hi everybody today we'll be moving on from the spanish narrative of colonial history to focus on the french and dutch experiences in the new world when the french first arrived on the shores of north america in the late 16th and early 17th century they explored the land surrounding the saint lawrence river which we can find toward the top right of our first map image here where quebec and montreal and canada are today almost immediately they found two profitable commodities that guaranteed further french colonization fish and especially animal furs the fur trade would ultimately bind europeans and indians together in a never-ending cycle of mutual dependency in their cultures and languages the indians the french encountered in north america were divided into algonquin and iroquois peoples centrally located the iroquoian peoples as we can see indicated on the map here clustered around lake ontario and along the st lawrence valley to the east or the susquehanna valley to the south the iroquoians were surrounded by an even larger and more diverse array of algonquin speakers who occupied the atlantic seaboard as we can make out from this french colonial map all the way from labrador near the top right all the way down toward the carolinas and along the northern and western margins of iroquois all the way to lake superior toward the center of the map here the iroquoians practiced a mixed economy in which hunting and gathering supplemented a highly productive horticulture that sustained many large and permanent villages a similar way of life prevailed among the more southern algonquins along the coast from new england to the carolinas the northern algonquins however lacked horticulture and were more mobile and dispersed relying on a seasonally shifting round of fishing hunting and gathering over broad cold territories during the late 16th century the french took an early lead in the fur trade by establishing a summer presence on the northern shore and near the mouth of the saint lawrence river the french traders developed alliances with the northern algonquins especially as we can see if we return to this image for a moment the mcmac and the montagne peoples on the top right corner of the map it was through their nexus in the early 1600s that the french were drawn up the saint lawrence valley to the great lakes where they contacted the huron people so we can see from this image the huron were a numerous and prosperous people with an iroquoian culture here we have a artist's interpretation of a huron warrior and uh huron village with its immense iroquois longhouses seen from the outside and from the inside by allying themselves with the northern algonquins and ultimately the french in the fur trade the huron broke with their fellow iroquoians known as the five nations who dwelled south of lake ontario because they offered such high value per volume animal furs especially beaver furs were an ideal colonial commodity from the french and later europeans perspective rendered scarce in europe by over hunting furs commanded high prices for making hats and for trimming fine clothes further since indians voluntarily performed the hard work of hunting the animals and treating their furs traders could immediately profit in america without the time trouble expense and violence of conquering indians to reorganize their labor and mines or on plantations here we have a painting depicting a negotiation over furs between traders and indian representatives at first the indians pursued the trade within their own cultural parameters living within an animistic conception of the cosmos as opposed to the capitalist notion of an economy indians thought of all objects material as well as living stones as well as beavers as possessed of some spiritual power initially the northeastern indians conducted the trade through their chiefs in the traditional form as a ritualized exchange of gifts to symbolize friendship trust and alliance because europeans thought of the fur trade as purely commercial and distinct from diplomacy they initially balked at the indian notion that trade sealed an alliance between equals although impatient with these formalities the wiser traders complied just as the french adapted to indian trade protocols indians began to think of the goods as commodities with negotiable prices they learned for example never to trade with the first vessel to come their way but to await several to compete for their furs the natives became adept at driving a hard bargain much to the dismay of the french and later europeans as coastal traders proliferated their goods became cheaper more ubiquitous and demystified indians came to value the trade goods more for their utility than their shine they appreciated the superior strength and cutting edge of metal arrowheads axes knives and hatchets all useful as both tools and his weapons ironer brass kettles facilitated cooking and metal hoes ease the work of tilling maize beans and squash all these items eased the strain and reduced the duration of native work unable to make the wonderful new things themselves the indians found that they could get them by increasing their hunting the northern algonquin peoples began to hunt throughout the year by the mid 1600s the trade goods indian indians desired were sufficiently common that the northeastern algonquin peoples had forsaken their stone tools and weapons and the craft skills needed to produce them if cut off from trade now natives faced deprivation hunger and destruction by their enemies by enhancing the indians needs the fur trade increased their demands upon the environment no longer hunting only to feed and clothe themselves but also to supply an international market the indians had to kill more animals especially beaver its market