USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The annals of Albany, Vol. II. Second Edition > Part 5
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Fort Orange was, until the year 1661, the frontier town on the northern and western borders of the province. Beyond that all was " the far west," little known and less explored, wholly abandoned to the wild savage or wilder beasts of prey. But civilization, that giant before whom beasts and savages were alike fated to disappear, and who was never to pause until he bathed his feet in the waters of the Pacific, was now about to take another step westward. The proxi- mity of the whites had exhausted the resources of the Indians
Alb. Rec., x, 68; xi, 409, 410, 415-420, 445-447, 466, 470, 488- 499 ; xiii, 72; 221-223 ; xviii, 83; Rensselaerswyck Manuscripts; Fort Orange Rec. The number of furs exported this year from Fort Orange and vicinity, amounted to 34,840 beaver and 300 otter skins
43
Colony of Rensselaerswyck.
in the neighbourhood of Beverwyck. Furs were becoming scarce, and the soil was no longer an object of value. The natives were, therefore, inclined to sell for a trifle the Great Flatt, west of the fort, " towards the interior of the country." Six or eight families were desirous to move thither, and the prospect of obtaining additional settlers was favorable, for at Beverwyck the common people were much impoverished and unable to meet their wants, "from one loaf to another."1 Under these circumstances, Arent van Curler applied, on be- half of himself and others, to the director-general for per- mission to purchase the land in question. The requisite authority was duly granted,2 but had not been yet received at Fort Orange when a freshet laid the country for miles around under water. This was followed, a few days after, by an inundation, much greater than the first, which forced the inhabitants to quit their dwellings and fly with their cattle for safety to the woods on the adjoining hills. Incal- culable damage was caused by these irruptions. The wheat and other grain were all prostrated, and had to be cut mostly for fodder, affording scarcely seed sufficient for the next spring.3 This visitation necessarily caused the postpone- ment of the purchase of the great Flatt until the ensuing month, when the following deed was obtained from the Indian owners:
1 Arent van Curler's letter to Director Stuyvesant, dated Rensse- laerswyck, 18th June, 1661, in Fort Orange Rec., also in Alb. Rec., xix, 179. Van der Kemp's translation, in the latter, is in many essential parts incorrect.
2 Alb. Rec., xix, 180. Arent van Curler's letter having been read, together with the authority to purchase the same, and to make a concentration thereupon, the director and council assented there- unto, " provided that the said lands, on being purchased from the native proprietors, be, as usual, transferred to the director-general and council aforesaid as representatives of the Lords Directors of the Privileged West India Company ; that, what ever the petitioners shall pay for the aforesaid lands to the original proprietors, shall, in due time, be returned to them, or be discounted to them against the tenths.
$ Petition in Rensselaerswyck Manuscripts of the colonists of Rens- selaerswyck to the director and commissaries of that colonie, for a remission of rent and tenths for this year, dated September 15th, 1661. Jeremias van Rensselaer's letter to his mother, 8th October, 1661, in Rensselaerswyck Manuscripts, Alb. Rec., vi, 345.
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Colony of Rensselaerswyck.
"Appeared before me, Johannes La Montagne, appointed by the Director general and council of New Netherland Vice Director and Commissary in the service of the privi- leged West India Company, at Fort Orange and the town of Beverwyck, certain chiefs of the Mohawk country, by name Cantuquo, Sonareetsie, Aiadane, Sodrachdrasse, pro- prietors of a certain parcel of land, called in Dutch the Groote Vlacht (Great Flatte), lying behind Fort Orange between the same and the Mohawk country, which they declare to have ceded and transported, as they hereby cede and transport, in real and actual possession and property, unto Sieur Arent van Corlear, the said parcel of land or Great Flatt, called, in Indian, Schonowe, as it is bounded in its contents and circumference, with its trees and streams, for a certain number of cargoes, wherein the cedants ac- knowledge to have received satisfaction ; renouncing, now and for ever, all property and claim which they hitherto have had in the aforesaid parcel of land, promising to free the same from all claims which other Indians might have thereon. Done in Fort Orange the 27th July, anno 1661, in presence of Martin Morris and William Montagne, thereunto requested, in presence of me La Montagne, Vice Director and Commissary over the Fortress Orange."1
A grant under the provincial scal was issued in the following year, but the land was not surveyed or di- vided until 1664.2 The inhabitants of Fort Orange and its neighborhood were most anxious to retain the fur mono- poly, and had sufficient influence with the director and. council to induce them to order that the settlers of Schaen- hechstede (as the new village came to be called) should confine themselves exclusively to agriculture, and abstain from all trade with the Indians. This, in fact, was the con- dition on which they were allowed to remove thither ; " for it would never have been permitted to settle this plain except on the assurance that no object was in view but agriculture, because of the dangers which would accrue if,
1 Fort Orange Rec., 1654-1680. The mark of Cantuquo to the above instrument was a bear ; of Aiadane, a turtle ; of Sonareetsie a wolf ; denoting the tribe or family to which each belonged, 2 Alb. Rec., XXI, 137.
