 Portrait of Adriaen van der Donck Adriaen Cornelissen van der Donck (ca. 1618 – 1655) was a lawyer and landowner in New Netherland after whose honorific Jonkheer the city of Yonkers, New York is named. In addition to being the first lawyer in the Dutch colony, he was a leader in the political life of New Amsterdam (modern New York City), and an activist for Dutch-style republican government in the Dutch West India Company-run trading post. Image File history File links LinkFA-star. ...
Image File history File links Adriaen_van_der_Donck. ...
Image File history File links Adriaen_van_der_Donck. ...
A lawyer is a person qualified to give legal advice who advises clients in legal matters and represents them in courts of law and in other forms of dispute resolution. ...
Map based on Adriaen Blocks 1614 expedition to New Netherland, featuring the first use of the name. ...
An honorific is a term used to convey esteem or respect. ...
Yonkers is the fourth largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind Rochester) and the largest city in Westchester County, with a population of 196,086 (according to the 2000 census). ...
Dutch Revival buildings from the early 20th century on Pearl Street in lower Manhattan recall the Dutch origins of the city. ...
Nickname: The Big Apple, The Capital of the World Official website: City of New York Government Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Geographical characteristics Area Total 468. ...
Republicanism is the idea of a nation being governed as a republic. ...
Dutch West India Company (Dutch: West-Indische Compagnie or WIC) was a company of Dutch merchants. ...
Enchanted by his new homeland of New Netherland, Van der Donck made detailed accounts of the land, vegetation, animals, waterways, topography, and climate. Van der Donck used this knowledge to actively promote immigration to the colony, publishing several tracts, including his influential Description of New Netherland. Charles Gehring, Director of the New Netherland Project, has called it "the fullest account of the province, its geography, the Indians who inhabited it, and its prospects…It has been said that had it not been written in Dutch, it would have gone down as one of the great works of American colonial literature." [1] The New Netherland Project is an attempt to translate and publish 17th century Dutch documents from the period of the Dutch colonization of New Netherland. ...
For colonies not among the Thirteen colonies, see European colonization of the Americas or English colonization of the Americas. ...
Van der Donck is a central figure in Russell Shorto's The Island at the Center of the World, which argues, based on newly translated records from the colony, that he is a great early American patriot, forgotten by history because of the eventual English conquest of New Netherland. Russell Shorto is the author of a book on the Dutch origins of New York City: The Island at the Center of the World. ...
Today he is also recognized as a sympathetic early Native American ethnographer, having learned the languages and observed many of the customs of the Mahicans and Mohawks. His descriptions of their practices are cited in many modern works, such as the 2005 book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. An Atsina named Assiniboin Boy Photo by Edward S. Curtis. ...
Ethnography (from the Greek ethnos = nation and graphein = writing) refers to the qualitative description of human social phenomena, based on fieldwork. ...
The Mahicans (also Mohicans) are a Native American tribe who were living in and around the Hudson Valley at the time of their first contact with Europeans in 1609. ...
The Mohawk (Kanienkeh or Kanienkehaka meaning People of the Flint) are an indigenous people of North America who live around Lake Ontario and the St. ...
Early life
Van der Donck was born in approximately 1618 in the town of Breda in the southern Netherlands. His family was well connected on his mother's side, and her father, Adriaen van Bergen, was remembered as a national hero for helping free Breda from Spanish forces during the course of the Eighty Years' War. Breda is a municipality and a city in the southern part of the Netherlands. ...
The Turfschip van Breda A Dutch captain from Leur, Adriaen van Bergen devised the plot to recapture the city of Breda from the Spanish during the Eighty Years War. ...
The Eighty Years War, or Dutch Revolt, was the war of secession between the Netherlands and the Spanish king, that lasted from 1568 to 1648. ...
In 1638, Van der Donck entered the University of Leiden as a law student. Leiden had rapidly become an intellectual center due to Dutch religious freedom and the lack of censorship. There he was probably influenced by several radical legal thinkers such as Hugo Grotius, who emphasized reasoning from natural law over appealing to historical authorities. Despite a booming Dutch economy, upon becoming a jurist in 1641, Van der Donck decided to go to the New World. To this end he approached the patroon Kiliaen van Rensselaer, securing a post as schout, a combination of sheriff and prosecutor, for his large, semi-independent estate, Rensselaerwyck, located near modern Albany. Leiden University in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. ...
Leyden redirects here. ...
Hugo Grotius Hugo Grotius (Huig de Groot, or Hugo de Groot; Delft, 10th April 1583 - Rostock, 28th August 1645) worked as a jurist in the United Provinces (now the Netherlands) and laid the foundations for international law, based on natural law. ...
It has been suggested that Anarchist law be merged into this article or section. ...
Carte dAmérique, Guillaume Delisle, c. ...
A patroon was a proprietor of a tract of land in the 17th century Dutch colony of New Netherland in North America. ...
Kiliaen Van Rensselaer (1585 - 1643) was a Dutch merchant who was heavily involved in the Colonial American trade market. ...
In the Netherlands, a schout was rural judicial position combining the responsibilities of a sheriff, prosecutor, and civil court magistrate. ...
