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Home , Dutch Reformed Church, Dutch West India Company, New Netherland, New Netherlander, New Netherland Institute, Peter Stuyvesant

Black Families in New Net Joyce D. oodf riend University of Denver

N ew Netherland becamehome to a sizeablenumber of In the past decade,the conceptual basis for the study black people during its brief history. Personsof African of blacks in colonial America has altered dramatically. heritage were present in the Dutch West India Instead of focusing on the institution of and its Company’s as early as 1626 and their numbers evolution over time, historians such as Michael Mullin, increased substantially over the years. Whether Peter Wood, Ira Berlin, Allan Kulikoff, T.H. Breen and transported from a Spanish, Portuguese,or Dutch pos- Stephen Innes, and Philip Morgan have turned their sessionor native born in the colony, the blacks of New attention to exploring the actions of black people them- Netherland invariably attracted the attention of their selves.3As Gary Nash succinctly put it in a recent review European co-residents.References to black individuals essay, “Afro-American studies in the colonial period or to groups of blacks are scatteredthroughout the Dutch [were reoriented] from a white-centered to a black- recordsof government and . Yet surprisingly little centered area of inquiry . . . [Scholars] stressed the is known about the lives of these Africans and Afro- creative role of blacks in shaping their lives and in Americans: their ethnic origins, languages, religion, developing a truly Afro-American culture.“4 Unless this rituals, music, family and kinship structures, work ex- revised perspective is introduced into investigations of periences,and communal life remain largely unexplored. blacks in , we will be unable to offer any fresh insights into the lives of the peoples of African This assertionmay strike someof you asnot only bold, descentwho resided in this colony. but unfounded. Those of you who are familiar with the major studies of the slave trade and slavery in New Developing an agenda for research on the blacks of Netherland produced in the 1960sand 1970s-and I am New Netherland is complicated by the fact that virtually referring here to the work of Edgar McManus, Ernst all of the recent innovative work on black life in seven- den Boogaart and Pieter Emmer, Gerald De Jong, A. teenth- and eighteenth-century America deals with the Leon Higginbotham, Jr., as well as my own work-may plantation of , , and South feel justified in challenging this stance.’ You would Carolina. We must proceedcautiously until we can deter- point correctly to the undeniable advances in our mine whether generalizations formulated with reference knowledge of the economicsof the Dutch slave trade,the to the conditions of life in the rural South apply to the legal statusof slavesin New Netherland, the attitudes of diverse communities of New Netherland. Ultimately, we the toward slavery, and the will have to generate hypotheses rooted in our under- contours of the emerging slave society at New Amster- standing of the distinctive aspects of New Netherland dam attributable to thesestudies. And I would agreewith society. you, not only that this scholarship is impressive,but that it is indispensable for comprehending the political, Researchersof black life in the economic, and legal framework of black life in New agreethat one of the most fruitful areasof investigation Netherland. But I would hold to my original position. concernsthe processof family formation among persons Notwithstanding the valuable contributions of thesehis- of African descent transplanted to the North American torians to improving our understanding of the Dutch colonies. Although a number of other topics merit system of slavery in New Netherland, we still lack any detailed examination, the subject of family life is of interpretive model for discussing the lives of personsof fundamental importance. Not only was the articulation African descentin this Dutch colony. The reasonfor this, of family ties crucial to the maintenanceof generational simply put, is that research to date has centered on the continuity among blacks in the new American society, institution of slavery rather than on the people who were but a complex web of kinship connections undergirded enslaved. In this respect, the scholarship on blacks in the Afro-American community. I have thereforedecided New Netherland lags behind that on blacks in other to addressmyself to this topic using the experiencesof American colonies2 New ’s blacks as my primary source of 147 148 SELECTED RENSSELAERSWIJCK SEMINAR PAPERS evidence. It is my hope that complementary studies of do not know exactly what proportion of ’s black families in other New Netherland settlementswill black population the free blacks constituted, there is no soonenable us to have a full-scale picture of black family doubt that there were many enslaved black