Research


Scope and Content Note

This series contains accounts of expenses of overseers of the poor for the maintenance of children born to enslaved people that were abandoned by their enslavers. Town Justices of the Peace, supervisors, and clerks examined these expense accounts and certified their accuracy. The accounts include the name of the town and county; names of overseers of the poor; name of the enslaver; name and birth date of child; date of abandonment; time period for which child was maintained; amount spent and date. On some documents the name of the child's mother is included. The series mostly contains records from downstate New York, in the present day five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, and Long Island.