Chapter 3 – British New York 1664 - 1783

DISCOVER NEW YORK

BRITISH NEW YORK• Under British governance, life in New York was dominated by merchants, lawyers, traders,

and even public officials.

• The people in New York were known for their relative affluence, as they tended to dress more formally than their counterparts in Boston and Philadelphia.

• When the British took over in 1664, there was an over-abundance of taverns that were known for their rowdy drunken crowds of men and women.

• There were constant fears that these alcohol-fueled crowds would one day lead to chaos in the streets of New York

THE ENGLISH TAKEOVER OF 1664• In 1664, New Amsterdam became a British Proprietary Colony named after Charles Stuart,

the Duke of York, who was the brother of the King of England, James the 1st.

• The first British Governor was Richard Nicholls.

• Nicholls stated his intention to govern on the same autocratic method that Peter Stuyvesant had under the Dutch West India Company.

THE BRITISH TAKEOVER CONTINUED• Richard Nicolls, and his successor Colonel Francis Lovelace would work hard to solidify the

relationship between the new British inhabitants and the wealthier Dutch landowners who were holdovers from New Amsterdam.

• Both Nicolls and Lovelace espoused policies of toleration, and sought to bring to an end any persecution that was still targeted at Jews and Quakers.

• The first inter-colonial postal service was established between New York, Hartford and Boston in January, 1673.

• Overall, the long-range goal of the British Government in New York was to weave the new colony into all aspects of British government, law, and economic activity.

LIBERTIES AND PRIVILEGES IN NEW YORK• Following the restoration of British rule after a brief return to Dutch rule in 1673, the British

appointed Major Edmund Andros the new Governor of New York, and he would arrive in October, 1674.

• Andros would ban the use of Dutch ships for the colony’s trade, and he would also require all citizens in New York to take an oath of loyalty to the British.

• Andros would also work to strengthen the policies of integration in New York, policies which would continue to be stressed throughout the tenure of British rule in New York.

• The British ordered a new road to be built connecting New York with the community of Harlem to the north on the island of Manhattan.

• Taxes were levied to maintain all aspects of the colony.

• The packing of flour and biscuits for export had a huge impact on industry and trade within New York.

COLONEL THOMAS DONGAN TAKES COMMAND• In 1682, Colonel Thomas Dongan, an Irish-Catholic, succeeded Edmund Andros as British

Governor of the New York colony.

• Dongan issued a Charter which among many things, divided the New York colony into several counties: New York (Manhattan), Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) and Queens.

• On October 30, 1683, the first Catholic Mass was held in New York, which did not sit well with the Dutch inhabitants of New York, as they mistrusted Catholics as a result of their violent struggle for independence from Spain.

THE DUKE OF YORK BECOMES KING JAMES II• In 1685, the Duke of York became King James II upon the death of his brother, the King of

England, and this transformed the New York colony into a British Royal Colony.

• King James II refused to recognize the Charter that was granted by Thomas Dongan, and he also refused to confirm any of the acts of the Assemblies from 1683, 1684 and 1685.

• James II asserted absolute royal control over the colony, and all royal prerogative would be expressed through the British Governor.

• James sought to consolidate all colonies north and east of the Delaware River into one super-colony he would call “New England.”

NEW YORK UNDER THE BRITISH POST JAMES II• Under British Rule, the New York colony made significant economic advances, most notably

the transformation of Wall Street from a little used path on the perimeter of the city in 1664 to the center of commercial life in the city.

• The first permanent pavement in New York was laid down on Wall Street in 1693, and the wharf at Wall Street was later constructed in 1694.

• The “new” City Hall was soon erected at the intersection of Wall and Broad Streets.

• Trinity Church was then erected at the corner of Broad and Wall Streets in 1696.

NEW YORK & THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION• At the conclusion of the war with the French in 1763, the British government attempted to

generate revenue from the colonies through a policy of taxation on sugar, paper and legal documents, all beginning in 1764-1765.

• These taxation policies became known as “The Stamp Act.”

• These taxation policies were greeted with a storm of protest, boycotts and general non-compliance.

THE CRISIS BETWEEN NY & BRITAIN CONTINUES• The British Parliament then passed graduated duties on tea, printers’ ink, glass and other

imports.

• In April, 1768, New York merchants agreed to comply with a general boycott of British goods which was initiated in Boston.

• In May, 1773, The British East India Company was given a monopoly over all sale and distribution of low-priced tea, which undercut the livelihood of tea-smugglers.

• Following the Boston Tea Party where outraged merchants disguised as Native Americans dumped British East India Company tea into Boston Harbor, New York merchants staged their own “Tea Party” where they did the same.

