New Netherland Settler Sketches

Name

Jan Rodrigues’s name is known from a single document, a 1614 deposition about a voyage to Virginia (as New Netherland was called then), making Rodrigues the earliest documented Black man in New Netherland.[1]

Jan Rodrigues is the Dutch version of his name. It is likely his name was Juan Rodriguez in the Spanish-speaking colony of Santo Domingo (present-day Dominican Republic) from whence he came. In their research monograph about Juan Rodrigues, Anthony Stevens-Acevedo, Tom Weterings, and Leonor Álvarez Francés identified references to men named Juan Rodriguez in records from La Española, another name for the island of Santo Domingo in use in the seventeenth century. One Juan Rodriguez married Ana Gonzalez on 27 May 1591 and they had a child in 1592. In 1599, a Juan Rodriguez with wife Maria Magdalena had a child baptized. Three men named Juan Rodriguez, including one recorded without a second surname, were indicted for rebellion in 1605. It is unknown whether any of these records refer to the same man or are different men of the same name. Nor is it clear whether any of these men was the sailor Jan Rodrigues who went to New Netherland.[2]

Origin

Jan Rodrigues was from Santo Domingo, the present-day Dominican Republic. Described as a “malaet” [mulatto], he was apparently of mixed African and European origins.[3] Writing about Rodrigues’s place of birth, Stevens-Acevedo et al. described how “intermingling of segments of the small white male settler population with the black female slave population of the colony . . . produced a predominantly mulatto population.”[4]

Migration

Juan Rodrigues arrived in New Netherland aboard a ship commanded by Thijs Mossel in the spring of 1613. He went ashore near the Nova Virginia [Hudson] river.[5] This ship must have been the Jonge Tobias [Young Tobias], a ship of 36 lasten [measure] sold on 1 October 1613. The sale contract mentioned the recent voyage by Thijs Volckertsz Mossel.[6]

Settlement

Juan Rodrigues was in New Netherland from spring 1613 to spring 1614 or later.[7] He probably lived on or near Manhattan, where Dutch ships encountered him in April 1614. Since he was not among the people giving a deposition in Amsterdam about the events in 1614, he probably remained in New Netherland when the Dutch ships departed.[8]

Biographical Details

Juan Rodrigues was born in Santo Domingo. A sailor in 1613–1614, he was born between say 1560 and 1600.[9] He died at an unknown time after spring of 1614.[10]

Marriage and Children

According to Graham Russell Hodges, Jan Rodrigues married into the Rockaway tribe.[11] No source is cited for this assertion, which is not supported by the original depositions.

Education

Described as a “Spangiaert” [Spaniard], Jan Rodrigues probably spoke Spanish.[12] He may have learned indigenous languages during his stay in New Netherland.

Enslavement

The depositions about Jan Rodrigues clarify that he was not enslaved. Jan Rodrigues identified himself as a free man.[13] He received wages for his service on Mossel’s crew.[14]

Occupation

Jan Rodrigues worked as a sailor for skipper Thijs Mossel in 1613, who probably hired him in the West Indies, perhaps at Santo Domingo. They arrived in New Netherland, at the Hudson River, some time in 1613. Another Dutch vessel, with skipper Adriaen Block, had arrived there about seven weeks earlier. According to Block’s crew, Mossel tried to undermine their trade with the Native Americans, offering twice as much merchandise in exchange for beaver furs. Not wanting to go to the Netherlands, one member of Mossel’s crew, a mulatto from St. Domingo disembarked against Mossel’s wishes. The mulatto, also called a Spangiaert [Spaniard], received 88 axes, some knives, a musket, and a rapier as his wages.[15]

In 1614, skipper Hendrick Carstiaensen hired Jan Rodrigues in New Netherland, probably on the ship Fortuijn.[16] On 23 July 1614, members of Carstiaensen’s crew gave a deposition about their voyage to New Netherland. They related that they had met Jan Rodrigues at the Manhattan [Hudson] river. Rodrigues declared himself a free man, and asked to join their crew. He said he had no further business with Mossel.[17] Rodrigues’s Spanish name and connection to Mossel identifies him as the mulatto man who had gone ashore in New Netherland the previous year.

