🎉 Join us in celebrating America’s 250th anniversary in Elizabeth, NJ in 2026!  #GoElizabethNJ250 🇺🇸

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In April and May, 2025, the New Jersey Historical Society will present numerous events in Newark in honor of Cudjo

During the American Revolution, Benjamin Coe sent the enslaved Cudjo to fight as a substitute for himself in the war against the British. He took part in the Battles of Monmouth and Germantown. He was with George Washington at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777 and later served with General Sullivan at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.

After the war Cudjo was emancipated for his military service. The Coe family gave him land in Newark on which he established a nursery selling ornamental plants. Cudjo was the first African American businessperson in Newark. He died in 1823 at around 100 years of age. He was buried in the cemetery of Newark’s Trinity Church, located where the New Jersey Performing Arts Center now