Wealthy farmers of the Dutch colonial period watch as African slaves unload Virginia tobacco at the port of New Amsterdam.
Women also fared much worse under English common law. “The change in the status of women was dramatic,” Gordon said. “A married couple was one person, and that was the husband.”
Colonial affairs were strongly influenced by wars in Europe between countries seeking dominance in the New World. The Dutch briefly took back New York in 1673, but the English returned for good the following year. In 1683 the 10 original counties, including Ulster, Dutchess, Orange and Albany, were established.
While Gordon described the English takeover as “bloodless,” it was not without conflict.
In Kingston, an English company of 70 men occupied the town and were lodged with local families. Disputes between the townsfolk, many of whom spoke no English, and the occupiers broke out. Relative peace was restored when 30 of the soldiers were granted 30 acres of land each in Marbletown in 1666, the year Wiltwyck and Nieuw Dorp, were renamed Kingston and Hurley.
Ulster County remained a hotbed of unrest against foreign control, Gordon said. The pre-Revolutionary War slogan of “no taxation without representation” originated in Kingston, she told the audience.
Next in the series: County clerk Nina Postupack will lecture on “Christopher Tappen, Kingston’s Unsung Hero,” at 5:30 p.m. Friday, September 19 at the Senate House Museum at Fair and North Front streets. Tappen, brother-in-law of governor George Clinton and his deputy clerk, is credited with saving county records during the British burning of Kingston in 1777.
The public is invited and refreshments are served. Seating is limited.
