Historic Pelham Blog Archive
April 12, 2006

350TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION BOOK:  "THOMAS PELL AND THE LEGEND OF THE PELL TREATY OAK" -- $11.95 (PROCEEDS AFTER PRINTING COSTS WILL GO TO BARTOW-PELL MANSION MUSEUM).  CLICK HERE TO BROWSE BEFORE YOU BUY! LEARN MORE.

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.

Please Visit the Historic Pelham Web Site
Located at http://www.historicpelham.com/
Click here to see a single index of all Historic Pelham Blog Postings to date.

posted by Blake A. Bell @ 4:53 AM Comment

Click Here To View the Actual Blog Posting for April 12, 2006.

Home |  Articles |  Bibliography |  Biographies |  E-books |  Ghosts/Legends |  Links |  Maps
Memorials |  Pelham in Court |  Photo Catalog |  Place Names |  Postcards |  Societies |  Timeline
Virtual Tour |  Contact Us

© 2003-2006 Blake A. Bell. All Rights Reserved.

Designed by Internetcomealive, Inc.
Web Design, Hosting, Consulting