inhabitants life in this colony. of . An objective assessmentof the record of New Amsterdam blacks in sustaining family Scholars who have investigated family and kinship ties must evaluate the experiencesof the noted group of amongblacks in the Chesapeakecolonies have theorized free blacks in the context of the entire bl.ackpopulation. that, prior to the eighteenth century, demographic and economic conditions in this region made it extremely The example of the free black families who farmed difficult for blacks to create and sustain family ties. their own land on the outskirts of town naturally served Specifically, it was the uneven sex ratio among newly- as a beacon to New Amsterdam’s slav’es.Slaves who imported blacks and the dispersedpattern of settlement were owned by the , however associatedwith the beginnings of plantation agriculture envious of the successof their former co-workers in that retarded family formation among blacks in seven- obtaining freedom, drew comfort from the fact that the teenth-century Maryland and Virginia.’ Company permitted its slaves to marry and begin families. In light of the pattern of slave importations and Although precise figures on the sexual composition of the primary employment of slaves in all-male labor New Amsterdam’s black population are unavailable, it gangs,it is likely that there was always a surplus of single is clear from a variety of sourcesthat black women were malesamong the Company’s slaves.6Yet the knowledge presentin the town in sufficient numbersto enable scores that the Company kept female slaves ensured that there of black couples to establish intimate relationships. were opportunities for relationships to develop under Moreover, blacks in New Amsterdam had frequent op- Company control. Company-owned sllaves could, of portunities for contact with each other within the cir- course, be leasedor sold at any time. Bu.t it appearsthat cumscribed area of Manhattan Island. This concentrated privately-owned slaves, of whom there ‘werea substan- pattern of settlement was far more conducive to the tial number in New Amsterdam by the close of Dutch maintenance of family ties by blacks than was the dis- rule, were in an even more vulnerable position.7 persal of the black population on isolated plantation quarters that was characteristic of seventeenth-century The majority of individually-owned slaves in New Maryland and Virginia. In short, it is no wonder that New Amsterdam belonged to small slavemasters. most of Amsterdam’s blacks had a great deal mote successin whom held only one or two slaves. Fragmentary building a stable family life than their counterpartsin the evidence suggeststhat these slaves were allowed a con- Chesapeake.Yet the portrait of the black family in New siderable amount of latitude in their personal lives, as Amsterdam is more complex than this surface com- long as they performed the work assignedthem by their parison would indicate. An in-depth look at the com- owners. Nonetheless, their situation was characterized ponents of the New Amsterdam black population by a good deal of instability, since they frequently were discloses that there were significant differences in the shifted from owner to owner. Petrus Stuyvesant, the ability of blacks to form families. Dutch West India Company’s director general in New Netherland, reported in 1656 on the fate of a group of The free blacks of New Amsterdam have perennially slaveswho had been landed in New Amsterdam in 1652. occupied center stage in accounts of the local black community. However ambivalent their status, the black Some of these negroes are already dead; some have away; some men who, along with their wives, were manumitted by are still on hand here, with divers inhabitants, as bond slaves, purchased and paid for, but most of these haveteen two, three or the Dutch West India Company in 1644and granted land more times re-sold, and have changed masters. on which to support their families, enjoyed that all other blacks aspired to, foremost of which was the right Thus, even though somemasters may ‘havesanctioned to live in independent self-supporting households. Yet marriagesbetween their slavesand the slaves of another the attention accorded this remarkable group of black owner, the black men and women who were owned by families, and the handful of manumitted slaves who individual burghers were compelled toI be continually joined them over the years of Dutch rule, has tended to vigilant if they wished to maintain their family ties. The induce students of black history to equate these free overall fluidity of their situation mitigated against the blacks with all blacks in New Amsterdam. Although we formation of permanent family bonds. BLACK FAMILIES IN NEW NETHERLAND 149

