1711

January

The census for both camps was 1,803 Palatines. Some were still in New York City, too sick to move.

Cold, Hungry, Rotten Meat & Buying Coffins

Listed as immediate needs in January were: steel for mending edged tools, three sets of smithy tools, three pairs of millstones, sixteen whipsaws, warehouses, and a church on each side of the river; also, plowshares, pitchforks, dungforks, iron for horse-shoes, nails and harness for horses.

Peter Willemse Romers gave Governor Hunter his bill for 250 coffins. The amount was added to the Palatines debt.

And evidently, it had been a mild winter after a hot summer. By New Years, George Clarke wrote to Robert Livingston that the meat he had located was already going bad and that he should immediately give out a two-month supply of it to the Palatines:

“…It begins to taint. Such a winter was never known nor could it be expected had the weather been as usual, there could nothing of this had happened… if there be a necessity help Mr. Cast distribute out all the Beef. The people may well enough save it by smoking as you very well observe.” – George Clarke

The storehouse was robbed.

Governor Hunter sent a number of Palatines to the garrison in Albany to beef it up. Albany was always living in fear of being attacked from Canada by the French and their Indian allies. The massacre at Schenectady on February 16, 1690 was virtually still fresh in their minds. Fourteen Dutch families founded Schenectady in 1661.

A Brief Look At Colonial Albany

The Dutch originally founded Albany as Fort Orange. It was the main trading post, and shipping point, for the fur traders coming from the great western expanses of America down the Mohawk River with their pelts. The Dutch people of Albany loved themselves and were some of the greediest people humanity has ever known. In collusion with each other they conspired swindle after swindle to manipulate others for profit and it did not matter who you were. From the Dutch gentry to the dirtiest trapper, if you did not know how to make a deal and put yourself first you were done. Simply put, they were lovers of money and the love of money is the root cause of all evil. Albany traders were hated by the rest of New England with such intensity that even the scales of history are against them. There is almost nothing good that can be said about them as an overall group of people and they were probably the biggest reason for the Mohawk Indians siding with the English during the American Revolution. Albany Dutch traders counted their pelts while at the same time buying various stolen goods from Indians after baiting and encouraging the Indians to raid New England settlements and bring them the plunder.

But even though Albany Dutch descendants can be ashamed of their ancestors for the most part, any white trader, trapper, or hunter of that day was the manifestation of acute social maladjustment no matter what flavor. They were tense and lawless individuals, who cursed and beat scared women and children if they were unfortunate enough to cross their path. The Albany traders were intoxicated and euphoric with fighting and gambling, loose sex, and drinking. It was so bad that even as early as 1660, the Mohawk Indians, Mohowaugs, or flesh eaters, complained in a petition to the Fort Orange magistrates:

…to forbid the Dutch to molest the Indians as heretofore by kicking, beating, and assaulting them, in order that we may not break the old friendship which we have enjoyed for more than thirty years. - Alan Axelrod; Chronicles of Indian War

Peter Kalm, a Swedish Botanist, wrote in his diary in 1749 about the tension between Albany’s Dutch and the English as well:

The hatred which the English bear against the people of Albany is very great, but that of the Albanians against the English is carried to a ten times higher degree. This hatred has subsisted ever since the time when the English conquered this country, and it is not yet extinguished, though they could never have gotten such advantages under the Dutch government as they have obtained under that of the English for in a manner their privileges are greater than those of Englishmen.
– Peter Kalm, From Munsell’s Annals of Albany

February

The Palatines - discontent, cold, and hungry - slept in their drafty huts, shivering on the frozen ground, surrounded by a primeval wilderness. They used pine needles or straw for beds. They talked and grumbled around the campfires. Indignance had turned to resentment. There was only one more step; resentment turning to rage. And the Schoharie legend festered.

At some point in 1711, Anna Gertraud gave birth to Frederick Christmann. He was the first Christman ever to be born on American soil.

A Brief Look At Colonial America

If the Palatines, talking around the campfires, wondered how in the world they ever got into that mess to begin with, part of the big picture went like this.

A few years before God called Martin Luther to serve Him by knocking him to the ground with a lightning bolt while he was on his way to school in 1505, other events had already worked together that caused Christopher Columbus to sail to the New World in 1492, only a mere thirteen years earlier.

In 1588, Phillip II, sent his Spanish Armada against England who defeated the famous Spanish fleet in the English Channel, after which, the rest of the Spanish ships were wrecked in a storm at sea - by an act of God. Spain went into decline after that.

The Spanish came to the New World in the form of the conquistador, or conqueror, and they were very good at racial and religious warfare having spent the previous eight centuries in conflict with the Moslem Moors in Spain. Their goals were Conquest and Conversion to Christianity by Force. The Merovingian and Carolingian Franks had used the same method in the Dark Ages.

