As I’m sitting here atop the mountain in beautiful North Cauldwell, NJ, I’m reminded of a similar rising similar to the one I recalled in my recent talk on the Prendergast Rebellion of New York. Though this rebellion took place some 20 years earlier than the one in the upper Hudson Valley, the “Horseneck Riots” illustrate some of the same issues of a disgruntled syncretic Dutch based tenant society, oppressed by rent overlords.
The area of the Passaic and Raritan Rivers had been settled early on by the Dutch out of New Amsterdam, but the transition to English rule allowed for further migration to places like “New Ark” or the the future Newark. Dutch and then English settlers had obtained deeds to these lowlands riverine areas by the early 18th century, but this circumvented Royal allotment to Proprietors. It was these new owners who had the legal right to distribute the land and collect rent.
By 1745, tensions on the Jerseys had reached a boiling point, with evictions being enforced throughout Essex county. Debtors were taken to the jail in Newark, but settlers marched to free their compatriots. This illustrated the insular nature of the English power base at Newark and contrasted with the separate and longer established Dutch syncretic world of the riverine basin.
Monies were collected to send petitions/representative missions to Parliament and this effort was repeated within the colonies as well. Eventually settled within the courts, violent local acts of resistance for would for several years after, as the tenants refused to continue paying the onerous “quit rent.”
British armed action was sanctioned against British colonists for the first time, during William Prendergast’s Rebellion or what is also called the Leveler’s revolt of 1765-1766. Philispe Manor tenants from the upper Hudson Valley revolted and marched on local jails to free those imprisoned for debt by the patroons. In the following year, an army of 1,500 rebels marched on New York City and parlayed with the governor on the banks of the Haarlem River. They agreed to turn away if British officials did not intervene in their dispute with the Patroons.
The manor lords influenced British troops to take action, leading to the attempted arrest of Prendergast near Poughkeepsie, NY by 300 British troops. Although the rebels fought fiercely from fortified hilltop stone farmhouses, the British discipline eventually overcame their provincial spirit. Prendergast was condemned to death but was saved by a royal pardon obtained by his wife. These rebellious tenants became the backbone of Patriot forces in New York, led by a portion of the Patroons. The other half of Dutch New York leadership was soon to be driven into exile.
The period after the English takeover from the Dutch is one of the imposition of a feudal like system of the great landed manorial estates of the Hudson Valley. The original Dutch Van Rensselaer Patroonship spread out into branches of the Livingstons, Philipses, and Van Courtlands. These odd hybrids of Dutch, Scottish, and English “Rent Lords” would rule the valley until the American Revolution, their tenants would support the Patriot cause and force most into exile. The Schuyler and main branch of the Van Rensselaer families remained loyal to the American cause though. Stephen Van Rensselaer IV was the “last Patroon” and his manor patent was terminated by New York State voters in 1846, when he insisted on collecting 11 million dollars in rent debt owners by tenants. His personal wealth at the time of his patent termination was somewhere between 30-40 million dollars.
It’s June 7th and the year is 1692, the time is approaching noon at Port Royal, Jamaica, suddenly a massive earthquake turns the spit of sand into into liquid muck and an enormous tsunami sweeps away anything that hasn’t sunk below the surface waves already. This natural disaster destroys the major pirate haven of the West Indies, but will soon become a boon for another den of sin located off the coast of Madagascar.
The Island of Sainte-Marie located off the northeast coast of Madagascar, was perfectly placed along the spice routes of the British East India company and its syncretic ruling class of Malagasy Nobles and European Buccaneers had developed long tendrils reaching as far as the Hudson Valley. The first to discover the potential of the out of the way enclave by a former indentured servant by the name of Thomas Tew. He made his life as a privateer after serving out his penal sentence on Barbados or St. Kitts, his success brought him funds and crews necessary to attack French factories near the River Gambia. He set out in the year of 1692 and possessed letters of Marque that sanctified the venture from the governor of Bermuda. Extremely bad weather broke up this fleet and a vote was taken to cross the thin line between piracy and privateering. The voyage of his crew would come to represent what is described as the “Pirate Round,” ships would start in the Atlantic, move to the tip of Africa and either up the coast or onto India. The Island of Sainte-Marie was the perfect operating base from which to intercept trade between India and North America, while also positioning oneself to seize the Islamic trade in slaves and Haji pilgrims at the mouth of the Red Sea.