The large group of slaves owned by Petrus incidence of remarriage among blacks in New Amster- Stuyvesant-estimated to number 40 in 1660-forms dam suggestsnot only that blacks placed a premium on the one major exception to these generalizations about conjugal ties but that it was essential to remarry as New Amsterdam’s privately-owned slaves. Yet even quickly as possible in order to hold black families here, the evidence is contradictory. Stuyvesant’s slaves’ together. who were used as farm laborers and household servants at his Bouwery on the edge of town, were apparently Little is known about the processof marriage forma- encouraged to live in family units. Both Petrus tion among New Amsterdam blacks. Presumably,black Stuyvesant and his wife Judith were devout Calvinists men and women selectedtheir own matesand, in the case and they made certain that their slaves were exposed to of slaves,obtained permission to wed from their master. the teachings of the Dutch Reformed church. Mrs. When both prospective partners belonged to the same Stuyvesant took pains to have someof the slave children owner, be it the Dutch West India Company or an in- baptized. Yet even the slaveswho lived in the protective dividual burgher’ there appears to have been little dif- family-oriented environment of Stuyvesant’s Bouwery ficulty in carrying out the marriage. For example, were not immune to the pressuresof the marketplace. FranciscusNeger and Catharina Negrinne who were wed The inherent conflict between the Stuyvesants’religious in the Dutch Reformed church on October 4’1659, were scruples and their economic interests was exposed in listed as being “Slaven van Corn. de Potter” (slaves of sharp relief when a grievous error cameto light in 1664. Comelis de Potter). However, when slaves of different As Vice Director Beck wrote Director Stuyvesant from owners or a slave and a free black wished to marry, then Cura~ao: the successof the endeavor dependedon the ability of the black couple to convince white people to cooperate. I have remarked . ..inyourHonor’s... Letter, the serious mistake that has been committed here in the sale of your Slaves: especially Two slavesbelonging to the Dutch West India Company of the little children, since with great forethought on the part of apparently convinced Petrus Stuyvesant to act in their Madam Stuyvesant, your Honor’s spouse, they were presented at behalf when the male slave was sold to Jeremias van the baptismal Font. If we had had the least knowledge of the fact, Rensselaerin 1664.Van Rensselaerreported the episode the mistake would not have occurred.9 in the following way:

Thus, persons of African descent were found in a I bought a Negro for the colony from the honorable General Petrus variety of settings in New Amsterdam, some of which Stuyvesant, but the said Negro had to remain a few weeks more in inhibited the formation of families and others of which the Company’s service, so that I received him only a fortnight ago, madeit relatively simple to sustain family life. Undoub- together with the Negress whom the said general urged me to buy tedly, all of New Amsterdam’s blacks, slave and free, also, although he had given her to him later, after I had bought the Negro. She is a [good] sound wench.” cherished family ties and given the opportunity would have chosen to live as membersof families. Van Rensselaerthen explained to his correspondenthow the Negro and his new wife would be employed in What was the nature of the family life created by Rensselaerswijckcolony. Stuyvesant’s role in this trans- blacks in New Amsterdam? How did black men and action was not that of matchmaker, as women adapt the institution of the family to meet their implied; it was to ensure that this obviously devoted needs in this alien environment? In order to illuminate couple would not be separated as a result of Van the defining featuresof black family life in New Amster- Rensselaer’spurchase of the male slave. dam, it is best to focus on two key aspectsof the fami- ly-marriage and child-rearing. A more ambiguous, but nevertheless intriguing case revolved around Christina Emanuels and Swan van New Amsterdam blacks were eager to forge marital Loange, who were married in the Dutch Reformed ties. By the ’ an impressive number of black church of New Amsterdam on February 9’1664. Chris- couples were located in the town, including the 1644 tina, who had been a slave of the Dutch West India petitioners for and their wives. Black Company, was the subject of a petition from Domingo couples were married in the New Amsterdam Dutch , a free black, praying for her manumission. This Reformed church as early as 1641.Interestingly, the first petition, dated December6, 1663, noted that she was a five black couples who were wed in the church included baptized orphan daughter of Manuel Trumpeter and An- five widows and two widowers, thus indicating thatthese thonya, his wife, both deceased negroes. The Dutch individuals had been married previously. The notable authorities ordered the girl, who was 18 years old at this 150 SELECTEDRENSSELAERSWIJCKSEMINAR PAPERS

Fig. 29. Copper Engraving, Sceneof New Amsterdam. I.N. Phelps StokesCollection. Public Library.

