Random History Bytes 143: Adriaen van der Donck 4

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Last Update: Wed Jul 05 10:25 EDT 2023

Random History Bytes 143: Adriaen van der Donck 4
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Adriaen Van der Donck (c.1618-1655) ^1, ² having argued The Remonstrance ³, (Dutch: Vertoogh for discord or remonstrance) before the States General at The Hague, awaited a decision. There was some back and forth with the States General, and time went by. ⁴ The Dutch West India Company (WIC) strongly protested The Remonstrance and lobbied strongly to refute its assertions. ⁵

Finally, in 1652 they reached a decision. WIC wrote an order that Stuyvesant set up a municipal government. A municipal charter was enacted in New Amsterdam in 1653. A letter from the States General recalled Stuyvesant to the Netherlands, and Van der Donck was to deliver it personally. Van der Donck was given a letter to recall Stuyvesant and named Van der Donck as President of the Board of Nine. ⁶

But in July 1652 the first Anglo-Dutch War broke out, a trade war. ⁷ New Netherland was precariously lodged between two established English territories, New England, and Virginia settlements. WIC was largely a naval armada for the Dutch, and it was not a good time to rein in WIC's power structure, they had a superior number of ships that the States General would want to keep on the side of the Dutch. The Dutch Republic "had amassed a huge fleet of 2,000 ships, initially larger than the fleets of England and France combined." ⁸

The States General rescinded their decision. They asked Van der Donck to give them back the letter, and WIC forbade him passage on any of their ships back to New Amsterdam. Van der Donck had not only booked himself on a ship about to sail, but his wife and several of his family. His family sailed, leaving him behind in Netherland. ⁹

He used this time to further study law and to work on the manuscript of his observations of New Netherland in A Description of New Netherland ¹⁰ (published in 1655), as well as to fight for his return to his home and family in New Amsterdam. In 1653 Van der Donck was awarded his Supremus in jure which allowed him to appear before the highest courts. ¹¹ Some historians said that his book would have been as important a publication in its time as William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation (1630-1651) had it been in English and not Dutch. ¹²

In 1653 Van der Donck petitioned the States General for permission to return to New Netherland under the conditions that he would resigne his position as President of the community, not seek any political office, and to obey the orders and commands of the WIC, and they agreed. ¹³

The next installment will pick up from here.

Endnotes:
¹ Adriaen van der Donck (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Van_der_Donck-1).
² Adriaen van der Donck (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adriaen_van_der_Donck).
³ E.B. O'Callaghan, M.D., translator, Remonstrance of New Netherland and the Occurrences There. Addressed to the High and Mighty States General of the United Netherlands, on the 28th July, 1649. With Secretary Van Tienhoven's Answer (Albany, New York: Weed, Parsons and Company, 1856); downloadable from Library of Congress here; purchasable here .
⁴ Follow the ample references given in the links and endnotes for more complete details.
⁵ J. van den Hout, Adriaen van der Donck: A Dutch Rebel in Seventeenth-Century America (Albany, New York: State University of New York, 2018), 114.
⁶ Adriaen van der Donck (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adriaen_van_der_Donck).
⁷ Russell Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America (New York: Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, 2005), 249-250. First published in hardcover in 2004.
⁸ Dutch Republic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Republic).
⁹ Van den Hout, Adriaen van der Donck: A Dutch Rebel in Seventeenth-Century America, 116-120.
¹⁰ Adriaen van der Donck, A Description of New Netherland (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2008); a new translation with Forward and Preface of: Adriaen van der Donck, Beschryvinge van Nieuvv Nederlant, (ghelijck het tegenwoordigh in staet is) begrijpende de nature, aert, gelegenthest en vrucht-baerheyt van het selve lant; mitsgaders de proffijte-lijcke ende gewenste toevallen, die aldaer tot onderhout der menschen, (soo uyt haer selven als van buyten ingebracht) gevonden worden. Als mede De maniere en onghemeyne eygenschappen vande wilden oste naturellen vanden lande. Enge een bysonder verhael vanden wonderlijcken aert ende het weesen der bevers, daer noch by gevoeght is een discours over de gelegentheyt van Nieuw Nederlandt, tusschen een Nederlandt patriot, ende een Nieuw Nederlander (T'Aemsteldam [The Netherlands]: Evert Nieuwenhof, 1655); purchasable here.
¹¹ Van den Hout, Adriaen van der Donck: A Dutch Rebel in Seventeenth-Century America, 121-129.
¹² Adriaen van der Donck, A Description of New Netherland, ix-x. Forward by Russell Shorto.
¹³ Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World, 252-253.