Dear Dr. Davis,

We know that no 'personal liberty' laws were in effect in NYS prior to the
Civil War, and, as you suggest, slave-holders often brought their 'servants'
with them when they went to New York City on business or to resorts such as
Saratoga Springs (which was one of the most popular northern resorts for
slave-holders from the South). However, their were no resorts in Montgomery
County (north of the Mohawk River, west of Schenectady, with 26 slaves in
1830) that I am aware of, and no slaves were counted in Saratoga County.

It seems that the 1830 and 1840 Federal censuses were enumerating enslaved
people who were resident in NYS, not sojourners. I think it would be
necessary to review the manuscript censuses to get to the root of the
matter, a project that I'd recommend to any student who finds the question
interesting. Who held slaves in NYS after 1827, what was the legal
rationale, and what was the eventual fate of these 75 people?

Thank goodness the census used 'actual enumeration' instead of statistical
projections, otherwise we would never know of these people.

Edward Knoblauch

-----Original Message-----
From: TJ Davis <[log in to unmask]>
To: Edward Knoblauch <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Monday, July 06, 1998 7:05 PM
Subject: Re: EMANCIPATION DAY IN NY STATE


>
>While the New York State statutes of 1799 and 1816 provided for
emancipating
>slaves in specified categories born in New York or resident in the state,
New
>York never enacted any abolition statute that would have outlawed the
presence
>of slaves in the state. Enslaved persons remained in the state after 1827
as
>property of holders not residents of New York State. For example, so-called
>itinerants to Saratoga Springs often brought slaves with them from
>out-of-state.
>
>Cheers,
>Professor T. J. Davis, Ph.D., J.D.