DeWitt Clinton, Mayor 1803-1807, 1808-1810, 1811-1815: Clinton (1769 – 1828) also served as governor of New York and a candidate for president in 1812. In 1819, Clinton married Catharine Jones, a granddaughter of Edward Livingston.

Census records reveal that Clinton was an enslaver. The 1800 and 1810 censuses list Clinton with one enslaved person in his household in New Town, Queens. The 1820 Census records Clinton having one male and one female freeperson between the ages twenty-six and forty-five in his household in Albany. It is likely they were formerly enslaved and now indentured under the 1799 law.[1]

• When DeWitt was eight years old, his father James wrote to his wife Mary that DeWitt should “prevent the Negroes from becoming Intirely idle.”[2]
• In 1805, Clinton applied for reimbursement from the New York State Comptroller for the abandoned enslaved girl Jenny. Abandoned children of enslaved mothers were supported at the state’s expense by the local overseers of the poor. Jenny was abandoned by the estate of Beverley Robinson. It appears he was reimbursed $252.[3]
• On December 4, 1810, Clinton manumitted “Massa, 31 (mulatto).”[4]

“DeWitt Clinton, then a member of the New York State Assembly, soon to be mayor of New York City and eventually governor of the state, manumitted a 20-year-old man named Jack in 1799 by declaring that ‘the injustice of holding men in slavery’ had inspired him. Clinton nevertheless put off Jack’s release by six years.” From the original document: “…I, DeWitt Clinton of Queens County Esquire in consideration of the injustice of holding man in Slavery do hereby manumit a Black negro Boy about the age of Twenty, named Jack, and given to me by my Father. The said lad’s mother named Margaret and now resides with my Father. Provides always that the said Jack shall remain with me in a State of Servitude for six years from this time. Dated the Sixth of May…” 1799.[5]

[1] Northeast Slavery Records Index, citing 1800 Census; FamilySearch, 1810 Census and 1820 Census

[2] The Birth of Empire, p.14

[3] Northeast Slavery Records Index, citing Comptroller’s Record of Abandonment

[4] Northeast Slavery Records Index, citing Yoshpe, “Record of Slave Manumissions, p.80

[5] Register of Manumissions of Slaves, 1785-1809, by the Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, Museum of the City of New York, digital edition; Smithsonian Magazine, Carolyn Eastman, September/October 2024, article, based on digital collection of Museum of City of New York

Copyright 2025 Paul Hortenstine