Remapping the History of Dutch New Yorkers

The great majority of New Amsterdam’s Dutch residents remained after the English captured New Netherland in 1664 and they and their descendants formed an integral part of New York City’s population for more than a century. Yet these Dutch men and women perennially are cast as minor players in narratives of the city’s 17^th- and 18^th-century history, relegated to the fringes of a tale dominated by English actors. Despite their continuous demographic presence and the tangible Dutch cultural imprint on the city, Dutch New Yorkers have been treated as a remnant population destined for absorption into the growing British majority.

My paper deliberately disrupts this Anglo-inflected narrative by situating the Dutch at the forefront of the city’s early history, thereby complicating our understanding of its development in revealing ways. First, this new angle of vision posits the English as invaders and the local Dutch population as bold defenders of Dutch culture. Second, it challenges the declension narrative, replete with caricatures of the Dutch as backward buffoons, which English partisans superimposed on Dutch New Yorkers after Leisler’s Rebellion so as to strip them of a meaningful history in America.

Third, this new perspective facilitates a granular picture of what has been supposed to be a monolithic Dutch community. Differentiating the politically active and highly visible Anglicizing elite from the far more numerous Dutch commoners who, as a form of cultural resistance, held fast to their native language and their Dutch Reformed faith, highlights the internal conflicts that faced the city’s Dutch on the eve of the American Revolution. Finally, directing attention to Dutch New Yorkers compels us to acknowledge the consequences of their persistent anti-Catholic ardor and their ongoing complicity in the enslavement of African peoples – the foundation and perpetuation of New York City as a white Protestant space.