Children appear in records as enslaved “property,” underscoring family separation and the system’s cruelty.

Children appear in Somerset County records as enslaved individuals. Their presence highlights the brutality of slavery: children were valued, taxed, and transferred as property, with family bonds often ignored by law.

This page ensures the story does not erase children. It also helps visitors understand why “missing documentation” is itself part of the historical problem.

Enslaved children are often difficult to trace because they rarely left records in their own voices. Instead, they appear in inventories, tax lists, bills of sale, or probate materials.

Those documents can show ages, valuations, or categories that reveal how slavery commodified childhood.

For Franklin 250 interpretation, this page supports your aim to humanize names while staying rigorous: we state what the records prove, and we clearly mark what cannot be known from surviving sources.

It also creates a bucket for artifacts like probate inventories or ratable entries that can be placed on posters or in PowerPoints to show proof.

Some records from the past listed children as enslaved. This reminds us that kids lived through slavery too, and it was unfair and cruel.

Misconception: Slavery mainly affected adults doing labor. Reality: Children were enslaved too and were recorded as property.

Anchored to Somerset County records and supports the Franklin-area enslaved persons appendix.

Search Tags: Enslaved Children | Somerset County | Probate & Ratables | Family Separation | Documentary Proof | Local Black History

New Jersey State Archives (context): https://www.nj.gov/state/archives/