William Van Deursen (1791-1873)

Name

William Van Deursen (1791-1873)

Identifier

NJS-PER-00632

Given Name

William

Family Name

Van Deursen

Birth Date

May 16, 1791

Death Date

February 16, 1873

Sex

Male

Description

William Van Deursen was an enslaver who resided in New Brunswick, NJ. He was a graduate of Queen's College (now Rutgers University), class of 1809, and he served as a trustee of the college for fifty years from 1823-1873. He was a prominent local physician and was active in the New Jersey Medical Society and the Middlesex County Medical Society.

His father Willem (William) Van Deursen (1736-1816) had also been one of the early trustees of Queen's College, and his older brother Staats Van Deursen was the treasurer of the college.

In 1817, William Van Deursen and his brother Staats decided to sell two young Black women to a man named Jacob Klady who was moving from New Brunswick to Ouachita, Louisiana, to establish a plantation there. As the result of William Van Deursen's actions, a 22-year-old woman named Dinah was taken away from New Jersey to Louisiana to work on Klady's plantation. At the same time, his brother Staats sold a woman named Phillis, who was also taken to Louisiana by Klady.

William Van Deursen was served in New Brunswick City Council. As a councilman, starting on November 7, 1823, he served on a committee that was charged with rounding up free Black people and removing them from New Brunswick. According to City Council minutes for March 5, 1824, his committee was also charged with enforcing a racially specific curfew that prohibited any Black people from being out in the street after ten o'clock on Saturday evenings.

Sibling of

Staats Van Deursen (b. 1773)

Organization

Rutgers University

Bibliographic Citation

Bayker, Jesse, Christopher Blakley, and Kendra Boyd. “His Name Was Will: Remembering Enslaved Individuals in Rutgers History.” In Scarlet and Black: Slavery and Dispossession in Rutgers History, edited by MARISA J. FUENTES and DEBORAH GRAY WHITE, 58–81. Rutgers University Press, 2016.

Minutes of the New Brunswick N.J. Common Council, 1796-1819. New Brunswick, NJ: New Brunswick Historical Society, 1910.

Van Deusen, Albert Harrison. Van Deursen Family. Vol. 1. New York: Frank Allaben Genealogical Co, 1912.

Source Resource

https://records.njslavery.org/api/items/2132

Source Site

https://records.njslavery.org/s/doc/page/home

Occupation

Medical and Funerary

Government

Police and Corrections

Child of

Willem (William) Van Deursen (1736-1816)

Contributor

Jesse Bayker