The digital archive, Slaveholding in the Mathis Family of Burlington County, New Jersey, focuses on the so-called "Great" John Mathis (1690-1779), one of the first white settlers in Little Egg Harbor in Burlington County, New Jersey. Despite being a Quaker, Mathis and his descendants held slaves who were forced to clear and cultivate vast tracts of land in the area. Mathis family members held onto at least some of their slaves until at least the late 1830s, if not later, as allowed by the 1804 New Jersey Act of Gradual Abolition. The purpose of this archive is to shed some light on slaveholding by the Mathis family, and its relationship to the Society of Friends and the New Jersey laws respecting slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries. It also shows traces of these slaves' lives in historical writings and official documents.