Part 2
Slaves were introduced into N.Y. as early as 1626 when the West India Co. (a Dutch company), which had large establishments on the coast of Guinea, brought negroes to Manhattan, and practiced the slave trade here "without remorse." It is said that in proportion to population N.Y. imported as many Africans as Virginia. That New York did not become a slave-state like Carolina was, according to Bancroft, "due to climate and not to the superior humanity of its founders. [Gov.] Stuyvesant was instructed to use every exertion to promote the sale of negroes. They were imported sometimes by way of the West Indies, often directly from Guinea, and were sold at auction to the highest bidder. The average price was less than $140." With the extension of English rule to N.Y. in 1664 the slave trade in this colony passed into the hands of the British. It is estimated that the total import of slaves into all the British colonies of America and the West Indies from 1680 to 1786 was 2,130,000. The traffic was then carried on principally from Liverpool, London and other English ports; the entire number of ships sailing from these ports then engaged in the slave traffic was 192, and in them space was provided for the transport of 47,146 negroes. The native chiefs on the African coasts took up the hunt for human beings and engaged in forays, sometimes even on their own subjects, for the purpose of procuring slaves to be exchanged for western commodities. They often set fire to a village by night and captured the inhabitants when trying to escape. Out of every lot of 100 shipped from Africa, about 17 died either during the passage or before the sale at Jamaica, while not more than 50 lived through the "seasoning" process and became effective plantation laborers. Slavery in N.Y. was continued till 1827. It was then abolished by terms of an act passed by the N.Y. Assembly ten years earlier.]
Henry Hudson, English navigator, made four important voyages to find a passage to China by the northeast or northwest route; it was on the third venture undertaken at the instance of the Dutch East India Co., that he found the Hudson, probably a greater discovery than the one he undertook to make. With a mixed crew of 18 or 20 men he started on his voyage in the "Half Moon," April 6, 1609, and soon was among the ice towards the northern part of Barents Sea. His men mutinied and he was forced to seek the passage farther south. Thus eventually he entered the fine bay of what is now N.Y. harbour, Sept. 3, 1609. John Fiske says: "In all that he attempted he failed, and yet he achieved great results that were not contemplated in his schemes. He started two immense industries, the Spitzbergen whale fisheries and the Hudson Bay fur trade; and he brought the Dutch to Manhattan Island. No realization of his dreams could have approached the astonishing reality which would have greeted him could he have looked through the coming centuries and caught a glimpse of what the voyager now beholds in sailing up the bay of New York." The Dutch called the Hudson the North River (a name which is still used) in contra-distinction to the Delaware which they called the South River.
The lower Hudson is really a fiord--a river valley into which ocean water has been admitted by the sinking of the land, transforming a large part of the valley into an inlet, and thus opening it to commerce as far as Troy (about 150 M.), up to which point the river is tidal and, therefore, partly salt. The Hudson extends above Troy for 150 M. farther, but navigation is interrupted by shallows and swift currents. Below Troy the fall is only five feet in a distance of 145 M. This lower, navigable portion of the Hudson was the only feasible route through the Atlantic highlands, and in consequence it has been one of the most significant factors in the development of the United States. New York City likewise owes its phenomenal development largely to this great highway of commerce.
The invention and successful operation of the steamboat, the first line of which was established on the Hudson by Fulton in 1807, gave early impetus to the importance of N.Y.C., and the building of the Hudson River R.R., one of the first successful railways, now a part of the New York Central Lines, and the opening of the Erie Canal (1825) connecting the Hudson with the Great Lakes and the far interior, were among other contributory factors in the city's growth.
15 M. YONKERS, Pop. 100,226. (Train 51 passes 8:56a; No. 3, 9:15a; No. 41, 1:29p; No. 25, 3:11p; No. 19, 5:59p. Eastbound No. 6 passes 8:52a; No. 26, 9:12a; No. 16, 3:31p, No. 22, 4:56p.)
When the Dutch founded New Netherlands, the present site of Yonkers was occupied by an Indian village, known as Nappeckamack, or "town of the rapid water," and a great rock near the mouth of the Nepperhan creek (to the north of the station) was long a place of Indian Worship.
