USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The annals of Albany, Vol. II > Part 5
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Colony of Rensselaerswyck.
to pause until he bathed his feet in the waters of the Pacific, was now about to take another step westward. The proximity of the whites had exhausted the resources of the Indians in the neighborhood 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 set- tlers was favorable, for at Beverwyck the common people were much improverished, and unable to meet their wants, " from one loaf to another."* Under these circumstances, Arent van Curler applied, on behalf of himself and others, to the director-general for permission to purchase the land in question. The requisite authority was duly granted, t 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. Incalculable 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.# This visitation necessarily caused the postponement of the
* Arentvan Curler's letter to Direct or 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.
+ 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 Renss. MSS. of the colonists of Rensselaerswyck 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 Renss. MSS. Alb. Rec. vi., 345.
Colony of Rensselaerswyck. 49
purchase of the Great Flatt until the ensuing month, when the following deed was obtained from the Indian owners :- " 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, Sodachdrasse, proprietors of a certain parcel of land, called in Dutch the Groote Vlachte, (Great Flatt,) 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 acknowledge 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 For> tress Orange."*
A grant under the provincial seal was issued in the fols lowing year, but the land was not surveyed or divided until 1664.1 The inhabitants of Fort Orange and its neighborhood were most anxious to retain the fur monopoly, and had sufficient influence with the director and council to induce them to order that the settlers of Schaenhechstede (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 condition on which they were allowed to remove thither; " for it
** 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.
+ Alb. Rec. xxi. ; 137.
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50
Colony of Rensselaerswyck.
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, at such a distant place, any trade with the savages was allowed."* 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 council, Jacques Cortelyou was sent thither, but with instructions not to survey any man's land who might refuse to sign the fol- lowing 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."+
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."#
* Alb. Rec. xxi., 139.
t Pampieren raekende Schaenhechtady in Albany County Clerk's office, 1680-1685; 297-301.
# Signed, A. van Curler, Pillip Hendricksen, Sander Leendertsen Glen, Symon Volcertsen, Pieter Soghmaekelyk, Teunis Cornelissen, Marte Cornelise, Willem 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.
Colony of Rensselaerswyck. 51
Accompanying this remonstrance was a private letter from Van Curler to the director-general. On his recom- mendation the settlers had consented to proceed with their ploughing and planting, though, at first, they seemed unwil- ling 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 difficulty, the settlers were willing to pledge themselves not to sell any brandy to the Indians, on pain of confiscation of their property .*
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 already begun to do, on wagons and horses, to the savages. " Al- ready 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 forthwith to the new settlement, take an inventory of all the goods introduced there in violation of the act of con- cession, and have the same removed, " as it was not the intention to build up one place for the purpose of bringing
* Pampieren raekende Schaenhechtady,
-
-
52
Colony of Rensselaerswyck.
ruin on another-yea, on the whole country."* Thus things remained for nearly another year. It was not until May, 1664, that the surveyor was allowed " to lay out the lands of Schaenhechstede."t In legal and muni- cipal affairs it remained dependent on the court at Fort Orange.
Jeremias van Rensselaer sueceeded his brother, Jan Baptist, as Director of the colonie in 1658, and adminis- tered its affairs for sixteen years with great prudence and diseretion. Hc was much respected by the French, and exercised an 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 onc in his own name, he being qualified, as a British subjeet, to hold real estate. To his great honor, it is recorded that he rejected the offer, for he was only co-heir, and could not thus defraud his brothers and sisters. He was a man of great industry, and eom- municated to Holland an account of various occurrenees in this country, under the name of the Ncw Netherland Mercury. His correspondence, from 1656 to his death, still in good preservation, affords a valuable and interes- ting commentary on private and public affairs, and con- tains 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 .¿
* Pampieren raekende Schaenhectady; Alb. Rec. xxi., 135. + Alb. Rec. xxii., 169, 234.
# 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 Rensselaerswyk, 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 proceed the numerous members of this wide-spread family in this country. Jan Baptist van Rensselaer survived his brother four years, having deceased 18th Oc- tober, 1678; Dom. Nicolaus van Rensselaer died the month following.
Gavit & Duthie 12
Jeremias van Rinsfilaire
١
ENGLISH CHURCH AND FORT.
From Watson's Annals.
( 53 )
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 rose 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 hill, at the upper end of the street. The Dutch church, was situated at the bottom of the descent where the street ter- minated ; 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
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Description of Albany and its Manners, 1764,
was surrounded 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 se- renely clear moonlight. Each family had a cow, fed in a 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, Nothing could be more pleasing to a simple and benevolent mind than to see thus, at one view, all the inhabitants of a town, which contained not one very rich or very poor, very knowing or very ignorant, very rude or very polished, individual; 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 incli- nations. At one door were young matrons, at another the elders of the people, at a third the youths and maidens, gayly chatting or singing together, while the children played round the trees, or waited by the cows, for the chief ingredient of their frugal supper, which they generally ate sitting on the steps in the open air. This picture, so fa- iniliar to my imagination, has led me away from my pur- pose, 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 com- mon pasture where all the cattle belonging to the inhabit- ants 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 in- dispensably necessary for cattle in this country, they pa- tiently 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 inhabit- ant raised Indian corn sufficient for the food of two or three
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Description of Albany, and its Manners, 1764.
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 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 comparatively barren tract there were several wild and picturesque spots, where small brooks, running in deep and rich bottoms, 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 inhabited by a hermit. He as a Frenchman, and did not seem to inspire much ve- neration 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
56
Description of Albany, and its Manners, 1764.
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 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 bap- tized too, and shared the same religious instruction with the children 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 In- dian 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 some baptism, nurtured under the some 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 withdrawn. If the kitchen family did not increase in proportion to that of the master, young children were purchased from some family where they abounded, to furnish those attached
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Description of Albany, and its Manners, 1764.
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 children to go into any family with whose do- mestics she was not acquainted. These negro-women piqued themselves on teaching their children to be excellent servants, 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 servants ; 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 freedom 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 faith- ful as these homebred servants were in general, there were some instances (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 punishments were inflicted at home. But the terrible sen- tence, which they dreaded worse than death, was passed- they were sold to Jamaica. The necessity of selling them was bewailed by the whole family as a most dreadful ca- lamity, and the culprits were carefully watched on their way to New York, lest they 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, sould exist with so little servility and fear on the one side, and so little harshness or even sternness of au- thority on 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, put it out of one's power to love or trust them. .. And if, in
58 Description of Albany, and its Manners, 1764.
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 to give them a reli- gious and moral education ; after all our labor, others of their own class may seduce them away to those who can afford to pay higher for their services. This is not the case in a few remote districts, from which surrounding moun- tains seem to exclude the contagion of the world; there some traces of fidelity and affection among domestics still remain. But it must be remarked that, in those very dis- tricts, it is usual to treat inferiors with courtesy and kind- ness, 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 attributed to the example of their su- periors. But how severely are those superiors punished ? Why this general indifference about home ? why are the household gods, why is the scared 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 sentiment. 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 procure the same enjoyments with more variety elsewhere, we substitute these futile evanescent pleasures for the perennial spring of calm satisfaction, " without o'erflowing 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.
Amidst all this mild and really tender indulgence to their negroes, these colonists had not the smallest scruple of con- science with regard to the right by which they held them in subjection. Had that been the case, their singular humanity would have been incompatible with continued injustice. But the truth is, that of law the generality of those people
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