It is often said that, “A man may be worth more than others, and still be worthless.” This assertion introduces an important concept in both Leslie Harris’ “Slaves in Colonial New York,” and Thelma Foote’s “Black and White Manhattan,” regarding the increasingly poor treatment of African slaves during Manhattan’s transition from Dutch to British authority. Why did the treatment of blacks worsen over time? It can be argued that white colonists imposed harsher restrictions on the slaves during this time because they realized that “black slave labor was central to the day-to-day survival and economic life of Europeans in colonial North” (Harris 11). In fact, “no part of the colonial North relied more heavily on slavery than Manhattan” (Harris 11). Harris rigorously examines how the treatment of blacks gradually worsened. Initially, they had “relatively kind masters, relatively good opportunities to form families, and access to courts and some property” (Harris 22). By the late 1600s, the British had completely disregarded blacks as humans, and were known to wrongly convict slaves of crimes. Foote gives an example of a slave named Caesar who was found guilty of burglarizing a shop and sentenced to hang by the neck. Prior to dismissing the condemned slave, Justice Frederick Philipse “asserted his conviction that [Caesar] was somehow involved in a recent outbreak of fires” (Foote 165). The only justification for this treatment was that the colonists knew how valuable the institution of slavery was, and wanted to ensure its survival and expansion.
By the end of the Seventeenth Century, Manhattan was “the chief North American slave port and economic center” (Harris 11). As such, white colonists sought to secure the labor force, and “develop racial justification for the enslavement of Africans above all other group of workers” (Harris 12). In an effort to “control the cultural, social, and political independence of slaves” (Harris 33-34), the colonists instilled fear in them, often coercing false “confessions of grandiose dimensions” (Foote 165), and prevented them from learning the virtues of Christianity that preached: “every soul was equal in the sight of God” (Harris 35). Were these tactics effective in suppressing black uprisings and safeguarding the colonists’ profits? No. As conditions gradually worsened, “slaves stole more cash, clothing, and food from [their] masters’ households and ran away more frequently” (Harris 37). By the mid-1700s, the slave population was increasing faster than the white population (Harris 27), and by 1827, Africans in Manhattan finally celebrated their freedom (Harris 13). Thus, the struggle for equality began.
