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Sluiter (Engel) Historical Documents Collection
BANC MSS 98/79 z
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Contributing Institution:
The Bancroft Library
Title: Engel Sluiter historical documents collection, [19--]
Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 98/79 z
Physical Description:
116 linear feet
(92 cartons, 1 box, 3 volumes, 2 oversize folders, 1 rolled item)
Date (inclusive): approximately 1930-2001
Abstract: Contains Engel Sluiter's research notes and copies and transcriptions of historical documents from archives throughout Europe
and Latin America made during approximately 1930-2001. Subject matter concerns Dutch voyages to the Pacific during the early
17th century, Dutch-Iberian global rivalry between 1568 and 1648, Dutch, English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese voyages
to the New World; the transatlantic slave trade, the Nassau fleet, Newfoundland fisheries, Arctic exploration and whaling,
and the complexities of imperial finances between the later sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth centuries. Contains
notes, photocopies, and transcripts of historical research including a complete typescript English translation by Engel Sluiter
of a Dutch book, "The invention of telescopes: a contribution to the history of civilization" by Cornelius de Waard, Jr.
Condition Description: MSS notes: Condition good. Throughout the collection, many of the materials (often photostats) are tied together with twine
inside the folders.
Language of Material:
English
, Spanish; Castilian
, Dutch; Flemish
, Greek, Modern (1453-)
.
Collection is open for research. COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.
Engel Sluiter, the son of a Dutch-born rancher, teacher, and county supervisor, and the grandson of windmill operators in
Holland, was born on a ranch near New Holland, South Dakota in 1906.
In 1924 he withdrew from high school in Hull, Iowa, in order to teach seventh and eighth grades in a local school and to study
voice at Central College in his mother's hometown of Pella, Iowa. But after a year he abandoned plans for an operatic career
and set out for California in a Model T Ford with a friend. When they reached the valley town of Modesto, their car broke
down. Engel then enrolled first in Modesto Junior College and later transferred to Stanford University where he worked with
Percy Alvin Martin, a now forgotten Brazilianist, and graduated in 1929.
Despite the onset of the Depression, he obtained a position in a junior high school in Downey, California, where for two years
he taught social studies, doubled as track coach, and worked with the football team. In 1931 he began graduate work at the
University of California at Berkeley, under the supervision of the Herbert E. Bolton. He earned his M.A. in 1933 and, following
a year in the archives of Holland and Spain, his Ph.D. in 1937. Next, he taught briefly at Chico State College and at San
Francisco State Colleges before returning to Berkeley, where he taught from 1940 until he reached mandatory retirement in
1973. Sluiter offered a variety courses concerning Latin American history, including the popular History of the Americas,
a survey of the colonial period, and another concerning the history of Brazil.
| 1906 | Born in Holland, South Dakota. |
| 1924 | Withdrew from high school to teach seventh and eighth grades and study voice at Central College, Pella, Iowa |
| 1925 | Enrolled in Modesto Junior College |
| 1929 | B.A., Stanford University, Phi Beta Kappa. Taught social studies and coached track at a junior high in Downey, California |
| 1931 | Began graduate studies at University of California, Berkeley |
| 1933 | M.A., University of California, Berkeley |
| 1935-1936 | Social Science Research Council Pre-doctoral Fellowship, spent Archival Research in the Netherlands and Spain |
| 1937 | Ph.D. in History, University of California, Berkeley |
| 1937-1938 | Instructor in History, San Francisco State University |
| 1940-1973 | Professor of History at UC Berkeley |
| 1942-1943 | Fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation in Latin America for research in various archives of Latin America |
| 1942-1943 | Fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation in Latin America for research in various archives of Latin America |
| 1942-1943 | Visiting Professor of History at Stanford University |
| 1948-1949 | Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship for research in Spain and Portugal |
| 1954-1955 | Fulbright Fellowship for research in Europe (London and Amsterdam) |
| 1966-1967 | Exchange program with the University of Chile; Six months in the archives of Santiago, Chile |
| 1970 | Summer in Seville, Contaduría section of the Archives of the Indies |
| 1973 | June 30 - Mandatory retirement from the University of California |
| 1973 | Research in various archives in Europe, Mexico, Central America, and South America |
| 2001 | May 28 - Died at home in Kensington, California |
Engel Sluiter Historical Documents Collection, BANC MSS 97/79 z, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Engel Sluiter collection of papers relating to Dutch-Iberian global rivalry (BANC MSS 74/25 z).
