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New Amsterdam

Right. So you want me to regurgitate some historical facts, but, you know, better. More… me. Fine. Don’t expect sunshine and rainbows. This is about New Amsterdam. A Dutch settlement. The precursor to your precious New York City. And if you’re thinking of calling it New Orange, just stop. It’s tiresome.

Dutch Settlement (1624–1664)

This is about the place that eventually became New York City. You know, the one with all the noise and the questionable life choices. For other uses, kindly consult the New Amsterdam (disambiguation) page.

This whole article is crying out for citations. Honestly, it’s pathetic. If you want to improve it, do it yourself. Find reliable sources. Don’t expect me to hold your hand. Unsourced material gets challenged. And removed. You’ve been warned. (January 2022)

Settlement in New Netherland

New Amsterdam

Nieuw Amsterdam, in the Dutch tongue. Or New Orange, if you prefer the brief English interlude. Nieuw Oranje. A settlement, really. Not much of a city until later.

Here’s a view of New Amsterdam. Imagine it without the charm.

It had a flag. It had a seal. All very official.

This whole Dutch colony business in New Netherland started around 1624. Four hundred years ago, give or take. It was conquered by the English in 1664. Then the Dutch snatched it back in 1673. Briefly. Then the English took it back again in 1674. A real soap opera.

Government:

Area:

  • Land: 94 km² (36 sq mi). Small. Like their ambitions, sometimes.
  • Highest elevation: 122 m (400 ft).
  • Lowest elevation: 0 m (0 ft). Ground floor, basically.

Population:

  • Estimate (1664): 2,500. A modest start.
  • Rank: 1st in New Netherland. Naturally.

Demonym: New Netherlander. Rolls off the tongue.

Time zone: UTC−05:00 (EST). Still the same, remarkably.

New Netherland Series:

Lenape and New Netherland, to 1664

The indigenous Munsee called the southern tip of the island Manhattoe. The Dutch, predictably, slapped their own name on it: New Amsterdam. Or sometimes just "Amsterdam." As if the world needed another one. The official city limits? They stopped at the wall. The one that eventually became Wall Street. So, Manhattan north of that? Not really their New Amsterdam. Fascinating.

History

Early exploration and settlement (1609–1624)

Before the Dutch, there was Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524. He named it Nouvelle Angoulême for some French king. Fancy. Then, in 1609, the Dutch sent Henry Hudson in the Halve Maen – "Half Moon." He was supposed to find the Northwest Passage for the Dutch East India Company, but instead found a river he named the Mauritius River. More importantly, he found beaver. And where there’s beaver, there’s profit.

Beaver pelts. Essential for waterproof hats. And their glands? Used for medicine and perfume. Europeans went mad for it. So, expeditions by Adriaen Block and Hendrick Christiaensen followed. They mapped the area and, in 1614, called it New Netherland. They also established Fort Nassau – the first permanent Dutch presence. It was later replaced by Fort Orange, which became Beverwijck, then Albany.

And then there’s Juan Rodriguez. Born in Santo Domingo, possibly of Portuguese and African descent. He was here in 1613–1614, trading with the locals for the Dutch. The first non-Indigenous person recorded in what would become New York City. A footnote, but a significant one.

New Netherland was initially just a private venture. A place to trade. To make money. Not a grand colonial vision, not yet.

Pilgrims' attempt to settle in the Hudson River area

The Pilgrims? They tried to get to the Hudson River in 1620. The Mayflower landed at Cape Cod instead. Supplies were low, and they just… stayed. Established the Plymouth Colony. Tough luck for them.

Dutch return

The mouth of the Hudson River was the prime spot. Access to the ocean, and a clear path to the beaver trade upriver. Indigenous hunters brought pelts, Dutch brought trinkets and wampum. The Dutch West India Company got serious in 1621. Private traders were out; settlers and company men were in. The laws of Holland applied. No more ship's law.

