In 1609, Henry Hudson, an English navigator, sailing in the employ of the Dutch East India Company discovered the river which bears his name. The reports which he made in Holland of the newly discovered fur-yielding country resulted in the establishment of the Dutch West India Company in 1614. This company embraced all the Dutch private companies trading to Africa and America, and to it. belongs the distinction of framing the first treaty with the Indians, and of introducing Negro slavery into New Netherlands. 66 In 1625 or 1626 the first Negroes were brought into the colony, among them were Paul d'Angola, Simon Congo, Antony Portuguese, John Francisco, and seven other Africans, who were probably captured at sea. Two years later, three Negro women," the first of their sex, were brought in.* 995 A system of Patroonship was inaugurated in 1629 and the Dutch West India Company, seeking to encourage colonization, publicly promised to "use their endeavors to supply the colonists with as many Blacks as they conveniently can. The States General of Holland manifested a marked desire to aid the development of the colony, and on October 25, 1634, granted certain "freedoms, privileges and exemp-tions" to "the Lords and Patroons of New Netherlands, for theadvancement of the Incorporated West India Company, and for the benefit of the inhabitants of the countries," and decreed, among other things, that "the Incorporated West India Company shall allot each. This monograph was the result of researches conducted under the direction of Professor Charles H. Wesley of the Department of History. It was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Howard University. 2 O'Callaghan-Voyages of the Slavers "St. John" and "Arms of Amsterdam," p. xiii-introduction. These Negro women are the first of whom we have record. If women came among the first group it is not mentioned. On August 11, 1628, Reverend Jonas Michaetius wrote a letter to Reverend Adrianus Smoutus in which he stated that "maid servants are not to be found and the Angola slaves are thievish, lazy and useless trash."' Laws and Ordinances of the State of New York, 1638-1674, p. 10; N. Y. Col. Doc. Vol. I, 533. Patroon twelve Black men and women out of the prizes in which Negroes shall be found."" Six years later the Company was advised. to exert itself to provide the Patroons and Colonists, on their order, with as many Blacks as possible, without, however, being further or longer obligated thereto than shall be agreeable."" In 1641 the Dutch West India Company reduced Loango in Africa and obtained. control of the slave trade. In June, 1646, the Amandore, a ship belonging to the Dutch West India Company, and the first New York slaver on record, brought a cargo of slaves to New Netherlands which was sold for "Pork and Peas." It is said that "something wonderful was to be performed with them, but they just dropped through the fingers."" Although it is not stated where this cargo of slaves was loaded, the fact that sugar and oil were a part of her cargo may serve to determine the port from which the ship departed. The importation of Negroes into New Netherlands, however, was not limited to ships belonging to or under the control of the Dutch West India Company, for all privateers who sailed under the French flag regarded New Amsterdam as a neutral port and occasionally came there to dispose of the Negroes they had captured. In 1642 the French privateer "La Garce" brought in a few Negroes, and in 1652 a lot of forty-four Negroes were brought in by another privateer which had captured them from a Spaniard. The majority of the Negroes imported into New Netherlands were brought from Curacao. Two ships, the Wittepert and the Gideon, were the only ones recorded, which were employed in importing slaves directly from Guinea.10 In the section of the report on the affairs of the Dutch West India Company respecting New Netherlands made by a committee of the States General in January, 1648, the colony was said to be "the most fruitful" within the jurisdiction of the Dutch Government, and the best adapted to raise all sorts of produce, such as rye, wheat, barley, peas, beans, etc., and cattle; were it suitably peopled and cultivated." "The slave trade" which "hath long lain dormant to the great damage of the company" was pointed out as a solution to this problem." But in spite of these advantages the colonists were without a market for their produce, save "in the adjacent places 8 P. xvi. P. 99, Vol. I, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of New York. O'Callaghan-Voyages of the "St. John" and "Arms of Amsterdam," New York Colonial Document Relative to the Colonial History of New York, Vol. I, p. 246. 10 Ibid. 11 Ibid. 1 belonging to the English, who are themselves supplied.'"2 The report recommended that it would be highly "advantageous that a way be opened to allow" the colonists "to export their produce even to Brazil, . and to carry slaves back in return. The Directors supported their recommendation with the statement that "New Netherlands would be more extensively cultivated than it has hitherto been, because the agricultural laborers," who are conveyed here by the colonists sooner or later apply themselves to trade and neglect agriculture altogether. The colonists were permitted, with certain restrictions, to trade directly to Africa." Yet, Fiscal Van Dyck wrote that he had received no request from the Patroons or colonists to engage in such trade. Although the colonists of New Netherlands had not sought to take advantage of the Company's offer, instance ist had two years later of their countrymen in Holland being granted permission "to dispatch a ship to Africa for a cargo of slaves," and to convey the same to New Netherlands. ' "16 9914 The English realized the advantages of the slave trade before the Dutch and they had begun systematically to employ Negro slaves as agricultural laborers in a section of the country where the climate best suited the African. This fact made the South a better market in which to sell slaves than New Netherlands, where the Dutch were unfamiliar with slavery as an institution, and where the slaves suf-fered hardships because of the coldness of the climate. The Directors: of the Dutch West India Company at Amsterdam believed that slave labor in New Netherlands would be an insurance of prosperity and industrial development for the colony, and untiringly bent their efforts towards supplying the colonists with slaves. In 1658 the Directors at Amsterdam demanded "A List of the Blacks" in the colony, in order that they might "attach the Negroes in the hands of their masters, so that the said Negroes may not be alienated or sold out of New Netherlands.""" In spite of the encouragement of the Directors in Amsterdam and the Director in New Netherlands, the number of slaves brought into the colony failed to show the desired increase. On August 24, 1659, a "bill of lading: 19 Ibid. 18 By "Agricultural laborers" in this instance is meant the white indentured servants who were bound by contracts to till their masters' soil or in some othermanner serve them for a definite period. 