“Twenty-Two of the Healthiest Blacks”; The Ship Bruynvisch and the First Arrival of Enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam in 1627
By Jaap Jacobs
In early January 1627, the Bruynvisch, a small, fast-sailing warship of 117 tons, nine guns, and a crew of 37, commanded by captain Jan Reyersz Swart sailed from Amsterdam. Almost eight months later, on August 29 th , it arrived at Manhattan, carrying the first group of enslaved African Americans to what would become New York. This is its story. [1]
Dutch West India Company Privateering
The Dutch West India Company prepared to send out several ships in late 1626 and early 1627. The Amsterdam Chamber equipped three yachts, including the Bruynvisch. The Chamber Zeeland equipped a three-ship flotilla whose first task was to transport a group of colonists to the Oyapock River in what is now French Guyana and renew attempts to begin a colony after earlier failures. They then sailed for the Caribbean. The planned rendezvous with the Amsterdam ships eventually took place north of the Guajira Peninsula on the Venezuelan coast on 4 May 1627. The Zeeland ships had been instructed to cruise between the Cabo de la Vela and the Cabo de Coquibocoa, while the Amsterdam yachts sailed westward to Santa Martha. They agreed to meet again four weeks later at Cabo de la Vela. When the Amsterdam and Zeeland ships met up again, the latter:
had in the meantime captured a Portuguese ship, coming from São Tomé with 225 Blacks, and as the ship was very leaky and they did not know what to do with the Blacks, they took only twenty-two of the healthiest Blacks and what else they could use, and let the ship with the others sail on. [2]
The aim of taking “only twenty-two of the healthiest Blacks” was to provide the Oyapock colony with enslaved labor, at the request of the colony’s leader, captain Jan van Ryen. The combined fleet tried to sail east, but after ten days of fruitless tacking against the strong Caribbean Current they decided to set course for Hispaniola to prepare for the next phase in the plan outlined in their instructions: attacking richly laden Spanish ships sailing to Europe through the Straits of Florida. The two large Zeeland ships were better equipped for this task than the smaller yachts, which were mostly used for reconnoitering and communication. In the case of a major sea battle, the presence of captives would hinder the larger Zeeland ships and there would not be time to move them from one ship to another. The fleet anchored for eleven days between Île-à-Vache and Hispaniola to take in fresh water. They also transferred cargo and people from one ship to another. At least one crew member of the Zeeland ships, Marijn Adriaensz van Veere, transferred with the twenty-two African captives to the yacht Bruynvisch, one of the smallest ships in the fleet.
Sailing on westward, the fleet anchored at Cabo Corrientes on the south coast of Cuba. The main body sailed to Cabo San Antonio, the western-most point of Cuba, leaving the Bruynvisch and a Zealand yacht at Cabo Corrientes. This was part of a preconceived tactical plan, which involved the major ships laying in wait north of Havana, and the two yachts acting as scouts to cover the Florida Straits. Their task would be to alert the main force when an important target was sighted. Yet the plan failed. The Zeeland ships rounded Cabo San Antonio and cruised in the waters west of Havana When they spotted two large Spanish ships to the south they prepared to engage. A fierce and bloody battle ensued, in which one of the Spanish ships, the San Antonio, was captured. Keen to avoid Spanish counterattacks, the Zeeland ships then quickly sailed for home.
Meanwhile, the Bruynvisch and the Zeeland yacht remained at Cabo Corrientes on the south side of Cuba for several weeks, ignorant of the great victory that their compatriots had achieved north of Cuba. Departing from Cabo Corrientes and rounding the western point of Cuba, the two ships arrived off Havana in late July and spotted three Spanish galleons. Attacking three galleons with two hundred to three hundred men and at least twenty guns each was obviously beyond the powers of the two Dutch yachts. The captains of the two Dutch yachts agreed to proceed further south, probably to keep an eye on the Spanish ships while hoping to alert the larger Zeeland ships which, unbeknownst to them, were by this time well on their way back to Europe. During the night, the yachts lost contact with each other. Thereupon the Bruynvisch turned north and sailed to the agreed point of rendezvous off the Florida coast. But the Zeeland yacht did not turn up. After waiting a few days, captain Jan Reyersz Swart decided that he could not hang around any longer. So he sailed to north to New Amsterdam. Johannes de Laet informs us of the subsequent whereabouts of the Bruynvisch:
Finally, this yacht sailed along the coast of Florida to New Netherland and anchored in the mouth of the North River on the 29th of August. Departing from there on the last of September, it returned to Texel on the 25th of October. [3]
Thus the group of enslaved Africans arrived at Manhattan with the Bruynvisch on 29 August 1627. But how do we know this was the first arrival?
