Description
Book SynopsisIn Spaces of Enslavement, Andrea C. Mosterman addresses the persistent myth that the colonial Dutch system of slavery was more humane.
Investigating practices of enslavement in New Netherland and then in New York, Mosterman shows that these ways of racialized spatial control held much in common with the southern plantation societies.
In the 1620s, Dutch colonial settlers brought slavery to the banks of the Hudson River and founded communities from New Amsterdam in the south to Beverwijck near the terminus of the navigable river. When Dutch power in North America collapsed and the colony came under English control in 1664, Dutch descendants continued to rely on enslaved labor. Until 1827, when slavery was abolished in New York State, slavery expanded in the region, with all free New Yorkers benefitting from that servitude.
Mosterman describes how the movements of enslaved persons were controlled in homes and in public spaces such as works
Table of Contents
Introduction: A Spatial Analysis of Slavery in Dutch New York
1. Enslaved Labor and the Settling of New Netherland
2. The Geography of Enslaved Life in New Netherland
3. Control and Resistance in the Public Space
4. Enslavement and the Dual Nature of the Home
5. Slavery and Social Power in Dutch Reformed Churches
Conclusion: A More Benign System of Slavery?
