Slavery at Albany

As northerners, sometimes we’re a little bit smug about our home region having seen the light on slavery well before the rest of the country. But, still, it had to see the light. Slaves were part of Hudson and Mohawk valley households from the earliest European settlements. As noted last week, several perished in the Schenectady Massacre. And while slavery never flourished in the way it did in the South, it was certainly normal for the richest families to have a small number of slaves.

This note, from the Albany Institute of History and Art collection at the New York Heritage digital collections, was sent from Abraham Ten Broeck to a Mrs. Christina on August 3, 1795:

The Bearer my Negroe Man John will deliver
you two yds[?] Cloth Measuring 74 Ells. which Mrs.
Ten Broeck desires you to Bleach for her--