New Netherland Settler Sketches

Name

Pieter Santomee or S^t. Thome was a Black man in New Netherland.[1]

He may have been the same man as Pieter St. Anthonij, who had two or three children baptized in New Amsterdam in 1639 and 1641.[2]

Origin

Pieter’s last name implies he was from the island of São Tome in the Atlantic. In his article about the captives of the Bruynvisch, Jeroen Dewulf argued that Pieter was a Creole born on that island.[3]

Migration

Pieter Santomee was probably one of the twenty-two Black slaves brought to New Netherland on the Bruijnvisch in 1627. Jaap Jacobs reconstructed this first arrival of enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam and identified some of them with the group manumitted in 1644.[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 en route 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

Pieter Santomee lived on Manhattan, where he owned land.[8]

Biographical Details

Pieter was probably between say 15 and 25 years old in 1627, if he was one of the twenty-two healthiest people selected for continued enslavement, suggesting a birth date between say 1602 and 1612. He died between 12 February 1645 (baptism of child)[9] and 18 October 1667, when Governor Nicolls confirmed a land grant to his sons after his death.[10]

Marriage and Children

The name of Pieter Santomee’s wife or partner is not known. His children used the patronymic Pieterszen or Pieters, often without a last name.

Children of Pieter Santomee:

1. Lucas Pieterszen, born say 1635. He first registered his intentions in the Dutch Reformed Church of New Amsterdam on 2 November 1657 to marry Anna Jans.[11] He married second by 1665 (baptism of child) Claertie Lucas.[12] He received land along Solomon Pieters on 16 October 1667.[13] He was a barber-surgeon.[14]
2. Perhaps: Barent, son of Pieter S^t. Anthonij [sic], baptized in the Dutch Reformed Church of New Amsterdam on 2 October 1639 (witnesses: Dominco Anthonij and Jan Françoijs, “negers” [Black men], Trijntje van Camp, Susanna d’Angola, “negerinne” [Black woman]).[15] The baptismal register has “Barent Jan” on two separate lines in the box for the child’s name. The register has few entries for children with double first names, so this registration likely refers to two children baptized at the same time. The last name of the father is given as “S^t Anthonij,” which is not the same as Santomee or St. Thome, but the lack of other references to a Black man named St. Anthonij suggests this may have been an error for Pieter Santomee. The presence of Black witnesses indicates the father was Black too.
3. Perhaps: Jan, son of Pieter S^t. Anthonij [sic], baptized in the Dutch Reformed Church of New Amsterdam on 2 October 1639 (witnesses: Dominco Anthonij, Jan Françoijs, Trijntje van Camp, Susanna d’Angola.[16] Baptized with brother Barent, see above. If they were the sons of Pieter Santomee, they probably died young since no further information is known about them.
4. Perhaps: Jacob, son of Pieter S^t. Anthonij [sic], baptized in the Dutch Reformed Church of New Amsterdam on 10 March 1641 (witnesses: Gosman de Neger, Susanna van Angola).[17] If he was the son of Pieter Santomee, he probably died young since no further information is known about him.
5. Salomon, son of Pieter S^t. Thome, baptized in the Dutch Reformed Church of New Amsterdam on 30 November 1642 (witnesses: none).[18] He married circa 1664 (first known child baptized 1666) Maria Anthonij.[19]
6. Mathias, son of Pieter St. Thome, baptized in the Dutch Reformed Church of New Amsterdam on 12 February 1645 (witnesses: Groot Emanuel, “neger” [Black man], Susanna Congoij, “negrinne” [Black woman]).[20] He may have died young since no further information is known about him.

The two or three children of Pieter St. Anthonij fit chronologically between Pieter Santomee’s known children. St. Anthonij is a different name than Santomee/St. Thome, but its absence from other records suggests that it was either an alias or a clerical error.

