DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL LIFE UNDER THE DUTCH
1647-1664
Beginning of Stuyvesant's Administration. Condition of the Colony.
Character of the Early Dutch Houses. Household Arrangement.
Dress. Funerals. Marriages. The Mixture of Races. Slavery.
Religion. Attitude of Stuyvesant toward Sects other than Dutch
Reformed. Triumph of Liberal Ideas. First Churches in Kings
County. Troubles over the Church Tax. First Schools. The Dutch
and Popular Education. End of Dutch Rule.
When Stuyvesant, followed by the principal burghers, made his first
public appearance in New Amsterdam, the people saw that the new Director
had but one leg, the other, which he had lost in the wars, having been
replaced by a wooden affair, laced with silver bands. His manner was
soldierly, and excited from those who looked askance at him the remark
that his stride was "like a peacock's, with great pomp and state."
Moreover he was accused of keeping the burghers bareheaded for several
hours, though he was covered, "as if he were the Czar of Muscovy."
Peter Stuyvesant[17] was the son of a clergyman of the Reformed Church.
He was a "self-made" man, having had a hard struggle from his boyhood.
He had fought in the service of the West India Company against the
Spaniards and Portuguese in South America. For a time he was Governor of
the Island of Curaçoa, and it was while making an attack, during this
command, on the Island of St. Thomas that he lost his leg. He had
married, at Amsterdam, Judith, the daughter of Balthazzar Bayard, a
French Protestant who, like so many others who came to America, had fled
to Holland to escape persecution.
When Stuyvesant declared in his first speech at the Fort that he would
govern the colony "as a father does his children," he gave some hint of
the view of the situation which he was inclined to take. However
fatherly and generous were his feelings toward the people whom he was to
preside over, he intended to be master of the situation.
The people who greeted the new Director with much cordiality, and who
in this demonstration were influenced as greatly by the feeling that any
change must be for the better as by any definite expectation that
Stuyvesant would be better than Kieft, had suffered from so many
influences that tended to disorganize and disconcert them that the new
Director found them in no very promising state. Indeed, he found New
Netherland in a "low condition."
Breuckelen and her sister settlements were as yet merely farming
communities. New Amsterdam itself had begun to present some of the
characteristics of a town. Extending as far as the present line of Wall
Street (from which fact the street gets its name), it was thickly
settled within a narrow area toward the point. The houses were rough,
the streets unkempt. "Pig-pens and out-houses were set directly on the
street, diffusing unpleasant odors. The hogs ran at will, kept out of
the vegetable gardens only by rough stockades."[18]
If the physical condition of the town offended Stuyvesant, so, also, did
the moral condition. The new Director called for a "thorough
reformation." There must be an end of drunkenness, Sabbath-breaking, and
the selling of liquors to the Indians. Stuyvesant saw the necessity of
conciliating the Indians, and the efforts which he made to this end were
gratifying to the Long Island settlers.
To protect the outlying settlements from the incursions of the savages,
and to provide means for the payment of the annual presents and
perquisites to the Indians, Stuyvesant consented to give the various
towns representation in the government. The grand old democratic
principle of taxation and representation going hand in hand was thus
recognized. It was these sentiments, which early took root in
Breuckelen, that resulted in the Revolutionary War, and established the
fact that taxation without representation was unjustifiable. As a result
of this consent, an election was held in Breuckelen and the other towns,
and eighteen of the most respectable and honored men in the community
were chosen, from whom nine were selected by the Director and Council as
an advisory board. They were to confer with the Director and Council and
to promote the welfare of the people. They were also to consult upon all
measures proposed by the Director and Council, and to give their advice.
The Director was empowered to preside at all meetings of this board.
The members held seats in the Council, taking turns weekly, three
sitting at a time; on court days acting in a judicial capacity to try
cases and render judgment.
The administration, at least in its earlier years, saw an increase in
the rate of immigration. During Stuyvesant's administration many stone
houses appeared in New Amsterdam, and on Long Island came an improved
class of habitations.
The houses of the Dutch period, and of the later period that imitated
the primitive architecture of that time, are among the most interesting
objects of study that remain on Long Island. The first Long Island
houses had resembled those of the Indians. Very soon afterward the
character of the dwellings became more solid and permanent, and after
the Indian war came comfortable one-story houses, thatched with straw,
and with big stone chimneys. Most of the Dutch houses on Long Island,
even in later times, were of wood. A brickyard was established at New
Amsterdam in 1660; but in those days it was thought that the baking of
brick of greater thickness than two inches could not be effectual, and
building with such small brick as then came from the maker was very
expensive.
