USA > New York > History of the state of New York Vol I > Part 21
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* Grotius.
t Lord Bacon on " The true Greatness of Kingdoms."
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PETER MINUIT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.'
meetings of the Provincial and General States, at length CHAP. VII. broke down many of the rusting barriers which had sep- arated the castle and the coronet from the counter and the 1630. loom. Gradually, the nobles began to imitate the mod- esty of the traders and working people in garb and in hab- it; and frugality and industry became as universal and as honorable among the Duteh landlords, as they were al- ways the characteristic attributes of the operatives in the towns, and of the subordinate tenants on estates. The re- wards of labor had lessened the distance between the lord Landlord and the peasant; and the rights of the humblest man in ant. and ten- Holland could not fail to be respected, when, by the eease- less toil of man alone, the lands of Holland were preserved from the invasion of the sea. Common interests assimi- late humanity ; and distinctions in rank must necessarily become less marked, when all, must work or drown .*
Still, the lord of the manor continued to exercise a lim- ited jurisdiction within his own domain. The inhabitants of Holland are described by Grotius as being early di- vided into the three elasses of nobles, well-born men, and common people; but without any mention of serfs as hav- ing ever existed.t When compared with the social condi- tion of the people of the towns, that of the rural popula- Condition tion was, perhaps, less seeure and happy, and was less fit- peasantry. ted to develope the self-relying spirit of the nation. Yet, if the landlord attempted oppression, the tenant had but to fly to the next town, where he would be sure to find abundant employment, shelter, and protection. Aeeus- tomed to bear arms for the common defense, the peasants of Holland had learned to use them for their own. Dutch feudalism was thus shorn of many attributes which ren- dered it repulsive in other lands. Though the rustic ten- antry certainly enjoyed much less political influence than the inhabitants of the towns, they still possessed a large Popular measure of popular freedom. They were happy and eon- ious free- and relig- tented, in tilling their lands, and in freely worshiping their dom.
* Guicciardini, i., 56 ; Rev. Dr. Bethune ; McCullagh, ii., 177.
+ Grotius, Inleydinge, i., 14; Davies, i., 105, 106.
N
of the Dutch
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. VII. God according to their consciences. No religious perse- 1630. cution drove them from that Fatherland which they loved to veneration. They needed strong inducements, before they would consent to emigrate to the New World.
Manhattan the empori- um.
Charter of " Privi- leges and Exemp- tions" for patroons in The charter of " Privileges and Exemptions," by which an armed commercial monopoly proposed to effect the per- manent agricultural colonization of New Netherland, while New Neth- it naturally embodied the peculiar policy of its mercantile erland. projectors, encouraged the transfer, across the Atlantic, of the modified feudalism of the Fatherland. Reserving to themselves the island of Manhattan, which the company declared it was their intention to people first, they desig- nated it as the emporium of their trade, and required that all fruits and wares "that arise on the North River, and lands lying thereabouts," should be first brought there. To private persons, disposed to settle themselves in any other part of New Netherland, the company offered the ab- solute property of as much land as the emigrants might be able "properly to improve." They were also to have " free liberty of hunting and fowling," according to the regula- tions of the Provincial director and council. Exploration was specially encouraged. Whoever should "discover any shores, bays, or other fit places for erecting fisheries, or the making of salt ponds," was promised an absolute and exclusive property in such discoveries.
