A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 21

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188

USA > New York > A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 21

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Mr. Pelletreau informs the reader that the Thonias Sayres house is still standing at Southampton, "and is now the oldest dwelling in the State."

John Foster, of Rustdorp, L. I., whose will was made in 1663, is anxious as to the educa- tion of his children. So he orders, "My Chil- dren are to be tought to read English well, and my son to write, when they come of age."

John Hart, of Maspeth Kills, gives one of his sons a shilling, and to another "one Hog." John Hart discriminated, for to his other two sons he left his plantation. Thomas Terry, of Southold, does not forget his wife. She is to have "15 bushels of corn yearly during her life."

Ralph Hunt, of Newtown, had not a great deal to give. To his daughter Mary he leaves "two cows, six sheep, and the feather bed I now lye on." To Ann, she "now having my red coat in her possession, she is to have it valued, and one-half of the proceeds in money is to be given to my daughter Mary." Thomas Halsey, of Southampton, whose will is of 1677, is possessed of a fair landed property. An in- ventory shows that the estate was worth £672,

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a great deal of money in those days. Among the bequests of Thomas Halsey is one to his wife of "one woolen wheele, my little Iron Pott, and a Yellow Rugg, and one Dutch blanket, and four bushels of wheate to be paid yarly, as long as she liveth, and 4 sheep." In the will of Balthazar De Hart slaves appear. De Hart leaves "a negro woman with her 3 children." The date is 1672. Mary Jansen, in a codicil to her will (1677), leaves her son Cornelius a negro boy. Among Mary Jansen's other legacies there are golden earrings and a diamond rose ring, "the Great Bible," a silver spoon, a silver bodkin, and a silver chain with keys.

Until the promulgation of "The Duke's Laws," in 1665, it cannot be said that Long Island was governed by any general code of regulations. The Dutch system, as interpreted by the Director or Governor and his generally complaisant Council, was the authority west of Oyster Bay, and to the east was the town governments, making their own laws, but in a general way basing their legislation upon the code which regulated affairs in Connecticut. These laws are worthy of a little study, as they show that for many of what were deemed their extravagances, the Puritan settlers on Long Island had full legislative authority and were simply following established and confirmed precedent.

In a now rare volume printed at New Lon- don in 1750 and entitled "Acts and Laws Passed by the General Court or Assembly of His Majesty's English Colony of Connecticut in New England in America," we get a thor- ough knowledge of what these laws were. The statute covering the Sabbath is entitled "An act for the due observance and keeping the Sab- bath, the Lord's Day, and for preventing and punishing disorders and prophaneness on the same."

The act provides that all persons on the Lord's Day must apply themselves to the duties of religion, both in public and in private, imposing a fine of 3s. on any one who neglects to attend public worship. Any one who assem-

bles in a meeting house and has a meeting without first getting leave from the minister is subject to a fine of Ios. No person shall neglect the public worship of God in some lawful congregation and assemble in separate companies in private houses under penalty of a fine of Ios. Any one who has worked or played on the Sabbath was subject to a fine of IOS., and the penalty for rude or profane con- duct was 40s., and it cost 20s. to travel on Sun- day. Drinking was not allowed on Sunday, and a ship could not sail out of the harbor, fines being the penalty for violations. In the event that the person fined refused to pay, he was to be "publickly whipt," and no appeal was allowed.

Concerning swearing, which was prohib- ited every day in the week, the law reads : "Be it enacted by the Governor, Council, and Rep- resentatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, that if any per- son within this colony shall swear rashly, vain- ly, or profanely, either by the Holy Name of God or any other oath, or shall sinfully and wickedly curse any person, or persons, such person so offending, shall upon conviction thereof, before any one, assistant, or Justice of the Peace, forfeit and pay for every such offense the sum of 6s.

"And if such person, or persons so con- victed, shall not be able or shall refuse to pay the aforesaid fine, he, or they, shall be set in the stocks, not exceeding three hours, and not less than one hour for one offense and pay cost of prosecution."

Gambling, or "gaming" as it was known then, was prohibited, the act saying that 110 tavern keeper, ale-house keeper, or victualler "shall have, or keep in, or about their houses, outhouses, yards, back yards, gardens, or other places to them belonging, any dice, cards, tables, bowls, shuffleboard, billiard, coytes, keils, logets, or any other implements used in gaming, nor shall suffer any person to exercise any of the said games within their said houses, on pain of forfeiting the sum of 40s." People convicted of playing any of the games were to

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be fined Ios. The head of a family who per- mitted gaming in his house was subject to a fine of 20s.

