This document is a record of the birth of an enslaved child named Clara, born on September 14, 1812 in North Brunswick, New Jersey. The 1804 Gradual Abolition Act required slaveholders to manumit enslaved people born after the enactment of the law when they reached the age of majority (twenty one for women and twenty five for men). In order to enforce this, counties required slaveholders to register the births of children who would be manumitted under this law.