But it was obvious that the rural tenantry of Holland did not possess the requisite means to sustain the expenses of emigration ; and the associated directors thought that the permanent agricultural settlement of their American province could be best accomplished by the organization of separate subordinate "colonies," or manors, under large proprietaries. To tempt the ambition of such capitalists, peculiar privileges were offered to them. These privi- leges, nevertheless, were carefully confined to members of the West India Company. The charter provided that any such member as should, within four years, plant a colony of fifty adults, in any part of New Netherland, except the reserved island of Manhattan, should be acknowledged as
195
PETER MINUIT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
a " Patroon," or feudal chief of the territory he might CHAP. VII. thus colonize. The lands selected for each colony might extend sixteen miles in length, if confined to one side of a Patroons. 1630. navigable river; or eight miles on each side, if both banks were occupied ; but they might run as far into the coun- try " as the situation of the occupiers will permit." If a proportionate number of additional emigrants should be settled, the limits of the colonies might be proportionally enlarged. Each patroon was promised a full title by in- heritance, with venia testandi, or the right to dispose of his estate by will. He was to have " the chief command and lower jurisdictions," and the exclusive privilege of fish- ing, fowling, and grinding, within his own domain. In case any patroon " should in time prosper so much as to found one or more cities," he was to have "power and au- thority to establish officers and magistrates there." The patroons were to furnish their colonies with "proper in- structions, in order that they may be ruled and governed conformably to the rule of government made or to be made by the Assembly of the XIX." From all judgments in the manorial courts of the patroons, for upward of fifty guild- ers, an appeal might lie to the director and council in New Netherland. For the space of ten years, the colonists un- Colonists der the patroons were to be entirely free from " customs, patroons. under the taxes, excise, imposts, or any other contributions." But none of these colonists, " either man or woman, son or daughter, man-servant or maid-servant," could be allowed to leave the service of their patroons during the period for which they might be bound to remain, except by the writ- ten consent of such patroon ; and the company pledged it- self to do every thing in its power to apprehend and de- liver up every such colonist "as shall leave the service of his patroon and enter into the service of another, or shall, contrary to his contract, leave his service."
The patroons themselves might trade all along the coast Privileges from Florida to Newfoundland, provided the cargoes pro- troons. of the pa- cured were brought to Manhattan ; whence they might be sent to Holland, after paying a duty of five per cent. to
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
1630. The peltry trade re- served to the compa-
CHAP. VII. the company. The patroons were also promised the free- dom of trade and traffic " all along the coast of New Neth- erland and places circumjacent," in every kind of mer- chandise, "except beavers, otters, minks, and all sorts of peltry," which trade the company reserved to itself. The fur trade, however, was permitted to the patroons, "at such places where the company have no factories," upon condition that all peltries thus procured should be brought to Manhattan, and delivered to the director for shipment to Holland. Freedom of the fisheries was also promised : with the fish they caught, the patroons might trade to It- aly and other neutral countries, paying to the company a duty of three guilders for every ton.
Reciprocal obligations and restric tions.
All the colonists, whether independent or under patroons, were positively forbidden "to make any woolen, linen, or cotton cloth, or weave any other stuffs there, on pain of being banished, and as perjurers to be arbitrarily pun- ished." On the other hand, the company promised to pro- tect and defend all the colonists, whether free or in serv- ice, " against all outlandish and inlandish wars and pow- ers." The company likewise agreed " to finish the fort on the island of the Manhattes, and put it in a posture of defense, without delay." The company further promised to supply the colonists with. "as many blacks as they con- veniently could ;" but they were not to be bound to do this " for a longer time than they should think proper." The charter also distinctly provided, that "whoever shall settle any colony out of the limits of the Manhattes Island, shall be obliged to satisfy the Indians for the land they shall settle upon." The patroons and colonists were likewise enjoined to make prompt provision for the support of " a Minister and Schoolmaster, that thus the service of God and zeal for religion may not grow cool, and be neglected among them; and that they do, for the first, procure a Comforter of the Sick there." Each separate colony might appoint a deputy, to confer upon its affairs with the director and council of New Netherland ; and every col ony was specially required to make an annual and exact
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PETER MINUIT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
report of its situation, to the authorities at Manhattan, for CHAP. VII. transmission to the company at Amsterdam .*
1630.
Such were the chief features of the West India Com- pany's famous charter of "Freedoms and Exemptions" for the agricultural colonization of its American province. The charter But the spirit of that charter was adverse to the truc in- ble to the unfavora- province. terests of the province, and its effects were blighting and unhappy. It encouraged the transfer to New Netherland of some of the most objectionable elements in the modified feudalism of the Fatherland. It offered the most attract- ive inducements to tlic ambition of stockholders of the company, in tlie peculiar privileges which were to be en- joyed by the patroons of separate colonies ; and it sought to allure colonists to emigrate under such patroons, by promising, to them alone, a ten years' exemption from tax- ation. While it conferred enormous specific powers on these patroons, it carefully recognized the universal com- mercial monopoly of the company ; and it aimed at main- taining an unquestioned political supremacy, by requiring annual reports of the condition of each subordinate colony to be made to the director and council at Manhattan. It prohibited colonial manufactures under penalty of banish- ment, and restrained colonial commerce by the threat of confiscation. It pledged the company to a qualified sup- port of the slave trade.
