Suchergebnisse

New-York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, commonly known as the New-York Manumission Society, was established 1785 to publicly promote the abolition of slavery and manumission of slaves in New York State. The society, which was dissolved in 1849, provided legal and financial assistance to individual slaves seeking manumission and supported efforts to enforce laws banning the sale of slaves in New York State. Meeting minutes, commission reports, financial records, indentures, registers, and miscellaneous records of the New-York Manumission Society, dating from the year of the Societys organization in 1785 to that of its dissolution in 1849. Minutes of the Societys quarterly meetings, standing committee, and ways amd means committee concern such topics as political activities of the Society, Society finances, efforts to enact legal reforms aimed at abolishing the slave trade in New York and preventing the exportation of slaves, reports on individual cases of slaves in need of assistance in negotiating their freedom, the protection of manumitted slaves, reports and decisions concerning the Societys sponsorship and operation of the African Free School and houses of refuge for the benefit of New Yorks African American population, appointments, elections, etc. Records also include an account book, 1819-1849, kept by the treasurer of the Society; a register of manumissions of slaves in New York City, 1816 Jun. 18-1818 May 28; indentures, 1809-1829, drawn up for slaves granted the status of indentured servants with the assistance of the Society; and miscellaneous minutes and reports, including papers pertaining to the American Convention for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. Some of the Societys active members were: Robert C. Cornell, W. W. Woolsey, Nehemiah Allen, Melancton Smith, William T. Slocum, Samuel Bowne, Adrian Hegeman, Willet Seaman, Thomas Burling, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, James Duane, John Murray, Jr., William Dunlap, Alexander McDougall, Noah Webster, Egbert Benson, and many others.