Competition between Dutch traders was fierce. According to Hendrick Carstiaensen’s crew, they sailed down the Hudson in a sloop alongside Thijs Mossel’s sloop at the end of April. When a Native man approached Carstiaensen’s sloop in a canoe to trade, Mossel’s crew fired at the canoe. Mossel said he would drive the Native Americans away unless he could share in the trade. Later, when Jan Rodrigues was on shore to trade on Carstiaensen’s behalf, another altercation occurred. Carstiaensen’s crew heard Rodrigues fire a shot, and when they came to his aid, they saw that Mossel’s crew was attacking Rodrigues and taking him prisoner. Carstiaensen’s crew set the injured man free. Mossel’s supercargo referred to Rodrigues as a “swerten schelm” [Black rascal] and refused to return the musket they had taken from Rodrigues.[18] Mossel’s crew had a different view. According to them, Carstiaensen’s crew had hindered them from trading, and prevented the Native Americans from bringing their merchandise onboard Mossel’s ship.[19]

Associations

Serving on the Jonge Tobias in 1613, Jan Rodrigues would have gotten to know its crew, including skipper Thijs Mossel and supercargo Jan Jorissen.[20] He also would have known the crew of Hendrick Carstiaensen with whom he served in 1614, including skipper Hendrick Carstiaensen himself, of Amsterdam, cook Frans Jansen of Munnickedam, high boatswain Gerbrant Jansen of Colhorn [Kolhorn], constable Esger Annes of Hindelopen, boatswain Jochem Jochemsen of Danzig, merchant Pieter Pietersen of Amsterdam, merchant, supercargo Jacob Eelkens, boatswain Dirck Clasen of Alkmaer, and cooper Jacob Servaes of Vree.[21]

Literature

Berlin, Ira. “From Creole to African: Atlantic Creoles and the Origins of African- American Society in Mainland North America.” The William and Mary Quarterly 53, no. 2 (1996): 251–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/2947401. The article has several details that are not in the original records; apparently the author’s suppositions, stated as facts. The article states that a Dutch trader [Mossel] intentionally left Rodrigues behind in New Netherland to trade with the Native population or act as the ship’s agent. However, according to the original deposition, Rodrigues went ashore against Mossel’s will and was no longer in Mossel’s employ. Berlin also has Rodrigues changing allegiance twice, and settling among Natives, which is not included in the depositions.

Hart, Simon. The Prehistory of the New Netherland Company: Amsterdam Notarial Records of the First Dutch Voyages to the Hudson. City of Amsterdam Press, 1959. Discusses the voyages of Mossel, Block, and Carstiaensen, including the presence of Jan Rodrigues (pp. 22–26). Includes translations of the notarial depositions (pp. 74–75, 80–83). This is the first discussion in literature of the arrival of Jan Rodrigues in New Netherland.

Stevens-Acevedo, Anthony, Tom Weterings, and Leonor Francés. Juan Rodriguez and the Beginnings of New York City. New York City, New York: CUNY Dominican Studies Institute, 2013. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/dsi_pubs/17. Includes a detailed literature survey, discussion, transcriptions, and English and Spanish translations of the notarial depositions in Amsterdam and of the possible records about Juan Rodriguez in La Española. This appears to be the first publication to review the original source material after Simon Hart. The publication corrects some minor errors in Simon Hart’s interpretation of the depositions.

