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The article discusses patterns of landholding among Indians of the Hudson River Valley during the Colonial period. Indians discussed are divided by language, the Munsee and Mahican speakers, which include the Mahicans, the Esopus, Haverstraws, the Hackensacks, the Tappans, the Nevesinks, the Wiechquaesgecks, and the Wappingers. Topics include the political autonomy delegated to Indian tribes during the period, missionaries to Indians, the existence of both collective and individual property rights and land tenure within tribal land holdings, and legal disputes regarding rights and ownership of property and the legality of land sales.

The article discusses the community of Akan speakers from Africa's Gold Coast in colonial New York City, including the Coromantee and Amina peoples. It examines the Dutch West India Company, England's Royal African Company, and the importation of slaves to New York. Topics include Akan cultural identity, Obeah religious practices, and loyalty oaths. The author comments on the trials of slaves Will Ward and Quack Roosevelt for their involvement in series of fires in New York City in 1741, alleged to be a slave conspiracy. Ward's purported involvement in another slave conspiracy in Antigua and a slave rebellion in St. John in the Danish Virgin Islands is also discussed.

This article discusses the development of slavery in the agricultural settlement of colonial New York State. Conflicts between the English and the Dutch as settlers of the state are considered. The support for colonization and the development of large estates that depended on African and Native American laborers is described. The importation of slaves by the Dutch West Indies Corporation and the British Royal African Company is noted. Comparisons of regional approaches to slaveholding and economic exploitation of the hinterland are described. The relationship between masters and slaves on these plantations is explored