The English came to the New World as traders at first, following Sir Walter Raleigh’s disastrous expedition to Virginia. The English settlers at Jamestown in 1607 went to America seeking gold, furs, sassafras [thought to cure syphilis] and a passage to India. They soon had many conflicts with the Indians, hit a dead end going west at the Appalachian Mountains, and were stifled. Farther north, the English concentrated their efforts in New England, which was also awash in blood with Indian conflict before too long. They were stifled again; and furthermore, they were surrounded by their old enemy, the French.

The French limited their trading to Canada by way of the St. Lawrence River, which was frozen much of the time. However, they did have the friendliest personal relationship with the Indians of all the European traders. A lot of weird looking Indians spoke French. The French, however, were the first to get into the western interior of America by going up the St. Lawrence to the Great Lakes. French influence ranged from Canada to Louisiana.

The Dutch were different from the Spanish, English, and the French. The Dutch were ambivalent. They didn’t really have any policy at all. They were fluttered between being belligerent and cruel, and being defensive and timid, in greed. The Dutch had little interest in acquiring territory to own at first. They just wanted to trap and trade. And as luck (God) had it, they stumbled into the best location to do it in the world. The key was the Mohawk River. It was the only break in the entire Appalachian Mountain chain from Georgia to Maine, by far the easiest and fastest way to the western hunting grounds. It was the most important river to control, and the Dutch had the monopoly.

But the Dutch had one very big problem.

The Iroquois Indians & The Fur Trade

The Iroquois Indians owned all of the land; and to get west, traders had to go through them first, beginning with the Mohawks, who were the badest of the bad when Henry Hudson discovered the Hudson River in 1609.

Five years later, the Dutch built a trading post called Fort Nassau on Castle Island near Albany. Fort Nassau was flooded, and the Dutch abandoned it in 1617. Although the Indians did not want to sell land to the Dutch, they continued to permit Dutch traders and trappers to live there where they found themselves surrounded by 1,600 Mahican Indians. Therefore, they made a trading agreement with them in 1618.

The Dutch West Indies Company formed in 1621 and they built Fort Orange at Albany in 1624. The first crisis that the Dutch had with the Indians came in 1626 when the Mohawk Indians attacked the Mahicans. The Dutch sent a small force against the Mohawks, and even though they were defeated, they were able to negotiate a truce.

In 1628, the Mohawks - who wanted total control of trading with the Dutch - started another war with the Mahicans and beat them again. But after a while, the Mahicans began trading with the Dutch again. It was a vicious circle.

The Mohawks had such a fierce reputation that other Indians would run at the mere sight of a Mohawk, and New England settlers told stories of how Mohawks would chase Mahicans into their cabins, murdering them, scalping them, and then leaving; right in front of the startled occupants.

As luck (God) would have it, these were the people that controlled the Eastern entrance of the Longhouse, out of which flowed a River over a waterfall into the Hudson- the most important river in America for the Fur Trade… the Mohawk River.

The fur trade was one of those things in the fullness of time that altered the course of history.

Isn’t it ironic that the shedding of innocent blood for skins began American history and the shedding of innocent animal blood provided the skins at the beginning of history itself on a river east of Eden?

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them… So He drove the man out; and at the east of the Garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3:21,24.

It didn’t take long before the fur of the American continent was in demand all over the world; although, the Indians didn’t know it. They just liked guns, gunpowder, buttons, cloth, and the shiny stuff they got for it. Not that they were stupid, they just had no material value system because they shared everything.

And so it went. Bear, Beaver, Deer, Otter, Muskrat, Pine Marten, Rabbit, Fox, Wolf, and other fur, was traded to Europe and as far east as Russia and China. And the Indians got the worst part of the deal. What happened to them could be prophetic for our modern society in an odd coincidence.

Over a relatively short period of time, the Iroquois, like other Indians, became increasingly dependent on European manufactured goods for their survival, like guns and especially gunpowder. Does that sound like cars and gasoline by chance? Their society lost the self-sufficient skills for survival, and depleted their natural resources, locking it in - trapped, so to speak. People in our modern society can’t do a thing unless they can push a button, flip a switch, or turn a key.

Nevertheless, the Mohawks and the other Iroquois tribes had to go farther and farther west and north to get fur. However, the French allied Hurons and other tribes held the monopoly there, and hence, the aforementioned Beaver Wars.

“An episode in 1638 illustrates the ferocious spirit of these peoples. A war party of 100 Iroquois met some 300 Hurons and Algonquins. It is a commonplace observation on Indian warfare that one party rarely attacks another unless the attacker enjoys substantial superiority of numbers. Nevertheless, Ononkwaya, an Oneida chief, refused to back down.

“Look!” he is reported to have said, “the sky is clear; the sun beholds us. If there were clouds to hide our shame from his sight, we might fly; but, as it is, we must fight while we can.”

All but four or five of the Iroquois warriors were killed or captured – and consigned to death by torture. A Jesuit missionary related the execution of Ononkwaya.