The one-story Dutch houses generally had an "overshoot" roof, which
formed now one and now two piazzas. Very often a seat was placed at each
end of the porch; and when the weather permitted, this sheltered place
was generally occupied by the family and visitors of an evening. There
are a number of these fine old Dutch houses still standing within the
limits of the county and city.
The interior of the Dutch houses was generally as solid and simple as
the exterior. The big fireplace was one of the most important features
of the house. Those who could afford it often had the mantel front set
about with glazed Holland tiles. These tiles had pictures moulded on
them, and very often the whole series of pictures around the fireplace
opening would tell stories from the Bible. "The children grew to know
these pictures, and the stories they told, by heart; and when they
gathered about the hearth of an evening, and the tile pictures glimmered
faintly in the light of the big wood fire, grandfather would open the
great family Bible on his knees and read some of the stories over again
for the hundredth time."
In the best room of the house stood the mountainous bedstead, as grand
as the owner could afford to make it. Underneath was the trundle-bed,
which was pulled out at night for the children to sleep on.
"The pillow-cases were generally of check patterns; and the
curtains and valance were of as expensive materials as their
owner could afford; while in front of the bed a rug was laid,
for carpets were not then in common use. Among the Dutch the
only article of that sort, even up to the time of the
Revolution, was a drugget of cloth, which was spread under the
table during meal-time when, upon 'extra occasions,' the table
was set in the parlor. But even these were unknown among the
inhabitants of Breuckelen and the neighboring towns. The uniform
practice, after scrubbing the floor well on certain days, was to
place upon the damp boards the fine white beach sand (of which
every family kept a supply on hand, renewing it by trips to the
seashore twice a year), arranged in small heaps, which the
members of the family were careful not to disturb by treading
upon; and on the following day, when it had become dry, it was
swept, by the light and skillful touch of the housewife's broom,
into waves or other more fanciful figures. Rag carpets did not
make their appearance in this country until about the beginning
of the present century."[19]
The Dutch did not use tables save for the kitchen or for the service of
meals. The table dishes were of wood and pewter, though a few people
kept some china on the sideboard for "company." As tea was a luxury
which very few had much of, the tea cups were very small. For display,
silver tankards, beakers, porringers, spoons, snuffers, and candlesticks
were in favor. Clocks were extremely rare, the primitive hour-glass
doing service in most houses. "Of books," says Stiles, "our ancestors
had but few, and these were mostly Bibles, Testaments, and Psalm-Books.
The former, many of which still exist among the old families, were
quaint specimens of early Dutch printing, with thick covers, and massive
brass, and sometimes silver, corner-pieces and clasps. The Psalm-Books
were also adorned with silver edgings and clasps, and, when hung by
chains of the same material to the girdle of matrons and maidens fair,
were undoubtedly valued by their owners quite as much for the display
which they made as for their intrinsic value."
In every family was a spinning-wheel,--sometimes four or five. The dress
of the people, like so many other Dutch things, closely resembled that
of Hollanders at home. The ordinary dress for men was a blouse or
jacket, and wide, baggy trousers. Justices and other officials wore
black gowns. The Sunday clothes of men as well as women were often
gorgeous in color and effect. The ladies frizzed and powdered their
hair, wore silk hoods in place of hats, and squeezed their feet into
very high-heeled shoes. The dandies of the day wore long coats with
silver lace and silver buttons, bright vests or waistcoats, velvet
knee-breeches, black silk stockings, and low shoes with silver buckles.
On holidays the people made a gay-looking company. Christmas was a happy
festival with them always. In those early days people had to depend upon
such family festivities even more than do later generations having many
sources of amusement away from home. It was from the Dutch that American
children learned to say Santa Claus, and it was from them that Americans
learned that fashion, which has still not entirely died out, of making
calls on New Year's Day.