Fig. 30. Painting of a Interior, 18th century. Courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, London. BLACK FAMILIES IN NEW NETHERLAND 151 time, to be emancipatedon condition that the Company Americans fared in New Amsterdam is a subject of vital be furnished with another Negro in her place or be paid importance for the history of the black family. the sum of 300 . On September16,16&t, eight months after the marriage of Christina and Swan, it was Black parents were deeply concerned about the wel- recorded that Govert Loockermans,a wealthy merchant fare of their children. The Company slaves who peti- of New Amsterdam, had given a note for 300 guilders to tioned for their freedom in 1644 gave the necessity of obtain Christina’s freedom. Why Loockermans acted in supporting their many children as one of the main Christina’s behalf becomesclear when we learn that he reasonsfor requesting manumission. The black children was the owner of a slave named Swan in 1662.Undoub- of New Amsterdam were cared for not only by their tedly, Swan, Govert Loockerman’s slave, was the Swan natural parents but by a wide circle of relatives and van Loange who married Christina Emanuels in 1664. friends who willingly assumedresponsibility for provid- Looekermanshad facilitated Christina’s manumissionso ing for the youngsters when circumstanceswarranted it. that Swan van Loange, his slave, could marry her.” In other words, black surrogateparents quickly filled the void when natural parents died or were sold. The over- The figure of 26 black couples married in the Dutch riding concern of the black adults of New Amsterdam Reformed church in New Amsterdambetween 1639 and was to smooth the path for the younger generation. This 1664 clearly representsan underestimateof the number they accomplishedin a number of ways. of black marriages contracted in New Amsterdam. The marriage records of the church commence in 1639. Black parents protected their children as best they Therefore any blacks who were married in the church could given the conditions of life in a slave society. In before that date are untraceable. Perhaps more sig- March 1664, Manuel Sandersen,a free black, was fined nificantly, there is reason to believe that a number of by the authorities becausehis son had been found shoot- black couples could not or would not be married in the ing pigeons in the woods on Manhattan Island on Sun- church. Thus, they pledged themselvesto each other in day, contrary to law.13 Whether Manuel condoned his another’ and probably more traditional manner. son’s actions is not known, but this seemingly indulgent father had to bear the costs for his son’s infraction of the Whether their marriageswere celebratedin the Dutch Dutch Sabbathlaw. Another more seriouscase of a black Reformed church or in a customary ritual, the black parent acting to protect a youngster in difficulty with the couples of New Amsterdam soon became parents. At law involved Lysbet Anthony, a ten-year-old black girl least 61 children of persons of African descent were who, in 1661,was accusedof stealing from her mistress, baptized in the New AmsterdamDutch Reformedchurch the wife of Dominie Drisius, and admitted it. between 1639, when the baptismal recordsof the church “‘Iheacknowledgementof herdaughterhaving been read toMary, begin, and 1664. Actual births of blackinfants, however, the Mother of Lysbet, she was ordered to chastise her, or in case far exceededthe number of recorded baptisms.For one of refusal to let the same be done; Mary, undertaking it, has with thing, black children baptized prior to 1639 are not the assistance of Long Anna, severely punished and whipped her accountedfor in the total of baptizedblack infants. More daughter w,‘,‘:4 rods in [the] presence of the W[orshipful] Magistrates. importantly, this figure does not include black children born in New Amsterdamwho were not baptized.And we Although Mary’s options were limited, she apparently know for certain that the majority of black babies born deemedit preferableto discipline her own daughter,with in New Amsterdam after 1655 were not baptized in the the aid of another black woman, than to allow the punish- Dutch Reformed church. The virtual absenceof black ment to be inflicted directly by the Dutch authorities, In infants from the baptismal register after this date is a sense,Mary’s decision to stand between her daughter explained by a decision of the clergy of New and the town officials was a meansof shielding the girl Netherland’s Dutch Reformed churches to adopt a more from the force of the law. restrictive policy regarding the admission of blacks to baptism.l2 Thus, it is reasonableto assumethat well over New Amsterdam’s black parents did far more than 100 babies were born to black couples in New Amster- rescue their youngsters when they were in trouble with dam during the period of Dutch rule. Since very few the law. Parentsstruggled to secureproperty and status