Concerning the jails, they were to be kept in good repair, the prisoners were to bear their own charges and allowed to use their own bedding and send for their own food. The keepers who injured their prisoners were to be fined, a poor prisoner was to be allowed to take the oath and the creditor notified and required to pay for his weekly maintenance if he insisted on keeping the prisoner in jail.

The offenses against society were liberally provided for, the punishments being fines and imprisonment, and there were all sorts of laws the same as now, some being more stringent and somewhat peculiar, viewed from the stand- point of the present century.

It is not our purpose here to review the Dutch laws or the town laws, but sim- ply to present a few specimens of the working of these regulations with the view of throwing some additional light upon the manners of the people.

In Bushwick there seems to have been more of a fighting disposition among the people than its old Dutch name should have war- ranted. Witness the following, mentioned by Dr. Stiles :

On the 20th of August, 1693, Jurian Na- gell, of Bushwick, together with two others of Brooklyn, endeavored to stir up sedition among the crowd, who had assembled at a general training of the Kings County militia, on Flat- land plains. Captain James Cortelyou deposed before the Court of Sessions that, "being in arms at the head of his company," he heard Nagell say to the people then in arms on said plains, in Dutch, these mutinous, factious and seditious words, following, viz .: "Slaen wij- der onder, wij seijn drie & egen een;" in Eng- lish: "Let us knock them down, we are three to their one." Nagell subsequently confessed his error, and was released with a fine.

The women, also, participated in the disor- ders of the times, for on the 8th of May, 1694, Rachel, the wife of John Luquer, and the wid- ow of Jonica Schamp, both of Bushwick, were presented before the Court of Sessions for hav-

ing, on the 24th of January previous, assaulted Captain Peter Praa, and "teare him by the hair as he stood at the head of his company, at Bos- wyck." They, too, were heavily fined, and re- leased after making due confession of their fault.

In 1648 the town of Southold agreed to conform faithfully to the New Haven law of 1643 that "none shall be admitted to be free burgesses in any of the pltntations within this jurisdiction for the future, but such planters as are members of some or other of the ap- proved churches in New England; nor shall any but such free burgesses have any vote in * any election. * * Nor shall any power or trust in the ordering of any Civil Affayres be att any time put into the hands of any other than such church members." An appropriate oath, binding the subject to the faithful observ- ance of all regulations made under this rule was required of everyone. Southold also or- dained that "it was moreover then also or- dered, that everie such person as inhabiteth amongst us as shall bee found to bee a comon tale carriere, tatler or busie bodie in idle mat- ter, forger or coyner of reports, untruths, or leys, or frequently provokeinge rude unsa- vorie words, tendeinge to disturbe the peace, shall forfeite and pay for everie default IOS."

The town of Easthampton in 1656 ordered that "whoever shall raise up a false witness against any man, to testify that which is wrong- it shall be done unto him as he had thought to have done unto his neighbor, whatever it be, even unto the taking away of life, limb or member. And whosoever shall slander an- other, shall be liable to pay a fine of five pounds." In 1651 the same town enacted that "Noe Indian shall travel up and down, or carry any burthen in or through our town on the Sabbath day, and whosoever is found soe do- ing shall be liable to corporall punishment." In 1656 a woman was sentenced to pay a fine of £3, or stand one hour with a cleft stick upon her tongue, for saying that her husband had brought her to a place where there was neither gospel nor magistracy."

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The Sunday laws were rigorously enforced. Daniel Baker of Easthampton in 1682 lost an ox, found it on a Sabbath morning and drove it to his barn. For this desecration of the Sab- bath he was brought before the Court of Ses- sions, which was held at Southold in June, and by that tribunal was fined forty shillings and costs of court, which all amounted to nine pounds, three shillings and three pence. In ad- dition to this he was obliged to give bonds in the penal sum of twenty pounds sterling, for his good behaviour until the following March!

The early records of Flatbush contain the following entry, dated 1659: Schout vs. Jan Klaescn, in Scheppens Court. Schout com- plained against the defendant for carting in buckwheat with his wagon and oxen on Sun- day, contrary to the placards. Condemned to pay costs.

