232 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

new and unimproved country, amid the vicissitudes of an untried climate, and the constant danger of molestation and violence from savage foes.

We may mention, however, in this connection, that at the period of the Revolutionary War, the farmers of Kings County were in the habit of raising their own tobacco, and that during the century previous the cultivation of that weed was extensively carried on as an article of exportation,—some of the best tobacco exported to Europe from the American colonies, being raised on the Dutch tobacco plantations around the Wallabout, in the town of Brooklyn.

The farmers of this vicinity, also, for some time previous to the Revolution, had been in the habit of raising cotton,—although probably to a very limited extent, and solely for the domestic uses of their own households. Furman says, in 1836,1 “we have now a bedspread in our family, made of cotton and wool, colored blue and white, and woven in neat and handsome figures, the cotton of which, as well as the wool, was raised on my grandfather's farm in Kings County, L. I., in the year 1775, and which was cleaned, colored, and woven by the women of his family. It is now in use, and in good condition, and is one of the best fabrics I ever saw.”

Slavery was also a feature of the domestic history of ante-revolutionary times. It had existed from an early period, and formed a considerable branch of the shipping interests of the Dutch. The mercantile value of a prime slave was from $120 to $150, both under the Dutch and English dynasties. And when, from time to time, by natural increase and by importation, the number of slaves accumulated beyond the demand, the slave-trade decreased.)2 Almost every domestic establishment of any pretensions in city or country was provided with one or more negro servants. These did the most of the farm labor, and their number was considered as a significant indication of the relative wealth of different families.3

These slaves were, as a general thing, kindly treated and well

1 MSS. Notes, iv. 381.

2 N. Y. Doc. Hist., 1. 707.

3 In N. Y. Doc. Hist. is a census of negroes in the province of New York, taken In 1755, from which we learn that there were then in Brooklyn 133 slaves (53 of whom were females), owned by sixty-two persons, among whom John Bargay and Jacob Bruington. were the largest holders, the former having seven and the latter five slave servants.