14 Document Relative to the Colonial History of New York, Vol. I, p. 246. 15 Dutch MSS. correspondence. Vol. XI, p. 55, also Historical MSS. part I, p. 275. 10 Dutch MSS. correspondence, Vol. XII, p. 11; also Historical MSS. part I, p. 280. 17 Vol. II, p. 31, O'Callaghan, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of New York. for five Negroes," who were said to be "all dry and well conditioned" was sent to Director Stuyvesant in New Netherlands." Interest in the slave trade seems to have awakened among the colonists in the spring of 1660 when Cornelius Steenroych and other merchants of New Amsterdam petitioned "for leave to trade along the west coast of Africa from Cape Verde to Cape Lopez de Gonzaloo.'"10 Governor Stuyvesant was unable to grant the petitioners the permission desired and referred them to the Directors in Holland." Whether or not the merchants made further appeal is not recorded. Between 1660 and 1664 independent instances of slaves being introduced into New Netherlands can be found, but it was not until the last year of the Province as a Dutch Colony that the first large number of slaves was brought over. The Directors at Amsterdam advised Stuyvesant, on the 20th of January, 1664, that they had entered into contract with Symen Gilde of the ship Gideon, "to take in a good cargo of slaves at Loango, on the coast of Africa, and to fetch them by way of Curacao to New Netherlands.' 9921 The arrival of this cargo of half starved slaves numbering 290, of which number 153 were men and 137 were women, in the ship Gideon, had been delayed until the 14th of August." The fact that these slaves, the last to be introduced by the Dutch, little benefited the Company is shown in Stuyvesant's complaint to the Directors that "the ship Gideon arrived at such an unseasonable moment, to our great embarrassment and your Honor's greater loss, with 290 slaves, we have not been a little straitened and troubled on account of the want of provisions.'" Stuyvesant in his letter to the Directors explaining his surrender attributed his inability to honorably defend the fort against the English to the inopportune arrival of these slaves. sixteen days before the coming of the English." This explanation failed to satisfy the Directors who regarded his statement on the surrender as a "flimsy excuse. Whether Stuyvesant was correct in placing the immediate cause for the surrender of the fort and the colony to the untimely arrival of the Negroes, or whether the inevi:able had happened then because the time was ripe, will not be commented upon. In passing, it should be noted that the end of the New 18 Dutch MSS.; Curacao Papers Vol. XVIII p. 51, also Historical MSS. part I, p. 331. 19 Dutch MSS., Council Minutes, Vol. IX, 1660, p. 193. 20 Ibid p. 194. " P. 222, Vol. II, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of New York, O'Callaghan. 23 Dutch MSS. Vol. X, p. 301, also Historical MSS., part I, p. 268. 23 P. 504, Vol. II, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of New York. 24 Pp. 43-495, Vol. II, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of New York, O'Callaghan. Netherlands as a Dutch Colony is marked, as was its beginning, by a traffic in Negro slaves. Negro slavery had been introduced into New Netherlands when the colony numbered about 200, and although the number of Negroes had not increased in proportion to the increase of the white population, a gradual growth may be observed." The English took New Netherlands from the Dutch on August 30, 1664, and renamed the colony New York after its royal proprietor. The transition of the colony from New Netherlands to New York disturbed the life and slave trade of the colony to such a slight degree that a casual observer might fail to even note the change. The efficient, though arbitrary and despotic rule of Stuyvesant gave way to that of English governors who were too self-willed and ambitious for personal gain to obey unquestioningly orders that were weakened by the lapse of time between their issuance and execution. Governor Richard Nicolls, the first English executive in the colony, issued in March of the following year, under the patent of James, Duke of York, the first laws of the new government, which became known as "the Duke's Laws." The section entitled "Bond Slavery" is the only direct reference to the Negro contained in the Duke's Laws," and the slave trade is not mentioned. The English took a similar policy to that which was had by the Dutch in regard to the slave trade. That it was little affected can be seen from the encouragement given in a letter from Sir John Werden to William Dyer, collector at New York, to the colonists who are told that they "need not suspect the company will oppose ye introducing of black slaves. into New Yorke from any place (except from Guiny) if they were first sold in ye place by ye Royall Company or their agents. Since the slave trade was fostered in every other colony under the jurisdiction of the English, its exclusion in New York would have proved a very surprising exception and certainly not their rule. Private individuals, French and Spanish privateers and the Royal African Company of England engaged in the lucrative traffic of human beings. The Royal African Company of England had the monopoly of the trade direct from the west coast of Africa, but as they were powerless to guard their privilege, privateers would "infringe upon their charter by importing Negroes, elephants' teeth, etc., into New York from Africa. Such instances of infringement on the Royal African Company's charter had become of such import 25 For comment on the growth of the Negro population see table and chart. See section on Legal Status for "the Duke's Laws.'' 7 Letter of Sir John Werden to William Dyer, Collector at New York, p. 246, Vol. III, Documents Relative to Colonial History of New York. New York Historical Collection, Vol. I, pp. 322, 323. 28 Calendar of Historical MSS. part II, p. 160. 1 |