Editing Schenectady, New York (section)

==History==
When first encountered by Europeans, the [[Mohawk Valley]] was the territory of the [[Mohawk nation]], one of the Five Nations of the [[Iroquois|Iroquois Confederacy]], or ''Haudenosaunee.'' They had occupied territory in the region since at least 1100 AD. Starting in the early 1600s, the Mohawks moved their settlements closer to the river , and by 1629, they had also taken over territories on the Hudson River's west bank that were formerly held by the [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]]-speaking [[Mahican]] people.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books/about/Mohawk_Frontier.html?id=xWsq2NPeYRcC Burke Jr, T. E., & Starna, W. A. (1991). ''Mohawk Frontier: The Dutch Community of Schenectady, New York, 1661–1710''], SUNY Press. p. 26</ref>

[[File:Schenectady, N.Y. LOC 2007625221.jpg|thumb|[[Perspective map]] of Schenectady from 1882]]
In the 1640s, the Mohawk had three major villages, all on the Mohawk River's south side. The easternmost one was Ossernenon, about 9 miles west of present-day [[Auriesville, New York]]. When Dutch settlers developed [[Fort Orange]] (present-day [[Albany, New York]]) in the Hudson Valley beginning in 1614, the Mohawk called their settlement ''skahnéhtati'', also transiliterated to ''Sche-negh-ta-da'', meaning "beyond the pines", referring to a large area of pine barrens between the Mohawk settlements and the Hudson River. About 3,200 acres of this unique ecosystem are now protected as the [[Albany Pine Bush]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/bicentennialhis00howegoog/page/n307/mode/1up | title=Bi-centennial History of County of Albany, 1609-1886 | date=1886 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation
 | year = 1999
 | last = Mithun
 | first = Marianne
 | title = The Languages of Native North America
 | place = Cambridge
 | publisher = Cambridge University Press
 | oclc = 40467402
 | isbn = 978-0-521-23228-9
 | page = viii
}}</ref> Eventually, the word entered the lexicon of the Dutch settlers. The settlers in Fort Orange used ''skahnéhtati'' to refer to the new village at the Mohawk flats (see below), which became known as Schenectady (with a variety of spellings).<ref>{{cite book |title = A History of the Schenectady Patent in the Dutch and English Times |publisher = J. Munsells, Sons |year = 1883 |url = http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/resources/patent/19.html |last = Pearson |first = Jonathan |editor = J.W. MacMurray}}</ref><ref>Lorna Czarnota. 2008.
''Native American & Pioneer Sites of Upstate New York: Westward Trails from Albany to Buffalo.'' The History Press, p. 23</ref>

In 1661, [[Arent van Curler|Arendt van Corlaer]] (later Van Curler), a Dutch immigrant, bought a large piece of land on the Mohawk River's south side. The colonial government gave other colonists grants of land in this portion of the flat fertile river valley, as part of [[New Netherland]].{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} The settlers recognized the Mohawk had cultivated these bottomlands for maize for centuries.<ref name="lands"/> Van Curler took the largest piece of land; the remainder was divided into 50-acre plots for the other first fourteen proprietors; Alexander Lindsey Glen, Philip Hendrickse Brouwer, Simon Volkertse Veeder, Pieter Adrianne Van Wogglelum, Teunize Cornelise Swart, Bastia De Winter atty for Catalyn De Vos, Gerrit Bancker, William Teller, Pieter Jacobse Borsboom, Pieter Danielle Van Olinda, Jan Barentse Wemp(le), Jacques Cornelize Van Slyck, Marten Cornelize Van Esselstyn, and Harmen Albertse Vedder. As most early colonists were from the Fort Orange area, they may have anticipated working as fur traders, but the [[Beverwijck]] (later Albany) traders kept a monopoly of legal control. The settlers here turned to farming. Their 50-acre lots were unique for the colony and were "laid out [[ribbon farm|in strips]] along the Mohawk River," with the narrow edges fronting the river, as in [[Seigneurial system of New France|French colonial style]].<ref name="wells"/> They relied on rearing livestock and wheat.<ref name="wells">[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2947256?seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents Robert V. Wells, "Review: 'Mohawk Frontier: The Dutch Community of Schenectady, New York, 1661–1710' by Thomas E. Burke, Jr."], ''The William and Mary Quarterly,'' Vol. 50, No. 1, Law and Society in Early America (Jan. 1993), pp. 214–216{{subscription required|via JSTOR}}</ref> The proprietors and their descendants controlled all the land of the town for generations,<ref name="lands">[http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/resources/patent/06.html Prof. John Pearson, "Chap 6: Division of Lands"], ''A History of the Schenectady Patent in the Dutch and English Times'' (1883), Schenectady Digital History Archive</ref><ref name="wells"/> essentially acting as government until after the Revolutionary War, when representative government was established.