The town of Hempstead in 1650 passed an order imposing a fine upon every person who, "without just and necessary cause," should neglect to attend "public meetings on the Lord's Day, and public days of fasting, .and thanksgiving, both forenoon. and afternoon."

In 1674 it was enacted in Brookhaven "that Whereas, there have been much abuse pro- faning of the Lord's Day by the younger sort of people in discoursing of vain things and running races ; therefore we make an order that whosoever shall do the like again, notice shail be taken of them and be presented to the next court, there to answer for their faults and to receive such punishment as they deserve ; whereas, it have been too common in this town for young men and maids to be out of their father's and mother's house at unseasonable times of night ; it is therefore ordered that whosoever of the younger sort shall be out of their father's or mother's house past nine of the clock at night shall be summonsed into the next court and there to pay court charges, with what punishment the court shall see cause to lay upon them except they can give sufficient reason for their being out late."

About 1699 the town of Brooklyn decreed "that no people shall pass on the Sabbath day,

unless it be to or from church, or other urgent and lawful occasions according to act of assen- bly, upon penalty aforesaid of fine and impris- onment." In the town of Flatlands the civil magistrates were required to be of the Re- formed religion, and officers of the church were ex officio officers of the town.

In 1654 at Southampton, according to Prime, it was ordered that "if any person above the age of fourteen shall be convicted of lying, by two sufficient witnesses, such person soe offending shall pay 5s. for every such default ; and if hee have not to paye hee shall cit in the stox 5 hours." That the stocks were already provided is evidenced by an entry in 1648, as follows: "The 14th daye of November, or- dered that there shall hereby be provided a sufficient payre of Stokes, John White having undertaken to make them." In 1651 a woman in that town was "sentenced by the magistrates for exorbitant words of imprecation to stand with her tongue in a cleft stick so long as the offense committed is read and declared. "In the system of alarms for calling the militia to- gether in case of invasion in that town, it was ordered in 1667, that "if any pson soever shall psume to make any ffalse alarum shall for his or there Default pay twenty shillings or be severely whipt, and noe person pretend ignor- ance."

One of the most humorous outcomes of the Dutch laws is to be found in the following ex- tract from Dr. Stiles. Denton's pond, it may be premised, has long been obliterated in Brooklyn.

Denton's pond was the subject of a curi- ous contract about 1709, between its original proprietors, Abram and Nicholas Brower, and Nicholas Vechte, the builder and occupant of the old 1699, or Cortelyou, house. With the strong predilection of his race for canals and dikes and water-communications, old Vechte added the traits of eccentricity and independ- ence. His house stood on a bank a few feet above the salt-meadow, at a distance of a hun- dred yards from the navigable waters of the creek. To secure access to them, from his kitchen door. Vechte dug a narrow canal to the

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creek, but the ebb-tide often left his boat firmly sunk in the mud, when he wished to reach the city market with the produce of his farm. He therefore contracted with the Browers to sup- ply him with water from their pond; and a channel was dug, in furtherance of his scheme, · to a water gate, through which his canal was to be flooded. The old Dutch farmer was ac- customed to seat himself in his loaded boat, while it was resting in the mud of the empty channel, and hoist his paddle as a signal to his negro servant to raise the gate. The flood soon floated his boat, and bore him out to the creek, exulting with great glee over his neighbors, whose stranded boats must await the next flood. The contract for this privilege, as well as another, by which Vechte leased the right to plant the ponds with oysters, are in posses- sion of Mr. Arthur Benson.

In 1661 Easthampton passed a curious law. that "No man shall sell his accommodation to another without consent of the town, and if any purchase he made without such consent he shall not enjoy the same." This seems to have been intended to prevent unwelcome strangers from getting even a night's lodging. On this question of the settlement of strangers all the eastern towns were decidedly careful and conservative. In 1648 Southampton de- creed that "Thomas Robinson shall be ac- cepted as an inhabitant and have a £50 lot

granted unto him; provided the said Thomas be not under any scandalous crime, which may be laid to his change, within six months, and that he carry himself and behave as becometh an honest man." Again, Samuel Dayton was given similar consideration provided "that the said Samuel (being a stranger to us) were of good approbation in the colony he last lived in, and do demean himself well here for the time of approbation, namely, six months."