Two years before the disaster at Port Royal, a man by the name of Adam Baldridge was part of the crew of the slave ship “fortune,” whose trips produced a cheaper trade in bondage over the middle passage. Seeing the advantage of a beautiful landlocked bay, he elected to stay on the island of Sainte-Marie and set up shop. The bay he chose contained a protective sandbar at its mouth and was landlocked on three sides by elevated hills, these would aid in fortifications to protect the port. He quickly realized the value of his “neutral” stopover and ingrained himself amongst the local Malagasy nobility. He married several women of local notables and helped them pursue their wars on the mainland, this benefited Baldridge as the wars delivered large amounts of captured slaves.
As I’ve discussed in previous threads and on my podcast, the Dutch Merchant class was uniquely positioned to leverage their international contacts within the Navigation Act system. Poorly defined slave importation contracts for stock-sharing government backed companies, also placed Madagascar in a grey area. Early English governors of New York used privateers to take enemy prizes and of course do some trading while they happened to be sailing, but it was the NY Dutch merchants that provided the goods and funds for these privateers. The profits were great, a slave could be purchased for a few shillings in Sainte-Marie, as opposed to a few pounds in West Africa. There was plenty to split between the privateers, the New York politicians and the Patroons.
Greed tends to break up many a good criminal enterprise and this one was no different. Though the governors of New York issued the letters of marque and invested in the venture, men like Frederick Philispe decided to cut out the middle man. Privateers would pull into New York Harbor by night, but unload a significant amount of cargo onto schooners, this was sent up to the Patroon’s manor via the Hudson and small creeks. Eventually this scheme would be uncovered and the Patroon would find himself thrown off the executive council in 1698 for illegally conducting the slave trade in New York. Possibly more than 700 Malagasy slaves were smuggled into the plantation’s of the Hudson Valley, but the pirate haven declined by the first half of the 18th century, after suffering from British government interdiction and finally Mughal attacks.
One of the most intriguing mysteries is the role of Baldridge and his pardon, he seems to have cut a deal with British authorities and was never accused of piracy, though his actions clearly violated the Navigation acts and impeded on several national stock-charter companies. It is his correspondence that finally brings down Philispe and it seems like the British government’s way of getting back at an ungrateful partner, who they viewed had dishonorably cutout some very important men in New York.
Starting from its earliest days, the office of Schout acted as a hybrid law enforcement and local community prosecutor role in New Netherland. Famous examples like Adriaen van der Donck who was employed by the Rensselaer’s, helped scout, settle, and stabilize early Patroonships in the Hudson Valley.
Denser urban centers like Beverwyck or New Amsterdam had small contingents of WIC company soldiers on hand, but this was to protect against external threats and slave uprisings. The concept of a “Burgher” was prized amongst the city dwelling Dutch of New Netherland, the special political and economic privileges came with taxes and civic responsibilities. Starting in 1658, Governor-General Stuyvesant appointed 8 men to the “Rattle Watch,” this was followed the next year by two further men being appointed in Beverwyck. These men were paid in wampum, furs, and firewood in order to act as a combination of law enforcement and fire watch.
Quality of live crimes were rampant amongst the wharf areas and flames could quickly send the entire colonial enterprise up in ashes. Their activities usually consisted of making the rounds from their base at the Burgher Guard House, carrying both a green lantern and a large rattle. They would call out the time on the hour by use of their rattle and voice, but later retire to the guard house, where the lantern was hung as a sign of their presence. They usually had the keys to the local church bells to rung in case of an extraordinary emergencies as well.
They were empowered to form posse units from local burghers to stop or capture criminals, while being given lawful permission to use deadly force if faced with any resistance. The position seems to be passed down through families and even survived the English transition to constable. The tradition of the green lights can still be found outside of NYC police precincts to this day, they still symbolize that the “watch is on guard.”
The Mahicanituck, Patroons and Revolutionary War lore, and a Headless Horseman
Let’s weave a tale that will tie together the Battle of White Plains, Diedrich Knickerbocker, The Philispe’s Patroonship, and Algonquin Hudson River sacred legend. The Pocantico is a serene country river that meanders through through the mystical village of Sleepy Hollow, it carries along the enchanted tales and rich history of the Hudson Valley, all the way until it meets the Great “Mahicantuck” or river that flows both ways. It is at this very site, where the Delaware peoples tell of the birth of this mighty river and the eternal dance it performs with the Pocantico. At the point in which the Pocantico river meets the Hudson, a Giant lay across the river and had turned it into a lake to the north. The local Delaware peoples had been forgetful in their duty to provide proper thanks to the giant, whom promptly got up to protest the slight. When the giant stood up, the “lake” suddenly flowed south and met the ocean, but the ocean pushed back until “The tides” were established.