incentives overwhelmed the inhibitions of animistic beliefs indian hunters killed animals at an unprecedented rate that depleted their numbers upon wiping out their local beaver indians extended their hunting into the territories of their neighbors provoking new and more desperate conflicts initially the luxuries the trade goods became necessities of survival in a much more violent world the new weapons increased the stakes of warfare indians had long conducted sporadic and limited wars inflicting a few casualties every year the new weapons however enabled the well-armed to destroy their trade poor neighbors in addition to providing enlarged hunting grounds such conquests endowed victors with captive women and children to replace the hundreds lost to the new diseases introduced by the traders the people who lost captives and hunting territory faced obliteration although the fur trade pitted indians against one another in an ongoing destructive competition no people could opt out of the vicious combination of violence and commerce as a matter of life and death every native people tried to attract european traders first french then others and work to keep them away from their indian enemies the more vulnerable and distant indians felt compelled to break through to the traders who were always happy to recruit new customers as competitors in a capitalist marketplace the traders always needed more hunters and more pelts and as they found out the more distant and desperate indian peoples gave more furs for fewer trade goods the factor which of course guaranteed larger profits it was a traitor soldier cartographer explorer and diplomat named samuel de champlain who led the french effort to establish a permanent colony called new france on the saint lawrence river here we have a artist's interpretation of champlain in this sketch he recognized immediately that french success depended upon creating an alliance with the network of indian peoples throughout the region during the summer of 1608 champlain built a small fortified trading post at quebec in 1627 after nearly two decades of colonization the settlement of new france still had only 85 columnists all of them men and all at quebec cultivating just 17 acres they relied upon a steady stream of french supply ships for much of their food and they depended on indian goodwill for their survival and prosperity here we have a sketch of the original settlement at quebec the saint lawrence valley's montagne and mcmak bands allowed their huron allies access to the french traders at quebec the huron were welcome primarily because their villages lay at the strategic portage between lake huron and the ottawa river northwestern tributary of the saint lawrence that was the trade gateway to the western great lakes by framing an alliance to control the east-west trade the montenegron excluded and alienated the five nations iroquois determined to take trade goods captives and revenge the five nations iroquois frequently raided northward to afflict the montagne mcmak and huron which hurt the french trade small in numbers and dependent on the fur trade the franchise quebec needed good relations with their suppliers and hosts the montagne the mcmax and the hurons they could not afford to bully to dispossess or to enslave the indians instead they needed them as suppliers of furs a role that the natives were eager to perform because they were so few the french did not require much land putting little pressure on the region's indians who had more territory than they needed after the epidemics of the 17th century as their price of business and protection the montagne mcmack and huron expected the french to help them fight the five nations iroquois here we have an image of huron warriors going into battle armed with french guns and metal weapons compelled to choose the french embraced the alliance with their northern indian protectors and suppliers of furs and made southern enemies of the iroquois the iroquois identified the french with their enemies and they saw the importance of disrupting their fur trade otherwise the huron the montagne and the mikmaq would grow ever more powerful with french trade goods and weapons unfortunately for the french the five nations iroquois were especially formidable enemies who lived in large fortified hilltop villages as we can see in this image and what is today upstate new york west of the hudson river south of lake ontario and east of lake erie the five nations iroquois were from east to west the mohawk the oneida the onondaga the cayuga and the seneca in their immense villages iroquois women cultivated large and productive fields of maize beans and squash producing an abundant surplus that freed their young men to pursue war here we have an artist's interpretation of some mohawk warriors more than any other northeastern people the five nations iroquois could sustain long distance and large scale raids against multiple enemies the huron could nearly match the horticultural surplus and devotion to war but the montagne and mikmak were hunter gatherers who could not success in war boosted male prestige and influence creating powerful incentives for young men to prove themselves against outsiders plunder and increased hunting territories were important but secondary benefits and wars meant primarily to obtain scalps and prisoners from the enemy by adopting or by torturing prisoners warriors maintain the power of their people which was understood to be both spiritual and numeric any individual's death diminished the collective power of his or her lineage clan village and nation provoking powerful and angry bursts of grief especially by female relatives natives feared that their dead would linger about the village inflicting disease and misfortune unless