Yet, notwithstanding all the blemishes by which the Redeeming selfishness of monopoly defaced the charter, it still had features. many redeeming features. It solemnly recognized the rights of the aboriginal red man, and secured him satis- faction for his land. It invited the emigration of inde- pendent farmers, by promising to every one a homestead. It provided for the good government of the subordinate colonies, and for the right of appeal from the manorial courts. It promised protection and defense to all the col- onists ; and it encouraged religion and learning, by enjoin- ing the support of churches and schools.
* See Charter of " Privileges and Exemptions" at length, in Wassenaar, xviii., 94 ; Moulton, 389 ; O'Call., i., 112; ii., N. Y. H. S. Collections, i., 370.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. VII.
1630. Feudalism introduced into New Nether- land.
The introduction of the feudal system into New Neth- erland, was the most unfortunate result of the charter of exemptions. In the Fatherland, the industrial spirit of a self-relying and liberty-loving people had shorn feudalism of many of its worst attributes ; and, practically, there was, perhaps, now, more popular freedom in Holland, than in England, or in any other country in the Old World. But there is always danger in delegating political pow- ers ; and the danger increases the further the exercise of those powers is removed from the fountain of supreme au- thority. Feudalism, which in Holland was made to bow before the spirit of a people long accustomed to self-gov- ernment, had less restraint in the distant Province, which was itself wholly under the arbitrary rule of a commercial corporation. The free spirit of the Netherlander went with him, indeed, to his new home across the sea. But his po- litical freedom was less secure there, than in the Father- land. It was only by degrees, and after constant struggles against an oppressive colonial government, that the people of New Netherland worked their way to some of those franchises which their countrymen were enjoying at home. The colonists under the patroons were subjected to the double pressure of feudal exaction and mercantile mo- nopoly.
Thus it was, that the agricultural colonization of New Netherland was begun under circumstances, in many re- spects, less favorable to the development of true popular liberty, than was the colonization of New England. The feudal system of Europe was never introduced into the Puritan colonies ; nor were their magistrates the agents of close commercial monopolies in the mother country. The first settlements in New England were unembarrassed by the difficulties which paralyzed the prosperity of New Netherland. The Puritan emigrants to America had a clear field and a fair start. No political incubus oppressed them. They claimed to form their own governments; and, to a great extent, they did form them. Every advantage was on their side ; and it was less the fault of circum-
Coloniza- tion more embarrass- ed in New Netherland than in New En- gland.
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PETER MINUIT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
stance than of will, if the grand principles of Democratic CHAP. VII. liberty did not, at once, receive a noble illustration at their hands. If religious intolerance smothered popular 1630. freedom in the Puritan colonies, it was not because the Council of Plymouth forced an involuntary policy upon their inhabitants. If civil liberty was hampered and re- strained, it was not because the people of New England, like the people of New Netherland, werc constantly obliged to wring reluctant concessions of popular rights from grudging superiors at home.
The privileges which the charter offered to patroons Privileges were peculiarly attractive to the aristocratic sentiment attractive of patroons which grew with the acquisition of wealth in Republican Dutch mer- to the chants. Holland. Almost all the land outside of the walls of the towns was already the property of old and noble families, who were loth to part with any portion of their hereditary estates. It was, therefore, no easy matter for a Dutch merchant, who had grown rich, to become a Dutch land- lord. Though much of the prejudice which had separated the ancient noble from the wealthy burgher of the Father- land was worn away, there still remained a great gulf be- tween them. But now, boundless estates might casily be secured on the magnificent rivers of New Netherland, and the yearnings of successful tradesmen be readily gratified. From the middle rank of enterprising men who had reared Dutch commerce and trade upon the basis of Dutch liber- ty and industry, was now to be formed a specially-privi- leged class, in a new and growing world. The Holland shareholder might now become the colonial patroon. The lord of the Amsterdam counting-house might now become the lord of the New Netherland manor.
The charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, which had Charter been adopted by the College of XIX. in the summer of 1629, was printed, in a pamphlet form, carly the follow- March. ing year, and circulated throughout the United Provinces. By this means, the attention of stockholders in the com- pany, who might be desirous to become patroons, as well as of persons of all classes who might be disposed to emi-
published
200
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. VII. grate from the Fatherland, was invited to the temperate 1630. climate, fertile soil, varied resources, and advantageous commercial situation of New Netherland .*
While the details of the charter were yet under advise- Patroon- ships se- cured by the Amster- ment in the meetings of the company, several directors of the Amsterdam Chamber, who had been appointed "com- dam direc- missaries of New Netherland,"t hastened to appropriate tors. to themselves the extensive privileges which they knew would soon be publicly guaranteed to colonial proprieta- ries. The most prompt in action were Samuel Godyn and Samuel Blommaert; the latter of whom had befriended Isaac de Rasieres, the late secretary of the Province. In- fluenced, perhaps, by his representations, Godyn and Blom- maert dispatched two persons to the South River, "to ex- amine into the situation of those quarters," and purchase 1629. a tract of land from the savages. At the first meeting of 19 June. the Amsterdam Chamber after the adoption of the charter, Godyn notified his associate directors that, in quality of patroon, he had undertaken "to occupy the Bay of the South River," and that he had " advised the director, Pe- ter Minuit, and charged him to register the same there."} The agents in New Netherland faithfully executed the Godyn and orders of their principals in Holland. A tract of land on purchase on " the south corner of the Bay of South River," extending Blommaert the South River. northward about thirty-two miles "from Cape Hinlopen to the mouth of the said river," and inland about two miles in breadth, was actually purchased from the native In- 1 June. dians, for Godyn and Blommaert, a few days before the adoption of the charter in Holland. The formal patent 1630. for the territory thus secured, was attested in the summer 15 July. of the following year, by the director and council, at Man- hattan.§ It was the first European title, by purchase from the aborigines, within the limits of the present State
* Wassenaar, xviii., 94 ; Lambrechtsen, 29 ; Moulton, 389 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 369. t De Vries, 162.
# Hazard's Ann. Penn., 22 ; O'Call., i., 479.
§ Hol. Doc., i., 176 ; O'Call., i., 122. The original patent to Godyn and Blommaert- which I found in the West India House, at Amsterdam, in 1841-is now deposited in the Secretary's Office at Albany. It has the only signatures, known to exist, of Minuit and his council.
201
PETER MINUIT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
of Delaware ; and it bears date two years before the char- CHAP. VII. ter of Maryland, granted to Lord Baltimore by Charles I.
Another director of the Amsterdam Chamber, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, " who was accustomed to polish (rafinee- ren) pearls and diamonds,"* had his attention meanwhile directed to the regions adjacent to Fort Orange, on the North River ; where Sebastian Jansen Krol had now becn stationed for four years, as under director and commissa- ry of the West India Company. At Van Rensselaer's re- quest, Krol purchased for him, from the Indian proprietors, 8 April. a tract of land on the west side of the river, extending northward from Beeren Islandt to Smack's Island, and " stretching two days' journey into the interior." In the mean time, vigorous preparations for colonization had been sends out made ; and several emigrants, well provided with implc- Renssel- ments and cattle, were sent out from Holland, carly in the aerswyck. spring, under the supervision of Wolfert Gerritsen, as "op- per-bouwmeester," or overseer of farms. The colonists em- 21 March. barked at the Texel, in the ship " Eendragt," or Unity, Captain John Brouwer. In a few weeks they arrived at Manhattan ; whence they proceeded at once to Fort Or- 24 May. ange, and commenced the actual settlement of the " colo- nie of Rensselaerswyck." Krol's first purchase, however, did not comprehend the lands in the immediate vicinity of Fort Orange. A few weeks after the arrival of the first colonists, the patroon's special agent, Gillis Hossett, in sail- ing up the river, came to the place where several men were busy in cutting timber for a new ship which Minuit was building at Manhattan. Meeting there several Indian sa- Additional chems, Hossett secured for Van Rensselaer the cession of chased on land pur- their lands "on the west side of the North River, south and cast the west and north of the Fort Orange," and extending nearly to the " Monemins Castle," on a small island now called Haver Island, at the confluence of the Mohawk. The land on the east side of the North River, extending northward-
* De Vries, p. 162.
t "Bear's Island, since called Barren Island, about twelve miles south of Albany."- Moulton, 403.
