Many of the mayors were from leading families who built immense fortunes from commercial ventures, including the slave trade. Twelve mayors are documented investors in thirty-four ships that carried the enslaved on fifty-eight voyages. The documented number of captives purchased in Africa is 1,193, including fifty who were taken by pirates. Of the 1,143 who were transported to colonies, 960 survived the Middle Passage. At least two hundred and eighty enslaved people were transported between colonies on ships that mayors invested in, mainly from the Caribbean to New York.

In 1627, the Dutch West India Company imported the first enslaved Africans—twenty-two people—to New Amsterdam.[1] By the late 1630s, there were about one hundred enslaved men and women in New Amsterdam, amounting to one-third of the population. Other northern colonies had enslaved people too but there were more in New Amsterdam. The ship Bruynvisch brought the twenty-two enslaved people, who were on a Portuguese ship that was captured by privateers.[2] In the summer of 1655, the Witte Paert (White Horse), which was financed by private investors, arrived in New Amsterdam with three hundred and ninety-one enslaved captives. Four hundred fifty-five captives had been purchased at Loango, in West Central Africa. It was the first slave ship to sail directly to New Amsterdam from Africa.[3] At this time, the company began taking captives from Africa to Curaçao, with some then transported to New Amsterdam.[4] The final slave ship of New Amsterdam, Gideon, also transported captives from Loango.

After the English conquest, New York merchants engaged in the slave trade by taking captives from Africa to other colonies, usually in the Caribbean. The first recorded mayor to invest in the slave trade was Cornelius Steenwyck, who owned the Leonora. In December 1666, it sailed from Textel in the Netherlands to purchase three hundred thirty-eight captives at Ardra, on the coast of the Bight of Benin. Two hundred ninety-one survived and were sold in Curaçao and Martinique.[5] Nicholas Bayard and Steenwyck invested in a slave ship the following year, Leonora and Leeuwinne. It sailed from Textel to Ardra, purchased one hundred forty-seven captives there, and the one hundred twenty-six survivors were sold in Curaçao.[6]

In the 1680’s and 1690’s, New York merchants bought enslaved people in Madagascar to avoid the Royal African Company’s monopoly on captives bought from West Africa. It was chartered in 1672 but lost it monopoly on slave trade under the Trade with Africa Act of 1697 that opened Africa to merchants when it went into effect in June 1698.[7] The East India Company had rights to trade within the Indian Ocean and struggled to stop piracy there, especially in the slave trade. Frederick Philipse became the richest man in New York City through piracy: the illegal slave trade with Madagascar. Captives cost three to four pounds from Africa but could be purchased for ten shillings worth of goods on Madagascar.[8]

Mayors Stephanus Van Cortlandt, John Cruger, and Caleb Heathcote invested in separate ships that took enslaved people from Madagascar. In July 1698, Cruger was an investor in and the supercargo—crew member responsible for cargo—of the ship Prophet Daniel that accidentally landed at Matatana, a European settlement on the south coast of Madagascar, where Cruger purchased fifty enslaved people. The ship then sailed to a nearby colony where it was seized by pirates.[9] Cruger returned to Barbados on a different ship, the Vine, and then New York on the ship Blossom. Cruger’s payment to sail to Barbados included two enslaved persons. He arrived home in May of 1700. The fifty enslaved people on the Prophet Daniel were later sold in Barbados.[10] Cruger wrote an account of the voyage.

In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht awarded Britain the exclusive right (“asiento de negroes”) to supply enslaved people to Spanish colonies in America for thirty years and effective control of the West Coast of Africa from Spain.[11] This led to large numbers of captives taken from Africa to the Caribbean and American colonies, including New York. Port records reveal that 1717 is the year with the highest number of the enslaved imported into New York directly from Africa (266) and the following year 517 enslaved persons total were imported, the most recorded.[12]

Over the next four decades, eight mayors invested in the slave trade: Abraham De Peyster, Robert Lurting, David Provoost, Paul Richard, Stephen Bayard, Edward Holland, John Cruger, and John Cruger, Jr. Their ships almost exclusively followed the same routes to and from the Caribbean. For example, David Provoost invested in the Expedition, which made five round trip voyages to Barbados in 1720 and 1721. The ship departed with provisions and lumber and returned with a total of thirty-nine enslaved persons to New York and had rum and sugar among its cargo.[13]

