![]() ![]() Unlike the names of enslavers like Livingston, Philipse, Van Cortland, and Van Rensselaer, the names and the lives of those in bondage often only appear in bills of sale, in runaway ads, or in lists of property. Their names fill our history books, dominating the politics of the colony even as we have largely forgotten about the great manors they once commanded.Īs the manor system faded from popular memory, so too did recognition of the enslaved African labor that supported it. ![]() New York’s manor lords, like the Philipses, accumulated great wealth from the ownership of huge swaths of land, wealth that gave them the power to shape the world to their liking. Each of these practices would take root, winding their way deeply into the colony’s legal system down to the bedrock structure of New York society. To serve this profit-driven approach, the Dutch West India Company imported two institutions that would shape the culture of New York for centuries: the European manor system and the enslavement of Africans. European colonial motivations, conversely, emphasized resource extraction to enrich faraway governments and investors. The Munsee tradition of land use sought to produce a cycle of stability. ![]()
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