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Take a closer look at the fortifications on both sides of the Hudson River. Notice the S-curve in the Hudson River that made West Point such a strategic location.

Image courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 

Upper Penns Neck Township
Salem County, New Jersey
December 23 & 24, 1800
Ink on Paper

This poll list is from a December 1800 congressional election that was held at the home of Philip Souder, an innkeeper in Upper Penns Neck Township, Salem County. The election determined congressional office holders for the United States House of Representatives. We do not currently know the names of the town officers, including the judge, collector, clerk, and poll inspectors who presided over the election. 

The poll list includes the names of 217 total voters. At least 29 of these voters are women, accounting for nearly 13 percent of the voters on the list. 

Like the rest of Salem County, Upper Penns Neck Township voted Democratic Republican in December 1800. Most voters in the township supported Democratic-Republicans James Mott, Ebenezer Elmer, John Condit, William Helms, and Henry Southard for the United States House of Representatives.

Note: The names recorded on this poll list were written by an election official, not by the voters themselves. The spelling of each voter’s name on the poll list may be different compared to how that same person’s name is spelled in other historical records and by the Museum of the American Revolution.

Images: Salem County Historical Society

Take a closer look at a group of soldiers in the foreground of the painting. Also notice the lines of tents in the distance with the Hudson Highlands in the background. 

Image courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 

Take a closer look at the area where the Continental Army showed its professionalism to the French. The tents of the New York and New Jersey troops are visible here, as well as Stony Point across the Hudson River.

Image: Museum of the American Revolution, Gift of the Landenberger Family Foundation 

On April 30, 1781, General George Washington wrote this letter to Lund Washington, his cousin and farm manager, to express his disgust with Lund Washington’s decision to supply the British when they came to Mount Vernon earlier that month. In General Washington’s absence, Lund Washington convinced the British to spare the plantation from being destroyed by providing them with food and supplies. General Washington wrote in response, “It would have been a less painful circumstance to me, to have heard…they had burnt my House, & laid the Plantation in Ruins.” Lund Washington’s negotiation saved the property, but General Washington felt his honor had been tarnished by giving in to the enemy. The departure of 17 enslaved people, including Deborah, only worsened Washington’s embarrassment. Although the British left Washington’s plantation untouched, they burned many neighboring properties.

George Washington Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Upper Penns Neck Township, Salem County, New Jersey, 1800-1806

A book of historic poll lists at the Salem County Historical Society includes six lists that record women voting in state and congressional elections held in Upper Penns Neck Township between 1800 and 1806. There are at least 75 women voters included on these six lists, many voting year after year, proving that some New Jersey women voted in multiple elections.

A number of voters on this list have yet to be identified. As the Museum of the American Revolution continues its research, please contact us if you know more about any of the voters. Share your research with us.

Painted by Xavier della Gatta, 1782

Richard Mansergh St. George remembered Paoli as a “nocturnal bloody scene” and helped create the detailed painting of the battle reproduced here. The painting merges different moments from the battle into one action-packed view. It provides a rare, eyewitness glimpse into the violence of the Revolutionary War.

Museum of the American Revolution