In the early days, the Hudson River Valley from Manhattan to Albany was occupied by Algonquin tribes, while the central part of the state along the Mohawk Valley had been conquered by the famous Iroquois Confederation, of which the Mohawks were the most warlike. The Mohawks soon drove out the Mohicans, who claimed as their territory the east bank of the Hudson. On the whole, the Dutch lived peaceably with their Indian neighbors, but an attempt of Gov. Kieft to collect tribute from them led to an Indian war (1641), which resulted in the destruction of most of the outlying settlements. Later a treaty of alliance was made with the Iroquois Confederation, which protected the early settlements in N.Y. from those attacks which occurred so frequently elsewhere in this period. The treaty was renewed when the British took possession of New Netherlands, and lasted until the Revolutionary War.
The land where Yonkers now stands was part of an estate granted in 1646 by the Dutch government to Adrian Van Der Donck, the first lawyer and historian of New Netherlands. The settlement was called the "De Jonkheer's land" or "De Yonkeer's"--meaning the estate of the young lord--- and afterwards Yonkers. Subsequently the tract passed into the hands of Frederick Philipse, the "Dutch millionaire," as the English called him, some of whom alleged that he owed a large part of his fortune to piratical and contraband ventures. The suspicion was strong enough to force Philipse out of the governing council of the colony, and he returned to his manor where he died (1702) at the age of 76.
It was even charged that he was one of the backers of Capt. William Kidd (1645-1701), for whose buried treasure search has been made along the Hudson, as well as in countless places along the Atlantic Coast. Capt. Kidd began the career which made him notorious under a commission from the British Government to apprehend pirates. He sailed from Plymouth, England, in May 1696, filled up his crew in N.Y. in the following year, and then set out for Madagascar, the principal rendezvous of the buccaneers. Deserting his ship, he threw in his lot with theirs and captured several rich booties. Returning to N.Y., he was arrested, sent to London, found guilty and hanged. Of his "treasure" about L14,000 was recovered from his ship and from Gardner's Island, off the east end of Long Island. The stories of large hoards still undiscovered are probably mythical.
The Philipse manor house*, one of the best examples of Dutch colonial architecture in America, erected in 1682 and enlarged in 1745, was the second residence built by the Philipses (the other is at Tarrytown) and is now maintained as a museum for colonial and Revolutionary relics. It was confiscated by the legislature in 1779 in reprisal for the suspected "Toryism" of the third Frederick Philipse, the great grandson of the first lord of the manor and his second successor. Before being converted into a museum it served for many years as the City Hall of Yonkers.
Yonkers has some important manufactures with an annual production of $75,000,000 and 15,000 wage earners; its output includes passenger and freight elevators, foundry and machine shop products, refined sugar, carpets, rugs and hats. It has one of the largest carpet factories in the world.
The country round Yonkers is dotted with fine estates. Conspicuous to the right, 2 M. north of the station, is the battlemented tower of "Greystone," once the home of Samuel J. Tilden and now owned by Samuel Untermyer, the N.Y. lawyer.
Samuel J. Tilden (1814-1886), a lawyer and reformer, served one term as governor of N.Y., and was later candidate for the presidency against Rutherford B. Hayes. He had become famous for his attacks on the notorious Tweed ring of N.Y.C., and later for his exposure of the "Canal ring," a set of plunderers who had been engaged in exploiting the N.Y. canal system. He was given the Democratic nomination for president in recognition of his services as a reformer. The Republicans nominated Hayes, and the result was the disputed election of 1876, when two sets of returns were sent to Washington from the States of Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and Oregon. As the Federal Constitution contains no provision for settling a dispute of this kind, the two houses of Congress agreed to the appointment of an extra-Constitutional Body, the Electoral Commission, which decided all the contests in favor of the Republican candidates. Tilden's friends charged that they had been made a victim of a political "steam roller," but he advised them to make no protests. Tilden left more than $2,000,000 for a library in N.Y. (now consolidated with the N.Y. Public Library).
Across the Hudson River from Hastings (19 M.) can be seen Indian Head, the highest point on the Palisades, near which (about 1/2 M. farther north) is the boundary between N.J. and N.Y.; from this point northward both shores belong to N.Y.
