The Story of Timbuctoo: Decades Before Juneteenth, Free Black Americans Flourished in This South Jersey Village

WESTAMPTON, NJ (CBS) – The nation will celebrate next week Juneteenth, the national holiday marking June 19, 1865 when Union troops arrived in Texas to implement the Emancipation Proclamation, ultimately freeing hundreds of thousands of enslaved people more than two years after the proclamation was made.

But decades before that historic day, a population of Black Americans lived freely in a small village located along the Rancocas Creek in the heart of South Jersey.

This is Timbuktu. Fewer than 60 people live there and it is only 52 hectares in size.

“Until about 15 years ago, this was only the black part of town. People didn’t realize it was historic,” Guy Weston said.

Guy Weston is the seventh generation owner of his family’s Timbuctoo land. He showed us his great-great-grandfather’s deed.

His mother, Mary Giles Weston, shared other valuable family documents dating back nearly 200 years.

“People say, ‘If you want to know your history before 1870 and you’re black, forget it.’ That is absolutely incorrect,” said Guy Weston.

Enslaved black people in Timbuctoo were free 60 years before Juneteenth.

“The first emancipation took place from 1780 to 1804, long before Juneteenth, which was 1865,” Guy Weston said.

Seeking a connection to his ancestors, he began researching his family’s past and discovered that his relatives were among the first residents to settle here. The Quakers sold the original lots to the Parker family in 1826.

The patriarch, David Parker, was considered the mayor.

The Parker family graves are less than a stone’s throw from the Weston home.

Today, this cemetery and the Wesley African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, founded in 1845, are the only above-ground evidence of this historic community.

Most of the surviving gravestones are of colored soldiers who fought for the Union during the Civil War.

In 2008, archaeologist Chris Barton said his advisors met with the mayor of Westampton to keep Timbuctoo’s rich history alive.

“It’s the American story,” Barton said. “It’s about struggle, it’s about perseverance, but it’s also about hope,” Barton said.

Work then began on excavating parts of the site to look for evidence of the town that was previously there, including the home of a veteran who served in the U.S. Colored Troops.

During excavations they discovered more than 14,000 artifacts.

In 2019, Weston founded the Timbuctoo Historical Society. Barton helped secure financing and they gained ownership of the cemetery.

The historic discoveries were a revelation to other families in the area.

Joyce Couch’s family moved here in the early 20th century and she grew up here.

“It’s a cemetery where we played hide and seek,” Couch said. “I never knew they were Civil War soldiers.”

Lou Rogers also grew up here and says “Bucktoe” was the nickname given to the area where poor black people lived.

Now the land is hailed as one of New Jersey’s historic sites.

Weston says he will continue to learn the history of Timbuctoo. More information is available on the historical society’s website, TimbuctooNJ.com.