Part 4. Colonial New Amsterdam to New York City; Respect and Freedom in Burial

The English takeover of New Amsterdam occurred in 1664, when an English fleet arrived and demanded surrender. With the Treaty of Westminster in 1674, the British ruled New Amsterdam and renamed it New York City. Their rule made slavery stricter, with harsher laws and fewer freedoms than under Dutch rule. The Dutch West India Company (WIC), which owned the enslaved, used them in large municipal labor gangs. English individuals owned enslaved people and used them for domestic service and in skilled trades.

Dutch law allowed the enslaved to sue in court, marry in the Dutch Reformed Church, and own personal property. English laws stripped away most of those rights. Under Dutch rule, enslaved people could gain conditional liberty, farm their own land, and pay tribute to the WIC. English law made manumission difficult, expensive, and rare.

An alternative story of urban versus plantation enslavement emerged after construction crews found Manhattan’s African American Burial Ground in 1991. The site held 10,000-20,000 bodies.

Analysis of 419 exhumed skeletal remains presented a shocking finding. For centuries, most people falsely assumed that the Northern urban areas treated the enslaved better than the Southern plantations. However, many urban skeletons showed signs of muscles torn off the bone, as well as spinal fractures from hauling crushing loads down to the shipping docks. Severe malnutrition, the overwork of their mothers, and infectious diseases caused by overcrowded, unsanitary living conditions caused over 40% of enslaved children to die before age 12, and the majority by age 2. This rate was no better than on the plantations.

The burial grounds revealed the respect for their lives that was lacking in life. The enslaved shrouded their dead in linen, fastened with brass straight pins. Their heads lay facing Africa. Many had individual wooden coffins containing items precious to them. One coffin lid bore the Sankofa symbol in 51 iron tacks, representing the Akan proverb: “go back and get it,” symbolizing a bridge to their stolen past.