1630. Kiliaen van Rensselaer buys at Fort Or- ange.
colonists to
sides of the ver. 27 July.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. VII. ly from Castle Island to the Mohawk, was the private prop- 1630. erty of the sachem Nawanemitt. From him, Van Rens- selaer's agents also purchased the territory " called Sem- esseeck, lying on the east side of the aforesaid river, op- posite the Fort Orange, as well above as below, and from Poetanock, the mill creek, northwards to Negagonce, being 8 August. 13 August. about twelve miles large measure." These purchases were confirmed a few days afterward, by formal patents, signed Extent of the colonie by the director and council at Manhattan .* Thus a large of Renssel- portion of the present counties of Albany and Rensselaer aerswyck. became the private property of a shrewd member of the Amsterdam Chamber. Fort Orange itself, with the land immediately round its walls, was all that now remained, in that neighborhood, under the exclusive jurisdiction of the West India Company.
Michael Pauw pur- vonia and Staten Isl- and. 12 July.
An inviting region near Manhattan was still unappro- chases Pa- priated. Another director of the Amsterdam Chamber, Michael Pauw, of Achtienhoven, near Utrecht, finding that Van Rensselaer had already monopolized the lands in the neighborhood of Fort Orange, hastened to secure for himself, the tract called " Hobokan-Hacking, lying op- posite the Island Manhatas," and bounded on the east by the North River, and on the south by Ahasimus.t A few days afterward, Pauw also procured from its Indian own- ers the cession of the whole of Staten Island, "on the west shore of Hamel's Hooftden,"# now called the Narrows. The purchase of Staten Island was succeeded, in the fol- lowing autumn, by the still more advantageous investiture of "Ahasimus" and "Aressick," extending "along the River Mauritius and Island Manhatas on the east side, and the Island Hobokan-Hacking on the north side, and surrounded by marshes, serving sufficiently for distinct boundaries." The spot was a favorite resort for the In- dians, who were in the habit of conveying their peltries
22 Nov.
* Hol. Doc., i., 181 ; Alb. Rec., i., 199 ; G. G., 4-26 ; Deed Book, vii. ; Doc. Hist. N. Y., ii., 49 ; Rensselaerswyck MSS. ; O'Call., i., 122-125, 319, 429 ; Moulton, 403. + Modern usage has converted " Ahasimus" into "Horsimus."
# These " Hooftden," or headlands, were so named after Hendrick Hamel, one of the members of the Amsterdam Chamber ; see ante, p. 148.
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PETER MINUIT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
from that point, directly across the river to Fort Amster- Char. VII. dam. This desirable purchase included the whole neigh- borhood of " Paulus' Hook," or Jersey City ; and the sa- 1630. gacious Pauw, Latinizing his patronymic, gave the name of " Pavonia" to his embryo colony .*
Thus the most important points on the North and South The best tracts in
Rivers of New Netherland were caught up by astute New Neth. managers of the Amsterdam Chamber. But in all mo- nopolized erland mo- nopolies there is a selfishness which repels the disinterest- troons. by the pa- ed. What lure could the company now hold out to inde- pendent emigrants ? Rich directors, forestalling humbler competition, had made prize of the most valuable regions ; and, the company's rigorous protective impolicy prohibit- ing all colonial commerce and manufactures, individual enterprise had little inducement to emigrate to a new country against such heavy odds. Where was the good genius of the liberal republic, when trade and commerce wore unworthy shackles in the American province, which Holland merchants claimed to govern ? For engrossing cupidity now reigned triumphant in the councils of the Amsterdam Chamber, and the fortunes of New Netherland awaited the issue of the experiment it proposed.
The several patroonships, however, had been acquired Jealousies by the adroitness of a few directors who "helped them- directors at among the selves by the cunning tricks of merchants ;" and it was dam. Amster- soon found necessary to conciliate the good-will and co- operation of those less wary associates who had been an- ticipated by their prompt proceedings.
When the news of the purchases reached Holland, jeal- ousy of the fortunate patroons was very naturally express- ed by their colleagues. Dissatisfaction was also felt among
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