appeased with loud and expressive mourning to draw the bereaved out of their agony and to encourage dead spirits to proceed to their afterlife neighbors staged condolence rituals with feasts and presents the best present of all was a war captive meant to replace the dead to appease grief to restore power and to build their own status iroquois warriors conducted so-called mourning wars in which they sought prisoners from their enemies here we have an artist's interpretation of a morning war ritual the chiefs of iroquois villages distributed captives to grieving matrilineages whose elder women decided their fate adoption or death the matrons usually adopted women and children who were more readily and easily assimilated adult male prisoners as the image indicates more often face death by torture especially if they'd already received some crippling wound inflicting death as slowly and painfully as possible the iroquois tied their victim to a stake and villagers of both genders and all ages took turns wielding knives torches and red-hot pokers systematically to torment and burn him to death the ceremony was a contest between the skills of the torturers and the stoic endurance of the victim who manifested his own power and that of his people by insulting his captors and boasting of his own accomplishments in war after the captive died the women butchered his remains cast them into cooking kettles and served the stew to the entire village so that all could be bound together in absorbing and consuming the dead warriors power by practicing ceremonial torture and cannibalism the iroquois promoted group cohesion hardened their adolescent boys for the cruelties of war and dramatized their contempt for outsiders a captive chosen for adoption usually endured the early less debilitating stages of torture before being rescued and suddenly lavished with affection that sudden alteration served psychologically to bond the relieved captive with the captors given the name of a recently deceased iroquois the adoptee had to embrace that identity the successful could enjoy considerable prestige and even become in time honored chiefs or matrons the resistant reaped the dishonor of a sudden and unceremonious death blow from a hatchet probably first introduced by the iroquois peoples the rituals of torture and adoption had spread to their algonquin neighbors to become common throughout the northeast long before the european invasion although horrifying to european witnesses the torments of morning war rituals had their counterparts and modern you know the early modern european period where thousands of suspected heretics witches and rebels were publicly tortured to death either burned at the stake slowly broken on a wheel or pulled apart by horses the 17th century in short was a merciless time for the defeated on both sides of the atlantic unfortunately for the french and their indian allies in august of 1609 their situation worsened when henry hudson who we have here in this image an english mariner working for the dutch ascended the river that would later be named after him to initiate a fur trade with the mohawks formerly at a geographic disadvantage and seeking access to the trade goods of the st lawrence valley the iroquois suddenly enjoyed immediate proximity on the hudson river to the dutch europe's premiere manufacturers and traders in 1614 a dutch company established a year-round trading post on the upper hudson river near present-day albany new york initially called fort nassau and later fort orange this fortified post on the hudson was the dutch equivalent of french quebec on the st lawrence river the dutch could supply better quality metal goods at a lower cost than the french could moreover the dutch at fort orange which we have an artist rendition of here in this image more quickly offered guns to their indian customers although occupied by the dutch fort orange functioned as an asset almost a possession of the iroquois the five nations acquired growing quantities of dutch weapons now better armed than their montagne mcmak and huron enemies the iroquois were able to escalate their northern raids ironically the french came to depend upon iroquois hostility as a barrier that kept the northern indians from traveling south to trade with the dutch the french recognized that they could not compete with the you know overall quality quantity or the low prices of dutch trade goods therefore a prolonged piece with the iroquois would tempt northern indians to carry their furs to fort orange for shipment to amsterdam to the detriment of quebec and paris the french could ill afford friendship with the iroquois although they paid a heavy price and death and destruction for their enmity the five nations iroquois became equally ambivalent about peace with the french the iroquois usually preferred to steal furs from their northern enemies to take to fort orange rather than permit them as friends a free passage to the dutch traders because the northern indians possessed better furs coming from colder climates they would in the event of peace become the preferred clients and customers of the dutch to the detriment of the iroquois as inferior suppliers of furs the iroquois had a perverse common interest with the french an inferior source of manufactured goods they both the french and the iroquois tacitly worked to keep apart the best suppliers of furs the northern indians and the best suppliers of manufactured goods the dutch in effect during most of the 17th century the iroquois and the french needed one another as enemies although tempted by anger to obliterate each other neither could do so and cooler heads in both camps recognized a certain mutual interest and the survival of the other it may have been the fur trade that launched