One of the prudent customs of the Dutch settlers was to begin, so soon
as they came of age, to lay by money for their funeral expenses. No
Dutchman wanted to be a burden upon any one if he could help it, even
when he died, and this practice of laying by gold or silver pieces to
pay the expenses of proper burial became very general. A Dutch funeral
was one of the most singular features of life among the people. After
the minister had seated himself beside the coffin and the company was
duly assembled, the sexton or servants would appear with glasses and
decanters, and wine would be given to such of the guests as cared to
drink. Funeral cakes and other victuals were handed about in the same
way, and then pipes and tobacco were brought in. The eating, drinking,
and smoking being finished, the minister would rise and make his address
and prayer, and then the sexton and minister would lead the procession
to the burying-ground.[20]
A people so prudent about matters of funeral expenses were likely to be
prudent about other affairs of life coming earlier in the list. Young
men were generally careful about saving money with which to get married,
and the young women spun and sewed for many months getting ready the
linen which they were in the habit of providing for the housekeeping.
Furman instances this inventory of the goods a Breuckelen bride brought
to her husband: "A half-worn bed, two cushions of ticking with feathers,
one rug, four sheets, four cushion covers, two iron pots, three pewter
dishes, one pewter basin, one iron roaster, one schuyrn spoon, two cowes
about five years old, one case or cupboard, one table."
That the course of true love, as it is observed after marriage, did not
always run smooth, is shown by the early appointment in New Amsterdam of
a "First Commissary of Marriage Affairs."
In this era marriage was surrounded with many difficulties, and required
both time and patience to secure its accomplishment. The following
curious document is the form which was used in 1654 to secure a marriage
license:--
_To the right Honourable the Lordships the Magistrates of
Gravesend:_
DEAR FRIENDS--Whereas, on the date of this 10th day of February,
1654, a peticion is presented to the cort hereby, Johannes Van
Beeck, that the banns (of matrimonie) between him and Maria
Varleth, may bee hear registered and bee properly proclaimed,
and wee hav understoode that the same Johannes Van Beeck ande
Maria Varleth had prevusly too this maide procklemation of thare
banns throgh youre cort att Gravesende wich (under Koncison) is
contrarie too the stile and customes of oure Faderland. Itt is
oure requeste to youre honourable cort in case such an ockacion
should ockur in futur, that wee mai bee inn formed kincerneing
the same, inn order on ether sydde to preventee all
impropriertys, which allso wee engaige too doo on our parte
spechally iz the praktize and custome off our Faderland that any
one shal maike three procklamations inn the plaice ware his
domercile is, ande then he maye bee maryed werever hee pleases,
wherein wee ar ande remaine your right Honourable Lordships'
affectionate friend.
ARENT VAN HATTAN.
Bye order of thee Burgomasters and Shepens of New Amsterdam.
Attest
JACOB KIPP, Sec'ty.
AMSTERDAM IN NIEW NETHERLANDS, this 10th day of February, 1654.
The next step taken by the candidates for matrimony was their appearance
before the Court. This event in the old manuscripts is recorded as
follows:--
"Casper Varleth and Johannes Van Beeck appeared inn cort and
praed most ernestly thatt onn thee perticion and remonstrance
konserning the marriage between Johannes Van Beeck and Maria
Varleth presented too the Burgomasters and Schepens may be
disposed off, and in konsequence of the Bench note being
kompleate itt iz posponed untill Thursda next, soe az inn thee
meantime too notifie the other Lordships.
"Johannes Van Beeck appeared in cort and requested az before
thatt acion maye bee had onn his peticion, offering furthermore
iff thort nesary att thee time ande the okeacion too bee readie
to affirme under oathe whatt he stated inn his peticion,
repeating especially three conversacions hadd with his
Excellencie Petrus Stuyvesant."
The subject-matter of the petition was important, and could not be
hastily passed upon. The Burgomasters deliberated for three days, and
doubtless viewed the subject in every phase and light imaginable. At
last they reached a conclusion which cannot be better presented than in
the precise language of the decision rendered:--
"Bye the Burgomasters and Shepens of niew amsterdam--having been
seen and examined the peticion as presentede too our cort, onn
the 10th ande 16th days of this month, tochinge the bonds off
matrimonie between Joh Van Beeck and Maria Varleth. Tharefore
wee inquire into,
"First--Who frome the beginning was the institutor of marriage,
ande also whot the apostels off thee Gentiles teaches thareon.
"Secondly--The proper and attaned age of Johannes Van Beeck ande
Maria Varleth.
"Thirdlie--Thee consente off the Fathure ande Mothure off the
Dauter.
"Forthly--The distance and remoutnes beetweene this and oure
Faderland, together withe thee calamiters relacion betweene
Holland and England.
"Fifthly--Thee danegur in such case arisienge ffrom long
retardacion, betweene these too younge persons beecominge
publick blame being attachede to the fammelys onn either sidde.
