Smith’s residential work. Smith lived in Princeton for some period during the time these buildings were under construction (1754-1757), probably building one or two houses in the town. He also designed Christ Church, Shrewsbury (1769), possibly Saint Peter’s Church, Freehold (1771), and the original section of the First Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville (1764).

In July 1775, in anticipation of war with England, the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety considered measures for the defense of Philadelphia. Smith proposed a system of "machines” to be sunk in the Delaware River. Known as chevaux-de-frise, these were huge wooden boxes filled with stone and equipped with barbed log spikes pointed at an angle downriver. Chained together across the channel, they were intended to rip the bottoms of wooden ships. Smith died after working on a barracks and sinking chevaux-de-frise at Billings port in Gloucester County as part of the river defenses.

Smith, Samuel (b. Dec. 13, 1720; d. July 13, 1776). Politician and historian. Samuel Smith was born in Burlington, the son of Richard Smith, a wealthy Quaker merchant and politician descended from one of the founders of proprietary West Jersey. Following in his father’s footsteps, Samuel was a member of the assembly, appointed to the council, and served as treasurer of West Jersey. Smith accumulated what was probably the largest library in New Jersey at the time, and used it and other sources to write his History of New Jersey (1765). Published at the time of the Stamp Act protests, the History reflected contemporary critical attitudes toward English policy. The book, described as dry and dull by some, and scrupulously accurate by others, nevertheless successfully preserved numerous documents that would otherwise have been lost to the historians who followed. It is regarded as the first history of New Jersey.

Theobald Smith.

Smith, Theobald (b. July 31, 1859; d. Dec.10, 1934). Pathologist and research institute administrator. Born in Albany, New York, to German immigrants Philip and Theresia Kexel Schmidt, Theobald Smith attended public schools (Albany Free Academy, 1876), Cornell University (Ph.D., 1881), and Albany Medical College (M.D., 1883). He married Lilian Hilyer Eagleton on May 17,1888. They had two daughters and a son.

Smith was chief of the Division of Pathology, U.S. Bureau of Animal Industry (1886-1895); a professor of comparative pathology at Harvard University (1895-1915); and the director of the Antitoxin and Vaccine Laboratory, Massachusetts State Board of Health (1895-1914). As director of the Department of Animal Pathology of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, located near Princeton (1914-1929), Smith organized, developed, and supervised a world-renowned research center that advanced New Jersey’s reputation for such work.

He authored or coauthored more than two hundred papers, books, and lectures and was acclaimed for findings in such diverse areas as Texas cattle fever, diphtheria, and tuberculosis. Smith was honored with degrees, medals, and memberships from a number of distinguished U.S. and foreign academic and professional organizations. The Theobald Smith Memorial Laboratory at the Albany Medical College and the Theobald Smith Microbiological Society of New Jersey are perpetual tributes to him. Smith died of heart disease at New York Hospital.