Random History Bytes 144: Adriaen van der Donck 5
http://jytangledweb.org/randomhistorybytes/
John H. Yates
Last Update: Wed Jul 12 08:20 EDT 2023
Random History Bytes 144: Adriaen van der Donck 5
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Adriaen van der Donck (c.1618-1655)
returned to New Netherland in 1653 after roughly four years absence.
1
His return was delayed while the
States General and
WIC
blocked his return until he agreed to not take any offices and live as a common inhabitant.
2
In other words, he was to stop making political waves by publicly siding with the colonists over governance issues.
New Amsterdam became a city in 1653 with a municipal government, largely because of Van der Donck's
efforts, including the Remonstrance
3
and his arguments to the State General.
This diminished the power of the WIC and
Peter Stuyvesant
by implementing a democratic government where the
colonists had a real say in its governance.
Van der Donck's A Description of New Netherland
4
was finally published in 1655.
5
It became a best seller, and it did help fuel an interest in emigration by its readers.
It has four main sections:
- The Country.
A description of the discovery, and thus the Dutch claim to it, its location, the land, the waters,
trees, vegetables, flowers, crops, minerals, animals, birds, fish, and more.
- Of the Manners and Extraordinary Qualities of the Original Natives of New Netherland.
A description of Native Americans in great detail. No doubt intended to help allay fear of them.
- Of the Nature, Amazing Ways, and Properties of the Beavers.
The profitable beaver fur trade was what first lured colonists to New Netherland.
- A Conversation Between a Dutch Patriot and a New Netherlander concerning the Condition of New Netherland.
A literary construct designed to answer anticipated questions about New Netherland. His writing became prophetic
in some ways, and not in other ways.
Upon his return, Van der Donck focused on renewing his patroonship,
Colendonck.
Evidence of his knowledge and expertise did appear, unsigned by him, in some new remonstrance writings
against Stuyvesant and the WIC by colonists.
6
On September 15, 1655, while Stuyvesant was away confronting the Swedes on the South River (Delaware River),
New Amsterdam suffered a multitribal Indian attack. Over a number of days the marauding moved north
on Manhattan, and records indicate that Van der Donck's estate was attacked, records are sparse.
But on January 10, 1656, a court record refers to him as deceased, and his wife as a widow.
It is not certain, but it is probable that he was killed in the attack.
The Colendonck property was abandoned after the attack.
Van der Donck would have been about 37 years old. His wife
Mary (Doughty)
and her father, went to Maryland.
7
New Netherland, and specifically New Amsterdam prospered under the new municipal government
and increased immigration.
8
In August of 1664, four English frigates arrived at New Amsterdam.
9
The frigates were under the command of Richard Nicolls
who had delivered a letter to Stuyvesant demanding surrender or suffer miseries of war.
Stuyvesant was at first unwilling, but the English terms were generous for the colonists, who
largely were willing to abandon the control of WIC. Stuyvesant had little choice but to
surrender.
Nicolls renamed New Amsterdam New York, after his patron, the Duke of York.
10
Adriaen van der Donck did not live to see New Netherland prosper, and then be taken by England.
But his many contributions in leadership, the law, his committment to democratic governance,
his writing ability in The Remonstrance,
and A Description of New Netherland, where he recorded his observations of the environment
and its inhabitants to encourage immigration were all major contributions toward the future success of the colony.
Even if it didn't remain a Dutch colony as he thought and hoped.
Since English colonies were north
and south of New Netherland, it could be expected, and Van der Donck
did his best to lobby the States General to assume a stronger role in
its development.
David Hackett Fischer examined folkways
of four distinct British regional cultures seeding different locations in America during its colonization
in Albion's Seed
11
(Albion is the original Greek name for
the islands of Great Britain.
Not to be confused with the unsuccessful colony of
New Albion).
Identifying folkways can require in depth research, but lasting traces of Dutch
folkways in America are evidenced by bits of Dutch nomenclature that survive in America to today:
- Yonkers, New York - From Adriaen van der Donck's Dutch nickname of Jonkheer "young gentleman"
as in "young gentleman's property" (Yonkers).
12
- Cole Slaw - Koolsla "cabbage salad".
13
- Boss - baas "boss".
14
- Cookies - Koeckjes "Cookies".
15
- Santa Claus - Sinterklaas "Saint Nicholas".
16
- Saw Mill River Parkway -
from Adriaen van der Donck's saw mill
on the Saw Mill River
named by Van der Donck in what is now Yonkers, New York.
17
- Van der Donck Park - in Yonkers, New York.
For those interested in examining original New Amsterdam records, I recommend:
Endnotes:
1
J. van den Hout, Adriaen van der Donck: A Dutch Rebel in Seventeenth-Century America
(Albany, New York: State University of New York, 2018), 129.
2
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), 252-253.
First published in hardcover in 2004.
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
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.
5
Van den Hout, Adriaen van der Donck: A Dutch Rebel in Seventeenth-Century America, 132.
6
Van den Hout, Adriaen van der Donck: A Dutch Rebel in Seventeenth-Century America, 132.
7
Van den Hout, Adriaen van der Donck: A Dutch Rebel in Seventeenth-Century America, 135-143.
8
Van den Hout, Adriaen van der Donck: A Dutch Rebel in Seventeenth-Century America, 144.
9
Van den Hout, Adriaen van der Donck: A Dutch Rebel in Seventeenth-Century America, 144-145.
10
Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World, 294-300.
11
David Hackett Fischer,
Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1989).
12
Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World, 163.
13
Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World, 270.
14
Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World, 269.
15
Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World, 270.
16
Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World, 271.
17
Van den Hout, Adriaen van der Donck: A Dutch Rebel in Seventeenth-Century America, 151.