But these wanderings among these ancient by-paths of the laws of the island must cease. We may smile at some of them, and feel in- clined to ridicule most of them; but they were all the honest outcome of a people's desire to so frame their daily lives as to win the most exact justice, man to man, and to bring about peace, order and the greatest amount of hap- piness and prosperity to each community. Early Dutchmen and pioneer Englishmen were alike in this, that they believed in law and order, that they loved God and kept His commandments, and they tried to shape their legislation by the Book which was a light unto their feet and a guide unto their path, and which was a much more potent and active fac- tor in the daily life and thought and purpose of each community than it is in these passing days of ours.

CHAPTER X.

SLAVERY ON LONG ISLAND.

HERE is no doubt that the "insti- tution," as they used to call it in the old ante-bellum days of negro slavery, was introduced into the New Netherland by the Dutch. Among the "freedoms and exemptions" granted by the West India Company in 1629 to whoever planted colonies in New Neth- erland was a clause stipulating that "the company will use their endeavors to sup- ply the colonists with as many blacks as they conveniently can." Negro slaves were em- ployed on the construction of Fort Amster- dam by Wouter Van Twiller, and in an ap- praisal of the company's property in 1639 the value of a negro slave was placed at 40 guild- ers, or about $16 in modern currency. In 1650 it was decreed "that the inhabitants of New Netherland shall be at liberty to purchase negroes wheresoever they may think necessary,. except on the coast of Guinea, and bring them to work on. their bouweries," paying a small duty on each importation. In 1651 the average value of a negro slave was about $100, and that price was paid at public auction in New Amsterdam. The Rev. Mr. Polhemus paid $176 for a negro slave at an auction in 1664.

So far as can be seen the slaves held by the Dutch were humanely treated, although now and again we come across evidences of the existence of cruelty. Even as early as 1644 we read of laws being passed for the emancipation of negroes who by long service and good behavior had earned some mitigation of their terrible lot.

Under the English domination slavery not only flourished, but the laws against the ne- groes were made more stringent than ever. In 1683 it was enacted that "No servant or slave, either Male or Female shall either give, sell or trust any Commodity whatsoever dur- ing the time of their Service under the pen- alty of such Corporal Punishment as shall be ordered to be inflicted by warrant under the Hands of two Justices of the Peace of the County where the said Servant or Slave doth reside. And if any Person whatsoever shall buy of, receive from or trust with any Ser- vant or Slave contrary to this Law, they shall be compelled by Warrant, as aforesaid, to re- store the said commodity so bought, received or trusted for to the Master of such Servant or Slave and forfeit for every such offence the sum of £5. And if any Person whatsoever shall credit or trust any Servant or Slave for Clothes, Drink or any other Commodity what- soever the said Person shall lose his Debt & be forever debarred from maintaining any writ at Law against the said Servant or Slave for any matter or thing so trusted as afore- said. If any Servant or Slave shall run away from their Master or Dame, every Justice of Peace in this Province is hereby authorized & impowered to grant Hue & Cry after the said Servant or Slave, the Master or Dame having first given in Security for the payment of the Charges that shall thereby attend. And all Constables & inferior Officers are hereby strictly required & commanded authorized and empowered to press Men, Horses, Boats or

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Pinnaces to pursue such persons by Sea or Land, and to make diligent Hue and Cry as by the Law required."

In 1730 another law concerning slavery was passed, which made the lot of the blacks peculiarly hard, their punishment for trivial offenses exceptionally severe, and even put obstacles in the way of their emancipation by kind-hearted owners. This law was one of the results of the so-called plot of 1712,-it is not certain that any plot really existed,-which developed a race riot wherein several whites were killed and the subsequent trial and exe- cution of nineteen unfortunate negroes.

