In the years before the Revolution, anti-British feelings spread throughout the state. About one-third of the people living here supported the rebels, one-third supported England, and one-third remained neutral. In 1776 New Jersey declared itself an independent state and joined the colonial side in the Revolutionary War. Because of its location near the center of the 13 colonies, more battles were fought in New Jersey than in any other state. The Americans and British fought 100 battles. Immediately after winning Trenton, General George Washington won the battle of Princeton. Having lost two battles in a matter of hours, the British fled New Jersey for New York.
During the late 1700s, Trenton produced clay products, iron, and steel. Camden, Elizabeth, Jersey City, Newark, and Passaic all became major manufacturing centers in the 1800s. New canals and railroads helped industry grow. Irish and German immigrants came by the thousands to work in the factories at Trenton, newark, Paterson and Camden. Later people arrived by ship from Italy and Eastern European countries.
Three centuries ago, when boats sailing through the Narrows wanted to drop anchor on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, they had to first pay a monetary “tribute” to the powers that be in New York.
Throughout the 19th century, New York and New Jersey waged many disputes over their valuable, shared harbor and waterways. A dispute over the boundary line through the harbor and the Hudson River—settled by the Treaty of 1834— once led state police to exchange shots in the middle of the river. The impasse eased when the two states agreed that the port area was, in effect, one community and that conflict squandered the port's potential. The states sought a governmental body to oversee port affairs and found a model in the Port of London, administered by what was then the only public authority in the world.
The Trenton Times, December 13, 1884
Trenton, New Jersey, USA
ALL ABOUT THE INSANE.
STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM'S FIGURES.
Some Statistics About New Jersey Insane People--What a Larger Number have been Sent to the Asylum.
The State Lunatic Asylum, near this city, under the superintendence of Dr. J. W. Ward, is one of the best and most prosperous institutions in the country of its kind. It has now 663 patients on its roll. During the year ending October 31st there were discharged as recovered, 52; as improved 12; as unimproved, 11, and 64 have died, making a total loss of 139. There are at this time 663 patients in the institution. During the year there were under treatment 802 patients. Since the opening of the institution there have been 5,963 patients treated 2,782 men and 2,911 women.
WHAT THE COUNTIES HAVE.
Atlantic county has 22; Bergen, 2; Burlington, 42; Camden, 13; Cape May, 5; Cumberland, 47; Essex, 7; Gloucester, 37; Hudson, 7: Hunterdon, 67; Mercer, 137; Middlesex, 97; Monmoutb, 84; Morris, 2; Ocean, 17; Salem, 23; Somerset, 48; Union, 1; Warren, 1; and from other States, 4; making a total of 663.
The Asylum has been greatly crowded during the past year. The accommodations are for only five hundred patients, but that is exceeded by 163. The very smallest number during the past year was 623 and the largest 673. The daily average was about 635, or about a daily average of 135 more than the proper accommodation. Dr. Ward in an interview with a TIMES reporter this forenoon said that notwithstanding the crowded condition the institution has passed through, there has been no accident, and that the patients have been watched so closely and so well that no accidents, for all cases of sudden and violent deaths are classed as accidents, have occurred during the year just closed. There has been but little acute disease, and while the death rate has been comparatively large the cause of death has been from
CHRONIC AND INCURABLE MALADIES,
and the majority of the cases have been for a very long time in the Asylum. Everything that can be done to make the Asylum a home for the afflicted is done. The unfortunates are treated not as brutes but as beings who are human, bereft of their reason for a time, and every effort is being made to restore their disordered faculties. It is really a hospitaL Not one for those classed as incurables but one to cure the afflicted. The Superintendent is lavish in his supply of flowers. He introduces amusements and does all that can be done to detract the mind from the malady with which it is afflicted. The library of the Asylum has been added to, and last year about 400 volumes have been added to it. This prinicpally has been by the gift of a deceased attendant. Pictures, good reading, good music, all that can be done to lighten the cares of the patients is done.