O’Callaghan and a 1644 Document
According to Edmund Bailey O’Callaghan, a nineteenth-century historian and editor of historical documents relating to early New York, the introduction of the institution of slavery in New Amsterdam and New Netherland took place in 1625 or 1626. [4] O’Callaghan presented his view as an established historical fact, referring to one single document as evidence: the reply to a request submitted to Director and Council of New Netherland in 1644. The document lists a group of enslaved Africans, “who have served the Company for eighteen to nineteen years”, and thus O’Callaghan concluded they must have first set foot on Manhattan in 1625 or 1626. In keeping with the scholarly standards of his time, he did not thoroughly investigate the veracity of information gleaned from a document dated almost two decades after the event and took it at face value instead. O’Callaghan presumed that the enslaved Africans who first arrived at New Amsterdam were captured at sea by Dutch privateers in the Caribbean. While that turned out to be correct, it does not support his dating. Nevertheless, historians have accepted his interpretation, with some doubt only gradually creeping in over the last three decades. The chronological evidence from the 1644 document is flimsy and should be rejected. In addition, the contextual evidence rules out the possibility of an arrival of enslaved Africans on Manhattan prior to 1627. First, the arrival of captives taken during privateering raids does not fit into the shipping patterns of voyages to New Netherland by ships from the Dutch West India Company. Furthermore, neither the timing of the Company’s gradual acceptance of the institution slavery nor the situation in New Netherland at this early stage support the possibility of a pre-1627 arrival.
Shipping Patterns and Privateering
All Dutch privateering in the Caribbean in the mid 1620s was carried out by the West India Company. Its activities are well documented through a compendium compiled and published by Company director Johannes de Laet. The standard operating procedure was for the Company to send out ships in separate flottilas in the early months of the year. These would sail into the South Atlantic and then try to join forces in Caribbean waters. The general route was set by the prevailing currents and winds: first south from Europe to cross the Atlantic and reach the South American coast, then west along the Wild Coast to enter the Caribbean and gradually progress towards the western point of Cuba and lie in wait north of Havana in the summer months. Before the start of the hurricane season, the Dutch ships sailed north to return to Europe without a regular stopover at New Amsterdam.
A low-middle oblique view of a naval engagement off Havana on 31 July-1 August 1628 between the Spanish, commanded by Admiral Alvaro de la Cerda and the Dutch, under Admiral Pieter Adriaanszoon Ita (fl.1620-1629) resulting in a Dutch victory. Courtesy of the Royal Collection Trust.
Shipping to New Netherland in the 1620s followed a different pattern. Ships crossed the Atlantic and then headed northwest to the North American mainland, following the coastline to reach the Hudson River. They did not enter the Caribbean, as the ships sailing to New Netherland were supply ships, carrying colonists, cattle and provisions for a budding colony. They were generally not as heavily armed as privateering ships. Entering the Caribbean to engage in hostilities would jeopardize passengers and supplies. The shipping patterns rule out that enslaved Africans, captured through privateering, arrived on Manhattan in 1625 or 1626.
The West India Company’s Entry into Slave Trade
Second, we must consider the Company’s entry into the slave trade. In contrast to what some scholars assert, the Dutch West India Company was not founded with the primary aim to engage in the trade of human beings, but rather to support the Dutch war effort against Spain and Portugal. Yet in a protracted process, the Company’s role in the slave trade gradually moved from an inconceivable notion to a stark reality. In late 1623, it drew up plans for attacks on Portuguese Brazil and Angola. The Company now faced the quintessential question: was slavery justifiable overseas? This was an issue with wide-ranging economic, legal, religious, and existential ramifications, both to the Company and to the Dutch Republic. What would be the effect on the Dutch war effort against Spain? The Company turned to a traditional Dutch solution: they appointed a committee.
Meanwhile, the West India Company did not engage in the transatlantic slave trade yet. Nor did it use or acquire enslaved labor in its few overseas factories and conquests. During the attack on Portuguese Brazil, the Dutch commanders did not know what to do with Africans on the slave ships they captured. From 1624 to 1626, Dutch privateers on a number of occasions allowed captured ships with Black cargoes to sail on.
Back in the Dutch Republic, the appointed committee most likely solicited advice from the religious authorities in Amsterdam and elsewhere. The committee may also have been influenced by Hugo Grotius’ De Jure Belli Ac Pacis (1625). Grotius provided a framework which legitimized slavery to some extent, but imposed limitations as well. The application of the right of booty to enslaved people captured on prize ships would allow the Company to use captured Africans as forced laborers, but not to sell them. The Company held its general meeting in Amsterdam in November 1626 and a month later, the Zeeland Chamber decided to send a yacht to Angola specifically to acquire “a few Blacks” and take these to the Amazon, “or to such a place where the Company might have settled its people.” This is the first reference to the intention within the Company’s leadership to use enslaved labor. Company servants overseas quickly followed. In March 1627, captain Jan van Ryen, the leader of the expedition to the Oyapock River, requested Black manpower. By 1627, the Dutch West India Company was about to condone the use of enslaved labor. Thus, a presumed first arrival of enslaved Africans at New Amsterdam prior to 1627 is not compatible with the pace of change of policies and practice of the West India Company regarding slavery and slave trade.
