A Layered Landscape Indigenous Land and Colonial Property in the Hudson Valley, a talk by BJ Lillis
This presentation by BJ Lillis about changing land rights in the colonial Hudson Valley including Indigenous and tenant resistance to a manorial system was hosted by the Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History, in collaboration with the library.
Lillis traces Indigenous survival and resistance to colonialism on Hudson Valley manors from the early 18th century to the 1760s, when an unlikely alliance between tenant farmers and Native people organized tenant uprisings, rent strikes, and coordinated legal action against Hudson Valley landlords. In the 1760s, some landlords intensified their approach to market-oriented agriculture, replacing customary lease terms with shorter leases and money rents. Tenants turned to extra-legal action even as their Wappinger and Mohican allies pursued their land rights within the imperial legal system. Together, their actions reveal the contingent, contested foundations of rural capitalism and property on the eve of the American Revolution.
BJ Lillis is the Hench Post-Doctoral Fellow at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, MA. They completed their Ph.D in history at Princeton University in 2024. Their project, A Valley Between Worlds: Slavery, Dispossession, and the Creation of a Settler-Colonial Society in the Hudson Valley, 1674-1766, brings together histories of Atlantic slavery, Indigenous North America, and English, Dutch, and German colonialism to explore the contested relationship between land, labor, and property in the 18th-century Hudson Valley.
Freedom of Speech in New York: The John Peter Zenger Trial, a talk by Albert M. Rosenblatt
The Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History, in collaboration with the Hudson Area Library, hosts this in-person presentation with Professor Rosenblatt on the Zenger trial. The landmark 1735 trial of New York printer John Peter Zenger, which acquitted him for seditious libel in publishing articles critical of New York’s colonial governor, established the power of a jury to function as a check on government power and inspired the movement for freedom of the press later enshrined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Its importance today is as great as it was in the eighteenth century. Judge Albert M. Rosenblatt served as a Judge on New York’s high court, after having served on other New York Courts. A graduate of UPenn, and of Harvard Law School, Rosenblatt has written widely on New York law and culture, including a book, with his wife, Julia, on Dutch New York. He now teaches law at NYU Law School.
The Enduring Impact of the Palatine Migration on Columbia County, a talk by Thomas Shannon
The Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History, in collaboration with the Hudson Area Library, hosted a presentation with Germantown Historian Thomas Shannon on the Palatine Germans who settled in our area. All across Columbia and surrounding counties are traces of the 1709 Palatine Migration to New York. This history has not always been so clear causing one writer, in 1878, to claim “that to study their history seems like looking for a lost age and a lost people, a romance of the past,”. The finest historical narrative of the Palatines to date, Becoming German by Philip Otterness, follows those who left for Schoharie in 1712. By contrast, this talk will cover the local aftermath of the Palatine Migration, the persistence of many family names, more than a century of co-existence with Livingston Manor, and the factors that eventually swept away much of the outwardly obvious Germanness of southern Columbia County, with an emphasis on those traces that have survived.
When Independence Led to Chaos: Authority in the Early Eighteenth Century Dutch Reformed Church, a talk by Dr. Kenneth P. Shefsiek
Dr. Kenneth P. Shefsiek, associate professor of Early American and Public History at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, tells how authority in the North American Dutch Reformed church in the eighteenth century was determined. In the mid-18th century, the church was wracked by conflict about whether the Dutch church in America would remain subordinate to the Classis of Amsterdam or whether the American Dutch would become independent. Regardless of which side they stood, all believed that the American church had been subordinate to Amsterdam since the early days of New Netherland. They had, however, misremembered their past. The Dutch church in America became subordinate to Amsterdam in the early years of the 18th century, and only at the request of a group of American ministers who sought to tie themselves closer to Amsterdam in response to the chaos created in New York by one troublesome minister, Rev. Bernardus Freeman, who had destabilized the church from Schenectady to Long Island.
Impressions of a New World: Jacob Leisler, Nicasius de Sille, & the promised Eden of New Amsterdam, a talk by Toya Dubin
A virtual lecture from Toya Dubin, hosted by the Jacob Leisler Institute, Hudson Area Library, and with support from the Columbia County Libraries Association. This virtual presentation by Toya Dubin is about New Amsterdam at the time of Jacob Leisler’s presence in the settlement. Her presentation includes an introduction to the 3D map of New Amsterdam in 1660 and the stories behind the work to maintain historical accuracy in this model.