The chief, unflinching, was roasted on a scaffold. When the Hurons thought him nearly dead, one of his tormentors scalped him – whereupon Ononkwaya leaped up, grabbed some burning brands, and drove the crowd back from the scaffold. They threw sticks, stones, and live coals at him until he finally stumbled. The Hurons seized him and threw him into the fire. But, again, he leaped out, a blazing brand in each hand, and ran toward the town, as if to set it ablaze. His captors tripped him with a long pole and then fell upon him, cutting off his hands and feet. Again they threw him into the fire, and again he rolled off the pyre, crawling toward the crowd on his elbows and knees.

His gaze was fierce enough that, even in his hopeless state, the crowd recoiled – only to rush forward upon him and, at last, cut off his head.

- Chronicle of the Indian Wars, Alan Axelrod.

As previously mentioned, even though the Iroquois won the Beaver Wars they could not control the trading, and shortly after the Beaver Wars, England became the successors to the Dutch. Both England and France wanted total control of the fur trade. In Europe, England opposed the French invasion of the Palatinate; thus history reports the glory of the Second Hundred Years War, the first war by the same nations on two continents. Both of the European nations, England & France, wanted the Iroquois as allies.

And the Indians were well aware of what was going on. So they came up with an ingenious plan. Because the Iroquois couldn’t control trading, they did the next best thing. They traded to the highest bidder by playing England against France. It worked for fifty years. They got lots and lots of presents. Thus, we find the five Mohawk sachems passing the Palatine Wonder Fleet in the Atlantic Ocean in 1710.

Yes indeed, if the Palatines, shivering in their huts, wondered why they were in their predicament, it may have seemed like an enigma wrapped in a riddle. But they had a destiny, and they were in a situation because of the sheeding of innocent blood; skins.

The Dutch hated the English, the English hated the Dutch, everybody hated the French - but the Indians liked them the best – even though the Indians didn’t really like the white man in general, but he was dependent on him nevertheless.

Yes, asleep in their huts with the stars in the sky the Palatines stomachs grumbled from hunger. They never realized in their wildest dreams that white European life in New York was confined only to settlements in the Hudson River valley. Albany was no tourist attraction with its nasty reputation; and, if Albany and New York City were not enough reason not to want to go to New York, the rest of the settlements on the Hudson River did an excellent job of complimenting the situation.

All up and down the Hudson River lived the Lords of the Manors. Everybody else was some kind of servant or slave, or they were tenant farmers paying rent to their lords. Sound familiar? Some of the manors were huge. Rensselaerswyck, a Dutch Patroon Grant, was over 700,000 acres.

When the jealous English usurped the colony of New Netherlands from the Dutch, they continued the manorial system that the Dutch previously installed in the Hudson Valley where Livingston Manor now had those seven little Palatine villages. Van Rennsalaer Manor was 24 by 28 miles. In Westchester County, virtually everyone owned homage and rent money to their lords on the Hudson River.

The reputation of not being able to own land retarded settlement in New York. Nobody wanted to go there. The Palatines were there because they had a destiny. The manorial system caused New York to remain a wild frontier for a long time. Do you think it was only an irony for the Palatines to end up in another situation that was not liked by anyone other than landowners and their political friends? It was very similar to the Rheinland, and that’s why they were chosen to shake it up.

Indignance turns into resentment, and resentment turns into rage.

It goes by degrees.

March - Early Financial & Victualing Trouble

8th 78 barrels of flour, 19 barrels of salt pork, and 22 bags of bread had been distributed to West Camp since November 10.

Lord Clarendon wrote to Lord Dartmouth:

“I think it is unhappy that Colonel Hunter at his first arrival in his government fell into so ill hands, for this Livingston has been known many years in that province for a very ill man; he formerly victualed the forces at Albany, in which he was guilty of most notorious frauds by which he greatly improved his estate: he has a mill and a brew-house upon his land, and if he can get the victualing of those Palatines who are so conveniently posted for his purpose, he will make a very good addition to his estate; I am persuaded the hopes he has of such a subsistence, to be allowed by Her Majesty, were the chief if not the only inducements that prevailed with him, to propose to Col. Hunter, to settle them upon his land; which is not the best place for pine trees: the borders of Hudson’s river above Albany, and the Mohacks river, Schenectada, are well known to be the best places for pines of all sorts, both for numbers and largness of trees…Livingston and some others will get estates, and the Palatines will not be the richer.”

17th Peter Christian Wormbs died and was replaced by Hartmann Windecker as listmaster of Annsbury, but not without controversy. They rejected the proposed replacement and wanted Windecker instead, which says something about his character, and the character of the proposed replacement - Mr. Gerlach.

Mr. Cast wrote:

“Mr. Wagner, whom I deputed to present Captain Gerlach to the people of Annsbury in place of Wormbs, deceased, informs me that they absolutely refuse him as captain; in fact he immediately returned to his village without pretending anything… The people of Annsbury since tell me that the majority of them belong to the New York Company, and are thereby too much convinced of the malversations he committed in the distribution of the provisions, to wish to fall again into the same misfortune. Singular persistency in an accusation which has never lifted its head during his sojourn at New York.” - Jean Cast.