Enslavement

If Pieter Santomee was indeed brought to New Netherland on the Bruijnvisch, he was first held in bondage by the Portuguese. In 1627, Pieter would have been enslaved by the Dutch West India Company. [21]

In 1644, eleven Black men, including Pieter Santomee, petitioned the New Netherland governor for their freedom. They explained how they had served the West India Company for eighteen or nineteen years and had long been promised their freedom. In the company’s service, it would be impossible to support their families. On 25 February 1644, Governor Willem Kieft granted their request. They would receive farmland to provide for their families. In return, they had to provide 30 schepel of corn annually to the company and remain available for (paid) work. Their current or future children would not be free, but would remain serfs of the West India Company.[22] Although the confirmation of the patent called Pieter Santomee a “free Negroe,”[23] the imposed conditions indicate it was rather a half-freedom—with more rights than enslaved people, but fewer than free colonists.

In 1650, the New Netherland committee explained that the freed slaves had been confiscated from the Spanish and had served the West India Company for a long time before their eventual emancipation. Of all the children, only three were still being used as slaves.[24] Apart from the nationality of the ship that first transported the slaves, this explanation matches Jacobs’s argument that the manumitted slaves were part of the human cargo transported on the Bruijnvisch. The 1650 committee report and the 1644 book documenting the capture were created years after the 1627 capture,[25] so minor discrepancies are to be expected.

Occupation

The West India Company exploited Pieter Santomee’s labor between 1627 (when he probably arrived) and 1644 (when he was manumitted). After obtaining his freedom, he still had to be available to work for the company, for a wage.[26] 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.[27]

Holdings and Estate

On 15 December 1644, Director-General Willem Kieft granted a patent to Pieter Santomee, a “free negroe.” On 18 October 1667, Governor Nicolls confirmed the patent to Lucas and Solomon Pieters, sons of the deceased Pieter Santomee. The land was located on Manhattan, next to the land of Simon Congo. It stretched to the swamp somewhat westerly 48 rods, east-north-east a little more easterly 56 rods, going on both sides to the said swamp then striking to the north somewhat westerly 47 rods, amounting to about 6 acres or 3 “margen” and 84 rods.[28] The land was mentioned as neighboring property in the confirmation of patents to Paulo Dangola,[29] Simon Congoe,[30] and Cleijn Antonio.[31] The land granted to Pieter Santomee remained in his family until 13 April 1727, when William Smith and his wife Mary sold their land, called the “Negros Cassey” [negroe’s causeway], which had belonged to their grandfather Salomon, “free negroe deceased.”[32]

Church Membership

Pieter Santomee had at least two children baptized in the Dutch Reformed Church of New Amsterdam.[33]

Associations

Pieter Santomee was part of a group of Black men that requested manumission in 1644: Paulo Angolo, Groot [Big] Manuel, Cleijn [Small] Manuel, Manuel de Gerrit de Reus, Simon Congo, Gracia d’Angola, Antonij Portugis, Jan Francisco, Cleijn [Small] Antonij, Jan Fort Orange.[34] Most of these men, but not Pieter Santomee, were implicated in the murder of Jan Primero in 1641.[35] Three of these men, Paulo Angolo, Simon Congo, and Cleijn Antonij, owned land next to Pieter Santomee.[36] Pieter asked Groot Emanuel to witness the baptism of his son Mathias. Pieter would also have been close to Susanna Congoij, the other witness to Mathias’s baptism.[37]

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. Discusses the manumission in 1644.

Dewulf, Jeroen. “The Captives of the Bruynvisch (1627): New Insights into the Origins and Ladino Identities of Manhattan’s First Enslaved Africans.” Colonial Latin American Review 34, no. 3 (2025): 367–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/10609164.2025.2562693. Argues for a connection between New Netherland’s earliest Black residents, including Pieter Santomee, and the island of São Tome.

Dickenson, Richard. “Abstracts on Early Black Manhattanites.” New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 116 (July 1985): 169–73. Has a short sketch for Pieter Santomee including his manumission and receipt of a land grant.