The river that flows both ways is all the while constantly try to “reach” Pocantico, but could never stop the constant back and forth tidal flow movement. A set of falls separated the two rivers from ever being intermingled, but when the thunderbirds would fight, the flap of their wings sent the Mahicanituck up over the falls and into the Pocantico. When the storm finally subsided and the Mahicanituck had receded, fresh silt and dead eels fertilized the growth of an enormous tree, under which the local tribe held sacred gatherings. Many years would pass, as the sacred tree grew strong and tall, but suddenly one day some foreigners sailed by this very spot on a floating house with brilliant colors, the Dutch had arrived by the start of the 17th century and set about scraping out a living on the tip of the Island of Manhattan and amongst the wilds of the northern interior along the Hudson. As this freewheeling entrepôt grew from extraction to settler colony, women like Margaret Philispe played a key role in the establishing the land grant system and the promoting the region’s key role in the burgeoning international trade of both people and commodities. Dutch law allowed her to work out a prenuptial after inheriting her husband’s previous shipping business interests. This arrangement meant allowed her to combine forces with Frederick Flyspen or Philispe as he will change his name to. Philispe rose to be the top carpenter for the WIC and Peter Stuyvesant, who were in desperate need of skilled labor. Reaffirming loyalty under English rule in 1664, Frederick and Margaret made a series of land purchases in lower Westchester. These included the main resident and mill in Yonkers and the upper mill on the Pocantico, both were in Philispe hands by the end of the 17th century. The mills, surrounding acres, and water access allowed the Philispe to export grain to the Caribbean and exchange manufactured implements for slaves and spices in Madagascar. The Philipse dynasty would control the area for the next seventy-five years as rent lords and become representative of the Dutch merchant class transition to landed gentry supporting English rule.
Frederick Philispe III inherited the property in 1751, but he didn’t have much interest in. He agreed to lease out the upper mills and was content to live luxuriously in the Yonkers Manor, surrounded by the accoutrements available to the elite of the British empire. By the time of the Revolution, he had gotten himself thrown in prison by rebels authority for organizing a loyalist conspiracy from his Yonkers property in 1776. He was paroled, but caught sending letters to the British in New York, this discovery forced him to flee to British lines and his properties were auctioned off to tenants after the war. Still the sacred tree grew strong and tall on the edge of the Philipsburg manor, this mighty arboreal sentinel would witness another battle raged close by amongst the white misty swamps of “Quarropas,” or what the colonists called White Plains. Philispe’s had required his tenants sign a loyalty oath to keep their lease, so many saw the rent lord as the epitome of British imperial hubris and joined the rebellion. Some witnessed the disastrous defeat at Long Island, the miraculous escape across the East River, and the dogged rear guard actions against British landings in Westchester to followup their victory. Howe aimed to end the rebellion by striking at the supply depot located at White Plains, but Washington had the wherewithal to retire this to the Hudson Highlands. The only issue was the British were quickly closing in and Washington had to buy time for those precious supplies to reach safety. It would be at Chatterton Hill astride the Bronx River, where the rebel army would make it’s stand. Local militia would have swelled Washington’s ranks and talk would have circulated concerning the fearsome Hessians amongst the army. This would have surely been picked up by the former Philispe tenants, now volunteering as militia members against this fearsome opponent.
“Early in the morning, having taken our positions, we discovered at a distance the approach of the British army. It’s appearance was truly magnificent. A bright autumnal sun shed its full lustre on their polished arms; and the rich array of dress and military equipment gave an imposing grandeur to the scene, as they advanced in all the pomp and circumstance of war to give us battle.”
Captain William Hull
Aligned in a semi circle and occupying a set of hills slightly northwest of the British position of White Plains, Washington has just ordered the occupation of the far right or southern portion of the defenses at Chatterton Hill. The last picture shows the relative steepness of this hilly terrain and the utter horror it would have been to scale this under fire. Hessian soldiers were able to outflank the militia placed on the far end of the line, by using a ford south of their position. As this flanking maneuver commenced, the militia also faced an attack by British dragoons. This is the point where stories of carnage amongst the local militia members grew and developed, as they made an retreat shielded by unfavorable weather conditions for a British pursuit. The war passed, with the land of shaded hollows and glens protected under the watchful eye of the sacred tree, that grew where the two rivers meet.
