Who was Enslaved at Liberty Hall?: Abraham and His Mother

 

A registration of Abraham's birth in an Essex County record book.
Most birth certificates of children born to enslaved mothers left out their father’s name, but it was less common to omit the mother’s name. From The Newark Public Library.

Abraham was born on April 15, 1814, at Liberty Hall or outbuildings on the property. We know that his mother was enslaved and that Susan Niemcewicz claimed ownership over her. We know that Peter Kean served as Susan Niemcewicz’s attorney and registered Abraham’s birth with the county on her behalf. 

Very little else of Abraham’s life was recorded. His mother’s name was not even listed on his birth certificate, let alone his father’s. Because she was enslaved, Abraham’s mother had no legal claim on her own son. Her name was less legally relevant to Abraham’s birth certificate than Susan Niemcewicz’s, even though her son was technically free. The state did not find it important to recognize relationships between enslaved family members except to identify claims of ownership.

Two enslaved children posing for a photograph. A young boy on the left has dark skin and is dressed in a simple suit. The girl on the right has very light skin and is wearing a dress. Both are looking directly at the camera with a serious expression and are standing in front of a plain wall.
The children in this photograph were enslaved in New Orleans, but children in New Jersey were also enslaved or made to labor for the people who enslaved their mothers well into the nineteenth century. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, The William Gladstone Collection of African American Photographs, LC-DIG-ppmsca-11092.

Abraham was born the same year as Peter Kean’s oldest son, John, but their lives would have looked very different from an early age. John Kean would have been cared for by a nanny in his earliest years, while his mother oversaw the household and managed his and his siblings’ education. John attended Princeton University and became very wealthy after inheriting Liberty Hall as a young man.

Abraham, on the other hand, would have been treated like an enslaved person until age 25, even though he was technically born free. He probably spent his earliest years with his mother, as she was forced to split her attention between caring for his basic needs and doing the work assigned to her. He would not have had the opportunity to get an education, instead, Abraham labored in the house or on the farm during his childhood. He probably knew Stephen and Elias, other Black boys whose mothers were enslaved at Liberty Hall, and perhaps these boys developed friendships and played together when they were not made to work.

We do not know what happened to Abraham or his mother. They might have been sold soon after his birth  or they could have remained here for many more years. Abraham would have been free in 1839, and by 1840, there were no Black men Abraham’s age living at Liberty Hall, nor were there any Black women. If they were living, Abraham and his mother had moved away from Liberty Hall.