The law did not immediately free any enslaved people. Instead, it guaranteed that children born to enslaved mothers after July 4, 1799 would be technically free but continue to live under their mother’s enslavers as indentured servants until they reached the age of 28 for males or 25 for females. 

The document that endentures Bet a negro wench of Jacob Tice aged 2 years 4 months to Tobias Ten Eyck in Montgomery County, NY

Additional resources for African Research in New Netherland and Early Dutch New York

Studying African presence in Euro American colonial history is about striking a balance between acknowledging the horrors of slavery and finding the traces of humanity and resilience in the archive.

New Netherland and Dutch New York overlapped with the territories of many different Native peoples, all with particular social and political customs who had long pre-colonial histories of diplomacy with one another.

The Mohawk who made this land deal with the Anglo-Dutch settler Johannis Minderse, are one of the six nations of the Haudenosaunee, a group often mistakenly referred to as the Iroquois Confederacy.

Transcription and image of original document, Mohawl Deed of 1730

Resources for Native Americans and New Netherland and Dutch New York

Sources & Citations This digital project, Voyages of New Netherland (1609–1664), offers a richly detailed database tracing roughly 250 voyages of over 150 ships between...

The database records details on voyages of ships that made port in New Netherland for the years 1609-1664. (This period covers Dutch control of New...

This table shows a family of mariners moving up through a sailing hierarchy. The shared patronymic, Reyersz (son of Reyer), indicates that these men may...

Explore New Netherland through its ships—voyages shown by year A Timeline of Voyages to New Netherland This timeline  tells the story of New Netherland through...