"Our Shurlogans ande wise Jurists doo saye korectly onn such
mattus, that wee must nott commit any lesser sinns too avoyde
grater ones; tharefore wee thinke (with due submission) thatt
bye suteable marrage (the apostel inn his epistel to the
Heebrues calls the bedd undefiled honurable) both thee lesser
ande thee grater crimes are preevented. Tharefor thee
Burgomasters and Shepens off the city of Niew Amsterdam doe
judge thatt thee afforeseyde younge persons haveing mayde thare
proper Ecklisiastical proclamations with the earlyst
opportunitie, and that they folloe it upp with thee bonds of
matrimonie immediatelie tharafter.
"Done at the Stadt House inn Niew Amsterdam in Niew Netherlands
this 19th Feberary, 1654.
"ARENT VAN HATTAN,
P. L. VANDUGRIST,
PIETER WOLFERSON,
MARTIN KRIGIER,
WILH. BEECKMAN,
JOSH. P. R. RUYTER,
OLOFF STEVENSEN."
The social life of the New Netherlands was in many respects
characteristic of the hard conditions of life in any new country, but in
many respects it was peculiarly different from that of New England. "The
sharp and strong contrasts in social position," says Mr. Roosevelt,[21]
"the great differences in moral and material well-being, and the variety
in race, language, and religion, all combined to make a deep chasm
between life in New Amsterdam and life in the cities of New England,
with their orderly uniformity of condition and their theocratic
democracy." In fact, democratic as the Dutch theory was, the actual
condition of the Dutch colony was aristocratic in its characteristics.
"The highest rank was composed of the great patroons, with their feudal
privileges and vast landed estates; next in order came the well-to-do
merchant burghers of the town, whose ships went to Europe and Africa,
carrying in their holds now furs or rum, now ivory or slaves; then came
the great bulk of the population,--thrifty souls of small means, who
worked hard, and strove more or less successfully to live up to the law;
while last of all came the shifting and intermingled strata of the evil
and the weak,--the men of incurably immoral propensities, and the poor
whose poverty was chronic."
The picturesqueness of the population was accentuated by the presence of
a growing number of negro slaves which a Dutch vessel had been the first
to bring to America.[22] But, as we shall see later, slavery never was
welcomed as an institution in this region, and never gained a firm
foothold. Tobacco culture and other causes, which operated to the
encouragement of slavery in Virginia and Maryland, did not appear in the
northern colonies; where, moreover, the temper and taste of the people
were not such as to make easy the development of slavery.
As in early New England, the domestic and social affairs of the Dutch
colony were always intimately associated with religious traditions, and,
as in New England, the theory of religious liberty found a varying and
often a grotesque application.
The early theory of the colony was that of complete religious liberty,
and at no time was there an intolerance comparable to that which
prevailed among the Puritans, who sought liberty but yielded little; but
the laws of the colony favored the Protestant Reformed Church, and it
alone. To be sure, the West India Company commended freedom of belief,
and the early Governors, partly, doubtless, because they were too busy
with other matters, and partly because occasion had not yet arisen,
caused little trouble by any attitude toward questions of faith or
worship. But when the colony grew to considerable proportions, and the
mixture of races brought about by the advertised liberality of the Dutch
settlements began to bring up the social and religious questions
inevitable in such a community, there were many clashings and disputes
and bitternesses.
Stuyvesant was as definite and immovable in his ideas about church-going
as about everything else. He believed in established authority, and
personally resented the impertinence of people who saw fit to take a
position at variance with what seemed to be set forth and settled by the
established power. When the Lutherans, in 1654, sought to hold meetings
of their own, Stuyvesant reminded them of the duty of attending the good
Dutch church, and refused them premises for their meetings.
Appeal to Holland, whose position Stuyvesant's mental methods certainly
did not represent in this instance, forced the Director to let the
Lutherans alone; and possibly the rebuke was responsible for the fact
that the Anabaptists on Long Island escaped serious trouble shortly
afterward. But Stuyvesant hated the "cursed Quakers," with whom he had
many bitter differences, going so far as to hang up one preacher by the
arms and lash him for defying his authority.
Of Catholics Stuyvesant had an even greater horror. In 1654, he passed
an ordinance forbidding the keeping of Ash Wednesday and all other holy
days, as "heathenish and popish institutions, and as dangerous to the
public peace."
