The University Archivist often gives tours of Mead Hall.
You Tube video here
(matthew insert his script here)
Much of the recent research into Mead Hall/ the Gibbons mansion has come out of the Theological School. A 2020 class session of Race, Place, and Privilege had an entire group of students research materials from the Gibbons Collection. Among those students, the one whom I've had the most contact with is Karen Mancinelli-Paige (kmancinellipaig@drew.edu), cc'd here. She shared some of her research:
1840 Census - 14 "free colored persons" on the Gibbons Estate
The 1840 Census has a page listing the inhabitants on the Gibbons Estate in Madison, NJ that year. The Internet Archive has a digitized version of this Census, from which the image below was taken
The entry for the Gibbons estate has a red rectangle around it. William Gibbons is the head of the family. There is a section in the right where "Free colored Persons" are to be numbered. In the entry, there are 6 males ages 10 to 23, one female under 10, 4 females aged 24-35, 1 female aged 36 to 54, and 2 females aged 55 to 100 [rather amazing, that]. That equals 14. People who aren't "free colored persons" are listed out the same way on the left hand side of the ledger.
1850 Census - We have some names
In this image the Gibbons estate is the 201st house visited (line 28 in the printed form). The value of the estate is $200,000. Mary Cox is a 55 year old black female from Turks Island. Ann Gomary(?) is a 30 year old black female from New York, Henrietta Day is a 17 year old black female from New Jersey, and Frisby Green is a 38 year old black male from Maryland.
On 20231027 Mike Snyder writes: "The 1850 census has names.
You'll see the name Henrietta Day. The Day family was one of the founding families in Chatham. The village itself was referred to as Day's Bridge before the Revolution. They owned a tavern/inn near the bridge over the Passaic. I know one of them was a slave owner, I'll have to dig through some more materials to see.
Henrietta was the daughter of Jane who was married to Ceasar Day, which was a common name given to enslaved men.
Jane lived a long time in Chatham and appears in the census records until 1890. Her death was recorded in 1896. I've wondered where she was buried for a very long time.
Frisbo Green is mentioned here as well, he appears as Frisby Green in another record I'd have to find.'