Dinah (b. 1795)

Name

Dinah (b. 1795)

Identifier

NJS-PER-00644

Given Name

Dinah

Birth Date

1795

Sex

Female

Description

Dinah was born around 1795 and lived in New Brunswick, NJ. She was enslaved by Doctor William Van Deursen, a physician in New Brunswick and a graduate of Queen's College (now Rutgers University). In 1817, William Van Deursen sold Dinah to a man named Jacob Klady, a New Jersey landholder who was getting ready to move to Ouachita Parish in Louisiana to establish a plantation. Klady took Dinah to Louisiana with him.

Before Klady was allowed to take Dinah out of the State of New Jersey, Dinah had to appear in court and give her consent to move with Klady. It appears that Dinah used this as an opportunity to negotiate with Klady for her freedom before giving her consent. According to Dinah's removal certificate issued by the Court of Common Pleas of Middlesex County in 1817, Klady promised to manumit Dinah if she served him obediently for 15 years in Louisiana. Dinah's fate after moving to Louisiana is uncertain.

Relation

Phillis (b. 1795)

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.

Source Resource

https://records.njslavery.org/api/items/2144

Source Site

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

Enslaver

William Van Deursen (1791-1873)

Jacob Klady

Contributor

Jesse Bayker