20 M. DOBBS FERRY, Pop. 4,401. (Train 51 passes 8:58a; No. 3, 9:23a; No. 41, 1:37p; No. 25, 3:18p; No. 19, 6:07p. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 8:45a; No. 26, 9:05a; No. 16, 3:23p; No. 22, 4:48p.)
About the time of the Revolutionary War, a Swede named Jeremiah Dobbs, established a ferry here connecting with the northern end of the Palisades (visible on the left across the river). Originally only a dugout or skiff, it was the first ferry north of Manhattan, and was kept up by the Dobbs family for a century. In times past the residents have often tried to change the name of the town to something more "distinguished," but the old name could not be displaced.
The story goes that 50 years ago a mass meeting was held in the village at which it was proposed to name the town after one of the captors of Maj. Andr['e]--either Paulding or Van Wart. The meeting came to nothing when an old resident suggested Wart-on-Hudson.
The strategic position of Dobbs Ferry gave it importance during the War of Independence. It was the rendezvous of the British after the battle of White Plains in Nov. 1775 and a continental division under Gen. Lincoln was stationed here in Jan. 1777. The American army under Washington encamped near Dobbs Ferry on the 4th of July, 1781, and started in the following month for Yorktown, Va., where the final story of the war took place. Two years later (May 6, 1783) Washington and Sir Guy Carleton met at Dobbs Ferry to negotiate for the evacuation of all British troops, and to make terms for the final settlement recognizing American Independence. Their meeting place was the old Van Brugh Livingston house.
Peter Van Brugh Livingston (1710-1792), prominent merchant and Whig political leader in N.Y., was one of the founders of the College of N.J. (now Princeton), and was president of the first Provincial Congress of N.Y. (1775). His brother, William, was the first governor of N.J.
22 M. IRVINGTON, Pop. 2,701. (Train 51 passes 9:06a; No. 3, 9:25a; No. 41, 1:39p; No. 25, 3:21p; No. 19, 6:11p. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 8:43a; No. 26, 9:03a; No. 16, 3:21p; No. 22, 4:46p.)
"Sunnyside," a stone building "as full of angles and corners as a cocked hat"* and situated behind a screen of trees a little north of the station, was the home of Washington Irving, for whom the town was named. First erected by Wolfert Acker in 1656, it was considerably enlarged by Irving in 1835.
The east end is covered with ivy said to be grown from a slip given to Irving when he visited Scott at Abbotsford. At Irvington we come to Tappan Zee (to be seen on the left), where the Hudson widens into a lake-like expanse, 10 M. long and 3 to 4 M. wide. It is a favorite cruising place for ghosts and goblins, according to popular legend.
There is, for example, Rambout van Dam, the roystering youth from Spuyten Duyvil, who was doomed to journey on the river till Judgment Day--all because he started to row home after midnight from a Saturday night quilting frolic at Kakiat. "Often in the still twilight the low sound of his oars is heard, though neither he nor his boat is ever seen." Another phantom that haunts the Tappan Zee is the "Storm Ship," a marvellous boat that fled past the astonished burghers at New Amsterdam without stopping--a flagrant violation of the customs regulation, which caused those worthy officials to fire several ineffectual shots at her.
Across the river from Irvington is Piermont, and 2 M. to the southwest of Piermont is the village of Tappan, where Maj. Andr['e] was executed Oct. 2, 1780. Lyndehurst, with its lofty tower, the home of Helen Gould Sheppard, the philanthropist, a daughter of Jay Gould, is passed on the right just before reaching Tarrytown.
24-1/2 M. TARRYTOWN, Pop. 5,807. (Train 51 passes 9:08a; No. 3, 9:27a; No. 41, 1:41p; No. 25, 3:23p; No. 19, 6:13p. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 8:40a; No. 26, 9:00a; No. 16, 3:18p; No. 22, 4:43p.)
