Note [386 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
[386]
“In theory, at least, the Hollander considered the Indian a man like himself, with analogous rights to life, liberty and possessions.” Consequently, “Indians were not enslaved in New Netherland.” Van Rensselaer,
History of the City of New York in the Seventeenth Century
, i, p. 63. These statements are rather difficult to prove. Holding Indians as slaves who had been enslaved elsewhere and then brought into the colony, and making slaves in the colony and then sending them out of it, were practices that unquestionably existed, even if on a small scale. The declaration of the governor and council of New York in 1680 that “all Indians here have always been, and are, free, and not slave, except such as have been formerly brought from the Bay and Foreign Ports,” (Brodhead,
History of the State of New York
, first edition, ii, p. 331), shows the presence of some Indian slaves in the Dutch colony.
The records of New Netherland contain accounts of manumission in that colony of slaves called Spaniards and bearing Spanish names. Whether these individuals were Spanish Indians, or negroes from the Spanish Islands, is not specified in the records. One such person received his freedom in 1645, by payment of 300 carolus guilders. O’Callaghan, Calendar of Historical Manuscripts in the Office of the Secretary of State, Albany, New York, pt. i, p. 45. Another received his freedom in 1646, in return for his long and faithful services. O’Callaghan, op. cit., pt. i, p. 105. Two others, slaves in the Company’s service, were freed in 1664. O’Callaghan, op. cit., pt. i, p. 264. Still others, belonging presumably to individual owners, received freedom in this same year. O’Callaghan, op. cit., pt. i, p. 269.
Two incidents of enslavement of Indians in New Netherland are noteworthy, even if the individuals concerned were subsequently sent out of the colony. The first instance occurred in 1644, in connection with the Indian troubles of that time. At the close of the difficulties, some of the Indian prisoners were sent by Governor Kieft to the Bermudas “as a present to the English governor.” Still others were given to the “oldest and most experienced soldiers,” who, at that time, were allowed to go to Holland. Brodhead, History of the State of New York, revised edition, i, p. 396; New York Colonial Documents, i, p. 215; Van Rensselaer, op. cit., i, p. 235. The second instance was connected with the Esopus Indians. On May 25, 1660, a resolution was taken in the council to transport to Curaçao all but two or three of the lately acquired Esopus Indians, “to be employed there, or at Buenaire, with the negroes in the Company’s service.” Brodhead, op. cit., revised edition, i, p. 676; O’Callaghan, Calendar of Historical Manuscripts in the Office of the Secretary of State in Albany, pt. i, p. 295. On June 29th, Stuyvesant issued an order, and arranged for their passage. O’Callaghan, op. cit., pt. i, p. 214. O’Callaghan, History of New Netherland, etc., ii, p. 420, gives the number transported as eleven. Schoonmaker, The History of Kingston, p. 16, states it as twenty. Those retained in the colony on this occasion were not enslaved, but were to be punished “as might be thought proper or as necessity might demand.” Schoonmaker, op. cit., p. 16. The relations with the Iroquois had prevented any serious Indian wars in the colony, and because of this relation Stuyvesant’s act was considered highly impolitic. His course, which was perhaps patterned after the action of the English following the Pequot War, he sought to justify in his declaration that “their enlargement would have a tendency to create disaffection toward our nation. Our barbarian neighbors would glory, as if they had inspired us with terror.” Schoonmaker, op. cit., p. 16. In 1661 these Indians were recalled from slavery. O’Callaghan, Calendar of Historical Manuscripts, etc., pt. i, p. 295.