The African-American experience in the Hopewell
Beverly Mills and Elaine Buck did not have “future authors” on their minds when they got a phone call from an elderly gentleman back in 2006 asking for their help.
What did he want?
To keep burial grounds — specifically, the burial grounds of slaves — from being dug up, over, and around during a construction project.
These burial grounds were out in West Amwell, and it piqued the curiosity of Mills and Buck. They were (and remain) longtime trustees of Stoutsburg Cemetery in Hopewell, which was founded as a burial ground for African-Americans in 1858. (Blacks and whites couldn’t be buried in the same cemetery in New Jersey until 1884.) And outside of the Pennington African Cemetery in Pennington, the two of them didn’t know of other African-American burial grounds in the region.
In the end, they were able to stop the desecration of the burial grounds. Took some research, some hard work, a few phone calls to the media.
But where that story ended, another one began.
“From this whole adventure, we started thinking ‘who could we have possibly buried in our cemetery,’ and started to do research,” Mills said. “Before you know it, it was 10 years later, and we uncovered all kinds of fascinating, interesting research about the African-American presence in this region, the contributions of the people who were both enslaved and free.”
And that’s how their book, “If These Stones Could Talk: African American Presence in the Hopewell Valley, Sourland Mountain and Surrounding Regions of New Jersey” was born.
It’s part personal history, part local history, part eye-opening history of a time, people, and place that has been woefully underreported.
Especially the role of slaves in New Jersey.
“That’s something we were never taught in school,” Mills noted.
But it’s more than that. For instance ...
“For me, the most surprising item we discovered is that we have two pages in our book filled with all the names of the black men that crossed the Delaware River on December 25 with George Washington,” Buck said. “We wanted to know who these men were. We went over to the David Library in Washington Crossing Park and went through everything. We eventually came up with 37 names. I never knew there were so many black men there. I was never taught that. And a few of the men were buried at Stoutsburg.”
For Mills, it was the discovery that many Union soldiers who fought (and lost) at the Battle of Olustee in Florida during the Civil War.
“Three black guys made it back to Pennington alive, one made it back to Hopewell,” Mills said. “People here about the 54th out of Massachusetts, which is what the movie ‘Glory’ was centered around, but this battle was just as horrific, if not more.”
And many of the troops were from the 35th United States Colored Troops, of which those four men were part of.
The book also unearths the story of Mills’ family, as she was able to trace her roots in the Hopewell region back to greatgreat-great-great grandfathers on each side, both men who started their lives as slaves.
“African-American history has been long omitted from history books, but even still, when we were writing this, we were thinking we might be pigeonholing ourselves, wondering if this will only be of interest to people of this region,” Mills said. “But if you look at it, this story can be replicated throughout the United States, particularly the original colonies. African American history is difficult history. And we acknowledge that. And the only way we can heal as a people and a community is that we need to understand and accept our history and acknowledge this is what happened. It’s not an indictment on a group of people, it’s just that you have to know your history and have to know your facts.”
And to that end, the book is available on Amazon and at Labyrinth Books in Princeton. But if you want the personal touch, email Mills at bmills72@ verizon.net or give her a buzz at 609-577-1665 and leave a message.
“I think your mind is going to be blown,” Buck said. “Ours certainly were, and I’ve lived here all our lives. We found out so much. But I don’t want to tell you everything, otherwise when you read it you won’t be excited about it. There is just so much in there we never knew.”
Jeff Edelstein is a columnist for The Trentonian. He can be reached at jedelstein@ trentonian.com, facebook. com/jeffreyedelstein and @ jeffedelstein on Twitter.