Honoring
Cudjo Banquante

April-May 2025

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Cudjo Banquante was born sometime in the 1720s in the Gold Coast (now Ghana), West Africa into a family of royal heritage. As a youth he was taken by European slave traders across the Atlantic, eventually being purchased by the wealthy Coe family of Newark, New Jersey.

During the American Revolution, Benjamin Coe sent the enslaved Cudjo to fight as a substitute for himself in the war against the British. Cudjo served in the Essex County and Morris County militias. 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 stands.

For more information about Cudjo Banquante’s life, go to the website of the New
Jersey Historical Society: www.jerseyhistory.org/cudjo/

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS (Preliminary)

Apr – May 2025
Special exhibit at the Greater Newark Conservancy about “fancy and exotic plants” of the 18th-19th century that Cudjo might have sold
Apr – May 2025
Special exhibit at the New Jersey Historical Society
Sunday Apr 27
Grand opening of special semi-permanent exhibit at the Newark Museum of Art (Coe well curb installation, redesign of the Newark Slavery mural to include Cudjo’s story), unveiling of painting of Cudjo at the Battle of Monmouth, performance of Black Revolutionary soldier reenactor Noah Lewis, possible performance of Courtney Bryan musical piece honoring Cudjo
Sunday Apr 27
Service at Trinity Church
Monday – Friday
Apr 28 – May 2
Enrichment activities at local public and charter schools, jointly developed with the Amistad Commission
Tues Apr 29 – Thurs May 1
(one evening TBD)
Genealogy workshop at Newark Public Library
TBD (possibly Wed Apr 30) Evening
Showing and possible moderated session of “The Price of Silence” (part 1) about slavery in New Jersey, at the New Jersey Historical Society
Thursday – Friday
May 1 – 2
Academic symposium sponsored by Rutgers & NJ Institute for Social Justice
Thursday May 1 Evening
Showing of Junius Williams film, “Rise Up Newark” at Bethany Baptist Church
Friday May 2 (2 tours)
Saturday May 3 (2 tours)
Bus tours of Cudjo-related sites: site of Cudjo’s property, site of his “owner” Benjamin Coe’s property, Trinity Episcopal Church and Old Presbyterian Church where Cudjo worshipped, Abraham Lincoln statue, Harried Tubman Square, Military Park, Krueger-Scott Mansion, Clinton Memorial AME Zion Church, Grace Church, Fourth Precinct, murals in Lower Newark, drop off at Greater Newark Conservancy to view flower exhibit of “fancy and exotic” plants of the era that could have been grown and sold by Cudjo.
Friday May 2
Reception by Rutgers at Newark Express at conclusion of symposium
Saturday May 3 11AM
Historic marker unveiling ceremony at New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC)
Saturday May 3
Mingle with Black Revolutionary soldier Noah Lewis and Revolutionary soldier reenactors from the 3rd NJ Regiment at Chambers Plaza of NJPAC (or Chase Room if bad weather)
Sunday May 4
Performance by Trilogy, Newark-based Black opera company, in honor of Cudjo