Founded on the banks of the Mohawk River, Schenectady was a small community, but in many respects its history mirrors much of the contemporary history of New Netherland and New York. In delineating the details of the village's political, social, and economic life, Mohawk Frontier illuminates a larger picture as well.
Thomas E. Burke, Jr., explores Schenectady's origins and its destruction in 1690, placing them in a broad context of Anglo-Dutch, Dutch-French, and Anglo-French relations extending back over the previous quarter century. In addition, he analyzes the contending political factions in the village during the period, both in their local setting and in relation to the provincewide schism that surrounded Leisler's Rebellion (1689-1691). Burke focuses primarily on the Dutch residents, suggesting that until 1710 the community's institutions remained largely in the control of individuals and families who had settled in the colony before the English conquest of 1664. But he also tells the story of the Indian men, women, and children, French coureurs de bois, African slaves, and, from the 1690s onward, English soldiers and settlers who visited, lived in, or were garrisoned at the village.
Mohawk Frontier should find a ready audience among historians of early American communities and those interested in frontier settlement, the fur trade, Indian relations, and the transformation of Dutch New Netherland into English-ruled New York.
This is the fascinating story of the Dutch community at Schenectady, a village that grew out of the wilderness along the northern frontier of New Netherland in the 1660s. Drawing upon a wealth of original documents, Thomas E. Burke Jr. renders an engaging portrait of a small but dynamic Dutch village in the twilight years of the New Netherland colony. Despite the proximity of the Mohawks, Schenectady's residents--when they were not quarreling amongst themselves--made their living more from farming and raising livestock than trading. Due to a scarcity of labor, Schenectady became one of the most diverse and energized communities in the region, attracting servants and tenant farmers, and paving the way for slavery. Its northern frontier location, however, made it a vulnerable target during the many conflicts between the French and English that erupted in the late seventeenth century. Bringing Schenectady fully out of the historical shadow of its larger neighbor Albany, Burke reveals both the intricate depths of a small Dutch village and how many aspects of its story mirrored the broader histories of New Netherland and New York. This second edition of the classic history features a new introduction by William Starna, which updates key research and issues that have arisen since its initial publication.
"Early New York's frontier emerges in all its fascinating complexity in this classic account of Schenectady's first half-century. Deftly interlacing the stories of Native Americans, Dutch, English, and Africans to show how each played a part in the community's evolution, Thomas Burke pioneered the kind of shared history that is now prized by those who study colonial America." -- Joyce D. Goodfriend, University of Denver
