The Epic of New York City (15 page)

During the next 109 years of their rule the British did little to promote education, never establishing free schools. The public school system inaugurated by the Dutch withered under the new regime. From time to time, however, various churches set up primary and
secondary schools. On the other hand, slavery increased far more rapidly under the British than under the Dutch, and eventually this brought tragedy and disgrace to the city.

Many rich merchants lived here. As early as 1674, 94 burghers had estates valued at more than 1,000 guilders each. Twenty-two estates were worth between 5,000 and 10,000 guilders each. Hendrick Philipsen, the richest man in town, had assets of 80,000 guilders. In that era, planters worth 500 guilders were considered wealthy. About this time rich people began using silverware, although forks did not become common until after 1700.

Surrounded by abundant natural resources, New Yorkers were stupidly wasteful—chopping down trees, for example, with no thought of conservation. Windmills remained popular after the British took over. For a while the Boston Post Road was allowed to languish because fears of the Dutch had vanished and the French had not yet become a menace.

From the beginning of the city's history down to the present, men in the same line of work settled in the same part of town. Shoemakers, to name one group, congregated in Broad Street. Using the bark of trees for their tanning process, they converted animal skins into leather for shoes, boots, harnesses, men's breeches, and waistcoats and into the leather petticoats and jerkins worn by women. Their tanning pits emitted an acrid stench. At last the tanneries were declared a public nuisance and driven outside the town limits. Four shoemakers bought property just south of the present Manhattan end of the Brooklyn Bridge and set up shop there, only to be driven farther north about twenty years later.

The first Britain governor after the recapture of the city was Major Edmund Andros, not quite thirty-eight years of age. The life-span then was far shorter than it is now, and men rose to eminence at an early age. Another favorite of the royal Stuarts, Andros was a man of unblemished character, firm purpose, administrative ability, energy, and zeal. Like his predecessor Nicolls, he spoke French and Dutch as fluently as English. Andros belonged to the Church of England. The lieutenant governor, Anthony Brockholls, was a Roman Catholic.

Andros got off to a good start. Once again the Duke's Laws were proclaimed in effect. The new governor did not pack all public offices with Englishmen but parceled out these positions among English, Dutch, and French citizens. Unable to straighten out the colony's chaotic currency, Andros did succeed in nearly every other reform
he instituted. He reorganized the militia, repaired the fort, strengthened the harbor defenses, increased trade, beautified the city, and pacified the Indians.

In 1676 the Great Dock was constructed along Water Street from Whitehall Slip to Coenties Slip. For the next seventy-four years it was the only dock in the city. Seven public wells, two in the middle of Broadway, were drilled, householders near each well being assessed one-half the cost of their maintenance. In 1677 Andros ordered work begun on the first insane asylum in the province of New York. In Dutch days the streets were never lighted at night. Andros decreed in 1679 that on moonless nights every seventh house must display a lantern containing a lighted candle. The expense of the streetlights was divided among the seven property owners adjacent to each lantern.

A city-appointed chimney sweep roamed the streets, crying aloud that his services were available to householders. For the first time the city began to support paupers, and the first welfare case was “Top Knot” Betty, who got three shillings a week. Peaches and apples grew in abundance, but the Dutch drank imported rum or brandy, which they called kill-devil. In 1679 a visiting missionary wrote with a sense of awe: “In passing through this island we sometimes encountered such a sweet smell in the air that we stood still.” Cora was New York's principal crop for many years. Imported wheat, however, did so well in the local soil that raising wheat became even more profitable than growing corn or trading furs.

To make flour from wheat, the grain must be ground, sifted, and blended. At first the Dutch ground the wheat by hand; later, by windmills. Under the English, horse mills began to displace windmills. The Dutch had created a demand for flour, not only within the colony but also in the West Indies and elsewhere. Unfortunately, it was of an uneven quality and could not be produced in great quantities. Governor Andros now realized that not even the most honest and able miller, toiling in isolation, could produce standardized flour in sufficient bulk to meet the growing demand.