27th The tar making had not even begun yet and Governor Hunter was having financing troubles with the new Tory government. They did not want to honor the former Whig support of the project.

Governor Hunter needed to cut his expense and therefore expected the Palatines to feed themselves from their gardens as soon as they could. The problem was that they needed seed, and he couldn’t supply them with any.

Mr. Cast wrote:

“Some ask for seed, so that the labor they have expended on their land may not be in vain. I give them to understand that the people of this country, not anticipating this demand for seed, will find it difficult to supply the requisite quantity; that the seed they have brought from Germany, London, and even New York will possibly be sufficient for this year, in as much as it is more easy for each one to find what he needs, than for us to lay up a supply for the entire people, in the distribution of which each takes what he does not require.” - Jean Cast.

Financing was a serious issue already. It was caught in the middle of party politics. Even before the Palatines left London, the Tories ridiculed the naval store scheme that the Whigs had supported. After the Tories took power, they set out to bolster their anti-Palatine support by pandering to London’s poor people by exploiting the cries of the injustice they had suffered because of the Palatines. This was not a good thing for Governor Hunter who was now in the thick of it, so he tried to cut expenses in the cost of their subsistence which made for an interesting conflict between him and the Livingstons who were only in it for the money.

The governor’s troubles were just beginning, and something else was brewing. England was preparing to launch a military campaign against the French in Canada and the governor began to recruit Palatine volunteers. He had no trouble finding them. The Palatines that volunteered to fight the French felt that they may be able to win their liberty with their service.

“They persuade themselves that Canada will be taken this campaign, and that upon the conquest of that country, as a security for their settlement, they will be established on the lands destined for them.” – Jean Cast

April - Who Knows How to Make Tar?

It was time for Mr. Bridger to come back from New England to begin the tar making operation. He refused. Governor Hunter charged him with unfaithfulness.

Mr. Bridger was insulted that the government had chosen Governor Hunter’s plan over his. Now the governor didn’t have anybody who knew anything about making tar. How was he going to get this thing off and running? His career was at stake. This was going to be an interesting spring.

According to one commissioner, the Palatines were still dangerously unsettled, and he wrote to the governor about the threatening talk that he heard while some of them were sitting around a campfire.

The people of West camp asked permission to bake their own bread and were denied.

The Tories & The Palatines

The Tories had been conducting a Parliamentary investigation of the naval stores project and discovered that since it began in 1709 over 100,000 pounds had been spent on the Palatines in various ways. They didn’t like that.

14th So the House of Commons in London repealed the 1709 Act of Naturalization and passed two resolutions:

First: “That the inviting and bringing over into this kingdom of the Palatines, of all religions, at the public expense, was an extravagant and unreasonable charge to the kingdom, and a scandalous misapplication of the public money, tending to the increase and oppression of the poor to this kingdom and of dangerous consequence to the constitution in church and state.”

Second: “That whoever advised the bringing over the poor Palatines into this kingdom, was an enemy to the Queen and kingdom”.

Oh, my… meanwhile, back at the ranch…

27th

“I asked Mr. Kocherthal in what way his people behaved. He tells me all are at work, and busy, but manifestly with repugnance, and merely temporarily – that the tract intended for them is in their minds a land of Canaan – that they agree that it is a very dangerous place to settle at present, and for this reason it is that they are willing to have patience here for a couple of years. But they will not listen to tar making.” – Jean Cast.

May - Palatine Indignation & Resentment

Indignation becomes resentment; resentment becomes anger; and anger becomes rage. It goes by degrees, and it’s really quite simple. It is the track record of history but most people are blind to its truth. It’s always the other guy who has the fault. Sometimes the feeling is justified, sometimes it is not. Nevertheless, people of all races and nations in all eras of history continually respond to what they perceive as injustice the same way - again, and again, and again; and as for the Palatines, May was a month of escalating protest. Their indignation was justified. Their response is interesting. They were being moulded and sorted.

1st Jean Cast complained after the Palatines began the first in a series of demonstrations. But he was not complaining about the Palatines:

“I never saw salted meat so poor nor packed with so much salt as this pork was. In truth, almost one eighth of it was salt.” - Jean Cast.

Mr. Cast was disgusted with the Livingstons and continued talking about the dishonest weights and measures being perpetuated by the Livingstons to increase profit:

“The experience of the tare of the Barrels is very incorrect, and that such deception causes the people not to take the flour in Barrels according to the tare, but ordinarily to return the barrels to me that I make a new tare, led me to make a bet with Mr. Robert Livingston Jr. that a barrel tared 17 lbs., weighed 20 lbs.”

“I was universally censured for making such a wager. But when the barrel was emptied and well shaken and cleaned, it weighed 21 lbs. Judge, Sir, what a loss of flour this is.”

