Province of New Jersey
Titus Cornelius was born into slavery in Colt's Neck, Monmouth County, Province of New Jersey and originally owned by John Corlies, a Quaker. Corlies's farm was located along the Navesink River, near the town of Shrewsbury, and Titus worked there in his early life. At the onset of the American Revolution, there were about 8,200 slaves in the Province of New Jersey, second only to the Province of New York among the northern American colonies, in both the number and percentage of African-Americans. Corlies, Titus's owner, held slaves despite his denomination's increasing opposition to slavery.