young slaves were imported into New Netherland, it is for their offspring. Although it was natural parents who, clear that most of New Amsterdam’sblack children were most commonly, made arrangementsfor the transmis- native-born. How this first generation of Afro- sion of property to their children, the only evidence we 152 SELECTED RENSSELAERSWIJCK SEMINAR PAPERS have concerning provisions for inheritance of property SusannaAnthony Robber& who signed this agreement in a New Amsterdamblack family comesfrom tbe case with a mark, had arranged to have her brother learn the of an orphan boy who had been adoptedby a free black all-important skills of reading and writing. woman. In 1661, Emmanuel Pietersen, the woman’s husband,petitioned the Director General and Council of Enslaved blacks were, of course, restricted in their New Netherland to declare the boy free in order to make ability to transmit property to their offspring, but they him legally able to inherit property. were not prevented from passing down skills that might Most humbly showeth Emmanuel Pietetsen a free Negro, as hus- give their youngstersan advantagewhen it cameto work band and guardian of Reytoty, otherwise Dorothe Angola, a free assignments. But the one dream which black slaves Negress, that his wife did in the year 1643 on the 36th of August, stand godmother or witness at the Christian baptism of a little son treasuredfor their children was the hope of freedom and of Kleyn Anthony of Angola, begotten by his wife named Louixe, they tried all conceivable ways to garner this prize for which aforesaid Anthony and Louwixe, being both free Negroes, their sons and daughters. New Amsterdam blacks real- died a short time afterwards, leaving the above-named little boy, ized that Christianization was a pre-condition for eman- named Anthony, which child your petitioner’s wife, out of Chris- cipation in Dutch society. Accordingly, they sought bap- tian affection, immediately on the death of his parents, bath tism for their children. Dominie Henricus Selyns saw fit adopted and reared as her own child, without asking assistance from anyone in the world, but maintained him at her own expense to criticize the efforts of the black parents on from that time unto this day, whereunto your petitioner in like Stuyvesant’s Bouwety to obtain baptism for their manner is well disposed and willing to promote the interest of the children. In 1664, he wrote: said boy as far as is in his power. Wherefore your petitioner. . . As for the Holy Baptism. we were sometimes askad by the negrces [requests that] said boy . . . be declared by Your Honors a free to baptize their children, but we refused, partly because of their person in order thus to be qualified toinherit his or your petitioner’s lack of knowledge and faith, and partly because ofthematerial and temporal goods by last will or testa?tt, if he should happen to wrong aim on the part of the afotemcntioned negroes who sought die without lawful child or children. nothing else by it than the freeing of their children from material 18 slavery, without pursuing piety and Christian virtues. In addition to conveying property to their children, free black parents sought to prepare their youngstersfor Dominie Selyns’s disparaging comments not- the future by providing them with on-the-job training in withstanding, it is incumbent on us not to impugn the skills that were important for economic success.In 1660, motives of these black parents who aspired to freedom Maria Portogys, also referred to as Maria the Negress, for their children in this way. Although baptism was only hired out her young daughter to work for Maria Becker, the first stepon the road to freedom, it was a critical step. presumably as a household servant. Although the child Free blacks, such as Emmanuel Pietersen or Domingo was given clothes and other items by Mrs. Becker, she Angola, who petitioned for the manumission of black apparently did not like her situation and left, leaving youngsters who were still enslaved, made it a point to Maria Portogys to make good on the contract.16Not- underline the fact that the young slave in question had withstanding the outcome, the fact remains that Maria been baptized as a Christian. Portogys had negotiated an agreement in behalf of her daughter in order to prepare the girl for the adult work Free blacks acted to capitalize on any opportunity to world. In 1661,a free black woman attemptedto guaran- obtain freedom for a black child. In l655, Anthony tee a place for her younger brother in New Amsterdam’s Matysen, a free black, tried unsuccessfully to liberate a economy by equipping him with a precious skill. The black infant belonging to Egbert van Borsum. Matysen apprenticeship agreement in which “Susanna Anthony claimed that “he has not been paid by [Van Borsum] for Robberts, free Negress,as guardian of her minor brother, rearing his negro’s child, which his wife is nursing; [he] Jochim Anthony