To the intermittent religious squabbles brought on by the determination
of Stuyvesant to stick to the letter of the law rather than to take the
popular Dutch view of moderate leniency, the West India Company finally
put a stop by ordering Stuyvesant to "let every one remain free so long
as he is modest, moderate, his political conduct irreproachable, and as
long as he does not offend others or oppose the Government." These
terms, rather than any ever offered by Stuyvesant, represent the real
sentiment prevalent among the Dutch people.
In the ship which brought over Governor Minuit, in 1626, came two
_ziekentroosters_, or "comforters of the sick," who were frequently
found filling positions as assistants to ordained clergymen. By these
two men the early religious services of the New Amsterdam colony were
conducted until 1628, when another ship from Holland brought out Jonas
Michaelius, who was sent by the North Synod of the Netherlands. It was
Michaelius who "first established the form of a church" at Manhattan. He
was succeeded five years later by Everardus Bogardus, whose congregation
left the upper loft of the horse-mill for a small building dedicated to
church service. In 1642, a new stone church was built within the Fort,
and in the year of Stuyvesant's coming Bogardus was succeeded by Dominie
Johannes Megapolensis, who led the church for twenty-two years.
Meanwhile the Long Island settlers who wished to attend divine service
were obliged to cross the river to New Amsterdam. In 1654, however,
Midwout (Flatbush), which had begun to assume an importance as a
settlement that promised to give it the position that Breuckelen
afterward assumed, established a church. An order was issued in
February, 1655, requiring the inhabitants of Breuckelen and Amersfoort
(Flatlands) to assist Midwout "in cutting and hauling wood" for the
church. The Breuckelen people objected to working on the minister's
house, but were forced, under the Governor's order, to assist throughout
the work.
This first church in Kings County, built under the supervision of
Dominie Megapolensis, John Snedicor, and John Stryker, occupied several
years in the building; but that it was used before its completion is
indicated by the fact that in August, 1655, Stuyvesant convened the
inhabitants to give their opinion as to the qualifications of the Rev.
Johannes Theodorus Polhemus as a "provisional minister," and to decide
what salary they would pay him. The report of the Schout was that the
people approved of Mr. Polhemus, and that they would pay him 1,040
guilders (about $416) a year.
Polhemus belonged to "an ancient and highly respectable family" in the
Netherlands, had been a missionary in Brazil, and had come from that
country to New Amsterdam. He was a devout Christian, and his
faithfulness does not seem to have been questioned, but when, in 1656,
the magistracy of Midwout and Amersfoort sought permission to request
voluntary contributions from the three Dutch towns, Breuckelen
protested, declaring that "as the Rev. John Polhemus only acts as a
minister of the Gospel in the village of Midwout, therefore the
inhabitants of the village of Breuckelen and adjacent districts are
disinclined to subscribe or promise anything for the maintenance of a
Gospel minister who is of no use to them." By way of showing their good
will to Mr. Polhemus personally, they urged that the minister might be
permitted to preach alternately in Breuckelen and Midwout. If this were
done they were "very willing to contribute cheerfully to his support,
agreeable to their abilities."
The Director and Council replied that they had "no objection that the
Reverend Polhemus, when the weather permits, shall preach alternately in
both places;" but although Midwout consented, Gravesend and Amersfoort
objected, these villages having contributed to the support of the
Midwout church, and Breuckelen being "quite two hours' walking from
Amersfoort and Gravesend, whereas the village of Midwout is not half so
far and the road much better." To this was added: "So they considered it
a hardship to choose either to hear the gospel but once a day, or to be
compelled to travel four hours, in going and returning, all for one
single sermon, which would be to some very troublesome, and to some
utterly impossible."
As a way out of this difficulty the Director and Council decided that
the morning sermon should be at Midwout, which was about the same
distance from each of the three other towns, and that the afternoon
service should be changed to an evening service to be held alternately
in Breuckelen and Amersfoort. In recognition of the situation of
Midwout, that village was to give annually 400 guilders, and Breuckelen
and Amersfoort each 300 guilders for the support of the minister.
This seemed like an amicable settlement, and might have remained such
had not Breuckelen been dissatisfied with the preaching of Mr. Polhemus.
The dissatisfaction expressed itself in a protest sent to the Director
and Council, in which the people of Breuckelen reminded the Director
that they had never called the Reverend Polhemus, and had never accepted
him as their minister. "He intruded himself upon us against our will,"
said the protest, "and voluntarily preached in the open street, under
the blue sky; when to avoid offense, the house of Joris Dircksen was
temporarily offered him." Moreover, Mr. Polhemus was accused of offering
"a poor and meagre service," giving, every fortnight, "a prayer in lieu
of a sermon," by which they could receive "very little instruction."
