Name
Jan Premero was a Black man in New Netherland.[1] His name was also spelled Premier or Premije.[2]
Migration
Jan Premero may have been one of the twenty-two Black slaves brought to New Netherland on the Bruijnvisch [Brown Fish, or Harbor Porpoise] in 1627. Jaap Jacobs reconstructed this first arrival of enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam, and identified some of them with a group of men.[3][4]
In 1627, ships belonging to the Zeeland chamber of the West India Company seized a Portuguese ship carrying 225 Black people. The ship had sailed from São Tomé and may have been enroute to Cartagena.[5] The captured ship was leaky. The Dutch took twenty-two of the healthiest people, and let the ship continue with the rest.[6] They transferred the captives to the Bruijnvisch, which sailed via Hispaniola and the Florida coast to New Netherland. They arrived on 29 August 1627.[7]
Settlement
Jan Premero probably lived on Manhattan, where he was killed.[8]
Biographical Details
Jan Premero was probably born between say 1600 and 1620.[9] The first enslaved people were brought to New Netherland in 1627, and he would not have been brought if he was not a healthy young man. He was married when he died in 1641.[10]
Jan Premero was killed on 6 January 1641 in the woods near the houses were the enslaved people lived.[11] On 17 January, Cleijn Antonio, Paulo d’Angola, Gracia d’Angola, Jan de Fort Orange, Manuel de Gerrit de Reus, Antonij Portugees, Manuel Minuit, Simon Conge, and Manuel de Groote were charged with the homicide of Jan Premero. They confessed to the killing but refused to admit who had dealt the final blow. The New Netherland council drew lots, and selected Manuel de Gerrit de Reus to be convicted for the murder.[12] On 24 January 1641, Manuel de Gerrit de Reus was sentenced to death by hanging.[13] When the ropes broke, the bystanders called for mercy and he was pardoned.[14]
Marriage and Children
Jan Premero was married to Marie Grande before 29 July 1640, when Marie Grande, wife of Johan Premije, witnessed a baptism.[15] Within a year after his death she was remarried to one of his killers, Jan de Fort Orange.[16] In a discussion about slavery in New Netherland, Jaap Jacobs indicated that either Maria Grande was very forgiving towards her husband’s killers, or she may have been an accomplice. He raised the possibility that the Black men collectively decided to kill Jan Premero as a form of vigilante justice.[17]
Enslavement
Jan Premero was enslaved by the West India Company when he was killed.[18] If he was brought to New Netherland on the Bruijnvisch, he may have originally been enslaved by the Portuguese.
Occupation
Laborers enslaved by the West India Company were tasked with building Fort Amsterdam (completed in 1635), cutting timber and firewood, clearing land, burning lime, and gathering the harvest.[19]
Associations
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Jan Premero would have had close ties to the group of Black men who killed him: Cleijn Antonio, Paulo d’Angola, Gracia d’Angola, Jan de Fort Orange, Manuel de Gerrit de Reus, Antonij Portugees, Manuel Minuit, Simon Congo, and Manuel de Groote.[20]
Literature
Christoph, Peter R. “The Freedmen of New Amsterdam.” In A Beautiful and Fruitful Place: Selected Rensselaerswijck Seminar Papers, edited by Nancy Anne McClure Zeller, 157–70. New Netherland Publishing, 1991.
Jacobs, Jaap. “The First Arrival of Enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam.” New York History 104 (Summer 2023): 96–114. https://doi.org/10.1353/nyh.2023.a902905. Although the article does not name the twenty-two enslaved Africans, it provides a possible explanation of Jan’s arrival in the colony, and the historical context.
_____. “Van Angola naar Manhattan: Slavernij in Nieuw-Nederland in de Zeventiende Eeuw.” In Daalder, Remmert, Dirk J. Tang, and Leo Balai, eds. Slaven en Schepen in het Atlantisch Gebied, 75–80. Leiden, Netherlands: Primavera, 2013. The chapter discusses the killing of Jan Premero and Maria Grande’s marrying one of his killers.
Romney, Susanah Shaw. New Netherland Connections: Intimate Networks and Atlantic Ties in Seventeenth-Century America. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 2014. The chapter “Creating an African Community” (pages 199–244) discusses the killing of Jan Premero and the impact on the African community.
