middle of the next century, when a law
was made that no person owning slaves should continue in the Society of
Friends.

As years passed on, people other than Quakers began to consider slavery
an injustice and an evil; and this feeling gradually increased, until in
the beginning of the nineteenth century it became very strong, and in
1820 an act was passed by the Legislature for the emancipation of the
slaves. They were not set free all at once, and turned into the world to
take care of themselves; but a system of gradual emancipation was
adopted, by which the young people obtained their freedom when they came
of age, while the masters were obliged to take care of the old negroes
as long as they lived. By this plan, slavery was very gradually
abolished in New Jersey, so that in 1840 there were still six hundred
and seventy-four slaves in the State; and even in 1860 eighteen slaves
remained, and these must have been very old.

A JERSEY TEA PARTY.

At the time when the American colonists began to be restless under the
rule of Great Britain, the people of New Jersey showed as strong a
desire for independence as those of any other Colony, and they were by
no means backward in submitting to any privations which might be
necessary in order to assert their principles. As has been said before,
the people were prosperous, and accustomed to good living, and it was
not likely that there was any part of America in which a cup of
well-flavored tea was better appreciated than in New Jersey.

But when the other colonists determined to resist unjust taxation, and
resolved that they would not use tea, on which a heavy tax was laid
without allowing the American people to have anything to say about it,
the patriotic people of New Jersey resolved that they too would use no
tea so long as this unjust tax was placed upon it. When the tea was
destroyed in Boston Harbor, the Jersey patriots applauded the act, and
would have been glad to show in the same way what they thought upon the
subject.

But when tea was shipped from England, it was sent to the great ports of
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston; and what was used in
New Jersey came from these places after the consignees had paid the tax.
However, to show their sympathy with the efforts which were being made
at the sea-ports to prevent the landing of tea, the New Jersey people,
that is, those who belonged to the Whig party,--which was the patriotic
party, and oppo