Happy Juneteenth!

“Artist’s rendering of Dorothy Angola.” Slavery in New York Curriculum Guide (New York: New-York Historical Society, 2005).

Did you know the oldest African American holiday dates back to Dutch NY? Pinkster or Pentecost was a gathering when African Americans reconnected, danced, and played drums, much like Juneteenth celebrations (but without their freedom). 

Let’s talk about slavery in New Netherland. 

Pictured above is Dorothea Angola, sometimes called Reytory Creole. The first Africans were brought to New Amsterdam from a captured Portuguese ship as early as 1628. By 1639 the Dutch West India Company owned about 100 enslaved Africans in New Netherland. 

In 1644, Dorothea’s husband Paulo d'Angola and ten other men petitioned for their freedom. They and their wives were granted freedom by WIC Director Kieft on the condition of an annual tax. Their children were not granted freedom. Kieft granted them land north of what became Wall Street, where they would serve as a buffer from potential attacks from Natives or the English.

Another man freed was Gratia or Anthony Angola. His daughter Susannah Negrin was a neighbor of Sarah Rapalje and is included in my novel. In 1647, Susannah became the only African member of the Dutch Reformed Church prior to 1664. It appears Susannah was granted her freedom after this. Some Africans were baptized but not full members of the church. Becoming a full member involved a confession of faith, reciting the Heidelberg Catechism (129 questions and answers). After around 1655 the domines (or ministers) discouraged people who sought baptism as a way out of slavery. 

After the death of her parents, Susannah negotiated an apprenticeship for her little brother, Jochem, to the wine merchant Wolfert Webber. It was under the condition that he would be taught to read and write. She inherited her father's land north of the wall and also owned land next to Sarah in New Amsterdam on de Bever Gracht/ Prince Straat.

The number of enslaved Africans in the colony totaled around 540 (300 of which were newly arrived) at the time of the English takeover in 1664. The Dutch Golden Age and Colonial American wealth came at the horrific expense of enslaved Africans who were exploited for the next 200 years- until 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas finally found out they had been freed.

Not all legacies of the Dutch period should be celebrated, but it's important to remember the stories of African people who contributed to the nascent city.

Read more about Dorothea:

https://wams.nyhistory.org/early-encounters/dutch-colonies/dorothy-angola/

https://www.mcny.org/reytory-angola

I.N. Phelps Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, vol 1 (New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1916), pl 5

My sources:

Jacobs, Jaap. The Colony of New Netherland: A Dutch Settlement in Seventeenth-Century America. New York: Cornell University Press, 2009.

Shorto, Russel. The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America. New York: Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 2004.