This is Preferred Company with Joel and Fran! Today’s guest is Rick Geffken, author of ‘Stories of Slavery in New Jersey’. Dutch and English settlers once brought the first enslaved people in the 17th century. By the time of the Revolutionary War, slavery was an established practice on labor-intensive farms. The progenitor of the influential Morris family, Lewis Morris, brought Barbadian slaves to toil on his estate of Tinton Manor in Monmouth County. “Colonel Tye,” an escaped slave from Shrewsbury, joined the British “Ethiopian Regiment” during the Revolutionary War and led raids throughout the towns and villages. Charles Reeves and Hannah Van Clief married soon after their emancipation in 1850 and became prominent citizens of Lincroft, as did their next four generations. These are just some of the stories from New Jersey’s dark history of slavery. Rick will explain why history has whitewashed a lot that took place, how people react to these stories and why he tells the whole story and not one that’s condensed for history books.
Preferred Company 2-23-21: Rick Geffken