new france but the colony was sustained by a catholic bid to convert the indians by converting the indians to catholicism french leaders hope to make the natives more dependent and dependable as allies and as trading partners the missionaries meant to steal a march on the protestant heretics by converting the world's heathen peoples to catholicism the missionaries also worried that thousands of indians faced an eternity in hell for one of christianity these concerns loosened the purse strings of devout and wealthy french men and women who funded missions and convents in new france in 1615 the french launched their first effort to evangelize the indians sending four priests of the rickale order the french branch of the franciscans to try and convert the montagne but the regulates faced grave difficulties and intending to far-flung and highly mobile northern indians unlike the pueblo of new mexico the northern indians of the saint lawrence valley enjoyed the upper hand in their alliance and could safely treat priests with indifference or even contempt overmatched by the hardships the distances and the indifference of the montagne the four recolet priests managed in 10 years to baptize only 50 natives almost all on their deathbeds and hedging their eternal bets the missionary cause obtained critical reinforcements in 1625 and 1626 with the arrival of eight priests of the jesuit order wearing long dark robes the jesuits became known to the indians as the black robes here we have a painting depicting a jesuit ministering among the indians with the distinctive long black robe that the indians named them for better organized better financed and trained for the missionary service the jesuits took the lead as the reckless faded instead of pursuing the poor and mobile montagne near quebec the jesuits proceeded farther west to target the more prosperous and settled huron the jesuits benefited from the growing french influence over the huron as they became more dependent on trade the huron became more susceptible to french pressure in 1634 champlain obliged the reluctant huron to accept jesuit priests as his price for continued trade compared with other european missionaries the jesuits proceeded more patiently and cleverly in trying to convert the indians rather than compel native peoples to learn french the jesuits mastered indian languages most jesuits like the spanish franciscans among the pueblo of new mexico astonished the natives with their single-minded dedication and their lack of interest in the land furs and women that other europeans coveted as the jesuits gathered a following they slowly began to demand more cultural concessions from their huron converts the jesuits denounced torture and ritual cannibalism as well as premarital sex divorce polygamy and traditional games feasts and dances ultimately the growing numbers of christian converts and the escalating demands of the priests undermined the unity and the morale of the huron villages some huron leaders argued for breaking with the french killing the priests and making peace with the five nations iroquois but most chiron felt they could not live without trade and alliance with the french to retain both the huron had to keep hosting the dangerous and divisive jesuits their decision attracted mounting attacks from the five nations well armed now with dutch muskets [Music] in the mid 17th century iroquois warfare dramatically increased to nearly genocidal proportions devastating their native enemies and imperiling the french colony at no previous time had native peoples attacked and killed each other on the scale and with the ferocity of the iroquois during the 1640s and 1650s dutch guns enabled the iroquois to take the offensive while dutch introduced pathogens increased deaths escalating the frequency the distance the bloodshed and the captive taking of morning wars as the iroquois desperately tried to restore their numbers and spiritual power lest both ebb and their enemies triumph in 1648 and 1649 iroquois warriors stormed the huron villages killing and capturing hundreds during the assaults jesuit priests hurriedly baptized all they could reach before they too were hacked or burned to death by 1650 the huron villages had all been destroyed or abandoned the massive influx of captives barely covered the continuing five nation losses to disease and war in 1657 a french priest visited the iroquois and concluded that adopted captives had become a majority new france in the end proved far more violent and precarious and much less profitable than champlain had hoped in pursuit of fur trade profits the french by the 1650s had been drawn into a complex world of native alliances and enemies that compelled unanticipated investments in both lives and money at the same time they along with the dutch and as we'll learn soon enough the english unleashed forces of disease trade and war that fundamentally disordered and sometimes destroyed the native peoples of north america one question that's worth exploring more is just how did the dutch become so powerful over the first half of the 17th century it was precisely in this period that the netherlands emerged as an economic and military giant out of all proportions to its confined geography and small population of one and a half million possessing europe's most efficient merchant marine and fishing fleet the dutch in 1670 employed 120 000 sailors on vessels totaling 568 000 tons more than the combined shipping of spain france and england the dutch economy also benefited from a liberal government that adopted policies of intellectual freedom and religious toleration unique in 17th century europe while the other european states were developing authoritarian and centralized monarchies the dutch opted for a decentralized