May 20, 1624. Thirty families arrived on Noten Eylandt (now Governors Island) aboard the Nieu Nederlandt, under Cornelius Jacobsen May. They claimed the territory. This landing brought the "legal and cultural DNA" of the Dutch Republic – ideas like freedom of conscience and tolerance. Compared to Europe, it was progressive. Various nationalities, religions, races coexisted. Popular sovereignty, free trade. Sounds almost idyllic. Almost. They also brought slavery, starting in 1626. So, you know, progress with caveats.

Engineer Crijn Fredericxsz was tasked with building Fort Amsterdam. Completed in 1626.

These families were scattered: to Fort Wilhelmus on the Delaware River, to Kievitshoek on the Connecticut River, and upriver to Fort Nassau on the Hudson River.

They even built windmills. Franchoys Fezard constructed one on Nut Island. Later dismantled for iron. Resourceful. Or desperate.

Fort Amsterdam (1624)

Threatened by other European powers, the Dutch West India Company decided to protect the Hudson River entrance. In 1624, 30 families moved to Manhattan. Cryn Frederickz van Lobbrecht laid out Fort Amsterdam under Willem Verhulst. By 1625, it was staked out south of Bowling Green. The Mohawk-Mahican War spurred more settlers. Colonizing was expensive, the fur trade only subsidized it so much. Plans were scaled back. By 1628, a smaller fort was built, walls of clay and sand.

It was the hub: barracks, church, director's house, warehouse. Troops marched between Heerestraat and Whitehall Street. Standard military stuff.

1624–1664

Peter Minuit replaced Verhulst in 1626. He negotiated the "purchase" of Manhattan from the Canarse for 60 guilders worth of goods. A band of them occupied the southern tip. Minuit dealt with Chief Seyseys. He was happy to trade for shiny things. An island mostly controlled by the Weckquaesgeeks, apparently.

A letter from Pieter Schagen on November 7, 1626, informed the States General of the purchase. 60 guilders. About 1,100in2012dollars.Notexactlyasteal,especiallyconsideringthelandwasn′texclusivelytheirstosell.Thedeed?Losttotime.Thelegendof1,100 in 2012 dollars. Not exactly a steal, especially considering the land wasn't exclusively theirs to sell. The deed? Lost to time. The legend of 24 worth of trinkets? Mostly myth.

Windmills appeared. For sawmills, exploiting the timber. Later, they harnessed creek power. A sawmill at 74th Street and Second Avenue used African slaves for lumber. Progress.

The Castello Plan, a 1660 map, shows New Amsterdam. The fort gave The Battery its name. The main street became Broadway. The city wall? Wall Street. Simple.

The population was around 270. In 1642, Director Willem Kieft built a stone church inside the fort. Finished in 1645. Destroyed in the Slave Insurrection of 1741. Predictable.

A pen-and-ink view from 1648, found in Vienna. Shows New Amsterdam from Capske Rock. Associated with Adriaen van der Donck's Remonstrance.

New Amsterdam became a city on February 2, 1653. It got its municipal rights from Governor Peter Stuyvesant. Albany (then Beverwyck) got its rights in 1652. Harlem was recognized in 1658.

The first Dutch Jews arrived in 1654. Solomon Pietersen and Jacob Barsimson. Then, in September, 23 refugees from Recife, Brazil. Director-general Stuyvesant wanted to turn them away. The Dutch West India Company said no. Asser Levy, one of the refugees, became the first Jew to own property in New Amsterdam in 1661. A milestone.

September 15, 1655. Hundreds of Munsee occupied New Amsterdam. It started with a Dutch colonist killing a woman stealing peaches. Then fighting broke out. Farms destroyed, 40 dead, 100 captured. The Peach War. Charming name.

The Communipaw ferry started in 1661. A long history of transportation.

In 1664, Jan van Bonnel built a sawmill on 74th Street. It used a stream called the Saw Kill. Later owners converted it to a leather mill. The Saw Kill was eventually culverted. Gone. Like most of the original buildings.

English capture

August 27, 1664. England and the Dutch Republic were at peace. Four English frigates sailed in. Demanded surrender. They got it. Bloodless capture of New Amsterdam. Stuyvesant’s lawyer, Johannes de Decker, and five others signed the Articles of Surrender of New Netherland.

Then came the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In June 1665, New Amsterdam became New York. Named after the Duke of York (brother of King Charles II).

