Pedro Negretto

Name

Pedro Negretto. His name is known from one document, the colonial council minutes of 21 July 1639, whereby he sued Jan Celes for payment for tending his hogs.[1]

Origin

Pedro’s last name, Negretto, indicates African origins.

Migration

Pedro’s inferred race and early presence in New Netherland suggests he was brought to the colony in bondage at an unknown time before 21 July 1639.

Settlement

Pedro Negretto probably lived on Manhattan, since he tended the hogs of a Manhattan resident.[2]

Biographical Details

Pedro Negretto was born between say 1589 and 1609. He must  have been of age and thus at least 25 years old in 1639, when he sued Jan Celes. Able to tend hogs, he was probably not over 50 years old.[3] 

Enslavement

In 1639 Pedro Negretto was paid for his labor.[4]  However, this in itself does not indicate he was a free man. Slavery was not codified in New Netherland, and both enslaved and free people had access to the legal system. As Leslie M. Harris notes in her book In the Shadow of Slavery, enslaved people in New Netherland exercised their rights under Dutch law. She identified Pedro Negretto as one of the enslaved people who appeared in court.[5] Dennis I. Maika also considered Pedro Negretto an enslaved person, and noted that the name given to him “demonstrate[s] an awareness of color.”[6] 

Other historians hold a different view. Willem Frijhoff called Pedro Negretto a day laborer and a free Black person.[7] However, his sole evidence for Negretto being free seems to be the court appearance demanding wages. New Netherland Council minutes have several other examples of enslaved people appearing in court to ascertain their rights. For example, in 1639, Manuel, the commandant’s servant, gave a power of attorney to collect fifteen guilders in wages.[8] In 1643, Manuel de Gerrit de Reus (probably the same Manuel who demanded wages in 1639) and Grote [Big] Manuel testified in court about Jan Celes damaging Cleijn [Little] Manuel’s cow. The court condemned Jan Celes to pay compensation.[9] Manuel de Gerrit de Reus, Grote Manuel, and Cleijn Manuel were all enslaved by the West India Company, and did not receive partial freedom until 1644.[10]

Jan Celes owned land next to the “negroes’ plantation,” [11] which explains his repeated interactions with Black men. This plantation was probably the “quarter of the black company slaves” on Manhattan, north of New Amsterdam, as indicated on a 1639 map.[12] It is likely that Pedro Negretto was one of the Black men enslaved by the West India Company, who undertook some work for his neighbor. His Spanish name suggests he may have been previously enslaved by the Spanish.

Occupation

Pedro Negretto tended the hogs of Jan Celes. On 12 July 1639 Pedro Negretto called Jan Celes before the New Netherland council, demanding payment. The council condemned Celes to pay Negretto 2 schepels of maize as compensation for his labor.[13]

Associations

Pedro Negretto worked for Jan Celes,[14] also known as John Sales, an Englishman who owned land on Manhattan, north of New Amsterdam.[15]

Literature

Frijhoff, Willem. Fulfilling God’s Mission: The Two Worlds of Dominie Everardus Bogardus, 1607–1647. Translated by Myra Heerspink Scholz. Leiden: Brill, 2007. Represents Pedro Negretto as a free Black person (p. 535).

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 successful claim of Pedro Negretto from Jan Celes (“John Seales”) in the context of other disputes between Black men and Celes.

Harris, Leslie M. In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626–1863. Historical Studies of Urban America. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago, 2003. Uses Pedro Negretto’s action against Jan Celes as an example of an enslaved personwho was allowed to petition the government.

Maika, Dennis I. “Slavery, Race, and Culture in Early New York.” Halve Maen 73 (Summer 2000): 27–33.

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. Translation of the case before the New Netherland Council (p. 53).

Citations

[1] Pedro Negretto vs. Jan Celes, 21 July 1639, in New Netherland Council, Dutch colonial council minutes, vol. 4, 1638–1649, p. 44; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/11441), identifier NYSA_A1809-78_V04_p044; citing series A1809, New York State Archives, Albany, New York.

[2] Pedro Negretto vs. Jan Celes, 21 July 1639. For the location of the land of Jan Celes see patent to Tonis Nijsen, 3 April 1647, in New Netherland Council, Dutch colonial patents and deeds, 1630–1664, volume GG, p. 208 of modern penciled numbering; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/51308), identifier NYSA_A1880-78_VGG_0208; citing series A1880, New York State Archives, Albany, New York.

[3] Pedro Negretto vs. Jan Celes, 21 July 1639.

[4] Pedro Negretto vs. Jan Celes, 21 July 1639.

[5] Leslie M. Harris, In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626–1863, Historical Studies of Urban America (Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago, 2003).

[6] Dennis I. Maika, “Slavery, Race, and Culture in Early New York,” Halve Maen 73 (Summer 2000): 27–33.

[7] Willem Frijhoff, Fulfilling God’s Mission: The Two Worlds of Dominie Everardus Bogardus, 1607–1647, trans. Myra Heerspink Scholz (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 535.

[8] 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), 123. The original record has not been preserved.

[9] Deposition about Jan Selis damaging Cleijn Manuel’s cow, 19 November 1643, and fiscal versus Jan Selis, 21 November 1643, in New Netherland Council, Dutch colonial council minutes, vol. 4, 1638–1649, p. 180; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/11577), identifier NYSA_A1809-78_V04_p180.

[10] 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.

[11] Patent to Tonis Nijsen, 3 April 1647.

[12] Johannes Vingboons, “Manatvs gelegen op de Noot Riuier,” 1639; imaged, Library of Congress (http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3804n.ct000050); citing call no. G3291.S12 coll .H3, Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

[13] Pedro Negretto vs. Jan Celes, 21 July 1639, in New Netherland Council, Dutch colonial council minutes, vol. 4, 1638–1649, p. 44; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/11441), identifier NYSA_A1809-78_V04_p044; citing series A1809, New York State Archives, Albany, New York.

[14] Pedro Negretto vs. Jan Celes, 21 July 1639, in New Netherland Council, Dutch colonial council minutes, vol. 4, 1638–1649, p. 44; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/11441), identifier NYSA_A1809-78_V04_p044; citing series A1809, New York State Archives, Albany, New York.

[15] Patent to Tonis Nijsen, 3 April 1647. See also his sketch in the Great Migration: Robert Charles Anderson, “John Sales,” The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620–1633, 3 vols., vol. 3, P–W (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995), 1616–18.

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