republic dominated by wealthy merchants and rural aristocrats each of the seven provinces in the dutch confederation enjoyed domestic autonomy but the most populous and prosperous province holland usually determined the nation's military and foreign policies seeking uniformity most european realms persecuted religious dissidents often expelling minorities the dutch welcomed those outcasts including french protestants and iberian and german jews reaping their talents and their investments european intellectuals also gravitated to amsterdam because the dutch allowed greater latitude to new ideas the combination of republican government religious toleration naval power colonial trade and a manufacturing boom endowed the dutch with the greatest national wealth and the highest standard of living in europe it was during the 1570s that dutch warships like the one we see in this painting first began to prey on spanish and portuguese shipping and colonies and to build their own lucrative and far-flung empire by capturing fortified ports in the east indies where indonesia is today and ceylon today sri lanka the dutch supplanted the portuguese as the primary carriers of the especially valuable spice and silk trade from asia to europe during the early and middle 17th century the dutch also took over from the portuguese control of the other two great and interconnected forms of imperial commerce conducted by europeans the export of sugar from american plantations and the transportation of slaves from west africa to cultivate that sugar in 1637 the dutch captured elmena castle the principal portuguese fortified trading post on the west coast of africa after 1640 most of the slaves sent to the americas went in dutch rather than portuguese vessels enriching the merchants of amsterdam rather than those of lisbon by 1650 the dutch reaped most of the prophets taken in european commerce with china india africa brazil and the caribbean in turn that commerce stimulated the further development of manufacturers in holland to supply outgoing cargos and to build more ships for commerce and war in 1614 dutch traders as we noted earlier established a year-round presence on the upper hudson river at fort orange during the late 1620s the fort had only about 50 dutch inhabitants about half fur traders and half soldiers all of them employees of the monopolistic dutch west india company the company recognized that it needed populist settlements to protect the mouth of the hudson without strength in numbers to guard the colony's entrance the furs at fort orange would attempt easy seizure by french or english warships in the lower hudson valley farms also could help the company by producing grain cattle and lumber to supply the fur traders at fort orange and to ship to the dutch west indies to feed the slaves on the sugar plantations in 1625 the dutch founded the fortified town of new amsterdam on manhattan island at the mouth of the hudson river here we have a couple of artistic interpretations of what the town looked like in its early dutch days possessing the finest harbor on the atlantic seaboard new amsterdam served as the colony's largest town major seaport and government headquarters the settlement of new netherland just as in the mother country welcomed many religious dissenters and the dutch west india company always defended tolerance as best for business thanks primarily to this religious tolerance new netherland became the most religiously and ethnically mixed colony in north america in fact the dutch were a minority in their own colony in 1643 a french priest visiting new amsterdam heard 18 different languages some european some indian and some african new netherland attracted immigrants from belgium france scandinavia and especially germany in general they'd migrated to live and work in holland before making the further journey across the atlantic most immigrants were family groups of modest memes farmers and artisans also in the early years of the settlement as we can get an idea of from this sketch about a tenth of the population consisted of africans mostly slaves owned by the dutch west india company they labored at constructing wharfs and buildings and loading and unloading ships the company rewarded favored slaves with a status called half freedom which permitted autonomous movement within the colony and the rights to marry and own private property in return for an annual payment and grain furs or as we see in this image wampum decorative cylindrical beads made from seashells that indians often used as a form of currency and for diplomacy over the early years of the colony's existence the slave population steadily increased with the dutch succession to control of the atlantic slave trade in the mid 17th century new amsterdam not virginia or the carolinas became the original slave trading capital in north america primarily employed as domestic servants by the wealthy merchant class of new amsterdam or as agricultural laborers by planters and the lower hudson valley the slave population of new netherlands over time became a serious security risk for the colony as their numbers grew africans ability to sustain their own cultures and potentially plot rebellion increased and increased as well new amsterdam encouraged agricultural settlement in its vicinity to the east on long island to the north beside the hudson into the west in present-day new jersey the colony effectively became divided between a small fur trading post upriver and larger agricultural settlements on the lower river the division led to different indian policies and the two halves of the hudson river valley up river the dutch were too few and too dependent upon trade to intimidate their native neighbors the five nations iroquois terrifying as enemies