Document: Ordinance imposing a duty of ten per cent ad valorem on every slave exported from New Netherlands

6 August on Friday.

Whereas the director general and councilors of New Netherland find that the Negroes recently arrived here from the Bight of Guinea aboard the small ship het Witte Paert were transported and exported from here without the honorable Company or the inhabitants of this province having derived any revenue or benefit thereby, the director general and councilors have resolved and decided that there shall be paid to the accounting office on the Negroes who are to be transported or exported elsewhere outside the jurisdiction of New Netherland, 10 percent of their value or resale price. Done at Amsterdam in New Netherland; was signed: P. Stuyvesant, Nicasius de Sille, La Montagne. 6 August 1655.[1]

Rights: This translation is provided for education and research purposes, courtesy of the  New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, Mutual Cultural Heritage Project. Rights may be reserved. Responsibility for securing permissions to distribute, publish, reproduce or other use rest with the user. For additional information see our Copyright and Use Statement Source: New York State Archives. New Netherland. Council. Dutch colonial council minutes, 1638-1665. Series A1809. Volume 6.