New York flour already was popular, but Andros decided to improve its manufacture and packaging by creating a monopoly. In 1678 he granted a few leading citizens the exclusive right to bolt all flour and bake all bread and hardtack. Bolting means sifting with a cloth screen or sieve. The milling process separates the flour portion
of the wheat kernel from the germ, bran, and most of the harder parts of the endosperm.

This monopoly at the bottleneck of the Hudson valley wheatlands made New York City the granary of America. Cries of outrage arose from neighboring towns and people hurt by the monopoly, but it resulted in the city's first great business boom. In the long run the entire colony benefited, for as the improved flour created ever wider demand, there was a need for more farms to grow grain and more ships to transport the finished product overseas. In the city itself the manufacture of flour became the leading industry, with almost two-thirds of the citizens dependent on it in one way or another. New buildings were erected, land values increased, shipbuilding flourished, more beef cattle were slaughtered, and city revenues rose.

During Andros' regime and that of his successor a series of Bolting Laws was passed. Although some were repealed, amended, or ignored, they increased the city's wealth threefold over the sixteen years that the monopoly lasted. Throughout this period other colonies tried in vain to overcome New York's lead in the flour industry. However, they forged ahead in other ways.

Boston, founded in 1630, or 6 years after New York City, was growing fast. Philadelphia, laid out in 1682, was 58 years younger than New York. When Philadelphia was founded, New York City contained about 2,000 white persons, plus Negroes and slaves. Three years later Philadelphia held 2,500 inhabitants, while the whole province of Pennsylvania boasted more than 8,000 colonists. Thus, Pennsylvania grew as fast in three years as New York had grown in a half century. Pennsylvania's greater religious tolerance played a part in this growth.

New York had many religious sects, and not only did they quarrel with one another, but disputes also raged among members of the same sects. In 1678 the Reverend Charles Wolley arrived to become the chaplain at Fort James. The only English minister in the entire province, he kept a diary and noted with chagrin the religious acrimony prevailing here. Two other pastors had not spoken to each other for six years. One was German-born Bernhardus Frazius, a Lutheran. The other was Dutch-born Wilhelmus Van Nieuwenhuysen, a Calvinist.

One evening Wolley asked both men to his house without letting either know the other had been invited. “At their first interview,”
Wolley recorded, “they stood so appalled as if the ghosts of Luther and Calvin had suffered a transmigration.” The English pastor quickly suggested that the opponents converse in Latin, and if either uttered one word in Dutch, he would be penalized a bottle of Madeira wine. Wolley hoped to dilute their hostility in alcohol and a neutral tongue. The dumbfounded Lutheran and Calvinist nodded agreement. Then Wolley uncorked a bottle of wine, started their tongues wagging, and discovered that the Calvinist had a taste for spirits. Before the evening ended, the erstwhile enemies were chattering in Latin so rapidly that Wolley could not keep up with them.

New Yorkers of all faiths were terrified in the fall of 1680 by the appearance of an enormous comet that streaked through the sky for more than five weeks. They fasted and humiliated themselves to appease what they considered to be the wrath of God.

Governor Andros became the target of criticism. He was accused of showing too much favor to Dutch shipping and of letting the people of Boston engage in the fur trade with Indians. When the Duke of York heard these rumors, he ordered Andros to London to justify his conduct. Andros sailed in 1681, fully expecting to return. After all, his bolting monopoly had increased New York's revenue. Even so, Andros hadn't made enough profits to satisfy the greedy duke, so he was relieved of his command in America. Then, to save face for both of them, the duke made Andros a gentleman of the king's chamber and gave him a lease to the island of Alderney.