but invaluable as trading partners the iroquois determined the success or failure of the trading post fort orange became as much an iroquois as a dutch asset this upriver respect for iroquois power contrasted with the dutch treatment of the hudson river indians a disunited set of algonquian-speaking bands compared with the iroquois the algonquins of the lower hudson valley contributed little to the fur trade and their warriors were fewer and less well-equipped with firearms because the down river dutch came in substantial numbers to develop farms they also regarded the algonquins as a nuisance best removed as quickly as possible on the lower hudson the dutch could indulge in the ethnocentrism that they had to restrain on the upper river come to trade or to farm the dutch made virtually no missionary effort in contrast to the french and the spanish the dutch regarded missions as an unnecessary expense if not an impediment to free trade with the natives who preferred their traditional beliefs and disliked meddling missionaries the dutch counted on the high quality and low prices of their goods to attract indian trade in the lower hudson valley growing numbers of colonists clashed with the local algonquins their roving pigs and cattle invaded cornfields provoking the natives to kill and eat the livestock which of course outraged the settlers in 1655 1659 and 1660 as well as in 1663 and 1664 the dutch devastated the algonquians who lost most of their lands despite an appealing location and a relatively tolerant society at least for europeans the dutch colony failed to attract enough settlers to adequately defend itself thinly populated new netherland proved vulnerable when the dutch and english empires came to blows no longer united as fellow protestants against the superior power of spain the english and dutch became violent rivals in global commerce during the 1650s and 1660s as the english aggressively pressed their own armed trading ships into the oceans around africa and india they upset the dutch the rulers of england also resented that the more efficient dutch shippers it captured most of the lucrative trades exporting tobacco and sugar from the english colonies in the chesapeake and west indies to maximize their own profits the tobacco and sugar planters preferred dutch shippers who charged 33 percent less than their english competitors to curtail the dutch colonial carrying trade the english parliament adopted a provocative and imperialist program known as the navigation acts dutch success taught the english that an expanding colonial commerce depended on naval power and that naval might hinged upon the revenues collected from overseas trade begun in 1651 and strengthened in 1660 and again in 1663 the navigation axe had three fundamental principles first only english ships could trade with any english colony second the navigation act specified that a few quote enumerated commodities produced in the colonies could be shipped only to the mother country the acts enumerated those commodities that yielded the greatest profit to merchants and the highest revenues to the customs meaning primarily tobacco and sugar colonial ships were free to take their other produce where they wanted the third thing that the navigation act stipulated was that all european goods carried to the colonies had to pass through an english port first such as the one depicted here and this painting where they paid customs duties if a virginian wanted a bottle of french wine it had to come via england after passing through a british port it could not come direct from paris violators of the acts risked the confiscation of their ships and cargoes in some the navigation acts sought to enhance customs revenue collected in england to increase the flow of commerce enriching english merchants to stimulate english ship building and maximize the number of english sailors swelling the reserve for the royal navy enforced by an expanding naval power and a more diligent custom service the navigation acts promoted the dramatic growth of english overseas commerce english merchant shipping more than doubled from 150 000 tons in 1640 to about 340 000 tons in 1686. in 1600 england had been an insular and agricultural nation trading mostly with nearby northern europe by 1700 england's commerce was complex and global as london competed successfully with amsterdam for american produce and for asian luxuries in 1664 england sent a naval expedition to conquer new netherland king charles ii who we have here meant to eliminate new amsterdam as a base for the dutch shippers who traded with virginia to capture the fur trade conducted on the upper hudson and to erase new netherland as an obstruction between the english chesapeake and the new england colonies the king also wanted to reward his younger brother who we have captured in this portrait painting james stewart the duke of york with possession of the conquest as a proprietary colony new netherland could not resist as we see depicted in this image the arrival of three english warships bearing 300 soldiers fearing the destruction of their town and property the intimidated dutch refused to fight obliging the enraged governor peter stuyvesant to surrender a moment captured in this sketch new netherland was renamed new york and the english succeeded to control not just of the colony but of the fur trade conducted at fort orange except where they were obliged by the imposition of english law however the dutch resisted assimilation to english culture the diverse array of ethnic groups in the colony continued to rally around a dutch identity and the dutch language well into the 1700s the dutch reformed church remained as a cultural haven from the english-dominated government not until the mid-18th century