Mohawk Frontier, Second Edition

Thomas Burke

Description

This is the fascinating story of the Dutch community at Schenectady, a village that grew out of the wilderness along the northern frontier of New Netherland in the 1660s. Drawing upon a wealth of original documents, Thomas Burke renders an engaging portrait of a small but dynamic Dutch village in the twilight years of the New Netherland colony. Despite the proximity of the Mohawks, Schenectady's residents—when they were not quarreling amongst themselves—made their living more from farming and raising livestock than trading. Due to a scarcity of labor, Schenectady became one of the most diverse and energized communities in the region, attracting servants and tenant farmers, and paving the way for slavery. Its northern frontier location however made it a vulnerable target during the many conflicts between the French and English that erupted in the late seventeenth century. Bringing Schenectady fully out of the historical shadow of its large neighbor Albany, Thomas Burke reveals both the intricate depths of a small Dutch village and how many aspects of its story mirrored the broader histories of New Netherland and New York.This second edition of the classic history features a new introduction by William Starna, which updates key research and issues that have arisen since its initial publication.
Maps and Tables
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction

1. The Founding of Schenectady

2. “The most beautiful land”

3. A “sad and deplorable massacre”

4. White, Black, and Red at Schenectady

5. A Divided Community

6. To “gain some little profifit”

Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• USA
• United States of America
• Local history
• Indigenous peoples
• History of the Americas
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 05 février 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438427072
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 88 Mo