“I sent Mr. Bagge 20 barrels today… and requested him to investigate the cheat. The 18 barrels are tared 16 lbs., 1 barrel 17 lbs., and one 19 lbs. I would make another bet that not one of them runs below 20 lbs. tare.”

“It is to palpable a fraud to mark so many at 16 lbs. Mr. Bagge will not fail to advise you how the tare turns out.”- Jean Cast.

A false balance is an abomination to the LORD... Proverbs 11:1

And, when the weather moderated and the Palatines wanted to start their gardens, once again, there were not enough tools to go around for the seven villages of more than 2,000 people. The list included only, 287 narrow hoes, 225 broad hoes, 282 grubbing axes, 144 sickles, and Mr.Cast wrote:

“Mr. Bagge informs me that he has distributed the tools I had given him, and has commenced with Georgetown, where those at Elizabethtown murmured; I sent them word that they shall have their share out of the first lot that will be received, and gave them twelve pieces more than Your Excellency ordered me, in addition to what some have received from me individually, from time to time, when they came here solicit them.”

“The people of Elizabethtown tell me that their comrades are setting about clearing and preparing their gardens; that nothing more is heard about moving elsewhere.”- Jean Cast.

He meant that they were talking about trying to find Schoharie. The next day Cast Wrote:

“More people arrived from all the villages; some for beer, others for bread, and a third portion for salt beef; others for hoes instead of grubbing hooks. I have satisfied them all, as far as I was able putting the rest off till the arrival of the first boat. All these have exhibited the same deportment as the first mentioned. To satisfy those of Elizabethtown, I gave them hoes.”- Jean Cast.

Frustration & Rebellion

The Palatines became increasingly frustrated over the situation. The soil was terrible for farmers. Their indignation then turned into bickering with each other.

“Seven belonging to Queensbury have, of their own authority, appropriated other places unto themselves, fell into dispute about them, and two of them have fought each other with axes.” - Jean Cast.

Finally, their resentment turned into anger against the government. The Palatines rebelled, vehemently demanding to have the good farmlands in Schoharie and the 40 acres each that The Queen promised to them. Governor Hunter wrote to the Lords of Trade that the Palatines insinuated daily that better land waited for them in Schoharie and that they felt that they were being persecuted at Livingston Manor. He said that the Palatines were idle and backward in their work because of it.

Things escalated beyond Mr. Cast’s ability to calm them. Therefore, the governor went to the camps to meet with them personally. He told them that going to Schoharie was unrealistic, it was too far away, there were no pines, it was open to French attack, and so on. After he thought he had persuaded them, he left. Then he learned that they were still arguing with the Livingston officers about going to Schoharie anyway. They complained that what was happening was not in the contract as it had been translated in London. The governor returned again. He ordered a meeting with the representatives from each village. He had the contract read to them out loud, and he thought that would enlighten them to their responsibility to the Queen.

7th Writing to the board of trade:

“I have met with great opposition from many of the ill-disposed inhabitants, who daily insinuated that there were better lands for them on the frontiers, and that they were ill-used in being planted there.” – Governor Hunter.

Meanwhile, the Palatines who had been too sick to make it to the camps the previous fall began showing up. Gilbert Livingston surveyed Newtown for their placement. He was told - under the cuff - to make their lots a little bit bigger but not to make it obvious. However, as soon as he started surveying, the Palatines from Georgetown and Elizabethtown tried to stop him and insisted that the land was worthless. They declared that they were going to Schoharie - like it or not.

Governor Hunter sent word for sixty soldiers from Albany to meet him at the manor. When they arrived he went to the Palatines and demanded to know how they dared to disobey his orders. They replied that the land was no good and that they were going to Schoharie. Governor Hunter tried to reason with them and told them that if anybody had gotten a bad lot then that person could ask for more land as long as it was by the pines near the river. He told them again that Schoharie had no pines for making tar, the land was owned by the Indians, and that it could be attacked by the French at any time. Then he asked them what their answer was.

They said that they were going to Schoharie.

According to a later Palatine grievance, Governor Hunter lost his temper. He jumped up and down, pointed his finger to the ground, and yelled,

“This is your land where you must live and die!”

The Palatines became enraged and the governor fled. He said that he absconded. He called up three companies of regulars for the next confrontation. He ordered translated copies sent to the Palatines and wanted their “last resolution & final answer” by the next day at 4 o’clock. He reminded them that the world had rejected them, and that the Queen took them in out of the goodness of her heart. They had signed a contract, and he would enforce their compliance to the terms.

The next day when they met, the Palatine listmasters brought a few of the other rebel leaders among them to meet the governor - and about three or four hundred armed men were waiting out of sight. They didn’t trust the governor’s intentions.

After the meeting broke up, Governor Hunter spotted the little army and marched straight over to them in a huff. The Palatine listmasters sensed that the governor and his troops were on their way to an irreversible confrontation and they ran over to mediate, explaining that they only wanted to pay their compliments to the governor. He did not buy the excuse and demanded to know what they were doing there threatening him. He ordered them back to their villages. The Palatines left, firing their guns in the air. The governor was insulted. The next day reinforcements came from Albany. The soldiers chased the Palatines into their villages and forcibly disarmed them.