Often, when they supposed this prayer was beginning, it was "actually at
an end." This they experienced on the Sunday preceding Christmas, when,
expecting an appropriate sermon, they heard "nothing but a prayer."
"Wherefore," continues the protest, "it is our opinion that we shall
enjoy as much and more edification by appointing one among ourselves,
who may read to us on Sundays, a sermon from the 'Apostles' Book,' as we
ever have until now from any of the prayers or sermons of the Reverend
Polhemus." All this, the protest hastened to say, was intended in no
offense to the preacher, whose inabilities were recognized as resulting
naturally from the fact that in his advanced years "his talents did not
accompany him as steadily as in the days of yore."
To this protest Stuyvesant responded merely by directing the sheriff to
"remind those of Breuckelen, once more, to fulfil their engagement, and
to execute their promise relative to the salary of Mr. Polhemus." Amid
their discontent, and in consequence also of the poverty of many of his
parishioners, the poor preacher suffered not a little for want of the
ordinary necessities of life. In the winter of 1656, his house being not
yet completed, he and wife and children were forced to sleep on the
floor. When Sheriff Tonneman complained to the Council of having been
abused while attempting to collect the odious tax, Lodewyck Jong, Jan
Martyn, "Nicholas the Frenchman, Abraham Janesen the mulatto, and Gerrit
the wheelwright," were each fined twelve guilders ($4.80); and when Jan
Martyn sought to hire the public bellman to defame Tonneman, he was
"obliged to beg pardon, on bended knees, of the Lord and of the court,
and was fined twenty-five guilders ($10) and costs."
Wearied of his efforts to coax and threaten the Breuckelen opposition
into paying the tax, Stuyvesant at last (in July, 1658) forbade all
inhabitants of the three towns to remove grain from their fields until
all tithes were taken or commuted. There was no escape from this, and
the tax was paid.
Two years later Breuckelen secured a preacher of her own in the person
of the Rev. Henricus Selyns,[23] a preacher whose ancestors had been
prominent in the earliest days of the Dutch Reformed Church, and who had
been reared in the traditions of this flourishing denomination. He
engaged to serve Breuckelen for four years.
When, in September, 1660, Dominie Selyns preached his first sermon in
the Breuckelen barn which served as a house of worship, the population
of the village was one hundred and thirty-four persons, representing
thirty-one families. The preacher had been promised a salary of one
hundred florins, but when an effort was made to raise funds the
magistrates found themselves under the necessity of appealing to the
Director for aid. Stuyvesant offered to pay one hundred and fifty
guilders, provided Mr. Selyns would also preach every afternoon at his
"bouwery" on Manhattan Island. This arrangement was duly made. In 1661,
when Breuckelen received from the West India Company, by request
of Dominie Selyns, a bell for the church, there were fifty-two
communicants. Meanwhile, Mr. Selyns was living at New Amsterdam, and in
1662 an effort was made to induce the preacher to live in Breuckelen, on
the theory of the schepens that, if he did so bring himself among them,
"the community would be more willing and ready to bring in their
respective quotas." It does not appear that the Dominie found it
convenient to live in Breuckelen, but there is no doubt of his zeal nor
of his popularity. When, in 1664, the Dominie returned to Holland, it
was with the regrets and good wishes of the little band of Breuckelen
parishioners.
The Dutch attitude toward education was in many respects very different
from that which prevailed among the English. At the time of the
settlement of New England and New Amsterdam, Holland was far in
advance of other European states in ideas of popular education. Mr.
Campbell[24] places Holland two hundred years in advance of any other
country in Europe at the time of the Puritan emigration. There was,
indeed, an extraordinary contrast between "the free cities" of the
Netherlands and their neighbors at this time. "The whole population,"
says May,[25] "was educated. The higher classes were singularly
accomplished. The University of Leyden was founded for the learned
education of the rich, and free schools were established for the general
education." Common schools had, indeed, been founded in the sixteenth
century, and in the seventeenth the children of all classes were taught
at the public expense.
Such ideas of educational democracy had not appeared in England at the
time when education first began to be considered in this country. Mr.
