Ebony and Ivy by Craig Steven Wilder Read Free Book Online Page A

board. Trinity donated two square blocks north and south of Robinson Street between Church and Chapel. In exchange the Reformed Dutch and Presbyterians accepted Anglican affiliation, which meant an Anglican president and the use of that church’s prayers. Samuel Johnson accepted the presidency and Anglicans dominated the original trustee board. Justice Daniel Horsmanden, a trustee who donated at least £500 to the college, administered the board members’ oaths. 45
    The influence of the merchants rested in large part on their willingness to leverage the slave economy. “I Do give and bequeath unto my said Nine grandchildren after the Decease of my said Wife Sarah Each and every one of them a Negro slave such as my said son in Law & Daughter or the survivor of them shall think proper,” wrote Peter Van Brugh. He left his grandson Peter Van Brugh Livingston a portion of a family house, lot, and furnishings, and he gave his granddaughter Sarah Livingston ownership of his “Negro Bett,” or a surviving black woman, upon his wife’s death. His wife, Sarah, took possession of a collection of properties in Albany and New York City along with “all my Negro slaves, Horses, Cattle, households of furniture, utensills, and all my moveable and personall estate.” His daughter Catrina Van Brugh and son-in-law Philip Livingston took a half share in a house, lot, and furnishings,and a piece of the larger estate upon Sarah Van Brugh’s death. Philip Livingston received slaves and commercial slaving interests from his parents and his in-laws, and he left both to his own children, including Peter Van Brugh and Philip, as did their in-laws. For example, James Alexander added to this fortune after his son William married Philip and Catrina’s daughter Sarah. 46

    Advertisement from Charles Willing, trustee of the College of
Philadelphia, today’s University of Pennsylvania

SOURCE: Pennsylvania Gazette
    A landless Scottish noble who had trained as an attorney in Glasgow and London, James Alexander became a wealthy lawyer and land speculator in East Jersey. He married Mary Sprat, a Provoost widow and daughter of the DePeyster family, whose considerable business experience as a merchant trader aided his rise. By the time of his death, Alexander held large estates in New York and owned as much as sixty thousand acres of land in New Jersey. 47
    Preserved in the records of Peter Van Brugh Livingston, James Alexander’s 1745 will included a grant to support the new enthusiasm of the merchants: “I do give to the use of a colledge for the education of youth to be erected in the Province of New York the Sum of one hundred Pounds New york money.” Alexander increased his gift to the planned “colledge” with payments that the colonyowed him for his service in the assembly. Public money for the new school came directly and indirectly from slavery and the slave trade. “The Dutys on Rum Wine & Negroes have heretofore supported our Civil List” is how the trustee John Watts described that dependence. For two decades the colonial treasurer Abraham DePeyster collected taxes on the human merchandise moved through the port. Ship’s captains entering New York vouched to DePeyster for the accuracy of their manifests for “Slaves, Wine, Rum, or other distilled Liquors, Shrub, Cocoa, or dutiable Dry-Goods.” James Alexander also donated £50 “to the use of a colledge for the Education of youth to be erected in the Province of New Jersey.” 48
    The traders could afford to be magnanimous. Churches, hospitals, libraries, and colleges were the rewards of a broad social investment in Atlantic slavery. The
New-York Post-Boy and Weekly Gazette
broadside that announced the trustees’ swearing-in ceremony carried a single advertisement: “
TWO likely Negro Boys, and a Girl, to be Sold. Inquire of
William Griffith,
opposite
Beekman’s Slip.” The symbolism of