The Constitution of the New-Jersey Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery

This Constitution includes extracts from the 1786 New Jersey law outlawing the importation of slaves from Africa into the state and preventing the abuse of slaves. The law declared that slaves “ought to be protected by the law from those exercises of wanton cruelty too often practiced upon them and that EVERY UNNECESSARY OBSTRUCTION IN THE WAY OF FREEING SLAVES SHOULD BE REMOVED.”