After the 1741, the importation of enslaved people into New York significantly decreased. From the 1750’s through the 1770’s, ships from New York sailed to Africa to purchase captives and sell them in the Caribbean, with some returning with enslaved persons to sell in New York City.[14] In the final voyage of a documented mayoral investment in the slave trade was in 1761: John Cruger, Jr. owned the Pitt, which sailed from New York and purchased eighty-seven captives in Africa. The seventy-two survivors of the Middle Passage were sold in Kingston, Jamaica the following year.[15]

The end of the slave trade came in 1788 for New York State. However, this did not end sales within the state and the illegal slave trade continued.[16] Until the Civil War, slave ships were allowed to anchor and restock in New York ports. In August 1856, Walt Whitman wrote “it is safe to say that two or three slavers per month have fitted out and sailed from New York for at least the last ten years.”[17]

From 1630 to 1766, documented slave ships brought over 12,875 of the enslaved to the port of New York (or New Amsterdam) on 756 voyages. From 1654 to 1755, trans-Atlantic slave ships brought at least 8,802 captives on eighty voyages to New York. This includes ships that stopped in New York as their second port of call. From 1630 to 1766, ships from the Caribbean to New York brought at least 4,073 enslaved people on 676 voyages.[18]

Mayor	Ship	Dates of Voyage or in NY Port	Ports of Call	Enslaved Purchased	Cargo	Co-Investors	Citation
Cornelius Steenwyck	Leonora	1666-1667	Textel, Ardra, Curaçao, Martinique	338, 291 survived		Jacob Dircksz Wilree	Slave Voyages website, #44270
Cornelius Steenwyck and Nicholas Bayard	Leonora and Leeuwinne	1668-69	Textel, Ardra, Curaçao	147, 126 survived		Balthazar Stuyvesant (Peter’s son and governor of Curaçao in 1643–47)	#11781; Bound by Bondage
Cornelius Steenwyck	Vergulde Posthoorn	1668-69	Textel, Ardra, Curaçao, Martinique, St. Kitts	548, 471 survived		Gerard Hamel, Gillis van Koornbeek, and J B Reusselaer	#44281; Bound by Bondage
Stephanus Van Cortlandt	Margriet	1690	To Madagascar, Barbados, and Virginia.	unknown	Outward: rice; Return: sugar and tobacco	Robert Livingston	Robert Livingston and the Politics of Colonial New York, p.90, n.35; Traders and Gentlefolk, p.39
John Cruger	Prophet Daniel	7/15/1698	To Magagascar, lost to pirates	50, seized by pirates	Outward: 150 small arms, six barrels of lead, lead, twelve casks of rum, barrels of brandy, lime juice, haberdashery, thirty-three hats, and other cargo	John Abeel, Joseph Bueno, and Van Sweeten	Pirates, Merchants, Settlers, and Slaves, p.52: UK Public Record Office, CO 5/1042, 98, pp.244
Caleb Heathcote	Nassau	7/7/1698	To Madagascar; offloaded at Cape May and Red Hook	23	70 pirates, muslin, opium, calicoes, opium, ivory, 12,000 pieces of eight, 3,000 [Dutch] “lyon dollars,” other cargo	Stephen Delancey	Pirates, Merchants, Settlers, and Slaves, p.52; “The Madagascar Connection: Parliament and Piracy, 1690-1701;” CO 5/1042, 98, 243
Abraham De Peyster	John and Anne	8/5/1717	Nevis	unknown	Sugar, molasses, coconuts	Two sons of other mayors: Judge Samuel Bayard and Gerrardus Beekman	#107291; Donnan p.464; CO 5/1222_03, 119
	John and Anne	5/14/1718	Curaçao	2	Chocolate, coconuts, skins, other cargo	Judge Samuel Bayard, Rip Van Dam, and John Read	#107333; p.466; CO 5/1222, 159
	John and Anne	8/26/1718	Barbados	11	Rum	Judge Samuel Bayard, Rip Van Dam, and John Read	#107357;  p.468;  5/1222_04, 174
Abraham De Peyster	New York Pink	11/18/1720	To Maryland	1	13 casks rum, nine casks sugar, 19 casks molasses, lime juice, chocolate, and provisions	Andrew Freneau, Thomas Bauyeaux, and Garrett Vanhorne	#107401;CO 5/1222_005, 242
Robert Lurting	Sarah	7/26 & 9/1/1718	Jamaica and to Madeira	8 total, 2 to Madeira	European goods; outward: provisions, lumber, beeswax	Thomas Lynch, Rip Van Dam, and John Bassett	#107347; p.467; CO 5/1222_04, 172, 179
	Pinetree	8/13/1718	Barbados	1	Ballast	Lancaster Lymes and Michael Kerney	#107352;  p.468; CO 5/1222_04, 173
	Pinetree	11/28/1718	To Madeira	7	Provisions, beeswax, staves, European goods	Lancaster Lymes and Michael Kerney	#107352; CO 5/1222_04, 183