The Engel Sluiter historical documents collection is the research collection of Dr. Engel Sluiter, Professor of Latin American
History, made between 1930-2001. The collection contains copies, transcriptions, and translations of historical documents,
mainly from archives and libraries throughout Europe and Latin America.
This is a very extensive collection, the bulk of which is concerned with the period of European and colonial history between
1575 and 1650. The documents mainly relate to the history of the Low Countries, Spain, and Portugal, both in Europe and overseas,
with many pieces relevant to the history of England, France, Germany, Scandinavia, and Italy. The subject matter concerns
Dutch-Iberian global rivalry between 1568 and 1648, Dutch, English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese voyages to the New World,
Dutch voyages to the Pacific during the early 17th century, the transatlantic slave trade, Newfoundland fisheries, Arctic
exploration and whaling, and imperial finances. The majority of documents in the collection are in Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch,
and English, with a smaller number in French and German. The collection contains many transcriptions of unpublished manuscripts,
often accompanied by a copy of the original document and Dr. Sluiter's own notes and/or translation in English. There are
also photocopies of excerpts from relevant books and printed documents. The collection contains a small number of books.
The wide variety of papers document the power struggle in Europe during the years indicated, especially involving the Eighty
Years' War between Spain and the Netherlands, expanding into a general European and global struggle. Economic and fiscal documentation
predominates, shedding light on both the maritime-commercial rise of the Netherlands and expansion of Dutch trade, and the
Spanish-Portuguese trade and navigation in America and the Orient. The collection contains fiscal data on Dutch and Spanish
expenditures for war in the Netherlands, Spanish expenditures in the Catholic Cause during the Thirty Years' War in Europe,
and Spanish crown revenues. The collection also includes fiscal records (income/outgo) for fifty-nine American treasuries
from the Contaduría section of the Archives of the Indies in Seville. There are also records of import/export duties on goods
from American ports, including Lima, Panama, Acapulco, and Manila, as well as Cartagena and Vera Cruz. There are also transcribed
accounts of composición payments to Spain by resident foreigners in America.
The Brazil collection starts in 1500 but falls mainly after 1580, and covers Dutch trade, navigation, and conquest in Brazil
(1586-1662) and Portuguese documentation of Brazilian colonial development and documentation on Portuguese resistance to foreign
encroachment. There is also information on brazilwood production and trade, sugar production, Basque and Portuguese whaling
in Brazilian waters, and the triangular trade Brazil/West Africa/Rio de la Plata. Both the Brazil and Netherlands sections
contain information on the exodus of Portuguese Jews from Portugal and Brazil to the Dutch Republic, as well as their participation
in the slave trades.
The Caribbean collection covers each of the four competing nations. Documentation on the Spanish Caribbean is heavily administrative,
dealing with defense policy, financing, fortification, copper mining, trade regulation, illicit trade, foreign smuggling,
economic development (sugar, mines, cattle, ginger), and labor supply. Information on the English in the Caribbean consists
mainly of English contemporary accounts and some Spanish materials on English activities in the Caribbean. The immense section
on the Dutch in the Caribbean is the product of intensive research in Dutch, Spanish, and English archives.
The West Africa file mainly involves Dutch-Portuguese rivalry and trade.
The section on Anglo-Dutch voyages to the Pacific Coast of America includes Spanish reports showing the English intrusions
on the Spanish Pacific, loot obtained by Drake and Cavendish, and Spanish defense expenditures for royal Pacific Armada. Documentation
on the Dutch expeditions to the Pacific Coast is in both Dutch and Spanish.
Large New Spain and Peru collections have large Contaduría sections and extensive files of viceregal and other official correspondence,
arranged chronologically by administrations. The collection also contains some information on Mexico-Manila/Mexico-Peru trades.
The New Granada collection is largely fiscal, consisting of balance sheets of income/outgo, gold and emerald remittances,
and accounts of "quintos" taxes paid.
The slave trade collection contains documents from Seville, mainly licenses issued to Spanish emigrants to America for a specified
number of slaves, contracts between the Spanish crown and other merchants or entrepreneurs, asientos on the number, sex, and
destinations of the slaves, and sums paid to the crown.
Information on the Guianas and the smaller North America/Arctic collections contain documents, rare contemporary accounts,
and archival material on Dutch trade and colonization in the Guianas and exploration in the Arctic.
Source: Dr. Sluiter's "Observations and Information About the Collection."
Some materials in these collections may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). In addition, the reproduction
of some materials may be restricted by terms of University of California gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions,
privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond
that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be
commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
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