• On July 6, 1774, New Yorkers gathered at a mass meeting and decided to send representatives to a meeting of the Continental Congress which would be held in Philadelphia.

EDWARD HYDE LORD CORNBURY• Lord Cornbury was the Governor of New York from 1702-1708.

• Cornbury’s detractors and critics spread scurrilous rumors that he had a secret passion for dressing in women’s cloths, and was particularly fond of dressing to look like his cousin, Queen Anne.

• Cornbury’s opponents even went so far as to say that late at night, Cornbury would dress up as Queen Anne and “ go flouncing about the Battery.”

NEW YORK & THE ROAD TO AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE• On May 10, 1776, the Continental Congress instructed all colonies, if they had yet to do so, to

establish republican state governments.

• On July 9, 1776, the Fourth Provincial Congress of the colony of New York met at New York City Hall , and the next day transformed themselves into representatives of the State of New York.

• A new Constitution for the State of New York was adopted in April, 1777, and New York was the second state to ratify the Articles of Confederation in February, 1778.

• One third of all of the military confrontations in the American Revolution took place on New York soil.

DUTCH STREETS AND ENGLISH STREETS• In 1687, Governor Dongan lamented that few English, Scottish or Irish families had emigrated

to New York since the colony was taken from the Dutch in 1644.

• This was mainly due to the relatively cheap real-estate prices in nearby New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the Dutch Patroonships & English Manors created by English land grants made the New York Colony less attractive to immigrants.

• After the conversion to British rule, the Dutch remained the dominant ethnic group within the population of New York.

• With the arrival of the French Huguenots and other immigrants in 1685, the Dutch constituted only 60% of the white population of New York by the turn of the 18th Century.

• At the dawn of the 18th Century, the English & French began to form a new commercial elite, and were twice as likely to be the leading merchants of New York City.

THE DUTCH, THE ENGLISH & THE FRENCH• The Dutch continued to remain heavily represented in what we would refer to today as “blue

collar jobs”: blacksmiths, carpenters, coopers, shoemakers and leatherworkers.

• The English & French continued to stake their claims to the new commercial elite, as their familial ties gave them tremendous access to foreign trade in the West Indies.

• In 1703, the changing wealth patterns in New York demonstrated a distinct difference in the street residencies: The wealthy English & French merchants lived near the docks, while the tradesman and craftsman lived elsewhere, mostly inland.

HUGUENOTS AND JEWS IN EARLY NEW YORK• Although the early Dutch settled in the new world in order to make an economic profit, most

other settlers came as the result of religious persecution.

• French Protestants, known as Huguenots, came to New York in the late 1600’s and soon began settling communities in what is modern day New Paltz in Ulster County, New York, as well as New Rochelle in modern day Westchester County.

• When the Sephardic Jewish community was expelled from Spain and Portugal in 1492, many found a safe haven in the Netherlands. In 1654, 27 penniless Jews arrived in New Amsterdam seeking a safe haven from the Spanish Inquisition.

• Peter Stuyvesant and his Council did not want to grant the 27 Sephardic Jews admission into New Amsterdam.

• Stuyvesant was reminded he was running a business institution, and that there were Jewish investors in the Dutch company sponsoring the New Amsterdam colony.

THE HUGUENOTS AND JEWS IN EARLY NY

AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN NEW YORK• African-Americans arrived in New Amsterdam as slaves well before any Roman Catholics

lived in the community, and decades before the first Jews arrived from Curacao.

• African-Americans were subjected to some of the most demeaning, brutal and cruel treatment, yet they survived.

• In 1644, with the arrival of the British, 11 African-Americans were freed and given modest plots of land to farm.

• Unfortunately, the right to land-ownership for free blacks was repealed after a slave-revolt in 1716.

AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN NEW YORK CITY• In New York County, slaves were employed primarily as household domestic servants.

• Other slaves worked in the artisan trades, where they acquired important skills and knowledge.

• The wealthiest landowners in New Amsterdam usually owned the highest number of slaves.

• The average slave-holding in New York was about two adult-slaves per household.

• Most striking, New York had the highest proportion of slaves of any of the colonies north of Virginia.

• Resistance to slavery was commonplace, and was a daily, local activity.

• Severe punishments were inflicted upon slaves who tried to escape or organize a rebellion.

EARLY AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN NEW YORK • Following the slave revolt of 1712, the fear of slave rebellion was very real in New York.

• Legislative efforts to increase the hold over slaves were initiated.

• In 1741, another slave conspiracy was uncovered: The investigation led to a white alehouse keeper named John Hughson, as well as two slaves named Cesar and Prince.

