Welcome to the eMarcurius, NNI's monthly e-newsletter edited by NNI director Stephen McErleane and brought to you in part by the generous sponsors featured below.

Something to share? Interested in becoming a sponsor? Reach us at nni@newnetherlandinstitute.org.

Wherever you are and whatever you're thankful for, everyone at the New Netherland Institute and New Netherland Research Center wishes you, loyal supporter, a happy Thanksgiving, a wonderful holiday season, and a happy new year.

To those of you who attend our events, read and contribute to our publications, and donate your hard-earned dollars to our mission of preserving, promoting, and educating the world on the seventeenth-century Dutch colony of New Netherland, thank you! May your Thanksgving gathering rival the feast above.

Image: Banquet at the Crossbowmen’s Guild in Celebration of the Treaty of Münster, Bartholomeus van der Helst, 1648

If you attended our 42nd Annual Conference last month, you probably heard that our 2021 conference will be held at SUNY New Paltz. Here is the announcement:

The New Netherland Institute and the department of history at the State University of New York at New Paltz announce their cooperation on the 44th Annual Conference of the New Netherland Institute, which will be held from 24–25 September 2021 on the campus of SUNY New Paltz in upstate New York. The conference will highlight the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Dutch West India Company and will focus especially, though not exclusively, on the relationship between the West India Company and the seventeenth-century Dutch colony of New Netherland. The program committee encourages a broad reading of the conference theme and welcomes proposals on any aspect of life touched by the Company. A formal call for papers will be released in the coming weeks.

The details for next year's (2020) annual conference will be released in next month's newsletter.

Image: The West India House in Amsterdam. 1655. Engraving. Amsterdam, Stadsarchief Amsterdam (010097011457).

Fifty years ago, a group of Native Americans “occupied” Alcatraz Island and offered to buy it for a trifling sum:

“We will purchase said Alcatraz Island for twenty-four dollars ($24) in glass beads and red cloth, a precedent set by the white man's purchase of a similar island about 300 years ago. We know that $24 in trade goods for these 16 acres is more than was paid when Manhattan Island was sold, but we know that land values have risen over the years. Our offer of $1.24 per acre is greater than the 47¢ per acre that the white men are now paying the California Indians for their land.”

This week many returned to the island to remember the event.

As an aside, red cloth was likely not part of the purchase. Dutch official Isaac deRasiers reported from Manhattan in the 1620s that Indians did not like to trade for colored cloth, as it was not ideal for hunting.

Image: Graffiti from the occupation of Alcatraz as it appeared in 2010. Wikipedia.

The fierce struggle between Adriaen van der Donck and Petrus Stuyvesant was set in motion when both men clashed in New Netherland. But the roots of their enmity lay in the distant Netherlands.

Don't miss the video of Dr. Jaap Jacob's excellent talk on the subject.

The BBC takes on the legacy of New Netherland: “The architecture, language and culture of New Netherland influences New York today, even if most modern-day inhabitants have little idea of the history beneath their feet.”

Image: Flanked by Chinese stores, New York's Onderdonk House dates to 1660 and was built by the Dutch (Credit: Michelle Enfield/Alamy)

The Simon Hart Chronology represents summaries of notarial records relating to New Netherland located in the Municipal Archives of Amsterdam. In the 1650s the notaries of Amsterdam were directed, upon retirement or for other reasons, to deposit their protocols in the municipal archives for safekeeping. Simon Hart, during his tenure as chief archivist, spent his free time in the “Depot” of the archives, searching through the protocols for references to New Netherland. His findings were typed onto cards that were eventually microfilmed. In 2018, the New York State Archives had the cards digitized for use of researchers. The information on the cards contains anything that would have required sworn testimony before a notary, such as last wills and testaments, witness testimony, contracts, powers of attorney etc.

On the 10th of November 1674, New Netherland was officially returned to England as the province of New York as a result of the Treaty of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. In discussing this auspicious date, Charly mused “This event is often the subject of meta history or alternate history, which evokes the question: what would have happened if the Dutch decided to hold onto New Netherland rather than returning it to the English? So many geopolitical variables would come into play that it’s impossible to predict. In other words, we’ll never know. However, if pressed, I would expect the following to happen. The English would continue to ‘crowd out’ the Dutch as they had in the Connecticut Valley. As English power rises, that of the Dutch declines. This tilt in the balance of power would be the proverbial ‘handwriting on the wall.’ Even if New Netherland should survive the wars between France and England in the 18th century, all would be lost when Napoleon puts his brother Louis on the Dutch throne. It wouldn’t be long before England begins to pick off Dutch possessions around the world, such as South Africa and the spice islands in the Far East; New Netherland would not be overlooked.” To read more on this topic, Charly recommends Van Loon’s “If the Dutch Had Kept Nieuw Amsterdam“, in If, Or History Rewritten, edited by J. C. Squire, 1931, Simon & Schuster.

Marilyn

Image: The Battle of Texel, by Van de Velde the Younger