Hoff, Henry B. “A Colonial Black Family in New York and New Jersey: Pieter Santomee and His Descendants.” Journal of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society 9 (1988): 101–34. Detailed, well-documented genealogy of Pieter Santomee and four generations of his descendants.

Hoff, Henry B. “Researching African-American Families in New Netherland and Colonial New York and New Jersey.” New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 136 (April 2005): 109–16. Includes a short biographical sketch of Pieter Santomee (p. 90).

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 insights into the likely circumstances of Pieter’s arrival in New Netherland.

Mosterman, Andrea C. Spaces of Enslavement: A History of Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, 2021. Pages 26, 43.

Phelps Stokes, Isaac Newton. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498–1909: Compiled from Original Sources and Illustrated by Photo-Intaglio Reproductions of Important Maps, Plans, Views, and Documents in Public and Private Collections. 6 vols. Robert H. Dodd, 1915–1928. Discussion of the land grant to Pieter Santomee including the location and subsequent owners (vol. 6: 75).

Source Editions

Scott, Kenneth, and Kenn Stryker-Rodda, eds. Council Minutes, 1638–1649. Translated by A. J. F. Van Laer. Vol. 4. New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1974. Pages 212–13 (manumission).

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. Pages 3, 8, 16, 25 (baptisms of children).

Citations

[1] Confirmation of patent to Pieter Santomee, 15 December 1644, confirmed 18 October 1667, in Richard Nicolls, governor (New York), letters patent, vol. 2, p. 130; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/88135), identifier NYSA_12943-78_V02_p130; citing series 12943-78, Department of State, Bureau of Miscellaneous Records, New York State Archives, Albany, New York. Baptism of Mathias, son of Pieter S^t. Thome, 12 February 1645, in Dutch Reformed Church (New Amsterdam), Liber A, baptismal register, 1639–1697, p. 263; image 163 of 1410.

[2] Baptism of “Barent Jan,” son(s) of Pieter S^t. Anthonij, 2 October 1639, in Dutch Reformed Church (New Amsterdam), Liber A, baptismal register, 1639–1697, p. 249; 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 149 of 1410; citing The Archives of the Reformed Church in America, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Baptism of Jacob, son of Pieter S^t. Anthonij, 10 March 1641, in Dutch Reformed Church (New Amsterdam), Liber A, baptismal register, 1639–1697, p. 252; image 152 of 1410.

[3] Jeroen Dewulf, “The Captives of the Bruynvisch (1627): New Insights into the Origins and Ladino Identities of Manhattan’s First Enslaved Africans,” Colonial Latin American Review 34, no. 3 (2025): 367–91 (p. 378).

[4] 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.

[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 ofte iaerlyck verhael, 119.

[8] Confirmation of patent to Pieter Santomee, 15 December 1644, confirmed 18 October 1667.

[9] Baptism of Mathias, son of Pieter S^t. Thome, 12 February 1645.

[10] Confirmation of patent to Pieter Santomee, 15 December 1644, confirmed 18 October 1667.

[11] Marriage intentions of Lucas Pieterszen and Anna Jans, 2 November 1657, in Dutch Reformed Church (New Amsterdam), Liber A, marriage register, 1639–1701, p. 596; 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 485 of 1410.

[12] Baptism of Pieeter, son of Lucas Pieterszen and Claertie Lucas, baptized 21 June 1665, in Dutch Reformed Church (New Amsterdam), Liber A, marriage register, 1639–1701, p. 335; image 236 of 1410.

[13] Richard Dickenson, “Abstracts on Early Black Manhattanites,” New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 116 (July 1985): 169–73.

[14] Henry B. Hoff, “Researching African-American Families in New Netherland and Colonial New York and New Jersey,” New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 136 (April 2005): 109–16.

[15] Baptism of “Barent Jan,” son(s) of Pieter St. Anthonij, 2 October 1639.

[16] Baptism of “Barent Jan,” son(s) of Pieter S^t. Anthonij, 2 October 1639.