Beginning from the first decades of [[European colonization of the Americas|European colonization]], Dutch colonists formed relationships with Mohawk women though they did not usually result in marriage. Their children were raised within Mohawk communities, as the tribe had a matrilineal kinship system, and these multiracial offspring were considered to be born into the mother's clan. During the [[Colonial history of the United States|colonial era]], the [[North American fur trade|fur trade]] formed one of the important trading relationships between Indians and colonists. In response to labor shortages among Dutch colonists, [[Slavery in the colonial history of the United States|enslaved Africans]] were imported to work on farmsteads in Schenectady.<ref>{{Citation|year=2001|last=McManus|first=Edgar J.|title=A History of Negro Slavery in New York|publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]]|isbn= 978-0815628941|page=139}}</ref>

Some Euro-Indian descendants, such as [[Jacques Cornelissen Van Slyck]] and his sister [[Hilletie van Olinda]], who were of Dutch, French, and Mohawk ancestry, became interpreters and intermarried with Dutch colonists. They also gained land in the Schenectady settlement.<ref name="Burke">Burke Jr, T. E., & Starna, W. A. (1991). ''Mohawk Frontier: The Dutch Community of Schenectady, New York, 1661–1710.'' SUNY Press, p. 93</ref> They were among the few ''métis'' who seemed to move from Mohawk to Dutch society, as they were described as "former Indians" although they did not always have an easy time of it.<ref>[http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_indian_quarterly/v034/34.1.midtrod.html Midtrød, Tom Arne. "The Flemish Bastard and the Former Indians: Métis and Identity in Seventeenth-Century New York"], ''The American Indian Quarterly,'' Volume 34 (Winter 2010): 86. Project Muse</ref> In 1661 Jacques inherited what became known as Van Slyck's Island from his brother Marten, who had been given it by the Mohawk. Van Slyck family descendants retained ownership through the 19th century.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/historycountysc00howegoog George Rogers Howells and John Munsell, ''History of the County of Schenectady, 1662–1886,'' New York: W.W. Munsell & Co., 1886, pp. 14–15]</ref>

In 1664, an English fleet [[Conquest of New Netherland|conquered the colony of New Netherland]] and renamed it [[Province of New York|New York]]. They confirmed the monopoly on the fur trade by Albany, and issued orders to prohibit Schenectady from the trade through 1670 and later.<ref>Burke (1991), ''Mohawk Frontier'', p. 116</ref> Settlers purchased additional land from the Mohawk in 1670 and 1672. (Jacques and Hilletie Van Slyck each received portions of land in the Mohawk 1672 deed for Schenectady.)<ref>Burke (1991), ''Mohawk Frontier'', p. 183</ref> Twenty years later (1684) Governor [[Thomas Dongan]] granted letters patent for Schenectady to five additional trustees.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/resources/patent/05.html|title=A History of the Schenectady Patent in the Dutch and English Times 5: Introduction|author=Robert G. Sullivan, Schenectady County Public Library|work=schenectadyhistory.org|access-date=September 8, 2015}}</ref>

On February 8, 1690, during [[King William's War]], French forces and their [[Native American (U.S.)|Indian]] allies, mostly Ojibwe and Algonquin warriors, attacked Schenectady by surprise, leaving 62 dead, 11 of them enslaved Africans.<ref name="burning">[http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/resources/patent/09.html Jonathan Pearson, Chap. 9, "Burning of Schenectady"], ''History of the Schenectady Patent in the Dutch and English Times'', 1883, pp. 244–270</ref> American history notes it as the [[Schenectady massacre]]. A total of 27 persons were taken captive, including five enslaved Africans; the raiders took their captives overland about 200 miles to Montreal and its associated Mohawk mission village of [[Kahnawake]].<ref name="burning"/> Typically the younger captives were adopted by Mohawk families to replace people who had died.<ref name="demos">John Demos, '' The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America'', {{ISBN|978-0679759614}}</ref> Through the early 18th century in the raiding between Quebec and the northern British colonies, some captives were ransomed by their communities. Colonial governments got involved only for high-ranking officers or other officials.<ref name="demos"/> In 1748, during [[King George's War]], the French and Indians attacked Schenectady again, killing 70 residents.

