Home / Shonnard, Frederic, and W.W. Spooner. History of Westchester County, New York, from its Earliest Settlement to the Year 1900. New York: The New York History Company, 1900. / Passage

History of Westchester County, New York, from its Earliest Settlement to the Year 1900

Shonnard, Frederic, and W.W. Spooner. History of Westchester County, New York, from its Earliest Settlement to the Year 1900. New York: The New York History Company, 1900. 310 words

from all " customs, taxes, excise, imports, or any other contributions for the space of ten years." In addition to the grants to the patroons, it was provided that private persons, not enjoying the same privileges as the patroons, who should be inclined to settle in New Netherland, should be at liberty to take up as much land as they might be able properly to improve, and to " enjoy the same in full property." The principle of recompense to the Indians for the lands, as a necessary preliminary to legal ownership, was laid down in the stipulation that " whoever shall settle any colonic outside of Manhattan Island shall be obliged to satisfy the Indians for the land they shall settle upon." The patroons and colonists were enjoined " in particular and in the speediest manner " to " endeavor to find out ways and means whereby they may support a minister and schoolmaster, that thus the service of God and zeal for religion may not grow cool and be neglected among them." With an eye to possible infringements upon the commercial monopoly of the company, the colonists were prohibited from making any woolen, linen, or cotton cloth, or weaving any other stuffs, on pain of banishment. The universal recognition in those times of the propriety and expediency of employing negro slaves in new countries found expression in Article XXX. of the instrument, as follows: "The company will use their endeavors to supply the colonists with as many blacks as they conveniently can, on the conditions hereafter to be made; in such manner, however, that they shall not be bound to do it for a longer time than they shall think proper." So far as this new system of " Freedoms and Exemptions " was intended to encourage proprietary enterprises in New Netherland, its purposes were at once realized.