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Women and Trade in New Netherland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2011

Martha Dickinson Shattuck
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Extract

If the average person was asked what the name New Netherland brought to mind, quite likely the response would be the fur trade. And to a great degree they would be right in making that association. In the years following Henry Hudson's exploration in 1609 of the river that eventually bore his name and before the founding of the West India Company in 1621, Dutch trading companies and private traders sailed to the New World for the sole purpose of exploiting the fur trade.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , July 1994 , pp. 40 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1994

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References

Notes

1 For a discussion of the early traders see Hart, Simon, The Prehistory of the New Netherland Company: Amsterdam Notarial Records of the First Dutch Voyages to New Netherland (Amsterdam 1959).Google Scholar See also Chapter One inRink, Oliver, Holland on the Hudson: An Economic and Social History of Dutch New York (Ithaca 1986)Google Scholar.

2 The quote is in the preamble to the ‘Charter of the West India Company’ in: Laer, A.J.F. van, trans, and ed.. Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts (Albany 1908) 87 (hereafter cited as VRBM)Google Scholar. For the WIC as an instrument in the war with Spain, see Bachman, Van Cleaf, Peltries or Plantations: The Economic Policies of the Dutch West India Company in New Netherland, 1623-1639 (Baltimore 1969) 26Google Scholar.

3 At the request of the English, Stuyvesant went to Hartford to discuss the boundaries between New England and New Netherland. Concerning the ‘provisional’ boundaries, see the West India Company letter to the States General inO'Callaghan, Edmund B. and Fernow, Berthold, trans, and eds., Documents Relative to Ike Colonial History of the Slate of New York (15 vols., New York 1856-1887) 1, 541–46 (hereafter cited as NYCD)Google Scholar. For a discussion of the Treaty of Hartford see Cohen, Ronald D., ‘The Hartford Treaty of 1650: Anglo-Dutch Cooperation in the Seventeenth Century’ in: The New-York Historical Society Quarterly LII (1969) 311–332Google Scholar. C.A Westlager points to Fort Nassau as a seasonal post in his discussion of the Delaware and the Swedish competition for the fur trade. see Westlager, , Dutch Explorers, Traders and Settlers in the Delaware Valley, 1609-1664 (Philadelphia 1961) 122Google Scholar.

4 The Walloons' oath is found inLaer, A.J.F. van, trans, and ed., Documents Relating to New Netherland, 1624–1626 (San Marino, Calif. 1924) 18Google Scholar. In 1625 the second director of New Netherland, Willem Verhulst, sailed with more colonists and detailed orders regarding government and law for the colony. See ibid., 39,113–114,117. For the returning colonists see Rink, , Holland on the Hudson, 91–92Google Scholar. The Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1629 is in VRBM, 137–153.

5 The 1640 Freedoms and Exemptions for New Netherland is in NYCD, I, 119–123. A description of the making of Beverwijck is in my Ph.D. dissertationA Civil Society: Court and Community in Beverwijck, New Netherland, 1652–1664 (Boston University 1993) 49–51.Google Scholar See alsoGehring, Charles T., ‘The Founding of Beverwijck: A Dutch Village on The Upper Hudson’ in: The Dutch Settlers'Society of Albany Yearbook 51 (1989-1993) 4–11.Google Scholar

6 The discussion on economics is based on Chapter Two of my dissertation, A Civil Society.

7 Bradley, James W., Evolution of the Onondaga Iroquois; Accommodating Change, 1500–1655 (Syracuse 1987) 179–180.Google Scholar

8 The usage of sewant was defined, again, in a 1658 ordinance. see O'Callaghan, Edmund B., ed., Laws and Ordinances of New Netherland, 1638–1674 (Albany 1868) 358.Google Scholar

9 New York Colonial Manuscripts, New York State Archives, Albany X/3, documents 187–188.

10 VRBM, 199, 314, 200.

11 Ibid., 812.

12 For Rutger's land holdings see Pearson, Jonathan, trans, and Laer, A.J.F. van, ed., Early Records of Albany (4 vols., Albany 1869-1919) I, 279, 291Google Scholar; as interpreter ibid., 3, 51. Rutger served three two-year terms as magistrate of the Court of Fort Orange and Beverwijck; his service is found throughout in:Gehring, Charles T., trans, and ed., Fort Orange Court Minutes, 1652–1660 (Syracuse 1990)Google Scholar. His four terms as elder of the Reformed Church are found throughout the unpaged Deacons' Account Books held in the New York State Archives at Albany.

13 Grotius, Hugo, The Jurisprudence of Holland, Lee, R.W., trans. (Oxford 1926) 23, 121–123, 125–127Google Scholar, andLee, R.W., An Introduction to Roman-Dutch Law (Oxford 1953) 63Google Scholar.

14 Grotius, , The Jurisprudence of Holland, 31Google Scholar, and Lee, , An Introduction to Roman-Dutch Law, 64Google Scholar.

15 A.Th. van Deursen discusses the need for wives to work in Holland and some of their occupations. see Van Deursen, , Plan Lives in a Golden Age: Popular Culture, Religion and Society in Seventeenth-Century Holland (Cambridge 1991) 8–10.Google Scholar

16 For Beverwijck see Shattuck, , A Civil Society, 162–163.Google Scholar New Amsterdam's women are based on my count of the court records for 1656 in: Fernow, Berthold, ed., The Records of New Amsterdam (7 vols., Reprint, Baltimore 1976) II, 1–254 (hereafter cited as UNA).Google Scholar

17 For Lydia's appearances in Wiltwijck and Beverwijck see for exampleGehring, , Fort Orange Court Minutes, 446Google Scholar , and Versteeg, Dingman, trans., Christoph, Peter R., Scott, Kenneth and Stryker-Rodda, Kenn, eds., Kingston Papers (2 vols., Baltimore 1976) II, 488Google Scholar.

18 For Maria Polett see RNA, II, 333, 363. For Margaret Hardenbroeck see Biemer, Linda Briggs, Women and Property in Colonial New York; The Transition from Dutch to English Law, 1643–1727 (Ann Arbor, Mich. 1983) 33, 36Google Scholar. Beimer's chapter on Margaret contains a thorough discussion of her trading enterprises.

19 For examples of stringing sewant see Gehring, , Fort Orange Court Minutes, 420, and RNA, I, 137.Google Scholar ForGerrits, Barentje see RNA, IV, 142–143.Google Scholar

20 van Laer, A.J.F., trans, and ed.. Correspondence of jeremias van Rensselaer, 1651–1674 (Albany 1932) 407.Google Scholar

21 Ibid., 377–378, 413.

22 Corwin, E.T., ed., Eccesiastical Records of the State of New York (7 vols., Albany 1901-1916) I, 385.Google Scholar

23 Shattuck, , A Civil Society, 185.Google Scholar

24 Here, as throughout the article, I have drawn the occupations from both the court records of New Amsterdam and Fort Orange/Beverwijck.

25 The description of Margaret's enterprises and marriages are drawn from Beimer's, Women and Property in Colonial New York, 32–43Google Scholar . A contemporary view by two Labidists of Margaret's actions as a supercargo on one of her ships is throughout the first chapter of Dankers, Jaspar and Sluyter's, PeterJournal of a Voyage to New York and a Tour in Several of the American Colonies in 1679–80 (Brooklyn 1867)Google Scholar.

26 Pearson, , Early Records of Albany, III, 272.Google Scholar