1799

New York's Gradual Abolition Act freed no living enslaved person. It provided only that children born to enslaved mothers after July 4, 1799, would be freed — men at age 28, women at 25 — after decades of unpaid labor. Existing enslaved people remained property for life. Thousands remained legally enslaved in New York into the 1820s; the 1840 census still recorded a handful of enslaved individuals in New Jersey, which passed a similar 1804 act.

New York's Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery (July 4, 1799) declared that children born to enslaved mothers after July 4, 1799 would be free — but bound as indentured servants until age 28 (men) or 25 (women). Existing enslaved people were not freed. New Jersey followed in 1804. Complete abolition in New York did not occur until 1827. The law reflected the same pattern as Pennsylvania: freedom deferred, labor extracted, the children of enslaved women legally held in a status barely distin

New York's Gradual Emancipation Act of 1799, signed into law on July 4, freed no one immediately. Children born to enslaved mothers after July 4, 1799 would be free — but must serve their mother's enslaver until age 28 (males) or 25 (females), effectively an indentured labor period of decades. Alexander Hamilton's New York Manumission Society had lobbied for the law. Existing enslaved adults remained enslaved for life. Full emancipation in New York did not come until 1827, and even then former 'apprentices' were not freed until their terms expired. New York City had the largest urban enslaved population outside the South as late as 1800.

New York passes a gradual emancipation law freeing children born to enslaved women — after a fixed term of service.