1655 to 1775 · Diasporaspan
Perth Amboy existed as a landing place because New York taxed imports
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Enslaved Africans first reached the Middle Colonies under Dutch rule, before 1667, landing mostly in what would become New York. Across the period to 1775 about ninety percent of the captives brought into the region came in through New York City or through Perth Amboy in New Jersey, and the remainder were landed at Philadelphia. Sixty percent travelled on vessels owned by New York merchants, which sets the region apart from most of British America, where British owned ships did the carrying. Perth Amboy was used for one reason. New York imposed higher customs duties on arriving captives, and a trader who unloaded across the bay in New Jersey paid less. People were moved between jurisdictions to shave a tax bill, and the paperwork generated by that saving is a large part of why the record of these arrivals exists at all.
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