Opening from On This Site - Native Long Island

Shelter Island Plantation Claim (1651–1652)

On Manhansett homeland between Long Island’s forks, Nathaniel and Constant Sylvester, Thomas Middleton and Thomas Rouse claimed an island-wide plantation supplying Barbados. Native residents challenged threatened removal. The story connects contested land agreements, Native labor, African enslavement and continuing Indigenous relationships. A colonial land record describes a claim made at a particular time. Read its conditions and the people affected alongside the map; an outlined claim is not proof that Native relationships or rights ended. An inhabited island, not an empty estate Shelter Island lies between the North and South Forks of eastern Long Island. Manhansack-Ahaquatuwamock is one recorded form of its Native name. The Manhansett community had political and cultural connections with Montauk. The later plantation claim covered the island, not just the present Sylvester Manor...