• The trial of Hughson, Cesar and Prince dragged on for months.

• The prosecution presented a tale of conspiracy, theft, arson, murder, and was presented in the most sensational fashion, which generated a hysterical atmosphere within New York.

• Hughson was accused of keeping “a disorderly house” where he served large parties of black people and where dancing and fiddling were commonplace.

• Hughson and his wife had a 16 year old boarder named Mary Burton, an indentured servant whose testimony detailed the entire conspiracy.

THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN NY

• The accused slaves testified that Hughson swore them to secrecy and an oath to steal their owners weapons, burn the fort and kill all of the white people and steal all of their goods.

• The final toll of the Slave Revolt of 1741 was frightening: four whites were hanged, 13 slaves were burned at the stake, 18 slaved were hanged and 70 enslaved people were transported to the West Indies and other ports, never to return to New York.

NEW YORK: A BRITISH COLONIAL PORT• British commercial needs necessitated that New York be developed as a shipping port.

• As trade expanded, merchants needed more locations to store goods and larger facilities to conduct their business.

• The existing wharf at the foot of Whitehall Street was greatly extended to form the great dock in 1676, but soon thereafter was already insufficient to meet the daily trading needs of New York.

• The process of filling and building on tide-lots, basically filling in marshland and bog was already a common practice by 1730.

• Wharves, which were usually named after the business owners that conducted business on them began to line-up along the East River.

• These Wharves had the names of “Cruger’s at the Old Slip Market” and Hunter’s, Burnet’s, Lyons’, Schmerhorn’s, Livingston’s and Ellison’s, which stretched from Queen Street all the way to Peck’s Slip.

THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD’S PORT• A new city wall and gates were constructed south of the collect pond, and land that were

formerly orchards, pastures and commons during the Dutch years were quickly developed for commercial and residential use.

• William Street and Nassau Street were then extended into what had been the estate of Jacob Leisler, who had been the wealthiest man in New York, which was west of what was known as Beekman’s swamp.

THE BEGINNING OF THE PORT OF NEW YORK• The filling in of swamps was taking place at great speed due to the granting of land on the

condition that it be drained and filled.

• By 1769, the streets west of Broadway were completely laid out, but were still not as heavily built-up as the streets along the East River.

• By the mid 1700’s, memories of the quaint Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam had largely faded away.

THE BRITISH ESTABLISH A COLONIAL PORT• New York was quickly becoming a cosmopolitan city, and that meant the continued usage of

the Dutch language was going to be difficult.

• Dutch language would still be employed in domestic situations for some Dutch families.

• Dutch as a language would actually endure as a significant medium of communication in rural communities and in upstate Albany, which was and continues to this day to be an extremely insular community.

DUTCH CONTRIBUTIONS TO NEW YORK CITY• The Dutch flavor that endured in New York City was preserved more in the stepped gable-end

houses.

• These homes looked old-fashioned when compared to the larger Palladian Buildings that were constructed by the English after they took over in 1644.

• The great Dutch Fair, known as “The Kermis,” which began on the Monday after the Feast of St. Bartholomew on August 24, remained for a very long time as the most popular holiday in New York City.

THE KERMIS – A FUN DUTCH FAIR

WILLEM “VILLAIN” KEIFT – 1638-1647• Willem Kieft held a primarily administrative responsibility for the Dutch in New York Colony

when it was known as “New Amsterdam.”

• Although Kieft is well known for his heavy-handed methods of governing, such as attempting to tax the Native American Lenape people, leading to war, he did grant religious dissenter Lady Deborah Moody, an Anabaptist, and her friends permission to settle Gravesend in 1643.

PETRUS “PETER” STUYVESANT – 1647-1664• Peter Stuyvesant was selected in 1645 by the Dutch West India Company to succeed Willem

Kieft as Director General of the Colony of New Amsterdam.

• Stuyvesant’s governing term actually began in 1647 and would last until 1664 when the English warships threatened destruction of New Amsterdam unless the Dutch surrendered.

• Stuyvesant lived out the remaining days of his life in New York Colony, passing on quietly in 1672. He is entombed in St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery.

NEW YORK & THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION• News of the defeat of the British at the Battle at Lexington and Concord reached New York

City on April 23, 1775.

• A patriotic celebration ensued and then turned ugly as a mob broke into the Arsenal on the Hudson River and stole 600 muskets.

• By June of 1775, the British were better prepared to battle the rebels, and New York City was a clear target of the British, as the city was highly vulnerable to an attack by the British Naval fleet.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT…• What may have happened had General George Washington not evacuated his troops from

New York City and escaped to Brooklyn? How may the American Revolution have turned out then?