Jan Rodrigues
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Jan Rodrigues was the first black man to live in New York City. He was among the first settlers that established a Dutch fur trading post in Lower Manhattan in 1613 founded by Christian Hendricksen. This is considered the beginning of New York as a city.
Though it was a private enterprise the Dutch Republic took over in 1621 and incorporated the little town in 1624 when settlers established one year earlier in Governor Island together with a contingent of colonizers coming from the Netherlands that same year joined the traders established in the tiny 11 years old settlement of Lower Manhattan.