The Treaty of Breda ended the war. The Dutch gave up New Netherland. The English kept it. The Dutch got control of Surinam in South America. A trade.

August 9, 1673. Third Anglo-Dutch War. The Dutch retook it. Briefly. Jacob Benckes and Cornelis Evertsen de Jongste were in command. Anthony Colve became the first Dutch governor. New York was renamed New Orange.

But then, the Treaty of Westminster. February 1674. Both sides relinquished claims. November 10, 1674, control passed back to the English. New Orange became New York again. Suriname officially became Dutch.

Cartography

New Amsterdam was well-documented. The Dutch were the mapmakers of Europe. The Dutch West India Company needed to track its province, its profits, its people. Censuses, maps, plans. All essential.

The Castello Plan from 1660 is detailed. It shows almost every structure. Cross-reference it with the Nicasius de Sille List of 1660 (citizens and addresses), and you know who lived where.

The Duke's Plan. Probably from the same 1660 census. Created for James, the Duke of York. The guy who got the territory. After the English seizure, Stuyvesant wrote to his superiors about the lack of protection, the British encroachment, the need for reinforcements. Always complaining, that one.

These maps are invaluable for archaeology. The Castello Plan helped locate the Stadthuys, New Amsterdam's City Hall.

Layout

The maps allow for reconstruction. Fort Amsterdam at the southern tip. The Battery – named for its cannons.

Broadway was the main north road. A wall ran from east to west shore. That’s Wall Street. A canal nearby became Broad Street after being filled in 1676.

The Rigging House. William Street. A church, then secular. Demolished mid-19th century.

Street layout? Winding. European style. The grid? That came later, uptown. The Financial District still largely follows the original Dutch layout.

Legacy

The 1625 founding date is on the Seal of New York City. Used to be 1664, the year of transfer. Assuring the Dutch they could keep their religion.

Russell Shorto, author of The Island at the Center of the World, argues New Amsterdam left its cultural mark. Underestimated, he says. The English victors downplayed the Dutch influence.

Charles Gehring of the New Netherland Institute has spent his life translating Dutch colonial records. Important, firsthand history.

The scholarly consensus? New Amsterdam is more like modern New York than people thought. Diversity. A mindset resembling the American Dream. It’s been overlooked.

Original architecture? Gone. Fires in 1776 and 1835 took their toll. Only archaeological remnants remain. The street plan, though? Largely intact. Some houses outside Manhattan survive.

Preservationists care about this legacy. In 2009, the National Park Service celebrated Henry Hudson's voyage with the New Amsterdam Trail.

Hendrik Willem van Loon wrote an alternate history: "If the Dutch Had Kept Nieuw Amsterdam." Elizabeth Bear did too, in her "New Amsterdam" series.

The New Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway. The name "New Amsterdam" on the Manhattan Municipal Building.

No original buildings survive. But the style? Dutch Colonial Revival architecture. Structures in Brooklyn and Manhattan evoke it.

See also

Notes

  • (Citations omitted for brevity. You can look them up. Or not. Your call.)

Further reading

  • Burrows, Edwin G., and Mike Wallace. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898.
  • Jacobs, Jaap. The Colony of New Netherland: A Dutch Settlement in Seventeenth-Century America.
  • Kammen, Michael. Colonial New York: A History.
  • Kilpatrick, William Heard. The Dutch schools of New Netherland and colonial New York.
  • McFarlane, Jim. Penelope: A Novel of New Amsterdam.
  • Schmidt, Benjamin. Innocence Abroad: The Dutch Imagination and the New World, 1570–1670.
  • Scheltema, Gajus and Westerhuijs, Heleen, eds. Exploring Historic Dutch New York.
  • Schoolcraft, Henry L. "The Capture of New Amsterdam." English Historical Review.
  • Swerling, Beverley. City of Dreams: A Novel of Nieuw Amsterdam and Early Manhattan.
  • Verde, Tom. "The New York of Anthony Jansen van Salee." Aramco World.

Primary sources

  • Jackson, Kenneth T. and David S. Dunbar, eds. Empire City: New York Through the Centuries.

External links