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Dutch New Netherland
An excerpt from the minutes of the court of Fort Orange and Beverwyck, circa 1652.

An excerpt from the minutes of the court of Fort Orange and Beverwyck, circa 1652.

These minutes from the local court reveal the lives and disputes of the residents of Beverwyck and Fort Orange. Fort Orange was the West India Company’s primary fur-trading fort, located near the junction between the Mohawk and Hudson (then North) Rivers. Beverwyck was the main settlement that surrounded the fort. Both were located near present-day Albany. In the span of several months that this excerpt represents, the court heard from professionals as diverse as bakers, magistrates, and brewers about issues such as land use and home construction, slander, marriage, and the inconsiderate construction of a pigsty. The court also heard from both men and women as well as Cathalina Sanders, referred to in the minutes as a “negress,” likely an enslaved woman.

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Citation Information
Excerpt from “Minutes of the court of Fort Orange and Beverwyck, 1652-1656,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/e5ed4ad583c9d4178d834a3138ab7a6c.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of Harvard University via HathiTrust.

Tips for Students

For this source, consider:

  • the author's point of view
  • the author's purpose
  • historical context
  • audience

Item 13 of 15 in the Primary Source Set Dutch New Netherland

Previous ItemNext Item
An 1858 print depicting the encounter between Henry (Hendrick) Hudson and Native Americans.
A Dutch map depicting North America from present-day Canada to Virginia, circa 1655.
An eighteenth-century wampum belt.
The West India Company’s Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, 1629.
A contract recording the sale of land along the Hudson River from Mahican Indians to Kiliaen van Rensselaer, 1630.
A series of drawings for the proposed coat of arms of New Netherland, 1630.
A print depicting the early settlement of New Amsterdam, published in 1651.
A map showing the original land grantees in New Amsterdam, 1897.
A 1660 map of the city of New Amsterdam called the Castello Plan.
An excerpt from A Description of The New Netherlands by Adriaen van der Donck, ca. 1653.
A transcript of the ordinance from the Director and Council of New Netherland granting “half freedom” to a group of enslaved men, 1644.
Excerpts from Voyages of the Slavers St. John and Arms of Amsterdam, 1659, 1663, documenting the Dutch slave trade to New Netherland.
An excerpt from the minutes of the court of Fort Orange and Beverwyck, circa 1652.
An excerpt from the Journal of Jasper Danckaerts on his arrival in New York, formerly New Amsterdam, in 1679.
An excerpt from the Journal of Jasper Danckaerts on his travels in present-day Brooklyn, formerly part of New Netherland, in 1679.

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