did most of the dutch colonists begin to adopt the english language and customs the same year as the english takeover 1664 the duke of york granted the lands between the hudson and the delaware rivers as a distinct new colony called new jersey he awarded new jersey to two english noblemen to further his political interests but in 1673 and 1682 they sold out to two sets of investors one scottish and the other led by english quakers the purchasers divided new jersey into two still smaller colonies east and west jersey the scots took east jersey near new york while the quakers obtained west jersey along the delaware english quakers primarily colonized west jersey while east jersey became especially multi-ethnic the different ethnic mixes in the two jerseys produced distinctive political divisions and a similar contentiousness along ethnic and religious lines in 1702 the british crown reunited east and west jersey as the royal colony of new jersey relatively small and poor new jersey remained economically dominated and politically overshadowed by its wealthier more numerous and more powerful two neighbors new york to the northeast and pennsylvania to the southwest especially after the english conquest that turned new amsterdam into new york in 1664 the size of the colony continued to grow exponentially not just due to english immigration but also the ongoing importation of african slaves here we have a sketch of a slave market in new york around the turn of the century in 1700. overwhelmingly most male slaves were sent to the lower hudson valley to work the farms of wealthy planters as agricultural laborers where female slaves were kept in the city as domestic servants to affluent white families undeterred rural black men traveled across land and water to join with their women in the city for frolics drinking and dancing in new york's vast number of taverns and bars notorious hangouts for white servants free blacks and slaves here we have a 1658 painting of a tavern scene that gives us some idea what these establishments look like from the inside colonial assemblies responded to these gatherings at bars between working class and poor whites free blacks and slaves with a series of measures restricting taverns from serving alcohol to enslave people soon other laws restricted things like the holding of funerals after dark gatherings of blacks on sundays or at any time in numbers larger than four if blacks traveled at night they had to carry a lantern so that local whites would know a black person was walking through their neighborhood injunctions were imposed against the buying and selling of stolen goods these laws pointed to the existence of a dangerous and diverse subculture of crime and class resistance in colonial new york composed of lower class whites such as tavern keepers and indentured servants free blacks and slaves without question free blacks in the city hosted a rising slave culture in their impromptu unlicensed taverns authorities tried vainly to halt slave celebrations such as the one we see depicted in this painting they tried to bar slaves from taverns on sundays and city magistrates ordered that free blacks be fined for serving liquor to slaves but such laws were virtually unenforceable because white tapsters were also willing to make money by serving drinks to slaves and by fencing their stolen goods momentarily free from colonial religious and political control blacks and the taverns created early forms of african american music and dance northern blacks during the colonial era constructed music for bar room frolics using drums rattles horns and as we see in this painting the banjo they played african songs mixed with european popular songs and music white authorities took a dim view of these celebrations the black sunday romps would continue in new york into the 1690s ultimately white authorities in the colony responded with a harsher slave code that restricted manumissions that is the freeing of slaves and outlawed the holding of real property even by free blacks this effectively consigned any slave lucky enough to be freed to a life of poverty so long as they remained in the colony as new york and new jersey laws increasingly restricted black liberties reaction and resistance grew on april 1st 1712 a group of black conspirators set fire to a house occupied by a white family in new york and when the door was opened by the panicked occupants they were subsequently shot down and stabbed in the street a moment we can get an impression of from our last sketch here eight were killed white new yorkers reacted brutally after finally routing the conspirators from the woods north of town local authorities convened special courts which were held through the remainder of april and may after hurried trials juries condemned 21 blacks 18 of whom were executed the condemned met their demise through a variety of tortures some faced breaking on the wheel others being burned alive hanging in chains or hanging by the neck bodies and heads were displayed for weeks as a deterrent to similar crimes in the future by 1700 slavery was a core legal economic and social system in both new york and new jersey as free blacks found their rights being eroded the number of enslaved africans continued to grow steadily when avenues to freedom became more and more restricted ultimately blacks reacted violently in response local authorities enacted harsher slave codes that ensnared future generations of africans into permanent bondage and unwittingly setting the stage for worse conflicts on the horizon all right so that does it for our discussion of the french and dutch colonial experience in north america and we've started to introduce the english narrative of colonial history which is where we'll pick things up next time