Background
By the middle of the 18th century, New York had the largest population of enslaved people of any of the non-plantation colonies. Just after the Revolutionary War, enslaved people comprised over 13% of the population in New Paltz.[1] The labor of enslaved people of African descent over the course of a century and a half contributed significantly to the building of the community, and enabled the prosperity of each of the town’s founding families.
Sojourner Truth, 1870. National Portrait Gallery.
Enslaved men and women in the Hudson Valley served as agricultural laborers, household servants, and skilled workers. On small family farms (common in New Paltz and Ulster County), they often worked side-by-side with their enslavers, whether in the field or the household. Also, in many cases, enslaved people lived in attics or cellars in close proximity to their enslavers. Enslaved people could not legally marry, but were often forced to cohabit in order to produce children who would, in turn, provide additional labor or be sold. Sexual relations between male enslavers and enslaved women were not uncommon.[2] The realities of slavery in the Mid-Hudson Valley are exposed in the Narrative of Sojourner Truth, the biography of the much-revered African-American abolitionist who was enslaved in what was then New Paltz. The book describes the separation from loved ones, excruciating labor, brutal beatings, and inhumane sleeping conditions she herself endured as an enslaved person.[3]
The Hasbroucks as Enslavers
Records show the New Paltz patentee Jean Hasbrouck (early 1640s-1714) and at least three generations of his descendants buying, bequeathing, and/or being taxed for enslaved people. In a will dated 1712, Jean conveyed to his heirs “Negroes” named Garret and James and a “Negress” named Molly.[4]
Census records show Jean’s son Jacob enslaved four people, as did his grandson, Jacob Hasbrouck Jr.[5] Jacob Jr.’s eldest son Josiah enslaved at least eight people in 1798,[6] and a bill of sale from 1803 shows Jacob Hasbrouck purchasing two enslaved people, Tom and Mol, for $25.[7]
Detail from the Last Will and Testament of Jean Hasbrouck (in Dutch), 1712. HHS Archives.
Click the image to see the full document and translation.
Details about how the white Hasbroucks treated these enslaved people are few, but can be inferred from surviving documents. In Jean Hasbrouck’s 1712 will, he stipulated that if Molly, whom he willed to his daughter, “should bear children, Jacob [Jean’s son], should have the first daughter” after that child turned one year old, revealing the cruel ways in which enslaved families were frequently separated in New York.
Sojourner Truth related an account of one white Hasbrouck’s brutal treatment of an enslaved woman and her severely disabled child. Although the enslaver’s first name was not provided, Truth shared that the man forced the woman to work regardless of her ill health. The woman’s child was seriously disabled, “unable to walk or talk, at the age of five years.” The Narrative continues, “Instead of exciting the master’s pity … [the child] so enraged him, that he would kick the poor thing about like a foot-ball,” at least one time sending the child across the room and down steps at the open door. The abused child eventually died.[8]
Truth’s own life story, however, suggests that at least one Hasbrouck man exhibited some concern for the rights and well-being of people that had been enslaved. In 1828 an attorney named Abraham Bruyn Hasbrouck of Kingston was among the men who helped Truth to liberate her son Peter who had been illegally sold into slavery in Alabama.[9]
Notes
[1] 1790 U.S. Federal Census for New Paltz, New York, published on Ancestry.com. See also Eric J. Roth, "'The Society of Negroes Unsettled': a history of slavery in New Paltz, NY." Afro-Americans in New York Life and History 27, no. 1 (2003): 28. Gale Academic OneFile (accessed April 7, 2025). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A128705774/AONE?u=nysl_oweb&sid=googleScholar&xid=f5bd981f.
[2] The 1789 Last Will and Testament of Francis Hasbrook (his preferred spelling) of Fishkill suggests he may have fathered a daughter with his enslaved woman. In his will, he directs that “my Negro female child named Kate or Katherine be given to my daughter Sarah exclusive of her portion—and that her maintenance and support is to arise out of my family and Estate.” Francis Hasbrouck Papers, HHS Archives. https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll153/id/35314/rec/1.
[3] Olive Gilbert and Frances W. Titus, eds. Narrative of Sojourner Truth; A Bondswoman of Olden Time, Emancipated by the New York Legislature in the Early Part of the Present Century; with a History of her Labors and Correspondence Drawn from Her Book of Life." (Battle Creek, Mich., Published for the Author, 1878). https://www.loc.gov/item/29025244/.
[4] Last Will and Testament of Jean Hasbrouck, 1712. Jean, Jacob, and Josiah Hasbrouck Family Papers, Historic Huguenot Street (HHS) Archives. https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll153/id/20205/rec/21
[5] E. B. O’Callaghan, “Census of Slaves, 1755” in Documentary History of the State of New-York, vol. 3: 849. 1790 U.S. Federal Census for New Paltz, New York.
[6] 1798 Tax Assessment for New Paltz. New Paltz Town Records Collection, courtesy of HHS. https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll153/id/21328/rec/1.
[7] Bill of Sale for Tom and Mol, 1803. Roelof J. and Ezekiel Elting Family Papers, HHS Archives. https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll153/id/6913/rec/1. The bill of sale could be related to either Jacob Hasbrouck Jr. or his son Jacob J. Hasbrouck, who would have been 36 at the time of the sale, but it likely refers to the elder.
[8] Gilbert and Titus, 83. The Narrative goes on to recount the retribution that Soan, the enslaved mother, enacted on Hasbrouck when he became weak and infirmed.
[9] Writ of Habeas Corpus filed with the New York State Supreme Courts on behalf of Isabella Van Wagenen (Sojourner Truth), March 1828. New York State Archives. https://considerthesourceny.org/document/writ-habeas-corpus-filed-new-york-state-supreme-court-behalf-isabella-van-wagenen-sojourner-truth. Accessed January 12. 2026.