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Colony of Rensselaerswyck.
at such a distant place, any trade with the savages was allowed." 1 Such a restriction was easily evaded at this " distant " outpost, and it soon came to be known that some of the settlers sold intoxicating liquors to the natives. When the application for the survey came before the coun- cil, Jacques Cortelyou was sent thither, but with instruc- tions not to survey any man's land who might refuse to sign the following obligation :
"We the undersigned inhabitants on the Flatt named -, hereby promise that we shall not carry on, or allow . to be carried on, at the aforesaid Flatt, or thereabout, any the least handeling (traffic), however it may be called, with any Indians, under what pretext the same may be, directly or indirectly, on pain of paying, if we, or any of us, happen to violate this our promise, a fine, without any opposition, for the first offence, of fifty beavers: for the second, one hundred; and for the third, forfeiture of our acquired and obtained lands on the aforesaid Flatt." 2
When this resolution was communicated to the parties interested, it excited much discontent. They avowed their loyalty, and willingness to pay the duties rightfully belong- ing to the company, and not to do anything in violation of the laws and placards of the province. They hoped that they should not be treated less liberally than others. They had purchased their lands with their own moneys, erected buildings, stocked their farms; now should all this be in vain, they would be ruined. They therefore requested that the surveyor might be allowed to proceed, "otherwise they should be necessitated to help themselves as best they could." 3
Accompanying this remonstrance was a private letter from Van Curler to the director-general. On his recommenda-
1 Alb. Rec., XXI, 139.
2 Pampieren raekende Schaenhechtady in Albany County Clerk's office, 1680-1685 ; 297-301.
8 Signed, A. van Curler, Pillip Hendricksen, Sander Leendertsen Glen, Symon Volcertsen, Pieter Soghmaekelyk, Teunis Cornelissen, Marte Cornelise, William Teller, Bastiaen De Winter, attorney for Catalyn widow of Arent Andries de Voss, Pieter Jacobse Borsboom, Pieter Danielse van Olinda, Jan Barentse Wemp, Jacques Cornelise, These were the first settlers of the locality in question.
.
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Colony of Rensselaerswyck.
tion the settlers had consented to proceed with their plough- ing and planting, though, at first, they seemed unwilling to do so. He trusted that the place would be surveyed, though it was his impression that the director and council were acting on the suggestion of some envious persons who sought their own profit at the expense of the cultivation of the public lands, and that under a pretended fear that " a little beaver " should be bought there, and they have thereby so much less. It seemed to him that they who followed agriculture ought not to be worse treated than those who pursue commerce. It would be lamentable were the settlers and their posterity to remain forever under this ban of slavery, and be excluded from bartering either bread, milk, or the produce of their farms for a beaver, so as to be able to purchase some covering for their bodies and dwellings. No person would imagine that trade could be carried on with the Indians at Schaenhechtady as favorably as at Fort Orange. Goods must be brought from the latter place thither, and therefore must needs sell higher. To obviate all diffi- culty, the settlers were willing to pledge themselves not to sell any brandy to the Indians, on pain of confiscation of their property. 1
This appeal in favor of unshackled commerce was of no avail. Nothing but danger would accrue if the inhabitants were to continue conveying merchandise, as they had al- ready begun to do, on wagons and horses, to the savages. " Already the Indians had attacked wagons, fired on those who conducted them, and attempted to violate females journeying thither, as well in the concentration as on the road." To prevent a repetition of these insolences, no goods were to be carried to Schaenhechtady for the future, and the schout of Fort Orange was ordered to proceed forth- with to the new settlement, take an inventory of all the goods introduced there in violation of the act of concession, and have the same removed, " as it was not the intention to build up one place for the purpose of bringing ruin on another-yea, on the whole country."2 Thus things re- mained for nearly another year. It was not until May,
