The Slow Death of Slavery in Dutch New York
A Cultural, Economic, and Demographic History, 1700–1827

A new interpretation of slavery in Dutch New York, built on extensive demographic and economic analysis.

Michael J. Douma (Author)

9781009441377, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 January 2025

270 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2 cm, 0.514 kg

'Douma's history of New York slavery documents for the first time the stubborn resistance to emancipation by Dutch Reformed wheat farmers in the Hudson Valley. He has mastered the secondary literature and scoured the archives. The revisionist work will set the standard for future slavery research in northern states.' Robert P. Swierenga, 'Dean of Dutch American Studies', Professor Emeritus, Kent State University; Research Professor, A. C. Van Raalte Institute, Hope College

Original and deeply researched, this book provides a new interpretation of Dutch American slavery which challenges many of the traditional assumptions about slavery in New York. With an emphasis on demography and economics, Michael J. Douma shows that slavery in eighteenth-century New York was mostly rural, heavily Dutch, and generally profitable through the cultivation of wheat. Slavery in Dutch New York ultimately died a political death in the nineteenth century, while resistance from enslaved persons, and a gradual turn against slavery in society and in the courts, encouraged its destruction. This important study will reshape the historiography of slavery in the American North.

Introduction
1. The Size, Extent, and Nature of Dutch New York Slavery
2. The Rural Dutch Slave-Wheat Complex
3. The Price of Slaves in New York and New Jersey, 1700–1830
4. Dutch-speaking Runaway Slaves in New York and New Jersey
5. Sold South? Emancipation by the Numbers in Dutch New York
6. Dutch Resistance to Emancipation and the Negotiations to End Slavery in New York
7. Making Sense of the Mild Thesis and the End of Dutch New York Slavery
Appendix – Wheat prices
Appendix – Percent of Slaves NY-born.

Subject Areas: History of the Americas [HBJK]