Mr. Clarke wrote to the Lords of Trade about the Palatines secret association and disagreement, and that they had received the governor with great joy.

Governor Hunter called it a mutiny and ordered a stricter, more military type structured organization from that point on.

They had not even started making tar yet.

June

6th Governor Hunter reported on the progress.

“Our tar work goes on as we wish God continue it… we shall be at a loss for Casks in a little while for we go to work with the knots. I have, however, set all hands to work…”

7th Secretary Clarke wrote to the Lords of Trade.

“The Palatines are now demonstrating their sincere repentance of their past transgressions, and for several days past are at work on the trees, of which by computation they prepare 15,000 a day. The children are likewise busy in gathering up knots, which will be burnt this year, and I doubt not considerable tar made from them…the people work with all the cheerfulness imaginable.”

The Court is Appointed

12th Governor Hunter issued a commission establishing a court over the Palatines to be treated as the “Queens hired servants”. The court had the power to punish the Palatines for “Misdemeanors, Disobedience, or Willful Transgressions” by confinement, or corporal punishment, not extending to life or mutilation. His plan was to keep the Palatines working under a closely supervised and ever-present threat of punishment. Within a month, there was already internal bickering on the new board. The board members were:

Robert Livingston – president

Commissioners: Jean Cast, Richard Sackett, Godfrey Wulfen, Andrew Bagge, Herman Schuneman, and the commanding officer at the manor.

It was already the middle of June, they had not started to make tar, and Governor Hunter was told behind the scenes to begin making preparations for the military campaign against the French. Now, another delay for tar making was in the making. The governor was in a pickle. Somehow, he had to begin making tar so he could prove the concept’s viability to England. Mr. Bridger was not coming back, and now the military preparations were taking up a lot of time.

So Governor Hunter interviewed and hired Mr. Sackett to head the tar making operation. Sackett was a local farmer who claimed to have lived three years in the eastern countries among people who made tar and he gave a rational account of the tar making process to the governor. Mr. Sackett took charge and began organizing and directing the operation. Governor Hunter was satisfied that he had done the right thing and reported on the new progress:

“That no hands be idle we employed the boys and girls in gathering knotts whilst their fathers were barking, out of which he [Sackett] had made about three score barrells of good tarr, and hath kills ready to set on fire for about as much more soe soone as he gets casks ready to receive it.” - Governor Hunter.

The New Tar-Making Expert

16th Mr. Sackett took the bull by the horns. He rented horses and wagons from the Livingstons to bring in the casks of tar knots the children had gathered. He was also having another cart made, and he put Palatine carpenters to work on building storehouses and making barrels. A new plan was even made to keep them happy. The Palatine carpenters received 2 shillings a day. Half from Livingston and half as a credit to their account.

19th Mr. Sackett purchased two horses for use in the works.

Going to War

Just after Governor Hunter took the Palatine’s guns away, he had to give them right back. It was time to launch the campaign against the French. Governor Hunter had been gathering provisions and military forces for the Second Canadian Expedition, and he recruited 300 of the most able Palatines to supplement the force.

Johannes Christmann did not go, consistent with the anti-war beliefs of the Mennonites.

The ones that did go couldn’t wait to get revenge on their old French adversary. It was in their contract to defend the Queens interests if called upon, and they thought that they could get on better terms with the governor by showing their good will instead of contempt for a change.

Reverend Haegar built a schoolhouse in Queensbury. And remember Joshua Kocherthal? Well, he ministered to the people at West Camp, and Reverend Haegar was the pastor at East Camp.

July

Mr. Sackett took charge of the special preparation of barking trees to induce sap flow. Arrangements were made to make more barrels. The listmasters were required to appoint 36 men every Monday to aid the coopers by sawing and splitting timber for the barrels.

They also began working on a footbridge to convey tar to the river for shipment.

Delinquents were to be punished, and they were cautioned not to let their people straggle- and if they wanted to work for local Dutch farmers in the harvest, it would be allowed, as long as they signed in and out. Some Palatines in West Camp had been hiring themselves out to Dutch farmers from time to time for a little cash anyway.

The Livingstons & Their Love of Money

13th Mr. Cast wrote to Governor Hunter that on Livingston Manor he felt assured that enough supplies were on hand. Nevertheless, he also wrote to the governor complaining about Robert Livingston:

“…Since the reconstruction of the Board, I have found that his design has ever been to obtain the management of all the supplies for the people, and had I not had the foresight to demand a declaration from the general commission he would have seized it altogether and had made Mr. Meyer his clerk whom he would have got to do what he could not get me to do- that is, everything that may content his cupidity. …For how can things be pushed ahead by a board that does not act in concert, especially when having to deal with so perverse a people, when everything that one proposes is suspected of partiality, when meetings are avoided as much as possible so as not to be obliged to take part in the affairs to be discussed there.” – Jean Cast.

