Where Thomas Mundy Peterson Lived...and Why it Matters (virtual)
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Where Thomas Mundy Peterson Lived...and Why it Matters
presented by Gordon Bond
Date: Wednesday, February 18
Time: 8:00pm
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On March 31, 1870, Thomas Mundy Peterson became the first African American in the nation to vote under the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when he cast a ballot in a Perth Amboy, NJ city charter election. He had been working in the stables of J. L. Kearny that morning when his employer suggested he exercise his right as a citizen, showing him a newspaper announcing the Amendment was the new law of the land. Peterson wasn’t sure about it—there would be a municipal election in a few weeks. Maybe he would wait until then. On the way home for lunch, he bumped into Marcus Spring, who also encouraged him to vote. Spring, with wife Rebecca, had founded the Raritan Bay Union in Perth Amboy, a progressive cross between a boarding school, artist colony, and utopian community that championed abolition and Negro suffrage. Peterson continued home and ate his lunch, mulling the matter over, perhaps discussing it with his wife, Daphne. On his way back to work, he stopped off at City Hall and made history.
The question is raised, where did Peterson call home? Where, exactly, did he make the decision that would make history? While researching his book about Peterson and his legacy, “To Cast a Freedman’s Vote,” historian and author Gordon Bond not only figured out where the family lived, but discovered the fascinating story of how they came by the house, and how there is an opportunity for an archeological investigation where it once stood.
This webinar is hosted by The Genealogical Society of New Jersey (GSNJ).
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