Chapter V

STATE OF RELIGION AMONG THE SETTLERSSKETCH OF THE STATE OF SOCIETY AT NEW YORK

I

MUST finish this general outline, by saying something of that religion which gave stability and effect to the virtues of this infant society. Their religion, then, like their original national character, had in it little of fervor or enthusiasm: their manner of performing religious duties was regular and decent, but calm, and to more ardent imaginations might appear mechanical. None ever doubted of the great truths of revelation, yet few seemed to dwell on the result with that lively delight which devotion produces in minds of keener sensibility. If their piety, however, was without enthusiasm, it was also without bigotry; they wished others to think as they did, without showing rancor or contempt towards those who did not. In many individuals, whose lives seemed governed by the principles of religion, the spirit of devotion seemed to be quiescent in the heart, and to break forth in exigencies; yet that monster in nature, an impious woman, was never heard of among

them.

Indeed it was on the females that the task of religious instruction generally devolved; and in all cases where the heart is interested, whoever teaches, at the same time learns.

Before I quit this subject, I must observe a singular coincidence; not only the training of children but of plants, such as needed peculiar care or skill to rear them, was the female province. Every one in town or country had a garden; but all the more hardy plants grew in the field, in rows, amidst the hills, as they were called, of Indian corn. These lofty plants sheltered them from the sun, while the same hoeing served for both; there cabbages, potatoes, and other esculent roots, with variety of gourds grew to a great size, and were of an excellent quality. Kidney-beans, asparagus, celery, great variety of salads and sweet herbs, cucumbers, etc., were only admitted into the garden, into which no foot of man intruded after it was dug in spring. Here were no trees, those grew in the orchard in high perfection; strawberries and many high flavored wild fruits of the shrub kind abounded so much in the woods, that they did not think of cultivating them in their gardens, which were extremely neat but small, and not by any means calculated for walking in. I think I yet see what I have so often beheld both in town and country, a respectable mistress of a family going out to her garden, in an April morning, with her great calash, her little painted basket of seeds, and her rake over her shoulder,

to her garden labors. These were by no means

figurative,

"From morn till noon, from noon till dewy eve."

A woman in very easy circumstances, and abundantly gentle in form and manners, would sow, and plant, and rake incessantly. These fair gardeners too were great florists: their emulation and solicitude in this pleasing employment, did indeed produce "flowers worthy of Paradise." These, though not set in "curious knots," were ranged in beds, the varieties of each kind by themselves; this, if not varied and elegant, was at least rich and gay. Το the Schuylers this description did not apply; they had gardeners, and their gardens were laid out in the European manner.

Perhaps I should reserve my description of the manner of living in that country for that period, when, by the exertions of a few humane and enlightened individuals, it assumed a more regular and determinate form. Yet as the same outline was preserved through all the stages of its progression, I know not but that it may be the best to sketch it entirely, before I go further; that the few and simple facts which my narrative affords may not be clogged by explanations relative to the customs, or any other peculiarities which can only be understood by a previous acquaintance with the nature of the country, its political relations, and the manners of the people: my recollection all this while has been

1

merely confined to Albany and its precincts. At New York there was always a governor, a few troops, and a kind of a little court kept; there too was a mixed, and in some degree, polished society. To this the accession of many families of French hugonots, 1 rather above the middling rank, contributed not a little those conscientious exiles had more knowledge and piety than any other class of the inhabitants; their religion seemed indeed endeared to them by what they had suffered for adhering to it. Their number and wealth was such, as enabled them to build not only a street, but a very respectable church in the new city. In this place of worship

service continued to be celebrated in the French language within my recollection, though the original congregation was by that time much blended in the mass of general society. It was the custom of the inhabitants of the upper settlement, who had any pretensions to superior culture or polish, among which number Col. Schuyler stood foremost, to go once in a year to New York, where all the lawcourts were held, and all the important business of the province transacted, here too they sent their children occasionally to reside with their relations, and to learn the more polished manners and language of the capital. The inhabitants of that city, on the

1 Properly so written perhaps, because derived from Hugon, or Hugo, a heretic or conspirator, a term finally given to the French protestants of the sixteenth century, and now come to be written Huguenots.

other hand, delighted in a summer excursion to Albany. The beautiful and in some places highly singular banks of the river, rendering a voyage to its source both amusing and interesting, while the primitive manners of the inhabitants diverted the gay and idle, and pleased the thoughtful and speculative.

Let me now be indulged in drawing a picture of the abode of my childhood just as, at this time, it presents itself to my mind.