Donald M. Payne: “let me once again thank all of those responsible for moving this bill through. As you recall, it was in 1807 that…”

“let me once again thank all of those responsible for moving this bill through. As you recall, it was in 1807 that slavery was abolished in England through the work of Mr. Wilberforce, who for 20 years argued against slavery in the British Parliament. A resolution was passed this year by Mr. Pitts commending the abolition of slavery in Great Britain and commending Mr. Wilberforce for his work as a great abolitionist. So we are pleased that this will give us time to commemorate, to investigate, to remember those who had this difficult period of time. As has been indicated, even though transatlantic slavery was abolished in 1807, slavery continued. As a matter of fact, even in the North, and our State has found records that even after the Emancipation Proclamation and as late as 1866, the last slave was freed in New Jersey. Many people are unaware of the fact that there was slavery in New Jersey, which abolished slavery, but you had to be 25 as a man and 21 as a woman, and any children born of a union had to remain in slavery. Therefore, people remained in slavery up through after the Emancipation Proclamation, which only freed slaves in the Confederacy.”