New York of the 1780s had the highest slave population of any of the northern states. One of those slave owners was John Jay. Yet Jay also opposed the institution of slavery, desired its gradual abolishment, and worked toward that goal in his personal and professional lives. In 1785, he became a founding member and first president of the New-York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, and Protecting Such of Them as Have Been, or May be Liberated, more commonly known as the New-York Manumission Society.1

Jay’s antipathy to the institution of slavery grew with his revolutionary activity. He frequently used the imagery of slavery, bondage, and chains in his polemics against British rule.2 In 1777, he supported Gouverneur Morris’s proposed clause to the New York State constitution abolishing domestic slavery (the motion failed).3 He wrote to Egbert Benson of his approval of Pennsylvania’s 1780 law for the gradual abolition of slavery, recommending that New York pass a similar law, noting that “Were I in your Legislature I would prepare a Bill for the Purpose with great Care, and I wd. never cease moving it till it became a Law or I ceased to be a member.”4 During the peace negotiations, on his own initiative, Jay proposed a provision in the trade agreement that would have barred British subjects from importing slaves into America.5 He expressed similar ideas in his correspondence with such likeminded notables as Richard Price.6

In common with his efforts on behalf of the Episcopal Church, Jay’s work for the New-York Manumission Society frequently overlapped his public position as Secretary for Foreign Affairs. The peace treaty with Great Britain stipulated that the carrying off or exportation of “Negroes” was a violation of the terms of peace.7 Many slaves fled to freedom under British protection, and others were seized by British troops, and their former owners demanded their return or monetary compensation. In a “Report to Congress on State Laws Contrary to the Treaty of Peace” (extracts, 13 October 1786, below), Jay approved of the quest for compensation but made clear his exasperation with his responsibility to demand their return: “He is aware that he is about to say unpopular things, but higher motives than personal considerations press him to proceed.—If a War should take place between France and Algiers, and in the course of it France should invite the American slaves there to run away from their Masters, and actually receive and protect them in their Camp, what would Congress and indeed the world think and say of France, if on making peace with Algiers she should give up those American slaves to their former Algerine masters? Is there any other difference between the two Cases than this Vizt. that the American Slaves at Algiers are white people, whereas the African Slaves at New York were Black people?”8

On 25 January 1785, a group of nineteen men met at Simmons Tavern for the purpose of “forming a Society for the promoting the Manumission of Slaves; and protecting such of them that have been or may be Liberated.”9 It was the second such organization in America, Pennsylvania’s having been established in 1775.10 Jay was not at this meeting, but attended the next one, on 4 February, when he was unanimously appointed chairman. The new society prefaced their rules with “Reasons for instituting the said Society,” declaring “the benevolent Creator and Father of Men having given to them all, an equal Right to Life, Liberty and Property” it was “our duty, therefore, both as free Citizens and Christians” to feel not only compassion for the enslaved, but to change their conditions. The general vulnerability of the free population was pointed out, particularly the practice of kidnapping freedmen and selling them into slavery. In order to prevent this, the society would keep a register of all manumitted slaves in order to enable it to “detect attempts to deprive such manumitted persons of their liberty.”11

The New-York Manumission Society’s membership consisted of a mix of attorneys, doctors, bankers, and merchants. They included Jay’s former clerk Robert Troup, old associate Alexander McDougall, Alexander Hamilton, Robert R. Livingston, Mayor James Duane, and John Murray Sr. and Jr., father and brother of Jay’s friend Lindley Murray. Most members would be pro-Constitutionalists. Some, like Melancton Smith, opposed the Constitution but became crucial to the compromise that enabled its ratification in New York. Many of its members were active in state and city government. Roughly half of the members were Quakers, many of whom were members of the New York Monthly Meeting, the executive body of the New York Quaker organization. Other sects represented were Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Dutch Reformed.12 Tensions existed between Quaker members, who did not hold slaves, and slaveholding members. At the 4 February meeting, Alexander Hamilton, Robert Troup, and White Matlack were appointed a committee to report on a line of conduct for members who owned slaves. A policy on this issue was proposed on 10 November 1785; however, only the last two clauses, which required that the names of the manumitted be submitted to the Society and published in order to protect them from reenslavement, were approved. Any requirements for members to manumit their slaves were postponed.13

On 10 February 1785 (when he was not present), Jay was elected president of the Society. He would be reelected each year until his resignation from the society in the fall of 1789 upon his assumption of the office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Jay was a natural choice for the presidency, both pragmatic and politically savvy. Not only did he have a strong personal commitment to the cause, he had important social and political connections, both domestically and internationally. He was a superb writer with much experience in producing and circulating effective polemics. As an attorney, one of the drafters of the New York State Constitution, and member of both the state and national legislatures, he knew the law and the political process.

