- Source: Timbuctoo, New Jersey
Timbuctoo is an unincorporated community in Westampton Township, Burlington County, New Jersey. Located along the Rancocas Creek, Timbuctoo was settled by formerly enslaved and free Black people, beginning in 1826. It includes Church St., Blue Jay Hill Road, and adjacent areas. At its peak in the mid-nineteenth century, Timbuctoo had more than 125 residents, a school, an AME Zion Church, and a cemetery. The key remaining evidence of this community is the cemetery on Church Street, which was formerly the site of Zion Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal African Church. Some current residents are descendants of early settlers.
History
Timbuctoo was founded by free Blacks and former slaves in 1826, in a region of New Jersey where the influence of Quakers was strong. Timbuctoo appeared on Burlington County maps as early 1849, and continues to appear on maps today.
Peter Quire was an early settler in Timbuctoo in the 1830s after being gifted land, and he donated that land for the creation of the first Black school in the area.
The leader of the community, nicknamed "King," was David Parker. Parker's 1877 obituary in the New Jersey Mirror says "King David, as he had been known in other years, was possessed of more than ordinary intelligence and a determined will, which made him a natural leader among his people so long as it physical strength lasted, and he was generally at the head of any movement among them"
In 1860, the Battle of Pine Swamp took place near Timbuctoo, when armed residents fought off an infamous "slave catcher," named George Alberti who sought to capture Simmons and return him to enslavement in Maryland. David Parker led "the Timbuctoo Warriors in their defense of Simmons, according to the New Jersey Mirror.
The US Census identified the "Village of Timbuctoo" as a separate entity within Westampton Township for the first time in 1880, enumerating 108 residents and 29 households.
Today, the key remaining evidence of Timbuctoo's historical significance is a cemetery, known for gravestones of United States Colored Troops who fought in the Civil War. However, there are also civilian gravestones, the oldest of which dates to 1847, thirteen years before the Civil War. A geophysical survey conducted in 2009 identified as many as 161 unmarked graves.
Current residents and landowners include descendants of early settlers.
There is an active Timbuctoo Historical Society.
See also
History of slavery in New Jersey
Timbuctoo, New York
References
Further reading (most recent first)
Barton, Christopher P. (2022). The Archaeology of Race and Class at Timbuctoo: A Black Community in New Jersey. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. ISBN 978-0813069272.
Weston, Guy (Winter 2022). "Timbuctoo and the First Emancipation of the Early-Nineteenth [sic] Century". New Jersey Studies. 8 (1). doi:10.14713/njs.v8i1.268. S2CID 246406350.
Weston, Guy (February 9, 2022). "Timbuctoo and the First Emancipation of the Early 19th Century [PowerPoint]" (PDF). Timbuctoo Historical Society, Rutgers University, and the William Trent House Museum.
Massand, Rikki (June 14, 2021). "Approaching 200 Years of History, Timbuctoo's Evolution Continues". Preservation New Jersey.
Gall, Michael J.; Veit, Richard F., eds. (2021). Archaeologies of African American Life in the Upper Mid-Atlantic. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0817360160.
"Timbuctoo" (PDF). New Jersey Mirror. June 21, 1855.
"Kidnapping" (PDF). New Jersey Mirror. March 5, 1856. p. 3.
"Slave Case in Mount Holly". National Anti-Slavery Standard. November 25, 1847. p. 1 – via accessible-archives.com. Reprinted from the Pennsylvania Freeman.
External links
The Timbuctoo, NJ, Historical Society
In Search of John Brown's Timbucto, Part I
In Search of John Brown's Timbucto, Part II