Dutch & Slavery - New York & New Jersey - 1628 to 1710 Here are excerpts from a few books I picked up at the library today ... Wood, Betty. The Origins of American Slavery: Freedom and Bondage in the English Colonies A Critical Issue. New York: Hill and Wang, c1997 pp 132 Page 111 "Partly and offshoot of its slave-trading activities, and partly to meet the labor requirements of the Dutch settlers who carved out large estates in the Hudson River Valley, the Dutch West India Company had brought West Africans to New Netherland as early as 1628. By 1660, on the eve of its acquisiton by the English, New Netherland's population of roughly 5,000 included around 600 enslaved Africans. In absolute terms, the number of Africans was similar to that of Massachusetts; in relative terms, the proportion of Africans was closer to that of Virginia. The Articles of Capitulation agreed to by the Dutch in 1664 were comparatively generous. Those Dutch settlers who wished to leave the colony were given 18 months in which to do so; those who chose to remain would be required to take an oath of loyalty.... There was never any question of the English trying to dismantle the slave system that already existed in NY, as they renamed the colony. In 1665, the continuance of that slave system was sanctioned by the New York Assembly. That Assembly was dominated by Puritans who had migrated from New England to Long Island. ... By 1710 NY's population was just over 18,800 included around 2,800 people of African descent." -------------------------------- Hawke, David Freeman Everyday Life in Early America. New York: Harper and Row, Pub, c1988 p126 "The Dutch seemed to have been less prejudiced or more relaxed about dark-skinned people in their midst - that amounted to 12 percent of the population. Many slaves were freed in NY and NJ. ---------------------------------- Furnas, J.C. The Americans: A Social History of the U.S. 1587-1914. NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, c1969. p42 "Netherlands was in the 1600's the world's most stirring naval and trading nation. The Dutch West India Co. was put in charge of sugar development in the Dutch holdings in tropical America and, rather incidentally, of the peltry trade in New Netherland. Another of its concerns was the complementary trade in West African slaves. The ships traveled up and down the coast of America with their wares including slaves." This author seems to imply that if the Netherlands had not already established their slave trade in the tropics things might have been different in NY. Carol Swinehart cshart@greenapple.com http://www.greenapple.com/~cshart/index1.html http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/1457/index.html CHURCH ARCHIVE LINKS http://www.greenapple.com/~cshart/chlinks.htm Contributed by: "Carol Swinehart" cshart@greenapple.com By way of: "Sharilyn Whitaker" sharilyn@northcoast.com