CHAPTER IV

Occupations of Wage-earners

i. an historical view of occupations

In the New Amsterdam Colony as early as 1628, slaves
were sought as a source of labor. These slaves were em¬
ployed mainly in farm labor. In that year the Dutch West
India Company agreed to furnish slaves to the colonists
and the Company's largest farm was " cultivated by the
blacks." ^ Individuals were at liberty to import slaves for
the same purpose.^ Both slaves and freedmen were used as
stevedores and deckhands for the Company's vessels. The
slaves were also used in building and repairing the public
highways and in the repairing of Fort Amsterdam.^ In
1680, mention is made of Negroes being used in house¬
building.* About the same time Negro slaves were carrying
hod for wages, and in 1699 it was said that about the only
servants (probably meaning domestic servants) in the
Province of New York were Negroes. Freed Negroes
were indentured or hired for similar service."

Negroes were mustered into the Colonial army as early
as 1698, and in the battle of Lake George in 1755, the
" blacks behaved better than the whites." "

' Williams, History of the Negro Race in America, vol. i, p. 135.
^ Colonial Doc, i, 364.

' Laws of New York, 1691-1773, pp. 83, 156; Doc. relating to Colonial
History of New York, vol. i, 499; ii, 474.

* Doc. relating to Colonial History of New York, iii, 307.
^ Ibid., ix, 875; iv, 511; Burghermen and Freeman, collection of New
York Historical Society, 1885, p. 569.

^ Ibid., 377 (London Doc. xi) ; ibid., vi, 1005 (London Doc. xxxii.)
"Letter from a gunner to his cousin."

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