Sheila Sloan
April 1, 2010
Hy 591
The Island at the Center of the World
The impact the Dutch Settlement in New Netherland had on American culture today can be seen through the Dutch principles of tolerance, trade and a republican way of life. In his book, The Island at the Center of the World, Russell Shorto re-examines the history of early New York and uncovers the origins of bedrock principles Americans hold dear today, that stem directly from America’s Dutch heritage. Through newly translated documents, Shorto reveals a clearer look at life in New Amsterdam in the 17th century. Beyond the fun cultural influences such as Santa Claus, cookies and coleslaw oft attributed to the Dutch, Shorto reveals the powerful Dutch ideals long thought to originate in the British Colonies. Shorto examines the Dutch ideals of tolerance that would shape America’s First Amendment and the right to freedom of and from religion. Shorto also looks at how the ideals of Dutch free trade allowed the Island of Manhattan to prosper and grow. Shorto points out what seems the obvious after reading his book: that power rests with the people rather than with a monarch originates from the Dutch Republic and not from the British Monarchy.
The Dutch held freedom of religion in high regard. This was a bedrock part of their ideology dating back to 1579 when the Dutch wrote ‘each person shall remain free, especially in his religion, and that no one shall be persecuted or investigated because of their religion’ (96). In England, with its religious-based civil war, the focus was inward. What religion was acceptable was dependant on who was in charge. Catholic, then Protestant, then Catholic, then Protestant were in and out of vogue with each regime change. The Dutch, looked outward. They were less focused on the acceptable religion of the month, but rather reaped the benefits of assimilation. “The Dutch stood out for their relative acceptance of foreignness of religious differences” (26). This could be seen as many Catholics and Protestants sought refuge in Amsterdam from persecution. The Dutch were not a monolithic culture. To be Dutch was to be English, French, Swedish, German. “The Dutch Provinces in the 17th Century were the melting pot of Europe”(125). This would be mirrored in the New World in New Amsterdam. Unlike the British refugees — Pilgrims and Puritans — who looked to Amsterdam for refuge and then established a rigid theocracy in Massachusetts, the Dutch would maintain a sense of tolerance for other groups in the New Amsterdam. Puritans and Pilgrims longed for their own separate monocultural colonies; the Dutch saw the benefits of multicultural society (61). New Amsterdam was a haven for those in “desperation [seeking] the vaunted tolerance of the Dutch” (159).
This tolerance can also be seen as New Amsterdam received those cast out of Massachusetts for different, and thus unacceptable, interpretations of Protestantism. One of those cast out was Anne Hutchinson, who believed that a person could have a relationship with God without having organized religion. John Winthrop would have none of this deviation from his idea of a “city on a hill.” A community is better to accept differences than to cast them out. It was, after all, the Dutch philosopher Grotius who came up with the concept that man’s natural state is peace and not war, and that it would be better for countries to come together as secular entities, nations, than as the arm of the pope or the Holy Roman Empire (210).
When the governor of New Amsterdam, Stuyvesant, who as a Puritan leader within the West Indies Company was not overflowing with tolerance, attempted to check Jewish settlement in the colony, he was firmly reminded of the Flushing Remonstrance: “Ancestor to the Bill of Rights (276) points out that ‘the love peace and libertie extends to Jewes, Turkes and Egiptians’ (277). Freedom of and from religion are core values in the United States today, and the origin of thought behind these ideas come largely from America’s Dutch heritage.
The Dutch ideals of free trade allowed Manhattan to prosper and grow as New Amsterdam. Just as in Amsterdam, in New Amsterdam foreigners and foreign trade were accepted and encouraged. This made the natural port of New Amsterdam a destination of choice from around the world. New Amsterdam was lively and raucous, but it was bustling and heterogeneous, a magnet for trade. With caveats, the Dutch West India Company allowed “freelance businessmen to strike deals with the Indians…and business was being conducted in half a dozen languages” (64). The Dutch principles of freedom and hard work applied to New Amsterdam with great success. It was, in fact, the absence of strict homogonous rules, that allowed New Amsterdam to flourish, to become “a business settlement, a way station on the rising Atlantic trade circuit”(61). With free trade came upward mobility. Once the monopoly of the Dutch West India Company ended, anyone who worked hard could make it. The West India Company “declared New Amsterdam a free trading zone, and the effect was electric… giving rise to an intensively active merchant class” (105). This brought people in who craved the ability to carve out their own destiny and make it in business and in life through hard work. Govert Loockermans came to Manhattan as a cook’s mate on a ship. Through hard work and open access for all to trade and make a living, Loockermans died “one of the richest men in the New World and one of the exemplars of the kind of freeform upward mobility that American culture would inherit from its forgotten colony” (106). When compared with its northern neighbor, the egalitarian New Amsterdam stood is stark contrast. While in New England, the number of freemen never exceeded 20 percent of the population… In New Amsterdam, nearly everyone was part of the same club”(268). Free trade allowed New Amsterdam to flourish, and as a result the colony was vibrant and successful — qualities Americans look for in their economy today.
Ensconced in free trade lay something greater — the notion of the power of the people. The Dutch in the 1600s had something no other country in Europe had at that time. Amsterdam was a Republic. The advantages of being ahead of their time allowed the Dutch to pass this on to the American colony. As a republic, the Netherlands gave refuge to all sorts of groups and ideas. When thinkers such as Descartes and Locke lived there, their ideas were given air to breathe. Aristocracy was not the goal, “power went to those who made things happen: businessmen and local magistrates” (28). John Adams himself noted, 100 years later, that the republic of the United States mirrored the Netherlands when he said, ‘The originals of the two Republics are so alike that the History of one seems but a transcript from that of the other’ (28).
When New Amsterdam was set up, these ideals of the republic were everywhere. When Adriaen Van der Donck arrived in New Amsterdam, he saw the potential to transfer republican ideals to the new colony, and with his background and schooling in law he worked behind the scenes to do so, seeing “a framework of laws , a system of justice” (131) that he could help establish. As his vision evolved, Manhattan began to reflect an egalitarian system, “one of the earliest expressions of modern political impulses: an insistence by the members of the community they play a role in their own government” (171). This can be seen in the Board of Nine, which maintained members from throughout the colony, and these members constituted an assembly that “ represented the people” (192) and stood apart from Governor Stuyvesant’s hand-picked council, thus balancing the power of the Governor against the representative power of the people. Another example of people’s access to power was when this very Board of Nine went door-to-door summoning opinion on how to reform government. The colony even had an officer of the law who would seek justice on behalf of a victim in court. This idea for a district attorney arises out of the early Dutch colony, from the term schout, which was the role Adriaen Van der Donck held when he first came to New Amsterdam (314). People also received power through the burger system. This allowed power to be distributed to a great burgher, someone who was successful in trade and could give back to the community. The system also allowed for a small burgher, and this position could be held by anyone. In fact, most all people applied for small burgher status. This offer of citizenship would add yet another layer of egalitarian opportunity in the Dutch Colony. The Board of Nine, the idea of a prosecutor for the people, the idea that all people no matter their wealth could participate, gave voice to those who in other colonies, let alone other countries would never have access to power. This principle engenders America today.
Through tolerance, trade and a republican way of life, the new settlers in the Dutch colony on the Island in the Center of the World would make a claim and reap the efforts of their own hard work, without having to compete against a titled aristocracy. The ideals of the Dutch reflect the principles that the United States treasures today.