[17] Baptism of Jacob, son of Pieter S^t. Anthonij, 10 March 1641, in Dutch Reformed Church (New Amsterdam), Liber A, baptismal register, 1639–1697, p. 252; image 152 of 1410.

[18] Baptism of Salomon, son of Pieter S^t. Thome, 30 November 1642, in Dutch Reformed Church (New Amsterdam), Liber A, baptismal register, 1639–1697, p. 257; image 157 of 1410.

[19] Baptism of Anthonius, son of Salomon Pieters and Maria Anthonij, 21 February 1666, in Dutch Reformed Church (New Amsterdam), Liber A, baptismal register, 1639–1697, p. 338; image 239 of 1410.

[20] Baptism of Mathias, son of Pieter St. Thome, 12 February 1645, in Dutch Reformed Church (New Amsterdam), Liber A, baptismal register, 1639–1697, p. 263; image 163 of 1410.

[21] Jacobs, “The First Arrival of Enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam.”

[22] Manumission of eleven black men, 25 February 1644, in New Netherland Council, Dutch colonial council minutes, vol. 4, 1638–1649, p. 183–84; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/11580), identifier NYSA_A1809-78_V04_p183-184.

[23] Confirmation of patent to Pieter Santomee, 15 December 1644, confirmed 18 October 1667.

[24] New Netherland committee, reply to the remonstrance about situation in New Netherland, 31 January 1650, article 43, in States-General, records regarding the situation in New-Netherland, in particular the position of patroons and population, 1649–1650; call no. 12564.30A, Record Group 1.01.02: Archief van de Staten-Generaal [Records of the States-General], Nationaal Archief, The Hague, Netherlands; scans supplied by Nationaal Archief.

[25] De Laet, Historie ofte iaerlyck verhael, 119.

[26] Manumission of eleven black men, 25 February 1644.

[27] “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.

[28] Confirmation of patent to Pieter Santomee, 15 December 1644, confirmed 18 October 1667.

[29] Confirmation of patent to Paulo Dangola, 30 December 1664 [should be: 1644], confirmed 18 October 1667, in Richard Nicolls, governor (New York), letters patent, vol. 2, pp. 130–31; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/88133), identifier NYSA_12943-78_V02_p128-129; citing series 12943-78, Department of State, Bureau of Miscellaneous Records, New York State Archives, Albany, New York.

[30] Confirmation of patent to Simon Congoe, 15 December 1644, confirmed 18 October 1667, in Richard Nicolls, governor (New York), letters patent, vol. 2, pp. 130–31; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/88134), identifier NYSA_12943-78_V02_p129-130; citing series 12943-78, Department of State, Bureau of Miscellaneous Records, New York State Archives, Albany, New York.

[31] Confirmation of patent to Cleijn Antonio, 30 December 1644, confirmed 18 October 1667, in Richard Nicolls, governor (New York), letters patent, vol. 2, pp. 130–31; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/88136), identifier NYSA_12943-78_V02_p130-131; citing series 12943-78, Department of State, Bureau of Miscellaneous Records, New York State Archives, Albany, New York.

[32] Conveyance from William Smith and wife Mary to Garrit Onckelbagg, 13 April 1727, in Mayor’s Court (New York City, New York), conveyances, vol. 31, 1724–1745, pp. 155–56; imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9WG-6WZ2), image group no. 007178083, images 94–95 of 754; citing Register’s Office, New York County, City and State of New York.

[33] Baptism of Salomon, son of Pieter St. Thomee, 30 November 1642. Baptism of Mathias, son of Pieter St. Thome, 12 February 1645.

[34] Manumission of eleven black men, 25 February 1644.

[35] 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.

[36] Confirmation of patent to Paulo Dangola, 30 December 1664 [should be: 1644], confirmed 18 October 1667. Confirmation of patent to Simon Congoe, 15 December 1644, confirmed 18 October 1667. Confirmation of patent to Cleijn Antonio, 30 December 1644, confirmed 18 October 1667.

[37] Baptism of Mathias, son of Pieter St. Thome, 12 February 1645.