9 Commerce Lane: Where Thomas Mundy Peterson lived…and why it matters!
On March 31, 1870, Thomas Mundy Peterson became the first African American in the nation to vote under the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when he cast a ballot in a Perth Amboy, NJ city charter election. He had been working in the stables of J. L. Kearny that morning, when his employer suggested he exercise his new right as a citizen, showing him a newspaper announcing the Amendment was now law of the land. Peterson wasn’t sure about it—there would be a municipal election in a few weeks. Maybe he would wait until then. On the way home for lunch, he bumped into Marcus Spring, who also encouraged him to vote. Spring, with wife Rebecca, had founded the Raritan Bay Union in Perth Amboy, a progressive cross between a boarding school, artist colony, and utopian community that championed abolition and Negro suffrage. Peterson continued home and ate his lunch, mulling the matter over, perhaps discussing it with his wife, Daphne. On his way back to work, he stopped off at City Hall and made history.
Where, exactly, did he make the decision that would make history? Where did Peterson call home?
While researching his book about Peterson and his legacy, “To Cast a Freedman’s Vote,” historian and author Gordon Bond not only figured out where the family lived, but discovered the fascinating story of how they came by the house—and how there is an opportunity for an archeological investigation where it once stood.
In his new program, “9 Commerce Lane: Where Thomas Mundy Peterson lived…and why it matters,” Bond tells the tale and how people can help make a dig happen!
Gordon Bond Bio
Gordon Bond is an independent historian, author, and lecturer. He is the founder www.GardenStateLegacy.com, a resources website dedicated to New Jersey history. He is the author of six books focusing on aspects of New Jersey history and has written a large number of articles and reviews for Garden State Legacy. Gordon is a board member with Preservation New Jersey, which advocates for an archeological investigation of the Thomas Mundy Peterson home site. Gordon also has a freelance graphic design business, Gordon Bond Design, specializing in services for New Jersey’s history community. He has designed and guest curated museum exhibits for the Middlesex County Office of Arts and History, the Abraham Staats House in South Bound Brook, and the Historical Association of Woodbridge Township.
