The English colonists had autonomy under the Dutch, and in that way had it better than the Dutch as the Dutch citizens were at the will of the governor. The Dutch had a reputation for religious tolerance, as well accepting ethnic and linguistic minorities. Consequently, refugees flocked to the Netherlands, and many of them were sent by the Dutch to settle New Amsterdam. When New Amsterdam fell in the summer of 1664, it left a legacy of religious and ethnic tolerance with as many as “eighteen languages being spoken in a town of approximately a thousand residents[xxiii].” The Dutch West India Trading Company did create a successful colony. During the last years of Dutch rule in the New Netherlands, the population rose and the economy grew. When the British took control of the newly named, New York, its six towns were consolidated into Kings County. The change in rule was almost under Colonel Richard Nicolls. The only big difference was the English’s treatment of slaves. In 1702 the English enacted a law that formalized the status of African Americans as nothing more than pieces of property.