stevedores and
deckhands for the Company's vessels. The slaves were also used in
building and repairing the public highways and in the repairing of
Fort Amsterdam.[51] In 1680, mention is made of Negroes being used in
housebuilding.[52] About the same time Negro slaves were carrying hod
for wages, and in 1699 it was said that about the only servants
(probably meaning domestic servants) in the Province of New York were
Negroes. Freed Negroes were indentured or hired for similar
service.[53]

Negroes were mustered into the Colonial army as early as 1698, and in
the battle of Lake George in 1755, the "blacks behaved better than the
whites."[54]

Under the Dutch government enfranchised and slave Negroes were allowed
to acquire and hold land. Some took advantage of this privilege. But
with English possession of the colony it was expressly prohibited.[55]
Some few Negroes were seamen as shown by the records of the so-called
Negro plot of 1741, and one Negro doctor, Harry by name, was among
those executed during the time of that insane public excitement.[56]

From about 1835 until 1841 a weekly newspaper, _The Colored American_,
owned and published by Charles B. Ray, Philip A. Bell and others, was
published in New York. It had an extensive circulation from Boston to
Cincinnati. From this source a number of employments and business
enterprises of Negroes in the New York of that period were
ascertained. The occupations included three carpenters and joiners,
five boot and shoe-makers, five tailors, two music teachers, four
teachers of private and evening schools, one newspaper agent, one
engraver, one watch and clock-maker, one sign-painter, two dress and
cloak makers.[57]

In this period between 1830 and 1860, there were many engaged in
domestic and personal service. Most of the smaller hotels of the times
had colored waiters. The Metropolitan had about 60 or 70; other
hostelries like the Stuyvesant House, the Earls, the Clifford, and a
number of restaurants employed colored waiters. Some cooks and
barbers, who also applied leeches, treated corns, and did other minor
surgical services, were among this class of wage-earners.

Three dentists, P.H. White, John Burdell, and Joshua Bishop, two
physicians, James McCune Smith and W.M. Lively, and three ministers,
H.W. Garnet, Chas. B. Ray, and Peter Williams, were prominent persons
of the period.

But these facts should not give the impression of unalloyed
opportunity in the t