Following the end of the American Revolution, Northern and Mid-Atlantic states would debate manumission and other pathways to ending slavery. Livingston and others in his family circle were enmeshed in these conversations. Furthermore, his daughters and granddaughters reflected the changing gender roles of the Early Republic.

Although Livingston was not one of the five men initially nominated to represent NJ at the Constitutional Convention, he was pressed into service after others declined to attend. Livingston was reacquainted with many of his Continental Congress colleagues in Philadelphia. According to James Madison and others, Livingston made little impression in the Convention’s oral debates. Widely recognized for his leadership qualities, however, he was given the task of chairing two important committees at the Convention: the assumption of state debts and slavery. Both of these issues were – after the famed Connecticut Compromise of a bicameral Legislature – among the most contested and divisive of those considered by the Convention.

Livingston had to grapple with the institution of slavery in his public life, as the first popularly elected Governor of New Jersey, as well. In his correspondence and public pronouncements, Governor Livingston clearly outlined the divisions over the institution of slavery. Writing to a Quaker ally, Samuel Allinson, Livingston showed that his personal sentiments were turning against the institution. While many patriot leaders did not see the irony of a revolution in the name of liberty being led by slave owners, Livingston could recognize that slavery was “particularly odious and disgraceful” among Americans who had idolized liberty. Many New Jersey political and business leaders, however, were unwilling to embrace manumission and Livingston was repeatedly forced to compromise and postpone a general manumission law. New Jersey would be the last northern state to end slavery, passing an Act for Gradual Emancipation only in 1804.

As chair of the committee considering slavery, Livingston brokered a compromise allowing the continuation of slave imports until at least 1800. Interestingly Livingston had been able to secure a better deal in his committee than was the full Convention, as the imports were permitted to continue until 1808 – at which time they were barred.