A French Fabulist in Leisler’s New York: The Extraordinary Adventures of Mathieu Sagean, a talk by Dr. Owen Stanwood
A lecture from Dr. Owen Stanwood. In 1700 a Canadian mariner arrived in France and started telling stories. Mathieu Sagean told of his discovery of a vast Native American kingdom in the far west, of his adventures across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and of the controversial administration of a certain New York governor, one “Linsselear,” who conspired with a pirate to steal Sagean’s treasure. His lengthy narrative provides a valuable primary account of Leisler’s administration. The problem, however, is that Sagean was an inveterate liar. Much of his account was obviously invented, making it difficult to know how to treat it as a historical source. Even if it was not true, Sagean’s report is important in that it reveals the kinds of stories about Leisler’s New York that circulated in the late-seventeenth-century Atlantic, and how they related to a wider imagined world that stretched from the interior of North America to the Far East.
How Savage the World: The Role of Women in Leisler’s Rebellion, a talk by Dr. David William Voorhees
This event is a revision, or rather a critique, of a former talk. One can’t change the past, but one’s interpretation of it should undergo revision as new information raises new questions. Dr, Voorhees speaks on the prominent role women played in the 1689-1691 New York uprising against King James II’s government, popularly known as the “Leisler Rebellion”. Numerous references to female political activism are found in the records of the rebellion. Indeed, historians note that women played a prominent role in the uprising. This presentation explores women’s involvement in New York politics a generation after the British takeover of New Netherland in both the local and broader Atlantic World context
Draining the Swampish Ground, a talk by Kate Mulry
“Draining the Swampish Ground” of Colonial New York, a talk by Kate Mulry. In the late seventeenth century the British sought to bring political order to the empire through projects of environmental improvement. Kate Mulry explores why drainage orders were often among the first projects initiated by new British officials in colonial New York. By ordering swamp and marshland drainage, officials sought to remake places they worried were unhealthy, unruly, and unproductive. At the same time, they expected to transform the residents of those places. This presentation will highlight changing ideas about nature, governance, and public health in the early modern Atlantic World.
Colonial New York as a Model for Our Nation, a talk by Patricia Bonomi
Patricia Bonomi discusses Colonial New York as a Model for our Nation. New York contributed vital elements to the formation of the United States and this talk highlights the special significance of New York’s religious and racial diversity, its unique geography, and its tumultuous politics.
The Persistence of Indigenous Enslavement in Dutch and English New York and New Jersey, a talk by Linford Fisher
A talk by Linford Fisher titled The Persistence of Indigenous Enslavement in Dutch and English New York and New Jersey. Indigenous peoples played important roles in the histories of Dutch colonialism and the colonies that later became New York and New Jersey. This public talk delves into one aspect of these histories and interactions, namely, the enslavement (and, at times, transshipment) of local Indigenous populations.
Reconsidering Slavery in 17th century New Netherland – What do We Know? What Can We Learn?, a talk by Dennis J. Maika
The Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History in collaboration with the Hudson Area Library present Reconsidering Slavery in 17th century New Netherland – What do We Know? What Can We Learn? a talk by Dennis J. Maika
To Trade, Traffique, Buy & Sell as the Rest of the Inhabitants: Jewish commercial and Communal Activities in Colonial New York, a talk by Dr. Noah Gelfand
The Hudson Area Library History Room presented, in collaboration with the Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History, “To Trade, Traffique, Buy & Sell as the Rest of the Inhabitants: Jewish commercial and Communal Activities in Colonial New York”, a talk by Dr. Noah Gelfand.
The Mohicans’ Incorporation into the Iroquois League, 1671-1675, a talk by Dr. Evan Haefeli
Dr. Evan Haefeli, historian of colonial North America and the Atlantic world at Texas A&M University, discussed the history of the Iroquois Confederacy’s relations with its Indigenous neighbors to the east and south, especially the people of the Hudson Valley, in a joint program with the Hudson Area Library History Room and the Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History on Thursday, June 24, 2021
The Turkish Captivity of Jacob Leisler and the Susannah, a talk by Dr. David William Voorhees
The 2021 Jacob Leisler Institute Lecture series, in co-operation with the Hudson Area Library, kicked off with Institute Director David W. Voorhees presenting a talk on the “Turkish Captivity” of Jacob Leisler.
Presentation on the early Colonial period in New York State, by Dr. David William Voorhees
The inaugural lecture of the Jacob Leisler Institute Lecture series, co-hosted by the Hudson Area Library and the Gotham History Center, took place on February 22, 2018. The Institute thanks Brenda Shufelt and Emily Chameides of the Hudson Area Library, Andrea Mosterman of the Gotham History Center, and Tina Lesem of the Leisler Institute for their help in bringing this effort to fruition, and filmmaker Dan Udell for producing this video.
The Jacob Leisler Institute lecture series is made possible through the generous support of the Van Dyke Family Association.