Situated on a sloping hill that rises to a considerable height above the Tappan Zee, historic Tarrytown stands on the site of an Indian village, Alipoonk (place of elms), burned by the Dutch in 1644. Irving explains that the housewives of the countryside gave the town its name because their husbands were inclined to linger at the village tavern, but literal minded historians think it was more likely that the name came from Tarwen dorp or Tarwetown, "wheat town." There were perhaps a dozen Dutch families here in 1680 when Frederick Philipse acquired title to Philipse Manor, several thousand acres, in what is now Westchester county. Just above Tarrytown is the valley of the Pocantico creek, the mouth of which is marked by the projection of Kingsland Point.
This is the "Sleepy Hollow" of Irving's legend, where Ichabod Crane, the long, thin school-master, whose conspicuous bones clattered at any mention of ghosts, encountered the Headless Horseman pounding by night through the little Dutch village. It was after a quilting bee at Farmer Van Tassel's, where his daughter Katrina and what would come with her in the shape of fat farm-lands and well-stocked barns, aroused Ichabod's affections to the boiling point. He had a rival, however, "Brom Bones," a young black-headed sprig, who watched Ichabod's advances uneasily. After the party Ichabod mounted his old horse, Gunpowder, as bony as he, but no sooner was he well under way than he heard hoof beats on the road behind him and saw, glimmering in the dark, a white headless figure on horseback, carrying in its arms a round object like a head.... Never before or since was there such a chase in Sleepy Hollow. Perhaps the hapless school-teacher might have escaped, had not the Huntsman, just as they reached the Sleepy Hollow bridge, hurled his head square at his victim. The next morning no Ichabod, only a pumpkin lying on the road by the bridge, where the hoofmarks ceased. He had completely disappeared. Some weeks later Brom Bones led Katrina to the altar.
Through this valley, we get a glimpse of the site where Philipse erected, partly of brick brought from Holland, a manor house,* a mill,* and a church,* all of which are still standing.
"There is probably no other locality in America, taking into account history, tradition, the old church, the manor house, and the mill, which so entirely conserves the form and spirit of Dutch civilization in the New World.... This group of buildings ranks in historic interest if not in historic importance with Faneuil Hall, Independence Hall, the ruined church tower at Jamestown, the old gateway at St. Augustine, and the Spanish cabildo on Jackson Square in New Orleans. And the time will come when pilgrimages will be made to this ancient beautiful home of some of those ideals and habits of life which have given form and structure to American civilization."--Hamilton Wright Mabie.
During the War of Independence, Tarrytown was the scene of numerous conflicts between the "cowboys" and "skinners," bands of unorganized partisans who carried on a kind of guerilla warfare, the former acting in the interest of the colonists, and the latter in that of the king. On the old post road on Sept. 24, 1780, Maj. Andr['e] was captured by three Continentals, John Paulding, David Williams, and Isaac van Wart. The spot where Andr['e] was captured is now marked with a monument--a marble shaft surmounted by a statue of a Continental soldier.
Tarrytown lies principally along either side of a broad and winding highway, laid out in 1723, from N.Y.C. to Albany. It was called the King's Highway till the War of Independence, then called Albany Post Road, and the section of it in Tarrytown is known now as Broadway. The delights of traveling in the days when the road was first laid out are suggested in the following description: "The coach was without springs, and the seats were hard, and often backless. The horses were jaded and worn, the roads were rough with boulders and stumps of trees, or furrowed with ruts and quagmires. The journey was usually begun at 3 o'clock in the morning, and after 18 hours of jogging over the rough roads the weary traveler was put down at a country inn whose bed and board were such as to win little praise. Long before daybreak the next morning a blast from the driver's horn summoned him to the renewal of his journey. If the coach stuck fast in a mire, as it often did, the passengers must alight and help lift it out."
Many of the stirring incidents of Fenimore Cooper's novel, _The Spy_, occurred in this neighborhood, and the town is particularly described in _The Sketch Book_ of Washington Irving who was for many years the warden of the old church and is buried in the old Sleepy Hollow burying ground.
With Cooper and Washington Irving (1783-1859) American literature first began to exist for the world outside our own boundaries. The _Knickerbocker History of New York_, in which the Dutch founders were satirized, was practically the first American book to win appreciation abroad. This and later books "created the legend of the Hudson, and Irving alone has linked his memory locally with his country so that it hangs over the landscape and blends with it forever."