Robberts, . . . hired her said brother unto requests,therefore, that the child be declared free, when Wolphert Webber” specified the following conditions: he promises to rear the sameat his own expense.” How- For the space of three consecutive years commencing on the first ever, the court decided that the black child should be of May next and ending the first of March of the year 1664, returned to Van Borsum, who was required to pay following, and he shall receive as wages therefor during that time, Matysen what was due him according to the contract.” board and clothes, with express condition that the said Webber shall teach him, or cause him to be taught. reading and writing, and Children representednot only a link to the future for shall at the expiration of the apprenticeship aforesaid, being decently clothed, be fitted out without anything mom, and in case black families but a way of memorializing the past. it please him to serve longer after that date, the aforesaid Weby$ Scholars have suggested that the naming practices of if they agree, shall have the preference without cost or charge. blacks in colonial and nineteenth century America BLACK FAMILIES IN NEW NETHERLAND 453 reelectedthis twofold desire.2oA preliminary analysis of to remind them of their origins as well as to give them a the evidence on the naming practices of New secure identity in the alien society of seventeenth-cen- Amsterdam’s black families strongly supports the con- tury .22 tention of these scholars that people of African heritage in America used namesas a meansof preserving family The frequency with which certain names appeared identity. The names given to black children by their across the generations in other New Amsterdam black parentswere carefully chosen to solidify bonds between families confimns the depth of family feeling among the the generationsas well as acrossthe wider kinship circle. town’s blacks and also points to the central role of kinship ties in the development of the Afro-American An exploration of naming practices in three genera- community in New Amsterdam.Even though genealogi- tions of one New Amsterdam black family for which cal evidence on many of New Amsterdam’s black there is ample documentation, the family of Nicolaes families is sparse,it is possible to analyze the distribution (Claes) Emanuel, showsclearly how nameswere usedto of namesamong the town’s black population, using the ensure family continuity.21 Claes Emanuel was the son namesof blacks contained in the marriage and baptismal of Emanuel van Angola and Phizithiaen D’Angool, who registers of the Dutch Reformed church. Certain names were married in the Dutch Reformed church of New were repeated in the black community so consistently Amsterdamon February 16,1642. Claeswas baptized in that their usagewas undeniably deliberate. The 7 1 black this church on August 22,1649. One of the sponsorsat maleswho can be identified from church recordsbore 23 his baptism was a woman named Christyn van Angola, different names,but 49 of thesemen (70%) sharedonly whose exact relationship to Claes’ family is unknown, six names-Anthony, Emanuel, Francisco, Jan, Domin- but who presumably was a close relative or friend. At the go, and Pieter. Moreover, 21(58%) of the 36 male black ageof 30, shortly after becoming a memberof the Dutch babies who were baptized in New Amsterdam between Reformed church (December 4, 1679), Claes Emanuel 1639 and 1665 bore the samenames as older black men married Lucretia Lovyse in the church on March 31, in the community. The data on intergenerational naming 1680.Lucretia, who had been baptized on July 121665, patternsamong New Amsterdam’sblack femalesis even was one of triplets, the others being Elizabeth Lovyse more conclusive. Of the 24 female black babiesbaptized and Anthony Lovyse. The parents of the triplets were in the church between 1639 and 1665, 19 (79%) were Lovys Angola and Hilary Criolyo, who hadbeen married given names already carried by black women in New in the church on May 29,166O. Lucretia was barely half Amsterdam. Moreover, these names were among the Claes’s age and it is likely that the couple married most popular female namesin the black community. To becauseshe was already pregnant with their first child, put it another way, nine names-Anna, Catharina, Christyntie (Christina) who was baptized on June 16, Cecilia, Christina, Elizabeth, Lucretia, Magdaleen, 1680. Claes and Lucretia had four more children born Marie, and Susanna-accounted for 19 babies and 51 between 1681and 1688-Lysbeth (Elizabeth), Emanuel women in the black community of New Amsterdam. (Manuel), Lowys (Lewis), and another Christina, the That 70 black females sharedonly nine namessuggests fist Christina having died. What concernsus here are the strongly that girls were being named after their mothers namesgiven to thesechildren by their parents.Christina, or aunts or grandmothers or perhaps even more distant Claes