“An Act to prevent the immigration of negroes and to define the standing of the negro race in the State of New Jersey .”

Provisions included: “(1) that a fine of twenty dollars a day for every day after the first four days be levied on any person harboring any negro who immigrated to New Jersey; (2) that it be a misdemeanor for any person to entice a negro to New Jersey; (3) that every Negro in the state, six months after the passage of the act, be required to procure from the surrogate in the county of his residence a certificate describing his person and his place of birth. Negroes who failed to comply would be deemed non-residents and could neither liver nor work in the state. The certificate would have to be renewed every five years; (4) that a mulatto with one-fourth negro blood would be judged a negro; (5) that marriage between a black and white in another state would bar the couple's entrance into New Jersey . Marriage between blacks and whites in New Jersey would be unlawful and a fine or imprisonment would be imposed on the white party.”

Source: Minutes, 88; Trenton Daily True American , February 5, 1863. Carl E. Hatch, Negro Migration and New Jersey – 1863 , New Jersey History , Volume LXXXVII, Number Four, Whole Number 339, Winter 1969.

 

 

“. . . that if any negro, mulatto, or quadroon, male or female, who was not a resident of this state before the passage of this act, shall hereafter come into this state and remain therein for ten days or more . . . [he] shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof, shall be transported . . . to Liberia, or some island in the West Indies.”

Source: Newark Daily Advertiser , March 20, 1863; Carl E. Hatch, Negro Migration and New Jersey – 1863 , New Jersey History , Volume LXXXVII, Number Four, Whole Number 339, Winter 1969.