Burlington County (N.J.). Clerk's Office

Original birth records for children of slaves, listed by name of slave owner, submitted to the county clerk's office, as the result of an act passed by N.J. state law (P.L. 1804, chap. CIV, p. 251) in 1804, which pronounced that every child born to a slave mother after 4 July 1804 was to be "free" at birth, but bound as a servant to the mother's owner until the age of twenty-five for males or twenty-one for females. Persons entitled by law to such bound service were required to file with the county clerk, within nine months of the birth of the child, a written certificate containing the name of the slave owner and the name, sex, and age of the child. In turn the clerk was directed to record this information in a special book. The law also allowed for the abandonment of such children by the owners at the age of one year, and in this case, the child became a ward of the local county government.

From the description of Birth certificates of children of slaves, 1804-1826. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70952440