“He was ambivalent and America. Hundreds of sandstone houses built in Bergen and Rockland county long after the American Revolution, represent his misgiving about America and becoming American. By rejecting America’s demand for newness, innovation and change, the Dutch farmer was rejecting the very spirit of progressivism that impelled him to be American. In doing so he is rejecting all the violence that newness, innovation and change has wrought upon and older ideal that had ended by dividing and damaging his family, Church, and community.”
Firth Haring Fabend
Historian and Folklorist Johnathan Kruk thinks this is the world Washington Irving immersed himself in during the early 19th century. Kruk believes Irving’s impetus to create the tale was born out of tragedy. Having experienced devastating personal loss, he was invited by a friend to summer in Kinderhook and was immersed into the Dutch New York world. His settings began to take shape and especially the character of the Headless Horsemen, combined with old soldiers tales of haunted battlefields, Irving heard of a local custom that used mischief to encourage local couples to finally tie the knot. In one apparent instance, a man in a soldiers uniform scared the very man Irving befriended into marrying his local beau. There is little doubt though that the Pocantico plays a crucial role and the mystical quality of the land was evident to Irving during his time at his cottage in Sunnyside. Philispe manor itself’s serves up the background to the fictional narration of Knickerbocker and the Old Dutch Church providing the place of supposed refuge from the spirit that haunts the hollow. Irving plays off the various Dutch surname names and a compilation of Boweries or Dutch homesteads are used to build the village of Sleepy Hollow from the ground up. He also knew of the possibility that Hessian soldiers were buried within the Old Dutch Church graveyard and made some loose connections between tenant family lore and the burial of these deceased German mercenaries. Washington Irving’s fame grew ever higher, due to his rich Dutch inspired tales of the Hudson Valley, yet still the ancient tree stood astride the Pocantico. Surely inspiring Irving and countless others, the sacred tree finally fell at the beginning of the 20th century. Though when tropical moisture from the Atlantic sends great winds and waves crashing into New York, the Hudson continues to meet with the Pocantico. As Johnathan Kruk recounts, Philipsburg Manor was almost completely destroyed in 2003 during Hurricane Floyd, when the Hudson and Pocantico once again met and remade the world.
Kateri Tekahkwitha was born right in the middle of a tempestuous period, sometime between 1662-1664. Her life encapsulates the Iroquoian wars of assimilation as it was her mother who was captured at Trois Rivere. Brought as a slave to Iroqouia, she married a league member and had two children. A set of paternal twins was born and Kathrine came into this world. Her world was quickly torn apart on the smallpox epidemics of mid century, set off by the Dutch, the disease carried away her parents and twin brother.
Orphaned at the age of four and severely disfigured, she had badly degraded vision from the disease, so the young girl took to covering herself. Given to the care of an uncle who was a local sachem, marriage proposals did not come easy given her disfigured status. By 1667, Jesuits priests were lodged under the watch of Kathrine’s uncle and this is where the young girl received here first contact with Catholicism. Peace negotiations that year between the Iroqouis and French, were strained by the league’s interactions with the new English overlords. Jesuit Priests thought they could entice the league away from their imperial English rivals and the Iroqouis saw French presence in their village as guaranteeing safe movement throughout the region by tribal members. Any member harmed by French interests, could be avenged by the easily accessible missionaries throughout Iroquois.
Kateri started to frequent the village chapel and her lodge didn’t object, as long as she didn’t leave for the missionary settlement’s near Montreal. Kathrine’s mother had apparently practiced Christianity and her sister through adoption, had already left for Saint Francis Xavier in Sault- St. Louis. A 1669 attack by the Mohican had been repulsed, but many Mohawk warriors had led parties north by the start of the 1670s. Her sister eventually sent her own husband to fetch Kathrine in 1677 and bring her north to the missionary village, where she could worship freely. Barely escaping her uncle who was desperately attempting to stop the flow of villagers north, she made the arduous journey to her new home. Making her way up Lac du Saint Sacrement and Lake Champlain, she moved up the Richelieu River. Finally she found her destination sitting near a series of rapids and opposite the island of Montreal. Kahnawake was named after a former village in the Mohawk Valley of New York State, where many of the converts had come from.