Early Development of New Netherland
Finally, we must consider the state of New Netherland. We know that the Dutch attempt to settle on Manhattan was eventually successful, but in its early years that was not a foregone conclusion. Contemporaries were very much aware of the dangers that could bring ruin to a new, vulnerable settlement; failed harvests, interruption of supplies from Europe, and attacks by European competitors or indigenous peoples could all wipe out a colony.
In the years preceding the settling of Manhattan, news of deadly incidents in the Americas regularly reached Amsterdam. The fear of indigenous attacks impacted the decision-making process of the West India Company. Nevertheless, in late 1623 the Company sent a number of Walloon families to New Netherland. In order to defend the Dutch claims against English counter-claims, they were distributed over four sites in 1624, including Governors Island and Fort Orange, on the upper reaches of the Hudson River. Early in 1626, an incident occurred at Fort Orange, resulting in the death of a small number of soldiers. The colonial authorities quickly decided to concentrate all colonists on Manhattan. This news reached the Dutch Republic in the summer of 1626. There was a sigh of relief when the latest news from New Amsterdam arrived a few months later: the people were safe, children had been born, the harvest was good, a number of peltries had been shipped over, and the island of Manhattan had been “purchased.” [5]
So, by November 1626, the West India Company authorities in the Dutch Republic knew that New Amsterdam was safe, for the time being. Simultaneously the Company decided in favor of using the labor of enslaved Africans captured on Iberian ships. Up to 1626, New Netherland had not been a potential destination for enslaved labor. By 1627 it was. Motive and means combined with opportunity during the voyage of the Bruynvisch.
Significance
Scholarly historians strive to be as exact as possible when determining what happened at which point in time. But the significance of establishing that the first arrival took place on 29 August 1627 is not just that it provides a firm date and dispels the vagueness that has surrounded the start of slavery in New York. It also helps us to define the role of enslaved labor in the initial phase of the colonization of New Netherland. By the time that the first enslaved Africans arrived, New Netherland had weathered its first precarious years and had achieved the stability that allowed it to expand further. Although slavery was not a feature of New Netherland from its inception, the enslaved labor that the first African Americans provided would nevertheless play an important role in the colony’s development into the 1630s and 1640s. It became even more important in the 1650s and 1660s, when slave imports directly from Africa increased their numbers to at most 170 in 1660. [6]
In addition, establishing that the first enslaved Africans arrived on the Bruynvisch allows us to pinpoint exactly when the institution of slavery was introduced into New Amsterdam and New Netherland and thus into what later became New York City and State. It is New York’s 1619 moment. Whether and in what way 29 August 1627 should be commemorated in New York is not a scholarly matter, but those who value accuracy and reliability in history will no doubt find ways to do so. And we now have not just a correct year but even an exact day to replace the inaccurate dating of 1625/1626. The year 2027 provides the opportunity to commemorate both the abolition of slavery in New York State—1827—as well as its beginning in 1627.
Jaap Jacobs (PhD Leiden, 1999) is affiliated with the University of St Andrews. He has specialized in the early American history, specifically the Dutch in the Americas in the early modern period. His publications on Dutch New York include The Colony of New Netherland: A Dutch Settlement in Seventeenth-Century America (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009). He is currently working on a biography of Petrus Stuyvesant.
[1] Told in full in: Jaap Jacobs, “The First Arrival of Enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam,” New York History, Volume 104, Number 1, Summer 2023, pp. 96-11.
[2] Johannes de Laet, Historie ofte Iaerlijck verhael van de verrichtinghen der geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie (Leiden: Bonaventuer ende Abraham Elsevier, 1644), 117.
[3] De Laet, Iaerlyck Verhael, 119.
[4] E.B. O’Callaghan (trans. & ed.), Voyages of the Slavers St. John and Arms of Amsterdam, 1659, 1663 (Albany: J. Munsell, 1867), xiii-xiv, xxii.
[5] Charles T. Gehring, “New Netherland: The Formative Years, 1609-1632,” Cornelis A. van Minnen, Hans Krabbendam, Giles Scott-Smith (supervisory eds.), Four Centuries of Dutch-American Relations (Amsterdam: Boom Publishers, 2009), 74-84;
[6] Patricia U. Bonomi, “’Swarms of Negroes Comeing about My Door’: Black Christianity in Early Dutch and English North America, ” The Journal of American History 103-1 (June 2016), 34-58, esp. 40-41.