Thomas was a young man who resisted his enslavement both covertly and, eventually, publicly. What little we know of Thomas’s life is a case study in the importance of reading enslavers’ letters about enslaved people through a critical lens, as well as the extent to which enslaved people resisted and claimed agency, even in the most difficult of circumstances.
Thomas was purchased by Susan Niemcewicz as a teenager, when he was forced to leave his home and family in Bridgewater to travel to Elizabethtown. Although it is a dehumanizing document, Thomas’s bill of sale contains some revealing information about him that can help shed light on who he was as a person. Unlike the bills of sale for others enslaved by Niemcewicz, Thomas’s does not list his age or much other identifying information. He is referred to both as a “boy” and “man” in this document, but this cannot tell us much. Enslaved and free Black men were often referred to as “boy” in order to demean them and deny them the rights of manhood. It is likely, though, that he was a younger man or teenager. The Tunisson family sold Thomas to Susan Niemcewicz for $306. Assigning a numerical value to a human being is inherently dehumanizing, but historians have been able to use this to learn identifying information about enslaved men, women, and children. Younger men were assigned the highest “value,” along with young women, whose ability to have children was commodified by enslavers. Because Susan Niemcewicz paid approximately the same amount of money to claim ownership over Thomas as she did for eighteen-year-old Peter Van Horne, we can infer that they were around the same age.
What else can we learn from this document? Thomas was sold as part of the estate of a deceased man, Abraham Tunisson. The death of an enslaver was a frightening time for enslaved people. It meant that families, friends, and communities might be split apart if they were willed to different family members of the deceased or sold to pay debts. In the nineteenth century, white people sometimes recorded the grief of enslaved communities upon the death of their enslaver, incorrectly believing that they loved and mourned their enslaver himself. In actuality, they were mourning the potential loss of their own loved ones. When he was sold in April 1802, Thomas was experiencing one of an enslaved person’s greatest fears. He was sold from Bridgewater to Elizabethtown, a great enough distance that it is unclear whether he saw his family ever again.
Unlike almost all of the other people enslaved by Susan Niemcewicz, we have some information about Thomas’s physical appearance. Even though he were young, Thomas was also big and tall, enough so that Susan Niemcewicz ordered all his clothing to have large seams. This also indicates that at least in 1802, Thomas was still growing.
Especially if he were younger, Thomas must have been frightened and upset when he was brought to Susan and Julian Niemcewicz’s home. He was purchased on a trial basis, meaning that he may have feared that his life would be uprooted a twice in a short period of time. Julian Niemcewicz was at first unhappy with Thomas. The Tunissons raised his price without notice and Julian learned that Thomas had never contracted either smallpox or the measles, leaving him vulnerable to the diseases. Both deadly diseases, especially without vaccination, Julian Niemcewicz was far more worried that he would “lose my whole money” if Thomas contracted either illness (Julian Niemcewicz. Copy of a letter to D.A. Tunison. No Date, Liberty Hall Collection, Kean University).
Thomas lived alongside other enslaved people in Susan Niemcewicz’s household. When he first arrived, he would have met Betty, an enslaved mother, and her children and eventually, he would have met Eve, a fourteen-year-old girl. He was responsible for working in the garden and other “domestic drudgery” that Susan and Julian Niemcewicz assigned to him (Julian Ursin Niemcewicz to Susan Ursin Niemcewicz, August 25, 1802. Liberty Hall Collection, Kean University).
From very early on, Tom resisted enslavement. Susan Niemcewicz did not realize that it was resistance but thought that he required strict oversight because he was often “negligent” and tried to leave her home in the evenings. Thomas was almost certainly leaving to socialize with other young men in Elizabethtown. We do not know what Thomas liked to do for fun, but going to taverns, gambling, card-playing and other similar activities were popular sources of amusement for enslaved and free people in the early nineteenth century, as well as avenues for mixed-race socialization. Thomas likely paid for his evening amusements by taking on small jobs or receiving bribes, which Julian Niemcewicz sometimes gave to him. In a system that dehumanized Tom and other enslaved people, building relationships and taking ownership over their bodies was resistance.
Although she often wrote that Thomas needed “a master’s eye” in order to do what he was told, she never understood his lack of attention as resistance (Susan Ursin Niemcewicz to Julian Niemcewiz, June 1, 1803). Even when objects constantly went missing from her house and she suspected Tom was taking them, she did not understand why he was stealing. This was another well-documented form of resistance to enslavement.
Susan Niemcewicz responded by controlling Thomas even more. She understood how much he wanted to be with other members of Elizabethtown’s Black community. Thomas’s free and enslaved Black friends and neighbors were so important to Tom that even his enslaver noticed. In addition to making him sleep in front of her room, she also bribed him with clothing. Thomas’s appearance was important to him and he enjoyed fashion and looking his best, and Susan Niemcewicz tried to take advantage of this fact.
Although Thomas featured heavily in letters between Susan Niemcewicz and her husband Julian, we know very little about the relationships that were most important to him. Their letters indicate that he might have been married by 1810 and perhaps even had children, although their names are unknown.
Despite this, Susan Niemcewicz believed that he “is much attached to me & very solicitous of my health. “Susan Ursin Niemcewicz to Julian Ursin Niemcewicz, July 31, 1804. Liberty Hall Collection at Kean University). It is impossible to know Thomas’s true feelings but it is certain that he wanted to live free. There are many reasons why he might have chosen to ask about his enslaver’s health and make her believe that he was attached to her. It certainly would have given him far more opportunities to receive gifts and money. He also may have found that by making Susan Niemcewicz feel as though he loved her and would not leave her, he had less oversight.
Thomas made the risky decision to self-emancipate in late 1810 or early 1811. This shocked Susan Niemcewicz, who believed that Thomas was happy to remain enslaved in her household. It is clear, though, that from his earliest actions in Elizabethtown, Thomas was taking steps to hold onto his personal agency and resist enslavement. It comes as no surprise, then, that when the opportunity presented itself, Thomas chose to be free.