Tax Ratables for the Western Precinct, Somerset County, February 1790. Collection of the New Jersey State Archives, Department of State. Because enslaved people were considered property, they are included on the tax document for Annis Stockton (1736–1801). In 1790, she is recorded as owning one slave
The Stocktons as Enslavers
It is the Revolutionary period at Morven that first gave the Stockton family and this site national significance.
A distinguished lawyer and judge, Richard Stockton was born in Princeton in 1730 and built Morven on land gifted to him by his parents. Stockton was elected to the Second Continental Congress and was one of five New Jersey signatories of the Declaration of Independence, along with Abraham Clark, John Hart, Francis Hopkinson, and John Witherspoon. His wife, the poet Annis Boudinot Stockton (1736–1801), was among the first women to be published in the colonies.
As a home of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Morven’s walls were witness to conversations on liberty, freedom, and justice. However, these well-worn words did not apply to everyone in the same way, if at all. Consider Annis’ qualifying statement, “...tho a female I was born a patriot.” And like many founding fathers, Stockton held men, women, and children in bondage. The labor of these enslaved men and women allowed the Stockton family to enjoy an affluent 18th century lifestyle with a mansion house and gardens.
Richard the Signer grew up in a slaveholding family. In his will, Richard’s grandfather, a Quaker, (referred to here as Richard the Settler) left enslaved people to several family members. Six enslaved children were left to the Settler’s wife. When the Settler’s children came of age, they were each to receive one enslaved person. The Settler left the enslaved children’s mother, Dinah, to his brother-in-law.
Portrait of Richard Stockton, (1730–1781), late 19th century to early 20th century. Unknown Artist, after John Wollaston (1710–1775). Morven Collection.
Portrait of Annis Boudinot Stockton (1736–1801). Unidentified American artist. Collection of the Princeton University Art Museum. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Landon K. Thorne, for the Boudinot Collection.
Richard the Signer and his son, Richard the Duke, both held men, women, and children in bondage at Morven. In 1779, the Signer reported enslaving three men and two in 1780. The counts are artificially low, as taxpayers were only required to record male slaves who were able to work. While enslaved people were not consistently recorded, glimpses of their lives can be gleaned from Stockton correspondence. They are variously referred to as slaves, negroes, and servants
Portrait of Richard Stockton, the Duke, c. 1800. Christian Gullager (1759–1826). Morven Collection.
Portrait of Mary Field Stockton, c. 1800. Christian Gullager (1759–1826). Morven Collection.
In 1766, Richard the Signer wrote to Annis, “Tell the Servants if they behave well I will reward them when I return, and if ill, I will punish them.” Letters from the Duke reveal the names of enslaved women who performed domestic tasks: Fan, Batty, and Susan.
A Notice from the Princeton Vigilante Society, Trenton Federalist, January 27, 1801. Collection of the New Jersey State Library.
As can be seen in this newspaper announcement, the Duke was the chairman of a local vigilante society formed with the “purpose of aiding the magistrates in the suppression of vice and the support of good order” but also functioned as a way to monitor the activities of apprentices and African Americans. At this 1801 meeting, it was resolved “That the members of this meeting will not purchase from any negro, any articles of produce without such written permission as aforesaid, or some other sufficient evidence of the consent of their said masters or mistresses to such sale.”
The Commodore Stockton as Enslaver
Daguerreotype of Commodore Robert F. Stockton, c. 1855. Collection of the Historical Society of Princeton.
After his wife’s death in 1862, the Commodore lived at Morven with his daughter Harriet Maria (her mother’s namesake) and his youngest son Robert and his family. The Commodore died suddenly from cholera in 1866. He left behind an outdated will that bequeathed everything to his wife and a considerable amount of debt, including two mortgages on Morven.
The third patriarch at Morven was Commodore Robert Field Stockton (1795–1866), the son of Richard Stockton the Duke. In 1828, Robert purchased land in Glynn County, Georgia for a sugarcane plantation. Sugarcane, which had long been lucrative in the Mississippi Valley, was just being introduced into the low country of Georgia and South Carolina. Stockton wanted to be among the first to introduce the crop and threw his money behind the project. Two years later, the census recorded 108 enslaved men, women, and children living on the plantation. Of the 108, 39 were under the age of 10. Stockton actively traded and sold his enslaved people with nearby planters. One known transaction records the sale of a man named Anthony for $650. Operating this large plantation seemingly contradicts Stockton’s previous support of gradual abolition and his prominent position within the American Colonization Society.
This 1830 U.S. Federal Census for Glynn County, Georgia, shows Robert F. Stockton enslaving 108 people on his sugarcane plantation. The census further breaks down the numbers by age and sex, revealing 27 boys and 12 girls under the age of 10 held in bondage.
In Princeton, the Commodore’s slave holdings were much smaller, undoubtedly due to New Jersey’s 1804 law for gradual abolition. While living in the house he built after his marriage, he enslaved one man and two women and also employed one “free colored male.” In 1828, he manumitted, or freed, a man named Hannibal and a woman named Cate. Cate may be the baby girl recorded by the Commodore’s father, the Duke, in September 1804. By the time the Commodore took possession of Morven in 1840, he no longer held any men or women in bondage in New Jersey. The 1840 census lists nine free servants at Morven: three white males, one white female, three African American males, and two African American females. By 1850, all of Morven’s servants were Irish immigrants between the ages of 22 and 31. They included Jane Davis, M. Hagg, E. Sherret, and E. Patterson.