Slavery in the Colonial Period in New York

In the background of the differences in slavery policy of Dutch and English colonial rule of New York was the fact that the structure of governance passing from the former to the latter was a fractious issue for the first six decades of the seventeenth century. Dutch administration of New York preceded that of the English, Henry Hudson having founded New Netherlands in 1608. But Dutch colonial efforts appear to have been haphazard and ineffectual for the next fifteen years, colonial activity being largely restricted to acquiring furs for exports; in 1623, the Dutch West India Company established a base at New Amsterdam, intending to "turn a losing colonial venture into a profitable one." The project had limited success, though involving cooperation between the Company and the Dutch crown. Dickason characterizes the Dutch as "minor colonizers in North America and principally interested in trade, "whose behavior wa

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an and woman. A slave could testify against other blacks and even in cases in which one or both of the litigating parties was white. But this does not mean that slavery was morally repugnant to the Dutch. A Dutch Reformed Church tract written by the first ordained Protestant minister of African Negro parentage described slavery and Christian freedom compatible concepts, and church views of slavery remained in place both at the time of the Articles of Capitulation and in 1772, when colonial church became independent of the mother church in Holland 1772. Both before and after the transfer of New Amsterdam to the English in 1664, Dutch colonial clergymen were among the slaveholders. The fact that New Netherlands was administered by corporate rather than political or religious structures may help explain the more or less casual structure of slavery under Dutch rule. Fiske says that the government of New Netherlands "was simply that of the agent of a commercial company," which is confirmed by the custom of "half-freedom." A slave who paid an annual tax in money and/or foodstuffs and provided labor to the Dutch West India Company could (in theory, at least) gradually buy his freedom and that of his family, more or less in the manne
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Some common words found in the essay are:
India Company, York City, Articles Capitulation, Dutch English, Stampp Becker, Common Council, Amsterdam English, York America's, Privileges Exemptions, American Conley, slave system, dutch west, west india, dutch west india, english colonial, white indentured, west india company, slave status, india company, white indentured servants, english colonies, slave free, indentured servants, dutch reformed church, decades seventeenth century,
Approximate Word count = 2164
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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