Extrait

CMYKThomasThomas E. E. BurBurke Jrke Jr.
b
iiiPublished by State University of New York Press, Albany
Copyright © 1991 by Cornell University
All rights reserved.
Cover art: The painting, “Schenectady Town”, used with permission
of the artist, L. F. Tantillo
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic,
magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise
without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
First Excelsior Editions book printing: 2009
Excelsior Editions is an imprint of State University of New York Press, Albany
www.sunypress.edu
Production by Diane Ganeles
Marketing by Fran Keneston
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burke, Thomas E., 1951–
Mohawk Frontier : the Dutch community of Schenectady, New York, 1661–1710 /
Thomas E. Burke Jr. ; with an introduction by William A. Starna. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-2706-5 (pbk : alk. paper)
1. Dutch Americans—New York (State)—Schenectady—History. 2. Schenectady
(N.Y.)—History. I. Title.
F129.S5B87 2009
974.74402—dc22 2008048183Contents
Maps and Tables ix
Preface xii
AAbbbbrreevviationions xv
Introductionix
. T e Founding of Schenectady 
. “T e most beautiful land” 
. A “sad asad and deplorabable massacre” 
. White, Black, and Red at Schenectady 
. A Divided Community 
. To “gain some little ple profi t” 
Bibliography 
Indedex Introduction
william a. starna
or a half century after Henry Hudson’s 1609 sail up the river val-Fley that now bears his name, the trade in furs so essential to the
founding and growth of the colony of New Netherland was centered
in and around modern Albany. Fort Nassau, the fi rst trading house,
was up and running on Castle Island at the mouth of the
Normanskill by about 1614, but abandoned three years later because of spring
fl oods. A downturn in the trade followed, triggered by the dissolution
of a consortium of merchants—the New Netherland Company—that
had been granted a monopoly in the colony by the States General, the
governing body of the United Provinces, and the actions of what might
best be described as rogue traders operating on the river. In 1624,
signaling a resurgence of interest in the trade following the chartering
of the West India Company three years earlier, Fort Orange was built
on higher ground on the west bank, a short distance north of the
Normanskill, thereby establishing a permanent Dutch presence on the
upper Hudson. Around this important post, which attracted
American Indian traders from far and wide, packing their much
soughtafter pelts to exchange for European-manufactured goods, grew the
Dutch village of Beverwijck, renamed Albany with the English
takeover in 1664.
In 1630 and 1631 lands were purchased from a number of Mahican
Indians that would form the vast agricultural plantation of
Rensselaerswijck, comprising roughly present Albany and Rensselaer Counties.
Known as a patroonship, this was an initiative of the West India
Company to privatize, and thus, in great part, to fund colonization through
xixxx Introduction
capital investments by politically connected and wealthy persons who
remained situated comfortably in patria. Of the several patroonships
that were established in New Netherland, only Rensselaerswijck
survived. This was in great part due to the diligence and perspicacity
of its founder and majority investor, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, and his
agent, Bastiaen Jansz Krol, who to all appearances had the foresight to
select lands near where the river of the Mohawks, leading west into the
interior and its abundant supply of furs, joined the Hudson. Adding to
the signifi cance of Krol’s choice was the immediate access to the Lake
Champlain-Richelieu River corridor north to the St. Lawrence
Valley, its Native people, and potentially more furs. Of course, also worth
consideration was that Fort Orange, under Krol’s command, happened
to be situated in the geographic center of the patroonship.
Van Rensselaer’s economic interests, however, did not revolve
around the trade in furs; they were aimed toward realizing profi ts
from farming and raising livestock, in particular, cattle. Nonetheless,
success initially remained elusive in the face of high costs and paltry
returns all round. Moreover, strained and contentious relations with
the West India Company added to the patroon’s problems that did not
abate with his death in 1643. Yet with the infl ux of immigrants from
the home country beginning at mid-century, along with the
continuation and expansion of the fur trade, Rensselaerswijck would prosper,
its farmsteads, artisans, and merchants supplying the needed material
1goods and sustenance for what was by now a fast-growing colony.
East of New Netherland, fi xed fi rmly among the Native people of
southern New England, were the noticeably more numerous and, quite
unlike their Dutch neighbors, land-hungry, imperialist-minded
English. Complicating matters were the crown’s counter-claims to
discovery of New Netherland, a persistent burr under the saddle of Dutch
authority there and at home, in addition to the aggressive maneuvers of
English traders fanning out from their posts on the Connecticut River.
By the late 1650s, they would knock at the very gates of Beverwijck,
determined to draw off the Indian trade. For New Netherland’s
director-general Petrus Stuyvesant (1647–1664), English designs on his
colony were not to be ignored; he had earlier warned off Swedish settlers
on the Delaware whom he suspected to have had similar intentions.
1. See Charles T. Gehring, Privatizing Colonization: The Patroonship of
Rensselaerswijck (Albany, NY: 2000). http://www.nnp.org/annals/2000.pdf; Jaap Jacobs,
New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America (Brill: Leiden,
2005), 112–122.Introduction xxi
What may have been a tipping point for what was to come, however,
were the demands of Dutch farmers for land outside the bounds of
Rensselaerswijck, combined with the growth and infl uence of
Beverwijck. This is not to mention one Arent van Curler, Van Rensselaer’s
2grandnephew and business agent in New Netherland. In July 1661,
representing himself and a group of Dutch proprietors, Van Curler
negotiated the purchase from Mohawk headmen of a large parcel of
land at a place that would become Schenectady (from the Mohawk
skahnéhtati ‘it is beyond the pines’).
Despite the passage of more than three centuries since the founding
of Schenectady, Thomas Burke’s Mohawk Frontier, fi rst published in
1991, remains the only originally conceived, thoroughly documented,
and authoritative study of the early years of this important Dutch
community. Like so many other creditable histories of New Netherland,
inspired by Oliver Rink’s groundbreaking Holland on the Hudson: An
Economic and Social History of Dutch New York (Ithaca, NY, 1986), Burke
mined an impressive body of seldom-tapped primary sources, many
recently translated from early Dutch administrative records, for his
portrayal. What results is a fi ne, fully contextualized, primarily micro
history of a complex, dynamic, rough and tumble town that nonetheless
operated within a defi ned legal framework and recognizable
administrative strictures. Schenectady was, after all, a Dutch community. And
like all Dutch communities, the rule of law was paramount.
Schenectady, Burke makes it clear, was not Albany. This in spite of
the initial expectations of its founders who justifi ably saw opportunity
given the town’s favorable position next door to the Mohawks and the
large and nearly uninterrupted fl ow of furs out of Iroquoia. But
Albany’s economic, political, and ultimately, legal reach, which forestalled
and then cut off any such thoughts, prevailed. Schenectady’s residents
instead shifted their sights and became farmers, realizing
respectable profi ts from growing wheat and raising livestock. Making
matters interesting was the scarcity of labor in the region generally, which
drew to Schenectady a mix of servants, tenant farmers, and slaves, thus
creating the ethnic, economic, and social or class diversity that
characterized and, in different ways, frequently divided its inhabitants. But
Burke tells this story best.
2. See Janny Venema, Beverwijck: A Dutch Village on the American Frontier, 1652–
1664 (State University of New York Press: Albany, NY, 2003).xxii Introduction
The several reviews of Mohawk Frontier were strong in th