First slave auction in New Amsterdam (1655)
The chapter on relations between the European settlers and the Africans began when three hundred African slaves arrived in New Amsterdam in the year 1655. Although these were not the first Africans in the colony, their arrival marked the beginning of New Amsterdam’s involvement in the slave trade. The Europeans both owned and leased the Africans as slaves, and used them as common laborers for a variety of jobs.
Some slaves were treated relatively well by the colonists; they were provided for in terms of medical care, food, and shelter by the Dutch West India Trading Company, and were granted what was referred to as “half freedom.” Although slavery under the Dutch was not as harsh as it became later on in the south, the concept of racial inequality was strongly present in the Dutch consciousness. Later on, after the English assumed rule over New Amsterdam/New York, things became more difficult for the African slaves. The English did not grant freedom of any kind as liberally as did the Dutch, and tended to limit the rights of slaves previously freed under the Dutch. As the African population swelled, more strict legislation was passed to prevent the uprisings feared by the English. African movements were tightened even more after an uprising in 1712 when slaves managed to set fire to some buildings and attack white citizens fleeing the fire. A census taken in 1738 recorded twenty-three hundred people in Kings County with one out of every four persons was a slave. Brooklyn (town, not borough) was home to 705 inhabitants, and had a total of 158 enslaved persons. Flatbush, in particular, was the second largest inhabited town of Kings County with 539 inhabitants and among those 129 slaves. The slave population in New York at the time did not occur in high concentrations; most New York slave owners owned no more than two or three slaves. Aside from slaves, indentured servants also served in various trades in New York City.[xviii] Many slaves ultimately gained their freedom some years later during the Revolutionary War as anti-slavery sentiments were on an upswing.[xix]