About this time the duke was closeted in London with his friend William Penn. This wealthy Quaker was the son of Admiral William Penn, who had captured the island of Jamaica for England. After the admiral's death his son inherited a claim on the Crown for 16,000 pounds lent by his father to Charles II. In payment of the claim the king gave the younger William Penn a charter for Pennsylvania. An ardent believer in freedom of conscience, Penn wanted to create a haven for Quakers in America. Now, during their private interview, the duke lamented that he couldn't collect taxes or raise enough revenue in New York, that indeed he had half a mind to sell his colony to anyone offering a fair price for it.

“What?” cried Penn. “Sell New York? Don't think of such a thing! Just give it self-government, and there will be no more trouble.”

The duke took Penn's advice. In 1683 he chose Colonel Thomas Dongan to succeed Andros as governor of New York. Dongan was
an Irish Catholic of extremely liberal views. He was accompanied here by an English Jesuit, Father Thomas Harvey. Later they were joined by two other Jesuits, Father Henry Harrison and Father Charles Gage, as well as by two lay brothers. Mass was celebrated for the first time in New York City—inside Fort James—on October 30, 1683. Because Dongan was the first Catholic appointed to high office in New York, the people were prejudiced against him at the onset and were somewhat suspicious.

The duke had ordered Dongan to permit people of all faiths to worship in New York, provided they did not disturb the peace. This was not so benevolent as it seemed. Both as the Duke of York and later as King James II, James Stuart schemed to enhance the power of the Catholic faith, which he had embraced as a convert. A fanatic, he pretended to tolerate all faiths, hoping to revive Catholicism in Protestant England and establish it in New York. He gave Dongan this order only for tactical reasons.

Agreeing with William Penn that New Yorkers needed more self-government, the duke told Dongan to permit elections to be held. About this time some Long Island townspeople refused to keep paying taxes without representation. They complained about the greater freedom and prosperity of the colonies on either side of them. They wanted a government consisting of a governor, a council, and an assembly, the assembly members to be elected by freeholders of the colony.

On August 25, 1683, Dongan ordered the election of such an assembly. Two months later seventeen elected representatives sat down with the governor and ten councilors in Fort James. The first bill passed by the assembly vested supreme and permanent legislative power in the governor, a council, and the people. It guaranteed every freeholder and freeman the right to vote for representatives. It specified that no man should be tried for any offense except by a jury of twelve peers. It declared that no tax could be imposed except by direction of the assembly. It spelled out other liberties and privileges. However, Dongan's charter was more democratic in appearance than in reality. Furthermore, it wasn't actually a charter, but only a legislative act. Governor Dongan consented to it, but the measure had to be approved by the Duke of York. It was sent to London. Before the duke signed the document, he found himself the new king of England.

In 1683, after the English manner, the province of New York was
divided into counties. Four lay within the present city of New York. They were the counties of New York (Manhattan), Kings (Brooklyn), Richmond (Staten Island), and Queens. The Bronx did not become a separate county until 1914. Most Americans think of a county as a geographical area larger than any municipality lying within it. However, New York City's counties are physically smaller than the municipality itself. At present the city's five
counties
are political subdivisions of the
state.
The same five counties also are known as
boroughs
when they are considered political subdivisions of the
city.

The names given the counties were vivid reminders of the royal Stuarts: New York County was named for the Duke of York; Kings County, for his brother, King Charles II of England; Queens County, for Charles' wife, Catherine of Braganza; and Richmond County, for the Duke of Richmond, the king's illegitimate son by the Duchess of Portsmouth.

Also in 1683, the city of New York was divided into six wards: South, Dock, East, North, West, and the Out Ward (Harlem). The freemen annually elected an alderman for each ward.

Charles II died in 1685, and the Duke of York ascended the throne of England as King James II. Now the proprietary colony of New York became a royal colony. In a proprietary colony ultimate power is vested in one or more private individuals. In a royal colony the king is supreme. When King James examined the Dongan charter, he decided that it granted too many liberties, and he refused to sign it. As king, James concerned himself not only with the colony of New York but also with all the American colonies. Wishing to simplify administration and strengthen the line of defense against the French of Canada, he formed a Dominion of New England, which included all the colonies north and east of the Delaware River.