Emanuel’s godmother, was obviously an impor- female kin. tant person in his family, since he named his first daughter (and later his third daughter) after her. One can Future research on the naming practices ofaNew speculate that she was a close relative, perhaps his Amsterdam blacks will undoubtedly enhance our grandmother or aunt. However, the family relationships knowledge of the kinship networks formed by black New of the three other children’s namesakesare much clearer. Netherlandersand may also shedlight on the African and The couple’s second daughter, Elizabeth, was named Portuguese backgrounds of these individuals. It is al- after her mother’s sister, Elizabeth Lovyse, one of the ready certain, however, that these carefully elaborated triplets. Emanuel, the eldest son of Claes and Lucretia, kinship ties formed the underpinning of a vital Afro- was given the nameof his paternal grandfather,Emanuel American community in New Amsterdam,a community van Angola, and Lowys, their secondson, bore the name composed of slaves and free blacks, old settlers and of his maternal grandfather, Lowys Angola. Thus, the newcomers, Portuguese speakersand Dutch speakers, children of Claes and Lucretia Emanuel were carefully and Christians and non-Christians. The dynamics of this named after kinfolk on both sides of the family in order unusual community are yet to be explored. 154 SELECTEDRENSSELAERSWIJCKSEMINAR PAPERS

Notes

‘Edgar J. McManus, A History of Negro Slavery in New Kulikoff, ‘The Origins of Afro-American Society in York (Syracuse,NY: SyracuseUniversity Press, 1966); Tidewater Maryland and Virginia, 1700 to 1790;” Her- Ernst van den Boogaart and Pieter C. Emmer, “The bert G. Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Dutch Participation in the , 1596- Freedom, 1750-1925 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1650,” in Henry A. Gemery and Jan S. Hogendom, eds., 1976), 327-60; Gloria L. Main, Tobacco Colony: Life in The Uncommon Market: Essays in the Economic History Early Maryland, 1650-1720 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton of the Atlantic Slave Trade (New York: Academic Press, University Press, 1982), 123-39. Breen and Innes, 1979), 353-75; Gerald Francis De Jong, ‘The Dutch “Myne Owne Ground”, 83-104, present a different in- Reformed Church and Negro Slavery in Colonial terpretation based on a study of a community of free America,” Church History, 40 (1971), 423-36; A. Leon blacks on Virginia’s Eastern shore. See also Russell R. Higginbotham, Jr., In the Matter of Color. Race and the Menard,“The MarylandSlavePopulation, 1658to 1730: American Legal Process: The Colonial Period mew A Demographic Profile of Blacks in Four Counties,” York: ,1978), 10&14; Joyce D. William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, 32 (1975), Goodfriend, “Burghers and Blacks: The Evolution of a 29-54. Slave Society at New Amsterdam,” New York History, 6Goodfriend, “Burghers and Blacks,” 138-39; 129-3 1. 59 (1978), 125-44. See also Pieter C. Emmer, “The History of the Dutch Slave Trade, A Bibliographical ‘Goodfriend, “Burghers and Blacks,” 132-33; 14243. Survey,” Journal of Economic History, 32 (1972), 728- *“Extract from the Register of the Resolutions of the 47 and JohannesPostma, “The Dimension of the Dutch Honble. Director-General and Council, adopted in their Slave Trade from Western ,” Journal of African sessionon Wednesday, 6th September,. . .1656,” E.B. History, 13 (1972), 23748. Morton Wagman, “Cor- O’Callaghan, ed., Documents Relative to the Colonial porate Slavery in New Nether-land,” Journal of Negro Historyof theStateofNew York 14 ~01s.(Albany: Weed, History, 65 (1980), 34-42 is a derivative study. Parsons& Co., 185~1887), II: 28. 21nthis connection, see Douglas Greenberg,“The Mid- ‘“Vice Director Beck to . Curacao, in dle Colonies in Recent American Historiography, Wil- Fort Amsterdamthe 15November. . .1664,” in Voyages liam and Mary Quarterly, Third Series,36 (1979), 414. of the Slavers St. John and Arms of Ams,terdam, 1659, 1663; together with Additional Papers illustrative of the 3Gerald W. Mullin, Flight and Rebellion: Slave Resis- tance in Eighteenth-Century Virginia (New York: Ox- Slave Trade under the Dutch translated by E.B. O’Callaghan (Albany, NY: J. Munsell, 1867), 226-27. ford University Press, 1972); Peter H. Wood, Black Majority:Negroes in Colonial South Carolinafrom 1670 “7eremias Van Rensselaer to Jan Baptist Van through the Stono Rebellion (New York: Knopf, 1974); Rensselaer,colony of Rensselaerswyck October 21/l 1 ha Berlin, “Time, Space, and the Evolution of Afro- 1664,” Correspondence of , American Society on British Mainland America,” 1651-1674 translated & edited by A.J.F. van Laer (Al- American Historical Review, 85 (1980), 44-78; Allan bany, NY: University of the State of New York, 1932), Kulikoff, “The Origins of Afro-American Society in 364-65. On marriagesbetween blacks in other northern Tidewater Maryland and Virginia, 1700 to 1790,” Wil- colonies, see Lorenzo Johnston Greene, The Negro in liam and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, 35 (1978), 226- Colonial (New York: Columbia Univer- 59; T.H. Breen and Stephen Innes, “Dyne Owne sity Press,1968; originally published 1942). 