Anne McVicker Grant (1755-1838), often known as Mrs. Grant of Laggan, has
fairly extensive and interesting discussions of slavery among the
Dutch-speaking community in Albany in the 1760s, in her famous "Memoirs of
an American Lady, With Sketches of Manners and Scenery in America, as They
Existed Previous to the Revolution" (1808 and many later editions). The
daughter of a British Army Officer, she spent much of her childhood in
Albany between the French and Indian War and the Revolution -- her
descriptions of Albany were a key source in James Fenimore Cooper's
"Satanstoe" (1845) and her descriptions of western New York and the British
garrison at Oswego influenced Cooper's "The Pathfinder" (1840).
        Another available contemporary source is Peter Kalm, "Travels in North
America" (London: 1770; Dover Publications 1964), which has several pages
on domestic servants, free and slave, as he observed them in New York
Colony.
        I shall be interested to see what list-members with much greater knowledge
of this subject than I have to suggest.

Hugh C. MacDougall
Secretary/Treasurer
James Fenimore Cooper Society
8 Lake Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326-1016
<[log in to unmask]>
<http://library.cmsu.edu/cooper/cooper.htm>

----------
> From: Edward Knoblauch <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Slavery in New York--primary sources
> Date: Sunday, February 28, 1999 6:40 PM
>
> I received this query and thought it best to pass it up the line to
experts
> in the field (yes, that's you!)
>
> I am wondering if you could direct me toward any information about
slavery
> in New York State.  I am especially interested in any original texts
> written by slaves or anything else written about slavery at the time.
>
> The inquirer seems to want other than the usual bibliography most of us
> could piece together of the various articles and books written since
slavery
> became illegal in 1828. Can anyone help?
>
>
> Edward Knoblauch
> Webmaster, New York History Net