In 1765, Schenectady was incorporated as a borough. During the [[American Revolutionary War]] the local militia unit, the [[2nd Albany County Militia Regiment]], fought in the [[Battle of Saratoga]] and against [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]] troops. Most of the wars in the Mohawk Valley were fought further west on the frontier in the areas of the [[German Palatine]] settlement which was west of [[Little Falls, New York|Little Falls]]. Because of their close business and other relationships with the British, some settlers from the city were Loyalists and moved to Canada in the late stages of the Revolution. The Crown granted them land in what became known as Upper Canada and later Ontario.

===New Republic===
It was not until after the Revolutionary War that the village residents reduced the power of the descendants of the early trustees and gained representative government. <!--Expand - explain what gov't was --> The settlement was chartered as a city in 1798. Long interested in supporting higher education and morals, the members of the city's three oldest churches—the Dutch First Reformed Church, St. Georges Episcopal Church, and First Presbyterian Church—formed a "union" and founded [[Union College]] in 1795 under a charter from the state. The school had started in 1785 as Schenectady Academy. This founding was part of the expansion of higher education in upstate New York in the postwar years.

During this period, migrants poured into upstate and western New York from New England, but there were also new immigrants from England and Europe. Many traveled west along the Mohawk River, settling in the western part of the state, where they developed more agriculture on former Iroquois lands. A dairy industry developed in the central part of the state. New settlers were predominantly of English and [[Scotch-Irish American|Scotch-Irish]] descent. In 1819, Schenectady suffered a fire that destroyed more than 170 buildings and most of its historic, distinctive Dutch-style architecture.<ref name="pearson">[https://archive.org/stream/historyofschenec00pe#page/n19/mode/2up Prof. John Pearson, "Preface", p. xii, ''History of the Schenectady Patent in the Dutch and English Times'' (1883)], Library of Congress, full scanned text at Internet Archive</ref>

New York had passed a law for gradual abolition of slavery in 1799,<ref name="free">[http://slavenorth.com/nyemancip.htm Douglas Harper, "Emancipation in New York"], ''Slavery in the North'', 2003, accessed January 1, 2015</ref> however, in 1824, there were still a total of 102 slaves in Schenectady County with nearly half residing in the city. That year the city of Schenectady had a total population of 3939, which included 240 free blacks, 47 slaves, and 91 foreigners.<ref name="spafford">[http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/resources/spafford.html Horatio Gates Spafford, LL.D. ''A Gazetteer of the State of New-York, Embracing an Ample Survey and Description of Its Counties, Towns, Cities, Villages, Canals, Mountains, Lakes, Rivers, Creeks and Natural Topography. Arranged in One Series, Alphabetically: With an Appendix…''] (1824), at Schenectady Digital History Archives, selected extracts, accessed December 28, 2014</ref>

In the 19th century, after completion of the [[Erie Canal]] in 1825, Schenectady became an important transportation, manufacturing and trade center. By 1824, more of its population worked in manufacturing than agriculture or trade.<ref name="spafford"/> Among the industries was a cotton mill,<ref name="spafford"/> which processed cotton from the Deep South. It was one of many such mills in upstate whose products were part of the exports shipped out of New York City. The city and state had many economic ties to the South at the same time that some residents became active in the [[abolitionism|abolitionist]] movement.

Schenectady benefited by increased traffic connecting the Hudson River to the [[Mohawk Valley]] and the [[Great Lakes]] to the west and New York City to the south. The [[New York State Route 5|Albany and Schenectady Turnpike]] (now State Street) was constructed in 1797 to connect Albany to settlements in the Mohawk Valley. The [[Albany and Schenectady Railroad|Mohawk and Hudson Railroad]] started operations in 1831 as one of the first railway lines in the United States, connecting the city and Albany by a route through the [[Albany Pine Bush|pine barrens]] between them. Developers in Schenectady quickly founded the Utica & Schenectady Railroad, chartered in 1833; Schenectady & Susquehanna Railroad, chartered May 5, 1836; and Schenectady & Troy Railroad, chartered in 1836, making Schenectady "the rail hub of America at the time" and competing with the Erie Canal.<ref>[http://www.donrittner.com/his310.html Don Rittner, "American Railroading Began Here"], Schenectady county and city history, accessed January 3, 2015</ref> Commodities from the Great Lakes areas and commercial products were shipped to the East and New York City through the Mohawk Valley and Schenectady.