1 Pampieren raekende Schaenhechtady.
2 Ibid .; Alb. Rec., XXI, 135.
4
Gavit & Duthie. ft
Jeremias, van Rinsfilaire
47
Colony of Rensselaerswyck.
1664, that the surveyor was allowed " to lay out the lands of Schaenhechtede."1 In legal and municipal affairs it re- mained dependent on the court at Fort Orange.
Jeremias Van Rensselaer succeeded his brother Jan Bap- tist, as director of the colonie in 1658, and administered its affairs for sixteen years with great prudence and discretion. He was much respected by the French, and exercised an ยท influence over the Indians surpassed only by that of Van Curler. On the change of government and the breaking out of the war, considerable difficulty was experienced in obtaining a patent for the manor from the Duke of York. To obviate this, some persons of influence advised him to take out one in his own name, he being qualified, as a Bri- tish subject, to hold real estate. To his great honor, it is recorded that he rejected the offer, for he was only coheir, and could not thus defraud his brothers and sisters. He was a man of great industry, and communicated to Holland an account of various occurrences in this country, under the name of the New Netherland Mercury. His corre- spondence, from 1656 to his death, still in good preserva- tion, affords a valuable and interesting commentary on private and public affairs, and contains a relation of facts and incidents which otherwise would be irreparably lost. He died on the 12th October, 1684, and was followed to the grave by a large concourse of mourners. 2
1 Alb. Rec., XXII, 169, 234.
2 His wife died 29th January, 1689, N. S., in the 44th year of her age, leaving five children, the eldest of whom, Kiliaen, was the first lord of the manor of Rensselaerswyck, which he represented in the Provincial Assembly from 1691 to 1703, when he was called to the Council. In the following year he conveyed Claverack, or "the lower manor," as is was called, with the Cralo estate at Greenbush, to his younger brother Hendrik. From these two pro- ceed the numerous members of this wide-spread family in this country. Jan Baptist Van Rensselaer survived his brother four years, having deceased 18th October, 1678; Dom. Nicolaus Van Rensselaer died the month following.
48
Description of Albany, and its Manners.
DESCRIPTION OF ALBANY AND MANNERS OF THE INHABITANTS.
[From Mrs. Grant's Memoirs of an American Lady.]
1764.
The city of Albany stretched along the banks of the Hudson ; one very wide and long street lay parallel to the river, the intermediate space between it and the shore being occupied by gardens. A small but steep hill arose above the centre of the town, on which stood a fort, intended (but very ill adapted) for the defence of the place, and of the neighboring country. From the foot of this hill, another street was built, sloping pretty rapidly down till it joined the one before mentioned that ran along the river. This street was still wider than the other; it was only paved on each side, the middle being occupied by public edifices. These consisted of a market-place, or guard-house, a town hall, and the English and Dutch churches. The English church, belonging to the Episcopal persuasion, and in the diocese of the bishop of London, stood at the foot of the the hill, at the upper end of the street. The Dutch church was situated at the bottom of the descent where the street terminated ; two irregular streets, not so broad, but equally long, ran parallel to those, and a few even ones opened between them. The town, in proportion to its population, occupied a great space of ground. . This city, in short, was a kind of semi-rural establishment; every house had its garden, well, and a little green behind; before every door a tree was planted, rendered interesting by being coeval with some beloved member of the family; many of their trees were of a prodigious size and extraordinary beauty, but without regularity, every one planting the kind that best pleased him, or which he thought would afford the most agreeable shade to the open portico at his door, which was sur- rounded by seats, and ascended by a few steps. It was in these that each domestic group was seated in summer evenings to enjoy the balmy twilight, or the serenely clear moonlight.
3
ENGLISH CHURCH AND FORT. From Watson's Annals.
1
49
Description of Albany, and its Manners.