Mr. Cast knew that Robert Livingston was out to get all the profit he could at every angle and he wanted Governor Hunter to see it too. The governor probably did. Cast didn’t know the whole story. In addition, because of those behind the scene money problems that the governor was having, Cast was given orders to retrench food supplies. Just what Cast wanted to hear. The governor needed to feed his army too. There was nothing that Cast could do. Livingston kept on cutting corners for profit.

Cast knew that when he cut the amounts rationed, the Palatines were likely to go crazy again. They were calm for the moment but always on the edge. Cast wrote the governor:

“… Whatever little I may receive, I only hope that the meat which is brought me will be of good quality. For however submissive the people are at present, in comparison to what they have been, I could not avoid arranging with the listmasters to induce the people to take the meat last sent me. I shall be in despair should I have again to receive any such. On this consideration, I beg you, sir, to attend to it and relieve the people as much as possible of salted provisions. It may be said that it is less difficult to retrench bad than good food, but he must also bear in mind that this is carrying things to extremes. I would like to accustom the people by degrees, to the reduction of rations by gaining always something in the space of time.” - Jean Cast.

17th Mrs. Livingston wrote to her husband about the new rules:

“Our brewer wants to go volunteer, but if the governor wants to excuse him, he will be just as satisfied… there is a lot of disorder here. If they had only waited until the 300 men had gone, but now they say that they can not let their women and children die…” - Alida Livingston.

This is why. The new rules said that any Palatine that did not work would not get any rations and that included the family. Soldiers are not workers. The Palatine volunteers saw it as a moneysaving scheme to take advantage of their absence, and they were right.

But someone must have assured them that it did not mean what they thought, and the Palatine volunteers once again agreed to march off in good faith to fight the French in Canada, and they left for Albany. Mrs. Livingston knew the truth. She did not care about them one bit. She only cared about money.

The following quotes show the selfishness and greed of Mrs. Livingston. While her husband was away, and while the Palatine volunteer’s dependents were starving, she was afraid that they might not make their profit:

“Because you have given orders for 8 days, they are now baking. He will bake the hard bread again and cut it… Mr. Kas requires that we stay with the soft bread until the governor comes. I wish the Palatines had never come here, but I hope the Lord will help us and be with us… Mr. Kas again came to see me about baking next week, but I told him I did not have an order for it, and otherwise I can not bake… there is enough malt available to brew for six weeks to 2 months. So, I don’t know what to do because it is not the type of malt to brew heavy beer from… [Meaning that she couldn’t brew the good stuff for herself and sell to the Dutch]. Everyone who delivered grain here is scolding me so much that I have stopped the mill and brewery. That put a stop to everything that we have at hand. I hope the governor will not let us down in paying us, otherwise we will be worse off than before.” - Alida Livingston.

Than before what? The Livingstons never lost a dime. It certainly didn’t matter to her if the Palatines starved. She only cared about money. If the Palatines needed charity, they could go somewhere else.

We Bokononists believe that humanity is organized into teams, teams that do God’s Will without ever discovering what they are doing. - Kurt Vonnegut.

23rd Mr. Bridger wrote to the Board of Trade and said that he felt that Governor Hunter had taken on a project that he was ignorant of and offered to manufacture naval stores in New England using soldier labor provided that he was made the lieutenant governor of New Hampshire.

The Palatines finished the footbridge over the Roeloff Jansens Kill. Governor Hunter bragged about it being the best bridge around.

Retrenchment

30th The retrenchment of beer was ordered. It was to be issued only to the men that were working and not to their families. The volunteers kept marching to Canada in good faith.

August

Governor Hunter continued his efforts to speed production and cut provisions at the same time. A detachment of soldiers was held in readiness to enforce his orders if necessary. The vinedressers and husbandman of the Rheinland resented working in gangs. They resented the presence of soldiers. Nevertheless, for the most part, they worked in obedience. However, the iron bolts on the prison door had to be repaired twice that year.

The Palatines continually grumbled that they had left Germany:

“to secure lands for our children on which they will be able to support themselves after we die, and we can not do that here”.

However, the Palatines barked about 100,000 trees that summer. The children kept gathered knots. The volunteers kept marching, and their families went hungry.

Back in London, the appointment of Mr. Sackett to replace Mr. Bridger made the lords very nervous. Therefore, they decided to do a little investigating. They asked their representative in Russia to find out how the Russians manufacture tar. Mr. Whitworth said that he would find out, and report back to them as soon as he could. What he found out took several months.

Meanwhile, things had gotten worse at the tar camps. Governor Hunter’s credit was eroding. The people were hungry. And the Governor and Mr. Clarke agreed that no more money would be available to Mr. Livingston.

