
Professor Andrea C. Mosterman PhD and the book cover of “Spaces of Enslavement: A History of Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York.”
HUDSON—The Hudson Area Library and Leisler Institute co-sponsored an in-person presentation, “Spaces of Enslavement: A History of Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York,” by Professor Andrea C. Mosterman PhD Friday, May 20. Ms. Mosterman is an associate professor at the University of New Orleans. Her areas of expertise are Atlantic history and early American history.
Ms. Mosterman, a Netherlands native, said that her local education included slavery in the United States but did not disclose the role of the Dutch West India Company in the slave trade and early settlement of New Netherland (New York).
The presentation included slides and the first one shown was “Maison des Esclaves” located in Senegal on Goree Island, where captured Africans were held before transport to the “New World.” The slide pictured three doors. The first door is the point of entry and the second door leads to a holding area. The third was known as the “door of no return.”
Africans could be held at the Maison des Esclaves for a few days up to several months until a ship was ready to sail with its human cargo. Ms. Mosterman, who visited Goree Island in July 2010, described the facility as having “thick walls” that let in only “a sliver of light.” She added that conditions were “unsanitary.” Read more…