191-98; and Ground”: Race and Freedom on Virginia’s Eastern Merle G. Brouwer, “Marriage and Family Life Among Shore, 1640-1676 (New York: Oxford University Press, Blacks in Colonial ,*’ Pennsylvania 1980); Philip D. Morgan, “Work and Culture: The Task Magazine of History and Biography, 99 (1975). 368-72. System and the World of Lowcountry Blacks, 1700 to “E.B. O’Callaghan, ed., Calendar of Historical 1880,” William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, 39 Manuscripts in the Office of the Secretary ofstate, Dutch (1982). 563-99. Manuscripts (Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons& Co., 1865- 4Gary B. Nash, “From Freedom to Bondage in Seven- 66), 256; Berthold Femow, ed., The Records of New teenth-century Virginia,” Reviews in American History, Amsterdam from 1653 to 1674, 7 ~01s. (New York: 10 (1982), 33-37. Knickerbocker Press, 1897), IV: 4 l-42. ‘Allan Ku&off, “The Beginnings of the Afro-American “‘Two letters written by Domine Henricus Selijns Family in Maryland,” in Michael Gordon, ed., The during his ministry in Breuckelen, 1660-I 664,” Second American Family in Social-Historical Perspective 2nd. letter, dated June 9, 1664, New York Historical ed. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1978), 444-66; Manuscripts: Dutch. Old First Dutch Reformed Church BLACK FAMILIES IN NEW NETHERLAND 455 of , New York. First Book of Records, 1660- Decisions in the Virginia Colony (: Lippin- 1752. Trans. and Ed. by A.P.G. Jos van der Linde (Bal- cott, 1976), 26-37; Newbell Niles Puckett, “Names of timore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1983), 23 1. American Negro Slaves,” in George P. Murdock, ed., ‘3Calendar of Historical Manuscripts. . . Dutch, 261. Studies in the Science of Society (New Haven: Yale “TheRecordsofNewAmsterdum,m: 315. See Calendar University Press, 1937), 471-94; J.L. Dillard, Black ofHistorical Manuscripts.. . Dutch, 258-59 for Lysbet’s Names (The Hague: Mouton, 1976), 7-35; and J.L. Dil- prosecution for the crime of arson in 1664. lard, Black English. Its History and Usage in the United “Kenneth Scott & Kenn Stryker-Rodda,eds., New York States (New York: Random House, 1972), 123-35. Historical Manuscripts: Dutch. TheRegister of Salomon 21The family history of Claes Emanuel has been Lachaire,NotaryPublicofNewAmsterdam,166I-1662. reconstructed from Baptisms from 1639 to 1730 in the Translated by E.B. O’Callaghan (: Genealogi- Reformed Dutch Church in New Amsterdam and New cal Publishing Co., 1978). 22-23. York (New York: New York Genealogical & Biographi- %he Records of New Amsterdam, m: 232,242, cal Society, 1901); Marriagesfrom 1639 to 1801 in the I’The Register of Salomon Lachaire, 9. Reformed Dutch Church, New York (New York: New York Genealogical & Biographical Society, 1940); and lgCCTwoletters written by Domine Henricus Selijns David Steven Cohen, The Ramapo Mountain People during his ministry in Breuckelen, 1660-1664,” Second (New Brunswick, NJ: Press, 1974), letter, dated June 9,1664, . . .231. 29-3 1. 19;t Records of New Amsterdam, I: 298. 2%he naming practices of New Amsterdam blacks ap- Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and pear to have been influenced by the Dutch colonial Freedom, 185-256; Cheryl1 Ann Cody, “‘Naming, Kin- naming system which is distinctive in its use of ship, and Estate Dispersal: Notes on Slave Family Life patronymics and its bilineal orientation. Whether offi- on a Plantation, 1786 to 1833,” William cials of the Dutch Reformed Church pressured black and Mary Quarterly, Third Series,39 (1982): 192-211; parents to conform to Dutch naming practices when Mary Beth Norton, Herbert G. Gutman, Ira Berlin, “The baptizing their infants is unknown. For insight into the Afro-American Family in the Age of Revolution,” in Ira Dutch colonial naming system, see Rosalie Fellows Berlin and Ronald Hoffman, eds., Slavery and Freedom Bailey, Dutch Systems in Family Naming: New York - (Washington, D.C.: Genealogical Publica- in the Age of the American Revolution (Charlottesville: tions of the National Genealogical Society, No. 12, May University Pressof Virginia, 1983), 183; Wood, Black 1954) and Edward H. Tebbenhoff, “Tacit Rules and Majority, 181-85; Gary B. Nash, “‘Forging Freedom: Hidden Family Structures: Naming Practices and God- The Emancipation Experience in the Northern Seaport parentagein Schenectady,NewYork 1680-1800,” Jour- Cities, 1775-1820,” in Berlin and Hoffman, eds.,Slavery nal of Social History, 18 (1985), 567-85. I am grateful and Freedom in the Age of the American Revolution, to Nancy Zeller for calling this point to my attention. 20-27. See also Joseph Boskin, Into Slavery: Racial