Patroonship 81the area and expand trade. Th e investor was expected to
import, at his own expense, at least 50 European colonists
within four years of being granted the land and supply the
land with agricultural animals and tools needed for the pri-
vate farming community. In return for their passage to the
New World, colonists agreed to bind themselves to serve
the patroon for a period of 10 years, cultivate his land, pay
him rent, grind grain at his mill, and off er him the option of
purchasing their agricultural produce.
Patroonships were similar to Europe’s feudal king-
doms. Th e patroon furnished a pastor and schoolmaster,
administered justice, established courts, collected rent
from tenants, and was given approximately 10 percent of
all the grain, fruit, and other products his tenants pro-
duced on the land. Th e system was not successful, partly
because land in the colonies was free to those who wanted
to settle it. Five patroonships along the Hudson River and
Delaware Valley were originally registered with the WIC.
Four of the fi ve were not successful. Th e one moderately
successful patroonship, Rensselaerswijck, was owned by a
Dutch diamond merchant and director of the WIC and lay
near the confl uence of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers in
the area of present-day Albany, New York. Its limited suc-
cess can be attributed to the patroon’s successful negotia-
tions with the WIC, which permitted him to keep fur pelts
in return for a small payment to the company, participate
in the fi shing trade, and trade with other colonies. Th e
Tin Horn rebellion in 1844 extinguished the patroonship
system.
See also: Dutch New Netherland; Dutch West India Com-
pany; Headright System; Middle ColoniesNancy A. McCaslinBibliography
Bachman, Van Cleaf. Peltries or Plantations; Th e Economic Policies
of the Dutch West India Company in New Netherland, 1 623–
1639. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 1969.
Goodfriend, Joyce D. Before the Melting Pot: Society and Culture in
Colonial New York City, 1 664– 1 730. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1992.
Harris, Leslie M. In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in
New York City, 1 626– 1 863. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2003.
Shorto, Russell. Th e Island at the Center of the World: Th e Epic
Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony Th at
Shaped America. New York: Doubleday, 2004.
Vanema, Janny. Beverwijck: A Dutch Village on the American Fron-
tier, 1 652–64. Albany: State University of New York Press,
2000.of the people and their culture. Oral narratives are practical,
fl exible, and spiritual; these living “texts” have no particular
defi nitive version, and they vary, acclimatize, and change
with the performer, audience, time, place, space, and utility.
But the magical, spiritual powers of the spoken word, and
its skillful verbal performance, are devalued by the literate
culture. One of the major features of oral culture is that lit-
eral translation cannot give us a full sense of what is being
said due to the poetic nature of most orature because it in-
volves a lot of foregrounding of standard language.
Specifi cally, the Yoruba people, like their African coun-
terparts, believe that there are “Special Forces” that are re-
leased by the spoken or sung word in oral performances.
Th is is sometimes regarded as the magical and spiritual
powers of the spoken word. Th e belief about the powers
embedded in the spoken word is a common phenomenon
in Africa, even in the literate communities.
Due to the fl exibility trait it has, the oral literature of
the people lends itself to various changes in the society,
especially in this era of globalization where there is a ten-
dency for acculturation and interculturation. Oral litera-
tures are thus performed in diverse ways to accommodate
contemporary happenings. Aside from this, the phenom-
enon of global migration also has a serious eff ect on the oral
culture of the people in time’s perspective. Th e oral culture
is lending itself to various Internet facilities in this global
era as well.
See also: Griot; Sundiata: Th e Epic of Old Mali
Ajibade George OlusolaBibliography
Gleason, Judith, ed. Leaf and Bone: African Praise-Poems. New
York: Penguin, 1994.
Mpanje, Jack, and White Landeg. Oral Poetry from Africa: An An-
thology. New York: Longman, 1983.
Ong, J. Walter. Orality and Literacy: Th e Technologizing of the
Word. London and New York: Routledge, 2002.
Patroonship
A patroonship was a private farming community on a vast
estate in New Netherland that was granted to investors. Th e
investors, contracting with the Dutch West India Company
(WIC), promised to stimulate the population growth in