John Cooper (New Jersey politician)

[1] His paternal grandfather, William Cooper, was a minister in Hertfordshire, England, who knew George Fox, the founder of the Religious Society of Friends, and emigrated to southwestern New Jersey in the 1600s.

[1] He lived in the Dock Ward of Philadelphia, and was influenced by Philadelphian leaders such as Timothy Matlack, a former Quaker who was David's brother-in-law and was disowned by the Society of Friends for his support for American independence.

[1] John Cooper's house at 16 North Broad Street, Woodbury, was a "substantial" red-brick building[1] with large fireplaces, walls with fine wood paneling, and a "well-filled wine cellar".

[2] In February 1776, Cooper was selected as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, along with William Livingston, John De Hart, Richard Smith, and Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant,[8] but as of mid-June 1776, they had not been authorized by the colonial government to vote for independence.

[13] After marching into Woodsbury, Cornwallis commandeered John Cooper's house, because it was "the finest and best equipped home in the section",[2] and used it as his temporary headquarters for three days,[14][15] from November 21 to 24, 1777.

[16] Cooper locked his closets before fleeing to the home of his sister Ann Whitall, who lived in a farmhouse at Red Bank, on the Delaware River.

[7][2] The third floor of the house was used as a makeshift hospital for the British occupiers,[6] who left bayonet marks on the doors and wood panels, possibly looking for silver and other valuables.

On September 20, 1780, Cooper published an article in the New Jersey Gazette denouncing slavery and taking the unpopular view that emancipation should happen immediately, rather than gradually.

[1][3] Going against the convention of writing under a pseudonym, he signed his article "JOHN COOPER" in all capital letters,[1] and made what legal historian William Wiecek has called "a secular plea for immediatism, based on Revolutionary ideology".

If after we have made such a declaration to the world, we continue to hold our fellow creatures in slavery, our words must rise up in judgement against us; and by the breath of our own mouths we must stand condemned.