Each family had a cow, fed in the common pasture at the end of the town. In the evening the herd returned all together, of their own accord, with their tinkling bells hung at their necks, along the wide and grassy street, to their wonted sheltering trees, to be milked at their masters' doors. No- thing could be more pleasing to a simple and benevolent mind than to see thus at one view, all the inhabitants of a town, which contains not one very rich or very poor, very knowing or very ignorant, very rude or very polished, indi- vidual; to see all these children of nature enjoying in easy indolence, or social intercourse,
" The cool, fragrant, and the dusky hour,"
clothed in the plainest habits and with minds as undisguised and artless. These primitive beings were dispersed in porches, grouped according to similarity of years and inclina- tions. At one door were young matrons, at another the elders of the people, at a third the youth's and maidens, gayly chatting or singing together, while the children played round the trees, or waited by the cows, for the chief ingre- dient of their frugal supper, which they generally ate sitting on the steps in the open air. This picture, so familiar to my imagination, has led me away from my purpose, which Was to describe the rural economy, and modes of living in this patriarchal city.
At one end of the town, as I observed before, was a common pasture where all the cattle belonging to the inhabitants grazed together. A never-failing instinct guided each home to her master's door in the evening, where, being treated with a few vegetables and a little fat, which is indispensably necessary for cattle in this country, they patiently waited the night; and after being milked in the morning, they went off in slow and regular procession to the pasture. At the other end of the town was a fertile plain along the river, three miles in length, and near a mile broad. This was all divided into lots, where every inhabitant raised Indian corn sufficient for the food of two or three slaves (the greatest number that each family ever possessed), and for his horses, pigs, and poultry ; their flour and other grain they purchased from farmers in the vicinity. Above the town, a long stretch
Annals, ii. 5
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Description of Albany, and its Manners.
to the westward was occupied first by sandy hills, on which grew bilberries of uncommon size and flavor, in prodigious quantities ; beyond, rise heights of a poor hungry soil, thinly covered with stunted pines, or dwarf oak. Yet in this com- paratively barren tract there were several wild and pictur- esque spots, where small brooks, running in deep and rich bot- toms, nourished on their banks every vegetable beauty ; there some of the most industrious early settlers had cleared the luxuriant wood from these charming glens, and built neat cottages for their slaves, surrounded with little gardens and orchards, sheltered from every blast, wildly picturesque, and richly productive. Those small sequestered vales had an attraction that I know not how to describe, and which probably resulted from the air of deep repose that reigned there, and the strong contrast which they exhibited to the surrounding sterility. One of these was in my time inha- bited by a hermit. He was a Frenchman, and did not seem to inspire much veneration among the Albanians. . They imagined, or had heard, that he retired to that solitude in remorse for some fatal duel in which he had been engaged ; and considered him as an idolator because he had an image of the virgin in his hut. I think he retired to Canada at last ; but I remember being ready to worship him for the sanctity with which my imagination invested him, and being cruelly disappointed because I was not permitted to visit him. These cottages were in summer occupied by some of the negroes, who cultivated the grounds about them, and served as a place of joyful liberty to the children of the family on holidays, and as a nursery for the young negroes, whom it was the custom to rear very tenderly, and instruct very carefully.
In the society I am describing, even the dark aspect of slavery was softened into a smile. And I must, in justice to the best possible masters, say that a great deal of that tranquillity and comfort, to call it by no higher name, which distinguished this society from all others, was owing to the relation between master and servant being better understood here than in any other place. Let me not be detested as an advocate for slavery, when I say that I think I have never seen people so happy in servitude as the domestics of the Albanians. One reason was, (for I do not now speak of the
51
Description of Albany, and its Manners.
virtues of their masters,) that each family had few of them, and that there were no field negroes. They would remind one of Abraham's servants, who were all born in the house ; this was exactly their case. They were baptized too, and shared the same religious instruction with the child- ren of the family ; and, for the first years, there was little or no difference with regard to food or clothing between their children and those of their masters.