Draper[26] notes that there was no school but the Latin school in Boston
for thirty-five years after the passage of the so-called compulsory
education law of 1647. Nor did the early Massachusetts schools receive
all the children of the people. "No boys were received under seven years
of age till 1818. No girls of any age were admitted prior to 1789. It
was one hundred and forty-two years after the passage of the so-called
compulsory school law of 1647 before Boston admitted one girl to her
so-called 'free schools,' and it was one hundred and eighty-one years
thereafter before girls had facilities equal to those enjoyed by their
brothers."
On the other hand, New Amsterdam had a professional schoolmaster as
early as 1633, and with him popular common school education began in
this country. Prior to 1662, there were as many as ten persons licensed
to keep private schools or to teach on their own account, and Furman
states that young men from both the New England and the Virginia
colonies came to New Amsterdam to be educated. Speaking of the movement
of 1658, looking to the establishment of a Latin school at New
Amsterdam, and of the comment thereon by Mr. George H. Martin,
representing the State Board of Education of Massachusetts, Mr. Draper
says:--
"Mr. Martin seems to make much of the fact that the petition for the
sending over of a Latin master stated that there was no Latin school
nearer than Boston, but overlooks the fact that there had previously
been a Latin school at New Amsterdam, and also the other fact that there
was no school at Plymouth, and none but a Latin school at Boston, and
that it received only a few of the brighter boys of the wealthier
families, to prepare them for college and the ministry."
The earliest laws of the colony show that for the support of schools
"each householder and inhabitant should bear such tax and public charge
as should be considered proper for their maintenance."[27]
The first schoolmaster in Breuckelen made his appearance in 1661, on the
4th day of July, in which year the following petition was presented:--
_To the Right Hon. Director-General and Council of New
Netherland:--_
The Schout and Schepens of the Court of Breuckelin respectfully
represent: That they found it necessary, that a court messenger
was required for the Schepens Chamber, to be occasionally
employed in the Village of Breuckelin, and all around, where he
may be needed, as well to serve summons, as also to conduct the
service of the church, and to sing on Sunday; to take charge of
the school, dig graves, etc.; ring the bell and perform what
ever else may be required. Therefore, the petitioners, with your
Honours' approbation, have thought proper to accept for so
highly necessary office a suitable person who is now come before
them, one Carel Van Beauvois, to whom they have appropriated
the sum of fl. 150, beside a fine dwelling; and whereas the
petitioners are apprehensive that the aforesaid C. V. Beauvois
would not and cannot do the work for the sum aforesaid, and the
petitioners are not able to promise him any more; therefore the
petitioners, with all humble and proper reverence, request your
Honours to be pleased to lend them a helping hand, in order thus
to receive the needful assistance. Herewith awaiting your
Honours' kind and favorable answer, and commending ourselves,
Honorable, wise, prudent and most discreet gentlemen, to your
favor, we pray for your Honours God's protection, together with
a happy and prosperous administration, unto salvation. Your
Honors' servants and subjects, the Schout and Schepens of the
village aforesaid. By order of the same,
[Signed] ADRIAEN HEGEMAN, Secretary.
The Directors granted the petition and agreed to pay fifty guilders
annually in wampum for the support of the precentor and schoolmaster.
The first school was set up in the little church, which stood near the
present junction of Fulton and Bridge Streets. The second public school
within the county was opened in the new village of Bushwick.
The area of the county represented by the town of Bushwick had, as we
have seen, been purchased by the West India Company in 1638. In 1660 the
Wallabout residents had built a block-house on the high point of land
overlooking the East River, known as the "Kiekout,"[28] or "Lookout." At
about the same time (in the month of February), "fourteen Frenchmen,
with a Dutchman named Peter Janse Wit" and an interpreter, called upon
the Director to lay out a town plot east of the Wallabout settlement. On
February 19 the Director, with the Fiscal, Nicasius de Sille, Secretary
Van Ruyven, and the sworn surveyor, Jaques Corteleau, came to a spot
between "Mispat (Maspeth) Kill," Newtown Creek, and "Norman's Kill,"[29]
Bushwick Creek, to "establish a village." Here a survey was made, and
twenty house lots laid out. The first house was at once erected by Evert
Hedeman, and others soon appeared.
In March of the following year "the Director-General visited the new
village, when the inhabitants requested His Honour to give the place a
name; whereupon he named the town Boswijck," the Town of the Woods. The
people of the new village then selected six of their men, from which the
governor chose three, to be magistrates, the town remaining subject to
the schout of Breuckelen, Amersfoort, and Midwout.
