“In its scheme of political administration, the West-India Company exhibited too often a mercantile and selfish spirit; and in encouraging commerce in Negro slaves, it established an institution which subsisted many generations after its authority had ceased."[226]

The Dutch colony was governed by the Dutch and Roman law.  The government was tripartite,—­executive, legislative, and judicial,—­all vested in, and exercised by, the governor and council.  There seemed to be but little or no necessity for legislation on the slavery question.  The Negro seemed to be a felt need in the Province, and was regarded with some consideration by the kind-hearted Hollanders.  Benevolent and social, they desired to see all around them happy.  The enfranchised African might and did obtain a freehold; while the Negro who remained under an institution of patriarchal simplicity, scarcely knowing he was in bondage, danced merrily at the best, in “kermis,” at Christmas and Pinckster.[227] There were, doubtless, a few cases where the slaves received harsh treatment from their masters; but, as a rule, the jolly Dutch fed and clothed their slaves as well as their white servants.  There were no severe rules to strip the Negroes of their personal rights,—­such as social amusements or public feasts when their labors had been completed.  During this entire period, they went and came among their class without let or hinderance.  They were married, and given in marriage;[228] they sowed, and, in many instances, gathered an equitable share of the fruits of their labors.  If there were no schools for them, there were no laws against an honest attempt to acquire knowledge at seasonable times.  The Hollanders built their government upon the hearthstone, believing it to be the earthly rock of ages to a nation that would build wisely for the future.  And while it is true that they regarded commerce as the life-blood of the material existence of a people, they nevertheless found their inspiration for multifarious duties in the genial sunshine of the family circle.  A nation thus constituted could not habilitate slavery with all the hideous features it wore in Virginia and Massachusetts.  The slaves could not escape the good influences of the mild government of the New Netherlands, nor could the Hollanders withhold the brightness and goodness of their hearts from their domestic slaves.

On the 27th of August, 1664, New Netherlands fell into the hands of the English; and the city received a new name,—­New York, after the famous Duke of York.  When the English colors were run up over Fort Amsterdam, it received a new name, “Fort James.”  In the twenty-four articles in which the Hollanders surrendered their Province, there is no direct mention of slaves or slavery.  The only clause that might be construed into a reference to the slaves is as follows:  “IV.  If any inhabitant have a mind to remove himself, he shall have a year and six weeks from this day to remove himself, wife, children, servants, goods, and to dispose of his lands here.”  There was nothing in the articles of capitulation hostile to slavery in the colony.