Although Jay attended only eleven of the twenty-nine recorded meetings of the Society from its origin until his resignation, he was extremely active on the Society’s behalf. He drafted petitions and numerous letters. He was a contact person for those who wished to communicate with the society. For example, when the South Carolinian Quaker Richard Lushington wished to alert the society to the case of a freed man sold as a slave in Charleston, he wrote directly to Jay. When Samuel A. Otis, delegate to Congress from Massachusetts, reported a similar incident, he contacted Jay.14

The society’s founding statement that it would use “lawful Ways and Means” (4 Feb. 1785) aptly describes its general goals and methods. These were consistent with Jay’s personal approach. The Manumission Society campaigned for the gradual abolition of slavery and the containment of slavery by prohibiting the slave trade, including between New York and other states, by lobbying the legislature for new laws and the enforcement of existing laws. It promoted the private manumission of slaves and, through the African Free School, education for freedmen. While the Society supported the free community, it also engaged in social supervision, barring children of misbehaving blacks from the school and encouraging social ostracism of those people within the community who did not adhere to a strict line of conduct. The Manumission Society communicated with the international antislavery community, most notably the Société des Amis des Noirs in Paris and the British Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade.15

The society also actively courted public support, both in sentiment and in funds, for their goals. To this end, it published antislavery tracts (copies of which were then pointedly sent to Congress); notices of its activities (from meetings to petitions to the legislature) appeared in the newspapers, as did significant letters it received. It sponsored prizes for student antislavery speeches. It also exerted moral and social pressure against slave auctions.16

On 4 February 1785, Assemblyman John Lawrance (a founding member of the Manumission Society) reported on a petition of Edward Prior “respecting the emancipation of the Negroes.” Lawrance recommended that a bill to this effect be prepared, and the Assembly concurred. The Senate followed on 12 Feb. 1785. This bill, which called for the gradual emancipation of all slaves, would ultimately fail, due in part to the opposition of upstate slave holders and restrictions made upon the newly emancipated.17 The lesson of its failure was not lost on the membership of the society. While the society continued to press for a general emancipation law, it concentrated its efforts on changing laws in order to eliminate the slave trade and to make private manumission easier, and monitoring the enforcement of existing laws. At the 8 February 1786 meeting, the society appointed a committee to endeavor to “procure an Act of the legislature to prevent the exportation of any Slaves from this State.” While Jay was not on this committee, he drafted this petition (below). Unfortunately, while the law passed in the Senate, it was not voted on in the Assembly.18

At the 10 April 1787 meeting, the Standing Committee reported that persons declared free under a state law freeing all slaves who were confiscated property of Loyalists were still being treated as slaves. On 15 May 1788, Jay was appointed to a committee to investigate, along with Alexander Hamilton and Egbert Benson.19 On the surface, it would appear that the Society’s efforts were futile. However, its efforts did result in key positive clauses being included in a general slave law. The 22 February 1788 “Act concerning Slaves” was meant to consolidate the many individual slave laws into a single code. While most of the chapters in the act were intended to tighten control of slaves, several clearly bore the imprint of the Manumission Society. Sections IV and V banned the importation and exportation of slaves to and from the state and the sale of anyone imported after 5 June 1785. Fines were stipulated, and any person imported into the state after the law’s passage was freed. Section XI gave “all negroes and other persons whatsoever, commonly reputed and deemed slaves” the right to trial by jury. However, slaves could testify in court only against other slaves. Section XIV prevented old or “decrepit” slaves from being sold to those who could not support them. The seller would be fined and was responsible for the care of the person sold. Sections XV and XVI eased the ability of private manumissions, by removing the onerous security previously required to do so and making it easier to manumit by a will. Owners could manumit slaves under fifty, without security, if certificates attesting to the slave’s age and ability to support his or herself, signed by the local overseers of the poor, were produced and registered in the local municipality. Manumitting other slaves required posting security of not less than 200 pounds. If certificates attesting to the slave’s age and ability (as above) were produced, no security would be necessary to free the person, but if no certificate were obtained, the former owner was liable for the support of the slave if he or she became unable to support him or herself.20 Despite the efforts of the Society and others, it would not be until 1799 that the legal sanction for slavery would change, when Governor John Jay signed “An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery.”