1901: Basking Ridge Former Slave Dies at 110

EX-SLAVE DIES AT 110 YEARS OF AGE. Sold at one time for a yoke of oxen by his New Jersey Owner
Basking Ridge, July 16. 1901

Nathan Woodward, a colored man, familiarly known as “Uncle Nate,” died this morning at the age of 110 years. “Nate” was born at Whitehouse. Hunterdon County, and was owned by Simon Wyckoff, who sold it to Matthew Woodward. The record of the sale fixed the age of the old man beyond dispute. Some years later, Woodward sold “Nate” to S. Barkalow, who owned the Lord Stirling Farm, for a yoke of oxen. It was stated that he died from the excessive heat at the time of his passing.

Nathan married Sarah, a slave owned by Mr. Bedell, of Basking Ridge, and became Bedell’s coachman. Sarah died about eighteen years ago, at the age of ninety. Sarah was one of the three slaves in the State to be freed by Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863), not having been affected by the law of 1808 and remaining a slave until the general abolition of slavery. She had, however, been virtually free for years. Nate had been supported by Bernards Township since he had been unable to work. His death occurred at the home of George Apgar. He enjoyed excellent health until July 4, when he complained of the “intense heat” and became prostrated. He slowly sank until this morning, when the end came. MLH found a George B. Apgar of Liberty Corner, born 1872, who appears in local family files and later records tied to Basking Ridge.

Although newspaper reporting accounts stated that Nathan and Sarah Woodward were buried together in Evergreen Cemetery at Basking Ridge, no visible stones or records have been found. It’s likely their graves were unmarked or later lost, as many 19th-century African American and township-supported burials were recorded informally or placed in now-unmarked sections of the cemetery. We will keep looking.

Woodward Lane in Basking Ridge

In Bernards Township, streets are often named after historic figures. Woodward Lane, near the Bonnie Brae School, is named for the Woodward family, which supplied grain and material to the Continental Army troops at Jockey Hollow during the Revolutionary War in the late 1770s. It is not named for Uncle Nate.

Additional Information

Other slaves and former slaves are buried in the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church and Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church cemeteries.

IN MEMORY OF
OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN CHRIST
OF AFRICAN ANCESTRY WHO WERE BURIED
ON THIS SITE FROM 1837 TO 1865.
THEIR NAMES AND NUMBER ARE UNKNOWN.

HE WILL WIPE AWAY EVERY TEAR FROM
THEIR EYES, AND DEATH SHALL BE NO MORE,
NEITHER SHALL THERE BE MOURNING
NOR CRYING NOR PAIN ANY MORE,
FOR THE FORMER THINGS HAVE PASSED
AWAY.
REV. 21:4

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Side Discussion:
Caesar Hand at the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church

Caesar Hand, identified in church records as a Black slave, worshiped with the congregation at the Presbyterian Church in Basking Ridge and was buried in its churchyard at Grave 328; his headstone bears the succinct tribute from his enslaver, “Faithful and beloved,” and lists his years as 1825 to 1883. The congregation dates to 1717, and the present sanctuary was completed in 1839 with a gallery that reflects how many nineteenth-century Presbyterian interiors arranged seating; the National Register file for the church notes the one-story plan “with a gallery,” aligning with the period practice of placing Black worshippers in upper galleries.

In context, the presence of Caesar Hand in the pews and his burial in the Basking Ridge Presbyterian churchyard were uncommon in New Jersey at that time. The church’s own history notes that enslaved people were admitted to membership from the earliest days, with segregated seating, which already set Basking Ridge apart from many congregations that confined Black worshippers to galleries or separate areas.

Across the state, churchyards and public cemeteries often practiced racial separation through most of the nineteenth century, a pattern documented in New Jersey cemetery studies. The state did not explicitly outlaw race-based denial of burial until the Legislature passed the so-called Negro Burial Bill in 1884, and even after that, some cemeteries kept separate sections by custom. Against that backdrop, a marked grave in the main churchyard for a man identified on the stone as a Negro slave with the tribute faithful and beloved stands out as an early and locally distinctive act of inclusion.

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