Name
Claes de Neger [the Negro, i.e. a Black man].[1] His name only appears in two confirmations of a land patent.[2]
Origin
His name indicates Claes was a Black man, implying African origins.[3] Whether Claes was born in Africa or in the Americas is unknown.
Settlement
Claes de Neger owned a house near the bowery of Peter Stuyvesant, north of New Amsterdam.[4]
Biographical Details
Claes de Neger was born between say 1600 and 1635. He must have been of age (25) when he received a land patent in 1659 or 1660.[5] Black men had been brought to New Netherland in bondage since 1627.[6] Only healthy young men would have been brought to the colony so it is unlikely that Claes was born before 1600.
Enslavement
Claes de Neger would have been free (or half-free) in 1659 or 1660, when he received a patent for land.[7] His race suggests he was probably held in bondage earlier in his life.
Holdings and Estate
In 1659–1660, Claes de Neger received a patent for land near Stuyvesant’s bowery. The plot, numbered 12, consisted of a house and garden. It bordered Manuel Sanders’s garden to the east, Willem Portugees’s land to the south, and the cross way to the north. On 30 April 1665, former director-general Peter Stuyvesant confirmed the patent.[8] On 15 October 1667, the English governor Nicolls reconfirmed the patent.[9] In her book Spaces of Enslavement, Andrea Mosterman located the land in present-day Greenwich Village.[10]
Associations
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Claes de Neger owned land next to Manuel Sanders and Willem Portugees.[11]
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.
Mosterman, Andrea C. Spaces of Enslavement: A History of Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, 2021. Discusses Claes in the chapter on the geography of enslaved life in New Netherland (p. 37).
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. Vol. 6. New York City, New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1928. Discusses Claes de Neger’s land on p. 124.
Source Editions
Gehring, Charles. “Peter Stuyvesant’s 1665 certification of land grants to manumitted slaves.” Transcription and translation. https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/research/online-publications.
Dickenson, Richard. “Abstracts on Early Black Manhattanites.” New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 116 (April 1985): 100–104, (July 1985): 169–73. Abstract of confirmation of patent to Claes de Neger, 15 October 1667 (p. 170).
Citations
[1] Confirmation of patent to Claes de Neger, 20/30 April 1665, in New Netherland Council, Dutch colonial council minutes, vol. 10, 1661–1665, p. 331; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/55731), identifier NYSA_A1809-78_V10_pt3_0329; citing series A1809, New York State Archives, Albany, New York.
[2] Confirmation of patent to Claes de Neger, 20/30 April 1665. Confirmation of patent to Claes de Neger, confirmed 15 October 1667, in Richard Nicolls, governor (New York), letters patent, vol. 2, p. 120; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/88118), identifier NYSA_12943-78_V02_p120; citing series 12943-78, Department of State, Bureau of Miscellaneous Records, New York State Archives, Albany, New York.
[3] Confirmation of patent to Claes de Neger, 20/30 April 1665.
[4] Confirmation of patent to Claes de Neger, 20/30 April 1665.
[5] Confirmation of patent to Claes de Neger, 20/30 April 1665.
[6] 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.
[7] Confirmation of patent to Claes de Neger, 20/30 April 1665.
[8] Confirmation of patent to Claes de Neger, 20/30 April 1665.
[9] Confirmation of patent to Claes de Neger, confirmed 15 October 1667.
[10] Andrea C. Mosterman, Spaces of Enslavement: A History of Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, 2021), 37.
[11] Confirmation of patent to Claes de Neger, 20/30 April 1665.
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