Revolutionary Times in Perth Amboy.
Perth Amboy, N. J., was the home of Governor Franklin, who was made a prisoner by the Colonials in the Revolution, and sent to Connecticut for safe-keeping.
William Dunlap, painter and author, was also a native of Perth Amboy, and a graphic description of “olden times” is contained in his own memoirs in his “History of the Arts of Design.” He says:
“I was born in the city of Perth Amboy and province of New Jersey. My father, Samuel Dunlap, was a native of the north of Ireland and son of a merchant of Londonderry. In youth he was devoted to the army and bore the colors of the Forty-seventh Regiment, ‘Wolfe’s Own,’ on the Plains of Abraham. He was borne wounded from the field on which his commander triumphed and died. After the French war, Dunlap, then a lieutenant in the Forty-Seventh, and stationed at Perth Amboy, married Margaret Sargent, of that place, and retired from the army to the quiet of a country town and country store. The 19th of February, 1766, is registered as the date of my birth, and being an only child, the anniversary of the important day was duly celebrated by my indulgent parents. Of education I had none, in the usual sense of the word, owing to circumstances I shall mention, and much of that which is to the child most essential was bad.
“Holding negroes in slavery was, in those days, the common practice, and the voices of those who protested against the custom were not heeded. Every house in my native place where any servants were to be seen swarmed with black slaves. My father’s kitchen had several families of them, of all ages and all born in the family except one, who was called a new negro, and who had his face tattooed. His language was scarcely intelligible, though he had been long in the country, and was an old man. These blacks indulged me, of course, and I sought the kitchen as the place to find playmates and amusements suited to my taste. Thus in the mirth and games of the negroes, and the variety of visitors of the black race who frequented the place, my desires were shaped. This may be considered my first school, and, indeed, such was the education of many a boy in the states where the practice of slavery continued. The infant was taught to tyrannize, the boy was taught to despise labor, the mind of the child was contaminated by hearing and seeing that which, perhaps, was not understood at the time but which remained in the memory. These kitchen associations were increased during a part of the Revolution by soldiers, who found their mess fare improved by visiting the negroes, and by servants of officers billeted in the house.
“Perth Amboy being now in the possession of the British, my father returned with his family to his home, and I saw in my native town, particularly after the battles of Princeton and Trenton, all the discomforts of a crowded camp and garrison. An army which had recently passed in triumph from the sea to the banks of the Delaware, and chosen its winter quarters at pleasure, was now driven in, crowded upon a shore washed by the Atlantic, and defended by the guns of the ships which had borne it thence.
“I have elsewhere compared the scenes I now witnessed to the dramatic scenes of Wallenstein’s Lager. Here was centered in addition to the soldiery cantoned at the place all those drawn in from the Delaware, Princeton and Brunswick, together with the flower of the army, English, Scotch, and German, which had been brought in from Rhode Island. Here was to be seen a party of the Forty-Second Highlanders in national costume, and there a regiment of Hessians, their dress and arms a wide contrast to the first. The slaves of Anspach and Waldeck were there, the first somber as night, the second gaudy as noonday. Here dashed by a party of the Seventeenth dragoons, and there scampered a party of Yagers. The trim, neat and graceful English Grenadier, the careless and half-savage Highlander, with his flowing robes and naked knees, and the stiff German, could hardly be taken as members of one army. Here might be seen soldiers driving in cattle, and others guarding wagons loaded with household furniture instead of the hay and oats they had been sent for.
“The landing of the grenadiers and light infantry from the ships which transported the troops from Rhode Island; their proud march into the hostile neighborhood, to gather the produce of the farmer for the garrison; the sound of the musketry, which soon rolled back upon us; the return of the disabled veterans who could retrace their steps; and the heavy march of the discomfited troops, with their wagons of groaning wounded, in the evening, are all impressed on my mind as pictures of the horrors and the soul-stirring events of war.
“These scenes and others more disgusting—the flogging of English men and thumping and caning of German—which even my tender years could not prevent me from seeing all around, and the increased disorder among my fathers’ negroes, from mingling with the servants of officers, these were my sources of instruction in the winter of 1776–1777.”
