John's Freedom

In 1817, “An Act Relative to Slaves and Servants” was passed in New York,[1] stating that “every negro, mulatto, or mustee within this state, who is now a slave” born prior to July 4, 1799, would be free after July 4, 1827. That meant that Peg finally had the promise of freedom, albeit ten years later. The law also stated that children born after the passage of the act would be bound in service to their mother’s enslavers until age twenty-one. However, the new law also stated that those born after the 1799 abolition act and before passage of the 1817 act must remain servants until age twenty-eight for males and age twenty-five for females, just as before. That meant John was still legally indentured to the White Hasbroucks until 1834.

Exactly how John and the Hasbroucks worked out this obligation is unclear. Negotiations between enslaved people and enslavers concerning manumission and other advantages were not uncommon in New Paltz,[2] and this might have been the case for John. Based on the Register of Slaves, John’s father Philip had negotiated his own early freedom. On March 26, 1822, the Overseers of the Poor certified that “Philip a Male Slave, now belonging to Andries Dubois … [was] under the age of forty five years and of sufficient ability to provide for himself.”[3] This statement by the Overseers of the Poor exonerated Andries DuBois from legal responsibility to maintain and support Philip should he become ill or disabled after manumission.

Although no similar record relating to manumission has been found for John Hasbrouck, it is possible he negotiated early freedom for himself, as well. He may have promised his labor and faithful service for a set amount of time or he may have bargained for the right to work for pay from others in order to purchase his and his mother’s early freedom.[4] Recent discoveries reveal John was laboring for compensation separately from the Hasbroucks by at least the end of 1826, some time before general emancipation in July 1827 and eight years before he was considered legally free from bondage based on his age.

The evidence of John working for pay in 1826 was found in two account books belonging to Ezekiel Elting.[5] A White merchant and businessman, Ezekiel owned a store in the village and hundreds of acres (including farmland) throughout the town. He also ran a gristmill at Dashville (now part of the town of Esopus) with his brother-in-law Peter LeFevre of Bonticou.[6] In Ezekiel’s account books, John is listed as Jack Hasbrouck, just as he would later be listed in the 1830 census. John assumed the surname of his and his mother’s enslaver, which was typical for the period.

Elting Account Books

In 1826, John was twenty years old. The entries in Ezekiel’s account book for that year show John performing various labor including slaughtering hogs and chopping wood. John was compensated with cash and beef, as well as bushels of rye, wheat, and “ears” (presumably ears of corn, probably to feed a hog or hogs).[7] Other work John performed for Ezekiel over the years included hoeing, mowing, making fences, “cutting corn,” and “pulling flax.” Other times he worked on the road or was “ditching” (digging trenches along the roadway). Generally, John worked three or four days per week, but during the harvest he worked five or six days. John continued to accept payment in both cash and goods, including food stuffs such as potatoes, butter, veal, and codfish. At one point, he received as payment forty-five pounds of “Indian” meal (corn meal).[8]

On December 28, 1826, John was debited for a payment of fourteen shillings made to William Humphrey on his behalf, with no further information. Then in July 1827, John was charged for one pound, four shillings, and six pence for “2 pair shoes W. Humprey [sic]” indicating Humphrey was a cobbler and that Jack had purchased a pair of shoes (or shoe repairs) from Humphrey the winter before. At other times, John was debited for a “hoe Bought at Freers” and payments to a W. Van Wagenen and Daniel Fowler, presumably for other goods or services John must have required from those men.[9]

John also had business with Ezekiel’s sons Solomon E. and Jacob. Solomon had taken over the family’s village store and moved it to what is now Main Street. John likely acquired goods there. At least four times in 1827, Ezekiel debited John for payments to Solomon, writing in November, “To articles had on my account at Solomon’s.” In 1829, Ezekiel credited John three times by Jacob’s account, suggesting John had performed work for Jacob, as well.[10]

The account books also reveal that John was working off rent to Ezekiel, furthering the connection between himself and the Elting family. On June 1, 1827, Ezekiel debited John for nine months rent. Then again on April 1, 1828 for ten months of rent and then on December 21, 1829 for rent since April 1, 1829, “being 10 months.”[11]

John worked regularly for Ezekiel from 1826 through 1829. After that the records of his labor and payments become less frequent. There were just a few notations for days John worked and how he was compensated for 1830, 31, 33, and 35.[12]

It was in 1830 that John began keeping his own account book.

Notes

[1] A transcript of the 1817 Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery can be found here https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/elting/id/732/#:~:text=And%20be%20it%20further%20enacted,one%20years%20and%20no%20longer.

[2]Sojourner Truth negotiated for early freedom in what was then New Paltz, but her enslaver John Dumont reneged. See Gilbert and Titus, 39. For other examples in the Hudson Valley, see also Groth, 60–67.

[3]Register of Slaves cited earlier, image 40. The Register records a total of fourteen manumissions in New Paltz between 1808 and 1825.

[4]John’s obituary from the New Paltz Times states, “After the death of his mother he was given his freedom.” However, John seems to be working independently of the White Hasbrouck family by the end of 1826 and Peg, although unnamed, appears to have been alive and living with her son based on the 1830 US Federal Census, as we shall see.

[5]Ezekiel Elting Account Book, 1822-1835, and Ezekiel Elting Account Book, 1825-1843. Roelof J. and Ezekiel Elting Family Papers, HHS Archives. https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll153/id/4749/rec/18 and https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll153/id/5224/rec/17.

[6] Ralph LeFevre, History of New Paltz, New York, and Its Old Families, (From 1678 to 1820) (Fort Orange Press, 1909), 463.

[7]Ezekiel Elting Account Book, 1822-1835, cited earlier, image 174.

[8] Elting Account Book, images 2, 138, 161-62, 165-66, 169-70, 174-75, and 179.

[9] Elting Account Book, images 170 and 175.

[10] Elting Account Book, images 175 (see also 170), 162 and 166.

[11] Elting Account Book, images 170, 165 and 116. Note that the account book does not follow chronological order from start to finish, but rather jumps from page to page.

[12] Elting Account Book, images 162 and 138.