But that plot was as nothing compared to that of 1741, which has been classed as among the most noted of the popular delusions of America. On the 14th of March in that year some goods were stolen from the house of a merchant. Mary Burton, a girl of loose char- acter, or rather of no character at all, an in- dentured servant of John Hughson, keeper of a tavern of poor repute on the East River opposite Brooklyn, told some one confidentially that the stolen goods were hidden in her em- ployer's house. The news was soon carried to the authorities, and Mary was at once ar- rested and offered her complete liberty if she would confess all. She certainly confessed, and the prospect of liberty inspired her poor imagination to great efforts. Some at least of the stolen property was recovered, and Hughson and several others, black and white, were fully charged with the robbery. So far Mary's confessions did good service to the community. On March 18th, however, the Governor's house was found to be on fire, and then followed a series of conflagrations, each petty in itself, but with such steady recur- rence that the fears of a negro plot, slumber- ing since 1712, became again aroused, and as usual vague and wild rumors soon fanned fear into desperation, and once this gained posses- sion of the people all sense of justice was thrown to the winds. So it always has been in the history of the world. Mary Burton became a prime agent in the persecution of the

negroes which at once set in, and her out- rageous stories were blindly accepted as evi- dence. The wild confessions of some of the white refuse of New York, and of negroes crazed by fear, added strength to her stories, and with the aid of the law a blind and cruel race war set in the details of which form one of the most revolting passages in the history of New York. Fortunately the story belongs to the annals of that borough and need not be gone into here. Suffice it to say that while the delusion lasted, from May to the end of August, 154 negroes were sent to prison, and of these 14 were burned, 18 hanged and 71 transported. In the same period 24 white people were arrested, four of whom were exe- cuted. For all this Mary received her free- dom and fioo and was sent adrift on the world, so disappearing from our ken; and the good citizens, when they considered the work done, set apart the 24th of September as a day of thanksgiving for their escape from de- struction. The result of all this was that the laws anent slavery were more rigorously en- forced than ever and severe measures were adopted restraining still further the personal liberty of those unfortunate victims of col- ored skin and ignorant credulity.

Writing on the subject of "Slavery in New York," in the American Magazine of History, Mr. F. G. Martin said :

As colonists the English did not to any great extent follow in the lead of Sir John Hawkins, the great negro importer of the six- teenth century. Still we find many allusions to the traffic in the manuscript records of the Province of New York. Complaint was made by the Royal African Company, in 1687, that their charter had been infringed upon by the importing of negroes and elephants' teeth from Africa. It was announced, in 1720, that Cap- tain Van Burgh had arrived from Barbadoes with four negroes; but that "Simon the Jew don't expect his ship from Guinea before late in the fall." "Negroes are scarce," says an- other informant, "but Captain Hopkins will sell one for £50, cash." Between 1701 and 1725 an annual average of less than 100 ne- groes was imported. The total number was

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2,395, of which 1,573 were from the West Indies and 822 from the coast of Africa. In 1712 the list for Kings county showed 1,699 "Christians" and 298 slaves; Orange county, 439 whites and 4I salves ; Albany, 2,879 whites and 450 slaves; New York, 4,846 whites and 970 slaves. In 1723 here were 6,171 slaves in the Province in a total population of 40,564; in 1746, slaves 9,717, total 61,589; in 1774, slaves 21,149, total 182,247. Virginia, at this time, had about 250,000 slaves, or forty per cent. of the whole number in the colonies.

During the Revolutionary conflict slavery as an institution gave rise to considerable trouble on both sides. Both recognized the "institution," but the negroes secmed to see in the condition of affairs a chance for a change of masters, if not for entire freedom. As a result the newspapers of the time pre- sent us with many advertisements concerning runaway negroes both from the service of British officers and from civilians, and a num- ber of these will be found in Onderdonk's "Revolutionary Incidents." Almost as soon as independence was accomplished a movement for abolition set in, and it was with reluctance that New York agreed to the continuance of the slave traffic until 1808. In 1794 the abo- lition societies of many of the States sent dele- gates to a convention in Philadelphia, and one of its results was the passage of an act in 1799 by the New York Legislature for the gradual abolition of the "black curse." It provided that any child born in the State after July 4 of that year should be free; but, if a boy, should remain in the service of his mother's owner until he was twenty-eight years old; if a girl, she was to remain in servitude until she was twenty-five. If the mother's owner did not care for this arrangement the child could be handed over to the Overseer of the Poor and treated by them in the same way as pauper children. It was also declared "law- ful for the owner of any slaves immediately after the passing of this act to manumit such slave by a certificate to that purpose under his hand and seal." This was the beginning of the end, and by slow stages and various en-

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 21

Author: Ross, Peter. cn Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1188

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188