Now, the Livingstons were certainly not going to do anything without profit, so Mr. Livingston wrote to Mrs. Livingston and told her to shut down the bakery and send all of the flour to New York to be sold. “It is safer to have no bread or flour in the closet.”

So the Palatines had to depend on their little gardens in the shale for food, with burnt pine stumps all around. Mrs. Livingston complained that she could no longer hear the crying of the Palatine women and children.

28th The English force assembled in Albany under Colonel Nicholson and left for Canada. The Palatines probably met some Dutch people who shared their dislike of the English. They also met Indians.

September

12th Governor Hunter complained to London that Mr. Bridger refused to return to the project for lack of sufficient encouragement although the governor had recommended an additional salary for him. Evidently, Governor Hunter did not understand the depth of the problem concerning Mr. Bridger; London did.

The Palatine volunteers returned. They were disgusted. The campaign had been another British disaster. The Indians were disgusted. Governor Hunter aborted the mission after a British commander lost his troops in the St. Lawrence River and the soldiers all drowned. One of the Palatines wrote about his experience from beginning to end:

“During a night watch we went down to New York and stole some bread. They found out who it was and put us on the Lion Rock. There we lay in prison and had to suffer hunger and thirst. From the prison they let us go to take part in the canadian expedition. We had to trek through water and mud, dragging… over branches and rocks. Some injured arms and legs. An officer from new Georgeland whose name was quite well known to us was supposed to travel with us to Canada, but it was far too long for him.”

“So we arrived at our destination but then had to turn around and go back to Albany. Here they took the rifles from us and swiftly discharged us, advising us to fend for ourselves. And so we are reunited with our wives and hope that we can stay with them. Important men came to us from Albany with the promise of daily wages, but no money was to be seen…”

“Eventually we set up camp below the town of Albany. There we had to keep watch all day. We were not allowed to move from there and did not know how to keep body and soul together. We put up our huts. We had only water to drink and no beer.”

When the Palatine soldiers got back to the tar camps, there was something else to fuel the flame of resentment. While they were gone, no provisions had been given to their families. Just as they had feared. So much for good will.

Mrs. Livingston complained that she had to pay money and not goods for a load of wheat, and the farmers refused to sell animals to her for goods. She wanted the governor to pay the bill.

October

When the Iroquois sachems were in London in 1710, King Hendrick asked the queen to send missionaries to them. She agreed. Governor Hunter was charged with building a fort and chapel for that purpose. He named the project Fort Hunter. When the soldiers returned from Canada, Governor Hunter asked Colonel Nicholson for his experience and advice before beginning the project west of Schenectady that he named for himself.

22nd Then Robert Livingston bad mouthed the governor to General Nicholson. And upon learning that Robert Livingston tried to prejudice General Nicholson against him, Governor Hunter wrote to Nicholson:

“Though all this be mysterious to me, I cannot forebear taking notice of this proceeding of Mr. Livingston’s, as a most base and villainous practice, if there be any truth in it, and I hope I have deserved that justice from you, that you will, as soon as may be, aquaint me with what Mr. Livingston has thought fit to represent. I know him to be ye most selfish man alive, but I could never have believed that a man who lay under so many obligations to me as he does, would talke it into his head to make any representations to my prejudice without aquainting mw at least, neither can I be persuaded that after ye manner we have lived together and ye mutual confidence between us, you would engage yourself in anything of that nature upon ye suggestions of such a man. I have suffered here by giving him too much countenance, and if any man has any advantage by ye Palatines it is he: I’ll beg you’ll clear that matter to me, because he has too considerable a trust to be continued to him after so base and barbarous a practice.”– Governor Hunter.

29th Mrs. Livingston wrote:

“Dear Man, This is to say that I have hired a brewer but I had to hire a Palatine with him because Jan the nigger is not here yet. Our boiler really leaks and it is not very wise to brew now. I think it can be fixed as it stands by putting blocks under it…”- Alida Livingston.

November - The Palatines Build Fort Hunter

11th Governor Hunter signed the contract for the construction of Fort Hunter and some of the Palatines went to work on it under Dutch contractors from Schenectady. The fort was just west of Schenectady on the Mohawk River at the mouth of the Schoharie Creek next to the lower Mohawk Indian castle.

December

11th The Lords of Trade in London continued doing a little behind the scene investigating. They asked Messrs. Perry, Keil, and De Prue to answer questions regarding Robert Livingston to which they responded:

“Mr. Livingston was always known to be a careful, industrious and diligent man, who by these more than any other means hath got a considerable estate. It is true he was accused by a faction in that country, of having defrauded the government of great sums when he subsisted the forces at Albany, but it is as true that he hath honorably cleared himself… and the reason which induced the Governor to deal with him was not so much his choice as advantage, because the said Livingston made most reasonable and fair offers, and because he was capable of making the largest advances and had most conveniences for that purpose, as brew-house and bake-house.”

Some of the Palatines were caught breaking in to Mr. Bagg’s storehouse. They were brought back to Livingston Manor in chains.

It was winter.

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