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Manuscript Document Signed of Manumission. Hunterdon County, Amwell Township, New Jersey, Feb. 14, 1833. 8 x 11”, 2pp. Also signed by Superior Court Judge Henry S. Hunt, with legal confirmation on verso.   

Hagaman, a weaver and large land owner, who would die three years later, called himself an “anti-slavery man”, though he himself owned and sold slaves.

“I…have liberated, manumitted and set free my negro slaves called Aaron Hager of the age of twenty nine years or thereabouts…discharge him from all service or demand of service….

Hagaman had promised his slave Aaron to give him his freedom when he reached the age of 28 (a legal requirement in some northern states) and kept that promise, even writing the provision into his will. Aaron, according to one historical source, "became a worthy citizen…. went only into society of the best of negroes. married a wench of unusual respectability… accumulated property, purchased a homestead and raised a family of very respectable children…."