	George	5/9/1721	Jamaica	2	Sugar, two bags cotton wool, pewter, copper, snuff	None	#107414; p.472; CO 5/1222_06, 255
	Seaflower	10/4/1722	Antigua	1	Rum, sugar, molasses, cotton wool, snuff	Thomas Lurting (likely his son), Rip Van Dam, and William Donbar	#107457; p.474; CO 5/1223_01, 17
David Provoost	Mary	6/18/1719	Barbados	6	Rum	Abraham Van Horne (his brother-in-law)	#107376; p.469; CO 5/1222_05, 208
David Provoost	Expedition	4/4/1720	Barbados	5	138 casks rum, lime juice, four casks iron, European goods	Col. William Provost (his brother) and Abraham Van Horne (their brother-in law)	#107383; p.470; CO 5/1222_05, 221
	Expedition	8/8/1720	Barbados	5	Rum, sugar, molasses, iron, European goods	Col. William Provost (his brother) and Abraham Van Horne (their brother-in law)	#107398; p.471; CO 5/1222_05, 228
	Expedition	4/18/1721	Barbados	5	European goods, rum, sugar, soap, iron	Col. William Provost (his brother) and Abraham Van Horne (their brother-in law)	#107410; p.472; CO 5/1222_06, 254
	Expedition	7/31/1721	Barbados	15	Rum	Col. William Provost (his brother) and Abraham Van Horne (their brother-in law)	#107436; CO 5/1222_06, 259
	Expedition	10/21/1721	Barbados	9	None listed	Col. William Provost (his brother) and Abraham Van Horne (their brother-in law)	#107440;  p.473; CO 5/1222_06, 262
	Expedition	6/22/1723	Barbados	5	Sugar, three bags cotton wool, five bags of coconuts, one horse	Col. William Provost (his brother) and Abraham Van Horne (their brother-in law)	#107464;  p.474; CO 5/1223_02, 33
Paul Richard	Anne and Catherine	8/6/1723	Curaçao	6	60 casks coconuts, three casks of old iron	Philip French III (son of mayor), and Matthew Clarkson	#107467;  p.475; CO 5/1223_02, 35
Paul Richard	Dolphin	6/14/1725	Curaçao	3	Lime juice, coconuts, iron	Philip French III (son of mayor), and Matthew Clarkson	#107511;  p.478; CO 5/1223, 89
Stephen Bayard	Allida	11/30/1724	St. Thomas	1	104 casks sugar, 49 bags cotton wool, five casks coconuts, soap	Abraham De Peyster, Jr. (son of mayor), Frederick Van Cortlandt (son of mayor Jacobus), John Brown, and Rip Van Dam	#107501; p.477; CO 5/1223_003, 77
	Ranger	5/18/1727	Antigua	2	76 casks rum, 26 casks brown sugar, molasses, two pipes Madeira wine	Peter Bayard, Henry Cuyler, and Joseph Royall	#107573; p.482; CO 5/1224 Part 1, 60
	Black Eyed Susan	9/3/1728	Curaçao	1	32 casks & 22 bags coconuts, two bags cotton wool, fourteen casks pimento, one cask old iron	His brothers Nicholas and Samuel, Jr. Bayard, and Rip Van Dam	#107614; p.484; Jordaan, Han,”The Curaçao Slave Market: From Asiento Trade to Free Trade;” CO 5/1224 Part 2, 125
	Byam	9/28/1730	Antigua	2	Rum, sugar, molasses	Michael Thodey, Nathaniel Gilbert, and Philip Livingston	#107711; p.491; CO 5/1224, 226
	Byam	4/21/1731	Antigua	4	Three casks rum, at least 29 casks molasses, sugar	Michael Thodey, Nathaniel Gilbert, and Philip Livingston	#107716; p.491; CO 5/1225_001, 2
Paul Richard	Prince William	11/20/1728	To Jamaica	2	57 tons provisions, three casks linseed oil, staves, European goods	Moses Levy, Robert Livingston, Daniel Clarkson, and Matthew Clarkson	#107626, p.485; CO 5/1224 Part 2, 135
	Prince William	1/20/1729	Jamaica	1	Thirteen casks pimento, ten casks lime juice, three casks & one hamp. rum, one cask iron, sugar, six casks indigo	Moses Levy, Robert Livingston, Daniel Clarkson, and Matthew Clarkson	#107627; CO 5/1224, Part 2,, 139
	Prince William	8/25/1729	Jamaica	2	One cask rum, bottles, two casks old pewter, copper, 150 casks molasses, two casks sugar	Moses Levy, Robert Livingston, Daniel Clarkson, and Matthew Clarkson	#107661; p.487; CO 5/1224 Part 2, 165
Stephen Bayard	Francis	2/5/1730	Antigua	9	One cask rum, European goods, four casks cotton wool, 32 casks molasses	William Smith, Nathaniel Gilbert, and Philip Livingston	#107675; p.488; CO 5/1224 Part 2, 196
	Francis	6/26/1730	Antigua	16	Rum, sugar, European goods	William Smith, Nathaniel Gilbert, and Philip Livingston	#107693; p.490; CO 5/1224, 221
	Francis	4/26/1731	Antigua	6	92 casks rum, five casks apothecary wares, sugar, molasses	William Smith, Nathaniel Gilbert, and Philip Livingston	#107717; p.491; CO 5/1225 Part 1, 2
