Document: Petition of Juan Gallardo Ferrara for the restoration of his slaves

To the honorable lord Petrus Stuyvesant, director general and the councilors of New Netherland.[i]

Juan Gallardo Ferrara, inhabitant of the city of St. Lucas de Barramera, presently in this city of Amsterdam in New Netherland, shows, with all due reverence, that he, the petitioner, did deliver to your honors on the 6th of this month the letter of their honorable high mightinesses, the lords States General, as well as of the honorable lords burgomasters of the city of Amsterdam, to the end that you may be pleased to the petitioner here to administer prompt and expedited law and justice; in addition to which the petitioner has also placed in your honors’ hands some documents, among others a sworn declaration, by which it appears that one Geurt Tijsen did, in the month of April 1652, at the latitude of the hook of Morante, unlawfully deprive him, the petitioner, of forty-four Negroes and Negresses, and bring the same here.

And whereas the petitioner has discovered here some of his Negroes whose names appear on the subjoined list, all of whom, male and female still well recognize him, he therefore respectfully requests your honors to give orders that the Negroes, whom he has already discovered and may happen hereafter to find, shall be restored to him and placed in his hands. Furthermore, as the petitioner is at present a very poor man, he respectfully requests your honors to be graciously pleased to provide him with lodgings and some board money, until a ship sails for the fatherland. Which doing etc. Your honors’ servant. Ju: Gallardo

The preceding petition being admitted and read, was, after deliberation, so resolved: The petitioner shall receive a copy from the resolution concerning the matter stated herein. Done at Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland. Dated as above.

By order of the lord director general and councilors of New Netherland.

C. V. Ruyven, secretary.