Source Editions
Scott, Kenneth, and Kenn Stryker-Rodda, eds. Council Minutes, 1638–1649. Translated by A.J.F. Van Laer. Vol. IV. New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1974. Pages 97–100, 212–13 include the killing of Jan Premero and subsequent trial, attempted execution, and pardon.
Sypher, Francis J., ed. Liber A of the Collegiate Churches of New York. Part 2, Baptisms 1639 to 1697, Members 1649 to 1701, Marriages 1639 to 1701. Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2015. Jan Premero is mentioned on page 5 (husband of baptismal witness), and 472 (deceased husband).
Citations
[1] Fiscal vs. Cleijn Antonio and others, 17 January 1641, in New Netherland Council, Dutch colonial council minutes, vol. 4, 1638–1649, p. 83; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/11480), identifier NYSA_A1809-78_V04_p083; citing series A1809, New York State Archives, Albany, New York.
[2] Marriage intentions of Jan Fort Orangien and Marie Grande, 24 November 1641, in Dutch Reformed Church (New Amsterdam), Liber A, marriage register, 1639–1701, p. 572; imaged, “U.S., Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639–1989,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6961) > New York > Manhattan > Collegiate Church . . . > image 463 of 1410; citing The Archives of the Reformed Church in America, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Baptism of Philip, son of Johan Françisco, 29 July 1640, in Dutch Reformed Church (New Amsterdam), Liber A, baptismal register, 1639–1697, p. 250; imaged, “U.S., Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639–1989,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6961) > New York > Manhattan > Collegiate Church . . . > image 150 of 1410; citing The Archives of the Reformed Church in America, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
[3] Jaap Jacobs, “The First Arrival of Enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam,” New York History 104, no. 1 (Summer 2023): 96–114, https://doi.org/10.1353/nyh.2023.a902905.
[4] Fiscal vs. Cleijn Antonio and others, 17 January 1641.
[5] Jacobs, “The First Arrival of Enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam.”
[6] Joannes de Laet, Historie ofte iaerlyck verhael van de verrichtinghen der geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie, zedert haer begin, tot het eynde van ’t jaer sesthien-hondert ses-en-dertich; begrepen in derthien boecken, ende met verscheyden koperen platen verciert: beschreven door Ioannes de Laet . . . (Elzevir, Bonaventura & Abraham, 1644), 117.
[7] De Laet, Historie often iaerlyck verhael, 119.
[8] Fiscal vs. Cleijn Antonio and others, 17 January 1641.
[9] Marriage intentions of Jan Fort Orangien and Marie Grande, 24 November 1641.
[10] Marriage intentions of Jan Fort Orangien and Marie Grande, 24 November 1641.
[11] Sentence of Cleijn Antonio and others, 24 January 1641, in New Netherland Council, Dutch colonial council minutes, vol. 4, 1638–1649, p. 84; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/11481), identifier NYSA_A1809-78_V04_p083; citing series A1809, New York State Archives.
[12] Fiscal vs. Cleijn Antonio and others, 17 January 1641.
[13] Sentence of Cleijn Antonio and others, 24 January 1641.
[14] Description of Manuel de Gerrit de Reus’s execution and pardon, 24 January 1641 in New Netherland Council, Dutch colonial council minutes, vol. 4, 1638–1649, p. 85; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/11482), identifier NYSA_A1809-78_V04_p085.
[15] Baptism of Philip, son of Johan Françisco, 29 July 1640.
[16] Marriage intentions of Jan Fort Orangien and Marie Grande, 24 November 1641.
[17] Jaap Jacobs, “Van Angola Naar Manhattan: Slavernij in Nieuw-Nederland in de Zeventiende Eeuw,” in Daalder, Remmert, Dirk J. Tang, and Leo Balai, eds., Slaven En Schepen in Het Atlantisch Gebied (Leiden, Netherlands: Primavera, 2013), 75–80.
[18] Sentence of Cleijn Antonio and others, 24 January 1641.
[19] “Deposition of Jacob Stoffelsen, overseer of Negroes, as to the employment of said Negroes during the administration of Wouter van Twiller,” Kenneth Scott and Kenn Stryker-Rodda, eds., Register of the Provincial Secretary, 1638–1642, trans. Arnold J. F Van Laer, vol. 1 (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing, 1974), 112–13.
[20] Fiscal vs. Cleijn Antonio and others, 17 January 1641.
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