Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, February 18, 1804, New Jersey passed a law providing for the, quote, gradual emancipation

of slaves, and in doing so became the last northern state to begin the process of ending enslavement within its borders.

So much of the history of emancipation is presented as these key turning point moments, proclamations and laws that ban slavery, but of course we know we've talked

about it on the show how the reality on the ground was very different in very different parts of the country.

The law can proclaim slavery over, but it can take a very long time for things

to actually change but here you have the state of New Jersey and Northern State in

the actual letter of the law referring to quote gradual emancipation so here to discuss as always

Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Welsley hello there

Hello Tote hey there I mean look I think if you've Hello, Tony. Hey there.

I mean, look, I think if you've listened to this show and you've looked at history, you understand that it wasn't just like

one moment's labor was legal, one moment it was not.

And often, like, I mean, look, we're not that far out from Juneteenth the whole story of

Juneteenth is like the letter of the law can change but it can take forever for news

to actually change in the reality and the country change but this for the law to

actually acknowledge in writing the like liminal

state of slavery really struck me and so Kelly I mean can you just put it in the

context of maybe the first part of the first decade of the 1800s like how much our

states codifying this quote-unquote gradual transition type thing it's it

plays out differently everywhere you are.

So during the colonial period,

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