Engrossed in her new world, she took to a female community mentor who instructed her in her new faith. The rhythms of a native existence played out amongst incredible scenes of Catholic devotion. Winter hunts were conducted between Christmas and Easter, with Women accompanying the men of the village. Kateri experienced untrue accusations that she had become involved with a married man and she vowed never to return on one again. She now became devoted to bodily penance and began a life of earthly chastisement of her flesh. Gathering a small group of devoted women around her, she helped establish a future leading role for maternal Catholic education in Mohawk villages. Daily fasting and taxing carnal chastisement activities left her weak and vulnerable to a cold caught in the early months of 1680. She died on April 17th, 1680 after suffering from complications from an pneumonia like condition.
About a half an hour after her death, her smallpox scarred face changed dramatically and became incredibly beautiful, This was quickly followed by an overwhelming odor of that was described as floral in origin. Her death during the holiest period of the Christian calendar, would soon spark word of miracles! She made appearances to both the missionary priests and her band of female companions, as her burial site momentos started to produce stories of miracles widely circulating by the start of the 1700s.
The praying peoples of the Saint Lawrence would join the French for the first time against their non-Catholic brethren in a failed French expedition against the Seneca, just three years after the death of Kateri. The Catholic Mohawk would again join the French in a successful attack on Schenectady NY in 1689, where traditional Mohawk started to burn captured Catholic converts for the first time. Her story marks a very fundamental and permanent development that would see the “six nations” become seven and fight for the French more than 50 years later in the pivotal conflict that would decide control of the continent. On June 22, 1980 her beatification took place in Rome and was presided over by Pope John Paul II. Her story still splits the Haudenosaunee peoples as it did in the last 17th.
Reading this work was both enlightening and deeply personal for me, as I learned that Champlain was my Great-Uncle through his marriage to Hellene Boule and of my family’s plight war torn southeast France. Champlain was the very definition of a syncretic character who sought to forge something unique here in the New World. His “Dream” was for a religiously blind French colony that lived in interconnected dependence with the Native peoples, that is the New France I cherish.
One cannot understand the transition of power and agency amongst the northern woodlands tribes, without in-depth knowledge of the impact that Catholicism had upon the dynamics of the region. Saint Kateri’s life story encapsulated this major turning point and provides us with an accurately documented snapshot of life on the frontiers of New York and Quebec, during the mid-17th century. You will find the topics of wartime captive assimilation, geopolitical spatial movements, and real-time cultural reorientations to be throughly covered, along with the delicate balancing act of what it means to be truly be Haudenosaunee. An amazing historiographical section is not or be missed, the passion and debate over her legacy started shortly after her death.
A great book to experience an insight into the base human emotions and reactions that developed during the American Revolution. The foreign and local are combined, as an international war of empire is subdivided into local civil wars amongst the North America populace. One cannot ignore or look away from the horrors, that this combination of “otherness” and the well known gruesomely produced. The most jarring for myself is the New York Prison barges, simply floating hells on earth for Patriot prisoners. The mines in Connecticut had much better survival rates for local loyalists or those deemed traitorous to the cause of Independence.
James Wolfe is a fascinating figure whose life bridges two distinct worlds. Reviled in the land he conquered, he was feted across the interconnected and newly imperial British Atlantic Basin. Whilst sure of British superiority in theory, he was quick to adapt to the strange conditions of the new world. Whether it was revolutionary tactical military developments or scientific endeavors, Wolfe’s youth aided him in his openness to innovations. Time hasn’t been kind to Wolfe, the creation of a Canadian state sought to deemphasis his foundational role in the Anglo-sphere. Sites and figures associated with the British Conquest are largely ignored in terms of adoration, by authorities in modern day Quebec. After the dissolution of the British empire, many scholars fixated on his campaigns of infrastructure destruction and civilian displacement. Wolfe’s death on the Plains of Abraham mark a drastic and irrevocable change, that will sweep across the Western hemisphere. It’s waves will both sever long held ties and convulse the old world in turn. James Wolfe doesn’t deserve ignominious exile, instead his short life deserves to be marked as a truly great turning point in history.
Dr. Brumwell takes the reader on a wonderful journey into the development and adaptation of the British Army in the America’s during the Seven Years War. He highlights the unique syncretic evolution of the armed forces in response to the unique geopolitical situation found in the new world. The “POV” of these Europeans is quite different than seen through the colonial eyes most are used to viewing this time period through.
New York, Quebec, and The Water Route to The Center of The Worldb 