1712 Census of Westchester County Documents Slave Ownership in Pelham

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As I stated in my posting published to the Historic Pelham Blog on April 3, 2006, for several years I have tried to piece together some of the tragic history regarding slavery in the early years of Pelham's history. For those also working to piece together this history, I provide below a brief list of a few of the available resources on the topic:

Monday, April 3, 2006: 1805 Will of William Bayley of Pelham Included Disposition of Slaves

Friday, February 17, 2006: Runaway Slave Notice Published by John Pell in 1748 Comes to Light

Monday, July 18, 2005: Pelham Manor Runaway Slave Notice in August 29, 1789 Issue of The New-York Packet

Bell, Blake A., Records of Slavery and Slave Manumissions in 18th and 19th Century Pelham, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIII, No. 27, Jul. 9, 2004.

Harris, William A., Records Related to Slave Manumissions: Pelham, New York, Vol. 123(3), The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, pp. 145-47 (Jul. 1992).

Today's Historic Pelham Blog Posting provides the text of the Census of Westchester County taken in 1712. I have taken the material from a publication issued in 1849 entitled "Papers Relating to Westchester County", Vol. XIII, p. 949 (Ward Parsons). Beneath the image of the chart reflecting that census taken from that publication, I have transcribed excertps of the chart that relate to Pelham.




"CENSUS OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY; 1712.

Pelham . . . . . . . . . .

Numbrs [sic] of Male persons Above Sixty years of Age 3
Numbrs [sic] of Male persons from sixteen to sixty years of Age 11
Numbrs [sic] of Male persons undr [sic] Sixteen 13
Numbrs [sic] of females Above Sixty 1
Numbers of females from Sixty to Sixteen 9
Numbers of females undr [sic] Sixteen 15
Numbrs [sic] of Male Slaves from Sixteen & Above 6
Numbrs [sic] of Male Slaves undr Sixteen 4
Numbrs [sic] of female slaves from Sixteen & Above 2
Numbrs [sic] of female Slaves undr [sic] Sixteen 1

[Total] 62 [sic - the true total is 65]"

As the above makes clear, of the total recorded population of 65 indicated as residing in Pelham in 1712, 13 -- 20% of the entire population -- were slaves. Ten of those slaves were male and 3 were female.

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