	Francis	9/15/1731	Antigua	24	34 casks rum, sugar	William Smith, Nathaniel Gilbert, and Philip Livingston	#107736; p.492; CO 5/1225, Part 1, 11
Stephen Bayard	Turtle Dove	6/8/1738	Jamaica	10	Sugar, molasses	Nathaniel Marston and James Searle	#107865; p.502; CO 5/1226, 5
Stephen Bayard	Antigua Packet	11/15/1739	Antigua	2	Rum, 50 barrels sugar	His brother Nicholas Bayard, Henry Lawrence, Abraham Lynsom, William Turnell and Nathaniel Marston	#107900;  p.505; CO 5/1226, 69
	Antigua Packet	6/16/1740 (Perth Amboy then NY)	Antigua	24: 20 at Perth Amboy, 4 at NY	76 bags ginger, one packet cotton wool	His brother Nicholas Bayard, Henry Lawrence, Abraham Lynsom, William Turnell and Nathaniel Marston	#107151;  p.505, 512: NJ; CO 5/1226, 95; CO 5/1035_03, 72 (Perth Amboy)
	Antigua Packet	11/18/1740	Antigua	2	Rum, sugar, molasses, duck	His brother Nicholas Bayard, Henry Lawrence, Abraham Lynsom, William Turnell and Nathaniel Marston	#107921;  p.506; CO 5/1226, 126
	Antigua Packet	7/26/1742	Antigua	4	33 casks sugar, six casks rum, European prize goods	His brother Nicholas Bayard, Henry Lawrence, Abraham Lynsom, William Turnell and Nathaniel Marston	#107946; p.508; CO 5/1226, 220
Paul Richard	Hestser	5/15/1735	St. Thomas	1	72 bales cotton, three casks sugar, salt	Mordecai Gomez and David Gomez	#107820;  p.498; CO 5/1225 Part 2, 159
	Hester	8/28/1735	St. Thomas	2	59 bags cotton wool, fifteen tons fustick, hats, sugar, and other cargo	Mordecai Gomez and David Gomez	#107828;  p.499; CO 5/1225 Part 2, 165
	Hester	8/29/1737	St. Thomas	1	Cotton wool, salt	Mordecai Gomez and David Gomez	#107851; p.501; CO 5/1225, Part 2, 206
	Hester	8/31/1739	St. Thomas	3	Cotton wool	Mordecai Gomez and David Gomez	#107894; p.504; CO 5/1226, 56
	Hester	9/1/1740	St. Thomas, Spanish Town Virgin Islands	1	Fourteen bags cotton wool, 26 bags British cotton wool	Mordecai Gomez and David Gomez	#107916; p.506; CO 5/1226, 109
Edward Holland	Thomas	9/23/1732	Barbados	3	Rum, at least eighteen barrels sugar	John Stevens, John Groesbeak, Thomas Bayeaux, and David Minville	#107763; p.494; CO 5/1225_001, 49
John Cruger	Union	5/31/1737	Antigua	2	20 casks rum	Nathaniel Marston Jr., Thomas Marston, Abraham Lansing, and Henry Lawrence	#107841; p.500; CO 5/1225, 200
Paul Richard	Prince Frederick	11/2/1739	Jamaica	4	Pimento, two casks rum, sugar, ginger, seven and a half tons logwood, four casks lime juice	Moses Levy, Robert Livingston, Daniel Clarkson, and Matthew Clarkson	#107899;  p.505; CO 5/1226, 69
Paul Richard	Elisabeth (schooner)	9/17/1728	Jamaica	2	Sixty-two casks of molasses and one cask of sugar	His brother John Richard	#107617; CO 5/1224, Part 2, 127
	Elisabeth	9/17/1730	Suriname	2	36 casks rum, 1 cask sugar, 72 casks molasses, three casks coffee berries	His brother John Richard	#107681; p.489; CO 5/1224, Part 2, 208
Paul Richard	Elisabeth (sloop)	6/13/1739	St. Thomas, Spanish Town Virgin Islands	5	Straw ware, furniture, planks	Mordecai Gomez and David Gomez	#107889;  p.504; CO 5/1226, 44; CO 5/1227, 7: fixes error in 5/1226
	Elisabeth	5/28/1740	St. Thomas, Virgin Islands	1	28 bags British cotton wool, 35 bags pimento, two tons logwood, 47 bags cotton wool	Mordecai Gomez and David Gomez	#107909; p.505; CO 5/1226, 94
	Elisabeth	9/30/1742	St. Thomas, Jamaica, Spanish Town Virgin Islands	3	Sugar, cotton wool or cotton, molasses	Mordecai Gomez and David Gomez	#107947;  p.508; CO 5/1226, 225
John Cruger, Jr.	Legunea	6/9/1740	Jamaica and Curaçao	10	Ten casks coconuts, one cask coffee, one cask pimiento, one bag snuff, one cask lime juice, one box indigo, one box silk	His brother Henry Cruger, Jacob Phoenix, and Henry Cuyler	#107910;  p.505; CO 5/1226, 94
John Cruger, Jr.	Mary	4/20/1743	St. Kitts	2	Five casks sugar, 40 casks rum, molasses	His brother Henry Cruger	#107949; p.508; CO 5/1226, 235
John Cruger, Jr.	Virgin	5/30/1751 (Perth Amboy)	St. Kitts	34	Rum	His brother Henry Cruger and John Watts	#107157; p.512; CO 5/1035, part 5, p.165 and part 6, p.197
John Cruger, Jr.	Pitt	1761-1762	New York, Africa, Jamaica	87, 72 survived		None listed but possible there were other investors	#24543; CO 142/16, p.144-5,164-5

