Preserve History at the Homesite of Thomas Mundy Peterson
- Gordon Bond
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
Perhaps Thomas Mundy Peterson talked it over with his wife Daphne over lunch. That morning of March 31, 1870, he was tending the stables behind J. L. Kearney’s house in Perth Amboy. Maybe he told her how his employer showed him newspapers announcing the Fifteenth Amendment was now law, allowing men like him to vote. Kearny had encouraged him to exercise his new right of suffrage in the special charter referendum election being held that very day. At first, Peterson hesitated, suggesting he might wait for the general municipal elections. Walking home for lunch, he was further encouraged by abolitionist and social reformer Marcus Spring, a founder of the progressive Eagleswood Academy, where Kearny had graduated. Walking back to work, another Eagleswood alumni, Dr. Edward Palmer, offered to personally walk him to the polls. Finally convinced, by dropping his ballot in the box, Peterson became the first African American in the U.S. to vote under the Reconstruction Amendment.
So where exactly was the home in which Peterson likely contemplated voting? While researching my book, “To Cast a Freedman’s Vote,” I learned it had been on Commerce Lane, which ran south from Commerce Street, between High and Rector streets. The house disappeared by 1913, but the only development since had been a slab-foundation warehouse built in the 1950s and demolished early 2000s. This holds out the possibility that an archeological investigation might find artifacts from the Peterson family.
The land is now owned by Kushner Real Estate Group and has been slated for development since the early 2000s. In 2011, I recommended to the City archeology be performed as due diligence before any development. The plan was supported by the City and the potential significance of the site was acknowledged as late as 2023. Although the Kushner company was amenable at first, their terms proved unacceptable and the project was sidelined as the development went through extended litigation. A renewed development plan was approved by the City at the start of 2025. Despite their previous support, the City did not include any archeology in the agreement and the Kushner company is evidently adamantly opposed to it.
It is important to note the goal is not to prevent development. We only want to have an opportunity to make certain no possible artifacts are being lost. The process would only take a few days at most. People in City Hall have indicated they would need to know this matters to a significant number of their constituents to push within this multi-million-dollar deal. To that end, I have been working with the local chapter of the NAACP on a petition to gather that support. There is still time for a proverbial eleventh-hour reprieve.
Peterson’s vote is typically regarded in isolation from his subsequent lifelong embrace of civic participation. He has become a prop in other people’s agendas. Even if nothing is found, allowing a dig would demonstrate empathy for both the civil and voting rights history and Peterson as a person beyond his ballot.
CALL TO ACTION: SIGN THE PETITION! Let us dig before it's gone -