The last slaves in Schenectady, New York, gained freedom in 1827, under the state's gradual abolition law. The law first gave freedom to children born to slave mothers, but they were indentured to the mother's master for a period into their early 20s. [[Union College]] established a school for black children in 1805, but discontinued it two years later. Methodists helped educate the children for a time but public schools did not accept them.<ref name="Wright"/>

In the 1830s, the [[abolitionism|abolitionist]] movement grew in Schenectady. In 1836, Rev. [[Isaac Groot Duryee]] (also recorded as Duryea) co-founded the interracial Anti-Slavery Society at Union College and the Anti-Slavery Society of Schenectady in 1837. [[Freedom seekers]] were supported via the [[Underground Railroad]] route that ran through the area, passing to the west and north to Canada, which had abolished slavery.<ref>[http://schenectadyhistorical.org/admin/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Underground-Railroad-and-Anti-Slavery-Movement-in-Schenectady.pdf "Underground Railroad and Anti-Slavery Movement in Schenectady"], Schenectady Historical Society, July 2010</ref>

In 1837, Duryee, together with others who were [[free people of color]], co-founded the [[First Free Church of Schenectady]] (now the Duryee Memorial AME Zion Church). He also started a school for students of color. The [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]] [[Theodore S. Wright]], an African-American minister based in New York City, spoke at the church's dedication and praised the school.<ref name="Wright">[http://research.udmercy.edu/find/special_collections/digital/baa/item.php?record_id=1360&collectionCode=baa Theodore Sedgwick Wright, "Speech given during the dedication of the First Free Church of Schenectady, 28 December 1837"], ''Emancipator'', at University of Detroit Mercy, accessed May 31, 2012</ref><ref>Neisuler, J. G. (1964). ''The History of Education in Schenectady, 1661–1962'', Schenectady: Board of Education, City School District</ref>

Through the late 19th century, new industries were established in the Mohawk Valley and powered by the river. Industrial jobs attracted many new immigrants, first from Ireland, and later in the century from Italy and Poland. In 1887, [[Thomas Edison]] moved his [[Edison Machine Works]] to Schenectady. In 1892, Schenectady became the headquarters of the [[General Electric|General Electric Company]]. This business became a major industrial and economic force and helped establish the city and region as a national manufacturing center.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} GE became important nationally as a creative company, expanding into many different fields. [[American Locomotive Company]] also developed here, from a Schenectady company, and merging several smaller companies in 1901; it was second in the United States in the manufacture of steam locomotives before developing diesel technology.

===20th century to present===
Like other industrial cities in the Mohawk Valley, in the early 20th century, Schenectady attracted many new immigrants from eastern and southern Europe, as they could fill many of the new industrial jobs. It also attracted African Americans as part of the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] out of the rural South to northern cities for work.<ref name="JamesGregory">Gregory, James N. (2009) "The Second Great Migration: An Historical Overview", ''African American Urban History: The Dynamics of Race, Class and Gender since World War II'', eds. Joe W. Trotter Jr. and Kenneth L. Kusmer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 22.</ref> General Electric and [[American Locomotive Company]] (ALCO) were industrial powerhouses, influencing innovation in a variety of fields across the country.

Schenectady is home to [[WGY (AM)|WGY]], the second commercial radio station in the United States, (after [[WBZ (AM)|WBZ]] in [[Springfield, Massachusetts]], named for [[Westinghouse Broadcasting|Westinghouse]]). WGY was named for its owner, General Electric (the G), and the city of Schenectady (the Y).<ref>Brian Belanger,''Radio & Television Museum News'', [http://www.radiohistory.org/newsdocs/newsletter/WGYarticle.pdf "Radio Station WGY"], Radio History, February 2006. Retrieved on December 1, 2008 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326104153/http://www.radiohistory.org/newsdocs/newsletter/WGYarticle.pdf |date=March 26, 2009 }}</ref> In 1928, General Electric produced the first regular television broadcasts in the United States, when the experimental station W2XB began regular broadcasts on Thursday and Friday afternoons. This television station is now [[WRGB]]; for many years it was the Capital District's [[NBC]] affiliate. It has been the area's [[CBS]] affiliate since 1981.

The city reached its peak of population in 1930, approximately 95,000. The [[Great Depression]] caused a loss of jobs and population in its wake. In the postwar period after World War II, some residents [[white flight|moved to newer housing in suburban locations outside the city]]. In addition, General Electric established some high-tech facilities in the neighboring town of [[Niskayuna, New York|Niskayuna]], which contributed to continuing population growth in the county. In the latter part of the 20th century, Schenectady suffered from the massive industrial and corporate restructuring that affected much of the US, including in the railroads. It lost many jobs and population to other locations, including offshore. Since the late 20th century, it has been shaping a new economy, based in part on renewable energy. Its population increased from 2000 to 2010.