When a negro woman's child attained the age of three years, it was solemnly presented, the first New Year's day following, to a son or daughter, or other young relative of the family who was of the same sex with the child so pre- sented. The child to whom the young negro was given, immediately presented it with some piece of money and a pair of shoes ; and from that day the strongest attachment grew between the domestic and the destined owner. I have nowhere met with instances of friendship more tender and generous than that which here subsisted between the slaves and their masters and mistresses. Extraordinary proofs of them have been often given in the course of hunting or of Indian trading ; when a young man and his slave have gone to the trackless woods together, in the case of fits of the ague, loss of a canoe, and other casualties happening near hostile Indians. The slave has been known, at the imminent risk of his life, to carry his disabled master through unfrequented wilds, with labor and fidelity scarce credible ; and the master has been equally tender on similar occasions of the humble friend who stuck closer than a brother ; who was baptized with the same baptism, nurtured under the same roof, and often rocked in the same cradle with himself. These gifts of domestics to the younger members of the family were not irrevocable ; yet they were very rarely with- . drawn. If the kitchen family did not increase in propor- tion to that of the master, young children were purchased from some family where they abounded, to furnish those at- tached servants to the rising progeny. They were never sold without consulting their mother, who, if expert and saga- cious, had a great deal to say in the family, and would not allow her child to go into any family with whose domestics she was not acquainted. These negro-women piqued themselves on teaching their children to be excellent ser-
52
Description of Albany, and its Manners.
vants, well knowing servitude to be their lot for life, and that it could only be sweetened by making themselves par- ticularly useful, and excelling in their department. If they did their work well, it is astonishing, when I recollect it, what liberty of speech was allowed to those active and pru- dent mothers. They would chide, reprove, and expostulate in a manner that we would not endure from our hired ser- vants; and sometimes exert fully as much authority over the children of the family as the parents, conscious that they were entirely in their power. They did not crush free- dom of speech and opinion in those by whom they knew they were beloved, and who watched with incessant care over their interest and comfort. Affectionate and faithful as these home-bred servants were in general, there were some in- stances (but very few ) of those who, through levity of mind, or a love of liquor or finery, betrayed their trust, or habitually neglected their duty. . In these cases, after every means had been used to reform them, no severe punish- ments were inflicted at home. But the terrible sentence which they dreaded worse than death, was past- they were sold to Jamaica. The necessity of doing this was be- wailed by the whole family as a most dreadful calamity, and the culprit was carefully watched on his way to New York, lest he should evade the sentence by self-destruction.
One must have lived among those placid and humane people to be sensible that servitude, hopeless, endless ser- vitude, could exist with so little servility and fear on the one side, and so little harshness or even sternness of autho- rity in the other. In Europe, the footing on which service is placed in consequence of the corruptions of society, hardens the heart, destroys confidence, and embitters life. The deceit and venality of servants not absolutely dishonest, puts it out of one's power to love or trust them. And if in. . hopes of having people attached to us, who will neither betray our confidence, nor corrupt our children, we are at pains to rear them from childhood, and give them a reli- gious and moral education ; after all our labor, others of their own class seduce them away to those who can afford to pay higher for their services. This is not the case in a few remote districts, where surrounding mountains seem to exclude the contagion of the world, some traces of fidelity
53
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Description of Albany, and its Manners.
and affection among domestics still remain. But it must be remarked that, in those very districts, it is usual to treat inferiors with courtesy and kindness, and to consider those domestics who marry out of the family as holding a kind of relation to it, and still claiming protection. In short, the corruption of that class of people is, doubtless, to be attri- buted to the example of their superiors. But how severely are those superiors punished ? Why this general indiffer- ence about home ; why are the household gods, why is the sacred hearth so wantonly abandoned ? Alas! the charm of home is destroyed, since our children, educated in distant seminaries, are strangers in the paternal mansion ; and our servants, like mere machines, move on their mercenary track without feeling or exciting one kind or generous sen- timent. Home, thus despoiled of all its charms, is no longer the scene of any enjoyments but such as wealth can purchase. At the same time we feel there a nameless cold privation, and conscious that money can coin the same enjoyments with more variety elsewhere. We substitute these futile and evanescent pleasures for that perennial spring of calm satisfaction, "without overflowing full," which is fed by the exercise of the kindly affections, and soon indeed must those stagnate where there are not proper objects to excite them. I have been forced into this painful digression by unavoidable comparisons. To return :
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