Thus when the first public school was opened in Bushwick, the hamlet
scarcely contained twenty houses, a fact which may illustrate the
attitude of the Dutch and French in this part of the country toward the
question of popular education. The first schoolmaster in Bushwick was
Boudwyn Manout, who took charge on December 28, 1662.
The setting up of the third school within the county was effected in a
new village called Bedford, lying southeast of the Wallabout and east of
Breuckelen. The settlement of this village dates from 1662, in which
year, in the month of March, Joris Jan. Rapalje, Teunis Gysbert
(Bogaert), Cornelis Jacobsen, Hendrick Sweers, Michael Hans (Bergen),
and Jan Hans (Bergen) asked the Director for a grant of unoccupied
woodland "situated in the rear of Joris Rapalje, next to the old Bay
Road." The Director made the grant, with the stipulation that the
petitioners should not make "a new hamlet."
The little settlement thus formed was adjacent on the south to another
known as Cripplebush[30] (variously spelt in the Dutch orthography of
the early days), and lay at the intersection of the Jamaica highway,
the Clove Road running to Flatbush, and the Cripplebush Road running to
Newtown.
The Bedford school-house was placed in the heart of the village, at the
cross-roads. This school, beginning in the year 1663, afterward,
according to the records of Teunis G. Bergen, became the present Public
School No. 3, and had an interesting history.
[Illustration: THE FERRY IN 1746]
Throughout the whole of Stuyvesant's directorship, the quarrels between
him and the people were of frequent occurrence, and gained rather than
diminished in violence. As we have seen, the tendency observable in the
colony was aristocratic, and Stuyvesant fostered such a tendency to the
utmost. At one time he sought to institute a division of the burghers
into two classes, major and minor, the rights of the major burghers to
be hereditary, and to include the sole right to hold office. He had an
honorable sense of justice; but his method of exercising justice was
eminently paternal. He regarded complaint against a magistrate as
nothing less than treason. With his Council, the "Nine Men," he had one
wrangle after another. Both the Nine Men and himself repeatedly sent
protests to Holland, and the West India Company chose to let the
pugnacious Director and his people fight the thing out among themselves.
This indifference on the part of Holland, which plainly took nothing
more than a commercial interest in the colony, naturally inspired little
loyalty toward the home government. The nation that ignored their
protests, let their fortifications crumble from lack of repair, and
refused to guard them by proper numbers of soldiery, could expect no
ardor of patriotism from those who were so treated.
Meanwhile trouble began to show itself between the Dutch and the
Connecticut colony. The latter claimed authority over the English towns
on Long Island, and threatened also to take possession of the Dutch
settlements. The English were jealous of the rich territory of the
Dutch. They beheld the valuable trade which had sprung up through the
instrumentality of the Dutch West India Company. They were inclined to
consider the Hollanders intruders. The English claimed the entire
continent as their domain by virtue of the discovery made by their
navigator, Cabot. Efforts were made to settle the disputes and
differences, without success. All negotiations proved futile. With the
Indians on one side and the English on the other the situation for the
New Netherlands was perilous indeed. At last the Long Island towns, with
Haarlem, New Amsterdam, and Bergen, assembled in convention and prepared
a remonstrance to the home government, charging all their disasters to
the lack of interest manifested by the mother country in their welfare.
The colonists divided into two parties, one favoring adherence to
Holland, the other favoring the acceptance of English rule.
In 1664 Charles II. granted to his brother James, the Duke of York and
Albany, a patent of all the territory lying between the Connecticut
River and Delaware Bay, in which was included the whole of the Dutch
possessions. The Duke immediately dispatched four ships, with 450
soldiers, under command of his Deputy Governor, Colonel Richard Nicolls,
to take possession of the territory. The squadron anchored at Nyack Bay,
between New Utrecht and Coney Island, in August, 1664. The block house
on Staten Island was captured, and all communication between Manhattan
and the neighboring colonies was effectually intercepted.
The people were not prepared for this invasion. The very liberality the
Dutch loyalists had exercised toward other nations was to seal their
doom. The English settlers whom they had welcomed with open arms were
anxious for a change of government, and the arbitrary conduct of the
Dutch officials induced many of the Hollanders to coincide with the
wishes of the English. Stuyvesant was powerless; the Fates were against
him, and resistance was useless. Yet he would have refused to surrender,
and was for making the best possible fight. But the people refused to
rally under his leadership, and without the striking of a blow the Dutch
colony fell under English rule.