Thomas L. Jennings was born free to a free African-American family in New York City. As a youth he learned a trade as a tailor. He built a business and married a woman named Elizabeth, who was born in 1798 in Delaware into slavery and died March 5, 1873. Under New York’s gradual abolition law of 1799, she was converted to the status of an indentured servant and was not eligible for full emancipation until 1827. Children born to slave mothers before 1827 were considered to be born free, but were required to serve apprenticeships to the mothers’ masters until they reached their mid- to late 20s
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