The first law passed in New York providing for the (gradual)
emancipation of slaves came only in 1799; efforts to pass an emancipation
law in 1785 had failed. However, the New York Legislature in 1785 (by a
rider to a Financial Bill) did revoke the colonial law requiring a person
manumitting a slave to provide a bond of 250 pounds for his perpetual
support; instead persons could manumit slaves under the age of 50 provided
that the Overseer the Poor certified that the slave was capable of
self-support. There were no lower restrictions as to age. (Citations: New
York 8th ssembly 2, pp. 59-60,124, 126, 128, 142, 153; New York 8th Senate
2, pp. 66, 68 "An Act granting a bounty on hemp...and for other
purposes...., "Laws of the State of New York.... (Albany, 1886), II,
120-121.)
    My source for this is Arthur Zilversmit, "The First Emancipation: The
Abolition of Slavery in the North" (University of Chicago Press, 1967), p.
150.
    Nothing I have seen would indicate that children freed in 1794 would be
legally subject to being resold into slavery (though the periodic kidnapping
of free African Americans in New York by southern slave dealers and their
agents would continue until the Civil War).
    I have seen quoted an 1822 ruling of an Overseer of the Poor in the Town
of Butternuts, Otsego County, giving a favorable ruling on behalf of a slave
couple and their young children -- noting that the slaves to be freed were
capable of supporting the children.
    Other good books on the status of African-Americans (slaves and free) in
New York at this period include: Edgar McManus, "A History of Negro Slavery
in New York" (Syracuse University Press, 1966); Shane White, "Somewhat More
Independent: The End of Slavery in New York City" (University of Georgia
Press, 1991); and Graham Russell Hodges, "Root and Branch: African Americans
in New York and East Jersey, 1613-1860" (University of North Carolina Press,
1999).

Hugh C. MacDougall
8 Lake Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326-1016
[log in to unmask]
<http://www.oneonta.edu/~cooper/>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Perrin" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2001 1:41 PM
Subject: New York Slavery: 200 year old legal question


> In August, 1794, a New York judge manumitted two of his slaves in
> recognition of past services rendered.  One month later, he sold the
> daughter of these two slaves to them for 17 pounds, the approximate
> market value at the time for a slave.
>
> We do not know whether or not actual money passed between the parents
> and the judge.
> We may assume that the daughter was not of legal age and did not reach
> legal age until at least the year 1800.
> There is no record of the parents manumitting the child.
>
> The question is this: What would have been the legal ramifications if
> the judge had manumitted the slave child concurrently with her parents?
> Were there social or legal consequences of manumission at the time that
> would have adversely affected the child? If the child had been
> manumitted, could the child have been taken from the parents by
> strangers and re-sold into slavery?
>
> Any assistance on these questions (preferably with documentation of
> sources) wins eternal gratitude from the undersigned,
>
> Tom Perrin
>