Next: Terms of Enslaver Mayors

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[1] In the Shadow of Slavery, Kindle edition, p.13

[2] New Netherland Institute, Resources Worksheet and Timeline, link

[3] Slave Voyages Database, voyage #11295; New Netherland Institute voyage 170, link; “Tale of the White Horse” by Dennis J. Maika, link

[4] Black Cargoes: A history of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1518-1865, p.62-63, link

[5] Slave Voyages Database, Trans-Atlantic, Voyage #44270

[6] Slave Voyages Database, Trans-Atlantic, Voyage #11781

[7] “The East India Company and the Madagascar Slave Trade,” Virginia Bever Platt, The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 4, Oct. 1969; “New York and the Slave Trade, 1700 to 1774,” James G. Lydon, The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Apr., 1978), pp.376; Black Cargoes, p.64

[8] The New York African Burial Ground: Unearthing the African Presence in colonial New York, Vol. III, GSA, report

[9] New York Wills and Administrations, Vol 017, 0019-0021, 1749-1760, Will 31 Jan 1753, Probate 1 Mar 1757, Ancestry.com, digital p.500-01

[10] The Memorial History of the City of New York, p.285-286; Trans-Atlantic Slave Database, Voyage ID #37014

[11] Black Cargoes, p.67-68; “‘To experiment with a parcel of negroes,'” p.47-50

[12] U.S. Census, Colonial Statistics, Slave Trade in New York: 1701 to 1764, digital p.22, link

[13] Slave Ship Voyages Database, Intra-American, Voyages #107383, 107398, 107410, 107436, and 107440

[14] “New York and the Slave Trade, 1700 to 1774,” James G. Lydon, The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Apr. 1978), pp. 375-394

[15] Slave Voyages Database, Trans-Atlantic, #24543

[16] “Slavery in New York,” Ira Berlin and Leslie M. Harris editors, 2005, online edition, p.4, 47, 60, 64, 126, and 127; New York Historical Society, Slavery in New York, Fact Sheet

[17] Whitman, Walt. “The Slave Trade.” The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price, link

[18] Data from SlaveVoyages.org, including slave ships with New York as second port of call

Copyright 2025 Paul Hortenstine