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Captain Samuel Schuyler |
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In Albany, New York the name Schuyler is frequently seen throughout the city and surrounding area. The riverboat skipper called Captain Samuel Schuyler was born in 1781 in New York City or New Jersey and was a prominent citizen of Albany, NY in the early nineteenth century but is not included in family histories or society pages of Albany since he was of African Descent.There is no indication he or his ancestors had any connection to the Schuyler's of Dutch ancestry that figured prominently in Revolutionary War records and the early years of Albany, known then as New Netherland. A reference to a Schuyler of African Descent fighting in the Revolutionary War under General Philip Schuyler and later working in an arsenal in Watervliet after 1813 could have been a family member of Samuel's. |
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By the early 1800's Samuel was living in Albany where he leased dock space and operated a small river craft carrying cargo along the Hudson Valley ports and landings. His name appears on assessment rolls and Censuses as a black man, colored, free person of color, head of household as well as businessman. There is no record of whether he was born free or how his family came to the northeast. Captain Schuyler married a Mary or Margaret Martin and had eleven children. Eight of whom lived to adulthood. His first son, Richard March Schuyler was named after his neighbor Francis March (also a free Black riverboat skipper) from whom he purchased an adjoining lot on South Pearl Street in 1810. |
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Schuyler continued to purchase property on South Pearl Street over the next three decades until he had fifteen lots that were used as a coal yard and warehouse. He operated the Schuyler Tow Boat Line with at least one of his sons for over twenty years. When Captain Schuyler died at age sixty-one in May of 1842, his will provided for the maintenance of his wife. When she died, the South Pearl Street house and other real estate passed to his children. Four of the Schuyler sons continued their father's enterprises into the latter part of the nineteenth century. |
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Sons Samuel, Jr. and Thomas ran the Schuyler Towing Company Their flagship, a side-wheel steamer was captured on canvas in 1868 in the Portrait of America. It was capable of pulling 70 fully loaded barges. |
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Adapted from First African American Families of Early Albany |
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For more information on Filling in The Gaps in American History (F.I.G.A.H), biograahies and research on people of African Descent that do not appear in texts, please contact us at email |
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