Michael Douma will be sharing a chapter from his new book on the cultural and economic history of Dutch slavery in New York. There is a long-established view that slavery in New York was neither efficient nor profitable, or perhaps only marginally profitable in its early years. And yet for two hundred years New Yorkers paid to acquire slaves to be put to labor for profit, not just to serve as household decoration. There were some 22,000 slaves in New York across the 18th century who could speak Dutch. Using novel archeological, bills of sale, newspaper, and probate records, the chapter demonstrates that slavery was a long-term investment in New York and that the prices of slaves remained stable over the long run.

Michael Douma is assistant research professor at Georgetown University, where he serves as the Director of the Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics. His research focuses on 19th century US history, the Dutch world, and the philosophy and methods of history. He is the author of The Colonization of Freed African Americans in Suriname, Veneklasen Brick: The Liberal Approach to the Past, and Creative Historical Writing.

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