Dutch Occupation and Slavery in Nieu Amsterdam
“Nieu Amsterdam” c. 1640.
Prior to the early 1600s arrival of Dutch colonists in New York City, then Nieu Amsterdam, Manhattan was a rural, fertile island that neighbored even more fertile land in the Hudson Valley, a gold mine to Dutch colonists. Soon, they realized there wasn’t nearly enough labor to farm these lands, as well as develop infrastructure to keep up with the increasing population of European colonizers. Transatlantic slave ships began to arrive in the New York Harbor in addition to other ships making landfall throughout the east coast of the Americas and the Caribbean.
Specifically looking at the State of New York, slavery in the North has been largely overshadowed by Southern slavery. A common misconception present in the teachings of slavery is that the practice of slavery was only (or worse) in the South compared to the North. The Dutch in the North have a myth of being gentle enslavers because of limited slavery regulations implemented by The Dutch West India Trade Company. As Shane White points out, “like most myths this one was partially based on fact, in this case on real dissimilarities between the slave systems of the North and the South” (White 1991, 79). These Northerners had their own system for integrating the enslaved into the economy and had their own ways of isolating enslaved people from all forms of social and economic mobility. Slavery in the North, similar to the South, was implemented by force and abuse, especially as laws and regulations surrounding slavery became more strict during British rule in the North than under the Dutch. Between 1700 and 1750, the enslaved population in New York grew faster than the free population. By mid-century, New York was the largest slave colony in the North (Wall & Cantwell 2004, 32).
These regulations encompassed all aspects of enslaved lives, including the laws in relation to the burial of enslaved starting in 1684. To prevent the covering up of murder, private burials of enslaved by their enslavers was prohibited and subjected to a fine. In 1722, a law was enacted to only allow slave burials by daylight and in 1731 a law was passed to allow up to twelve enslaved to attend a funeral. Penalties for breaking these laws included fines and public whippings. It is no coincidence that these laws were enacted during the rise of fires and slave insurrections in New York and throughout the country. New York amateur archaeologist William L. Calver also observed, “It was a custom, more forcible than law--- though laws there were, too--- that the servant could not be consigned to consecrated ground” (Brown 1919, 153).
​The presence of slavery in the North is more common knowledge today than in the past, but these facts may come as a surprise to many Americans. The erasure of histories occurs on a national level, and it is not a coincidence. With a lack of written historical records from the enslaved themselves, the colonial histories have been purposely written to limit the display of the enslaved experiences. These one-sided histories oftentimes fail to explore the enslaved experience, leaving archaeological evidence to appear heavily biased. Through recent archaeological projects on plantations, enslaved, and other African American sites, the presentation of the
“A law for regulating Negroes and slaves in the night time" 1731.
archaeologists’ findings has “been represented only in the margins of academic literature” (Delle 2019, 11). With archaeological work taking place as part of cultural resource management or graduate student research, “the literature on African American archaeology in the North is thus uneven and difficult to locate,” (Delle 2019, 12). Continued findings in the North by archaeologists further show the “conditions of Northern slavery, the struggle to end racial bondage, and the strenuous efforts of many people to establish free lives within a racist society” (Delle 2019, 30).
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Contrary to popular belief, New York had the highest population of enslaved Africans outside of Southern plantations. Slavery was anything but scarce in New York City, and the hands of these enforced laborers have led to the success of New York’s urbanization, trade, and economic standing. Under both Dutch and British occupation, slavery continued in New York until, and even after, emancipation in New York in 1827.
Bibliography
Brown, Henry Collins. Valentine’s Manual of Old New York. New York, N.Y. : Valentine’s
Manual Inc, 1919. http://archive.org/details/valentinesmanual1920brow
Delle, James A. “Slavery, Freedom, Archaeology.” The Archaeology of Northern Slavery and
Freedom. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, 2019, pp. 9-30.
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Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. “Nieu Amsterdam.” New York: NYPL Digital Collections, c. 1640. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-7c02-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.
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Rare Book Division, The New York Public Library. “A law for regulating Negroes and slaves in the night time.” New York: NYPL Digital Collections, 1731. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/8ebdde86-d7f2-c140-e040-e00a18060af7
Wall, Diana diZerega & Anne-Marie Cantwell. Touring Gotham’s Archaeological Past. CT:
Yale University Press, 2004.
White, Shane. Somewhat More Independent. The End of Slavery in New York City, 1770-1810.
GA: University of Georgia Press, 1991.