Citations

[1] Declaration about voyage under skipper Hendrick Carstiaensen, 23 July 1614, in Jan Franssen Bruijning, notary (Amsterdam), minutes, 28 January 1614–13 January 1617, fol. 97r–98r; imaged, Gemeente Amsterdam Stadsarchief (https://archief.amsterdam/inventarissen/file/45be76cb-a609-471a-766f-7cf0edcef38e), images 96–97 of 799; citing call no. 198, Record Group (RG) 5075: Archief van de Notarissen ter Standplaats Amsterdam [Records of the Notaries Residing in Amsterdam], Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

[2] Anthony Stevens-Acevedo et al., “Juan Rodriguez and the Beginnings of New York City” (research monograph, Dominican Institute, Cornell University, 2013), 15–16; PDF (https://academicworks.cuny.edu/dsi_pubs/17).

[3] Deposition about voyage under skipper Adriaen Block, 20 August 1613, in Jan Franssen Bruijning, notary (Amsterdam), minutes, 25 February 1611–7 April 1614, fol. 614v–615r; imaged, Gemeente Amsterdam Stadsarchief (https://archief.amsterdam/inventarissen/file/45be76cb-a609-471a-766f-7cf0edcef38e), image 634 of 798; citing call no. 197, RG 5075, Stadsarchief.

[4] Anthony Stevens-Acevedo et al., “Juan Rodriguez and the Beginnings of New York City,” 9.

[5] Deposition about voyage under skipper Adriaen Block, 20 August 1613.

[6] Sale of the Jonge Tobias, 1 October 1613, in Aldermen’s Court (Amsterdam), declarations before the aldermen, 1613–1614, fol. 84r; imaged, Stadsarchief Amsterdam (https://archief.amsterdam/inventarissen/file/48dd63ff-51a7-ab61-add0-0e1a69cd5b52), image 86 of 345; citing call no. 17, RG 5063: Schepenen: Register van Schepenkennissen [Aldermen: declarations before the aldermen], Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

[7] Deposition about voyage under skipper Adriaen Block, 20 August 1613. Declaration about voyage under skipper Hendrick Carstiaensen, 23 July 1614

[8] Declaration about voyage under skipper Hendrick Carstiaensen, 23 July 1614.

[9] Deposition about voyage under skipper Adriaen Block, 20 August 1613. Declaration about voyage under skipper Hendrick Carstiaensen, 23 July 1614

[10] Declaration about voyage under skipper Hendrick Carstiaensen, 23 July 1614.

[11] Graham Russell Hodges, Root & Branch: African Americans in New York and East Jersey, 1613–1863 (University of North Carolina Press, 1999), 6.

[12] Deposition about voyage under skipper Adriaen Block, 20 August 1613.

[13] Declaration about voyage under skipper Hendrick Carstiaensen, 23 July 1614.

[14] Deposition about voyage under skipper Adriaen Block, 20 August 1613.

[15] Deposition about voyage under skipper Adriaen Block, 20 August 1613.

[16] Hendrick Carstiaensen was skipper on the Fortuijn in October 1613. Response by the owners of the Nachtegael under skipper Thijs Volckertsz Mossel to the protest by the owners of the Fortuijn, skipper Hendrick Carstiaensen, 7 October 1613, in Jan Franssen Bruijningh, notary (Amsterdam), 22 August 1613–9 April 1614, fol. 30r–31r; imaged, Stadsarchief Amsterdam (https://archief.amsterdam/inventarissen/file/bf9b9eac-aab3-7274-15da-79027d30de0d), images 34–35; citing call no. 133, RG 5075, Stadsarchief Amsterdam.

[17] Declaration about voyage under skipper Hendrick Carstiaensen, 23 July 1614.

[18] Declaration about voyage under skipper Hendrick Carstiaensen, 23 July 1614.

[19] Declaration about voyage under skipper Thijs Mossel, 25 July 1614, in Jan Franssen Bruijning, notary (Amsterdam), minutes, 28 January 1614–13 January 1617, fol. 113v–115v; images 115–117 of 799; citing call no. 198, RG 5075, Stadsarchief Amsterdam.

[20] Deposition about voyage under skipper Adriaen Block, 20 August 1613.

[21] Declaration about voyage under skipper Hendrick Carstiaensen, 23 July 1614.