Rensselaerwyck is the name of a colonial estate that was located in what is now New York, USA. The estate was land purchased by Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, a Dutch merchant and investor in the Dutch West India Company. ...
Map Political Statistics Founded 1614 Incorporated 1686 County Albany County Mayor Gerald D. Jennings Geographic Statistics Area - Total - Land - Water 56. ...
In New Netherland
Rensselaerwyck In 1641, Van der Donck sailed to the New World aboard Den Eykenboom (The Oak Tree). He was immediately impressed by the land, which, in contrast with the Netherlands, was thickly forested, hilly, and full of wildlife. Once in his post, he attracted the ire of Van Rensselaer with his independence. This manifested itself first when the schout selected one of the patroon's finest stallions for himself and then decided that his appointed farm was poorly chosen and simply picked another site.[2]
The patroon expected Van der Donck's primary concern to be the colony's profit rather than the colonists' welfare. According to Van Rensselaer his duty was "to seek my advantage and protect me against loss."[2] This was to consist mainly of cracking down on the black market and catching those who ran away before their service contracts expired. Instead Van der Donck ignored Van Rensselaer's orders when told to collect late rent from those who obviously could not pay, protested that colonists could not swear binding oaths of loyalty on behalf of their servants, and began organizing improvements to various mills and the construction of a brickyard. Van Rensselaer's letters indicate that he became increasingly frustrated with his schout's behavior, chiding him, "From the beginning you have acted not as officer but as director."[2] The black market or underground market is the part of economic activity involving illegal dealings, typically the buying and selling of merchandise or services (for example sexual services in many countries) illegally. ...
In his employer's eyes, Van der Donck also spent a disturbing amount of time exploring the surroundings. During these excursions, he learned a great deal about the land and its inhabitants, often neglecting his duties as schout in his eagerness to observe and document as much as he could about this new land. He met local Indians such as the Mahicans and the Mohawks, ate their food, and became adept at their language. Van der Donck recorded their customs, beliefs, medicine, political structure, and technology in an objective and detailed way.
Unsatisfied in his post and realizing the potential of the land, Van der Donck eventually began to use his contacts amongst the Indians to negotiate for land in the Catskills, where he wanted to found his own colony. When Van Rensselaer learned that he sought to acquire neighboring land to his own, he snapped it up first.[2] Van der Donck's contract as schout was not renewed when its term expired in 1644. Catskill State Park as seen from Overlook Mountian The Catskill Mountains are an extension of the Appalachian Mountains into New York State. ...
Early political activism
 Negotiating peace with the Indians In New Amsterdam, disgruntled colonists had been sending ineffective complaints to the Dutch West India Company about the Director-General of New Netherland Willem Kieft, who had begun a bloody war with the Indians against the advice of the council of twelve men. Kieft's war badly damaged relations and trade between the Indians and the Dutch, made life more dangerous for colonists living in outlying areas, and drained the colony's resources. He exacerbated his relationship with the already financially strained colonists by enacting a tax on beaver skins and beer to fund the war. Image File history File links New_Netherland_-_smoking_the_peace_pipe. ...
Image File history File links New_Netherland_-_smoking_the_peace_pipe. ...
Dutch Revival buildings from the early 20th century on Pearl Street in lower Manhattan recall the Dutch origins of the city. ...
Dutch West India Company (Dutch: West-Indische Compagnie or WIC) was a company of Dutch merchants. ...
This is a list of Directors-General, appointed by the Dutch West India Company, of the 17th century Dutch colony of New Netherland (Nieuw Nederland in Dutch) in North America. ...
Willem Kieft (1597-1647) was a Dutch merchant and director general of New Netherland (of which New Amsterdam, later New York City, was the primary settlement), from 1638 until 1647. ...
The Council of Twelve Men was a group of 12 men chosen in 1641 by the residents of New Amsterdam to advise the Director-General of New Netherland at the time, Willem Kieft, on relations with the Native Americans due to the murder of Claes Swits. ...
In 1645, Kieft tried to mend relations with the Indians and asked Van der Donck to assist as a guide and interpreter. At the negotiations, Kieft found himself in the awkward position of coming without the necessary gifts that accompanied a request for discussions of treaties. Van der Donck had not informed Kieft of this important component to negotiations in advance, but happened to have brought an appropriate amount of sewant (wampum), which he loaned to Kieft. Wampum belt given to William Penn at the Great Treaty in 1682 Wampum, or sewan, is a string or belt of beads historically used by some Aboriginal Americans, who regarded it as a sacred object. ...
In return for this favor, Kieft granted Van der Donck 24,000 acres (97 km²) on the mainland north of Manhattan in 1646. He named the estate Colen Donck and built several mills along what is now called Saw Mill River. The estate was so large that locals referred to him as the Jonkheer ("young gentleman" or "squire"), a word from which the name "Yonkers" is derived. Van der Donck had already married the Englishwoman Mary Doughty, whose father had lost his land after irking Kieft. An acre is an English unit of area, which is also frequently used in the United States and some Commonwealth countries. ...
The Borough of Manhattan, highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River. ...
The word jonkheer is a Dutch word roughly translated as “young gentleman†or “squire. ...
Kieft remained out of favor with the colonists in New Amsterdam. Adriaen van der Donck stepped into this environment of political unrest and used his rhetorical legal skills to give voice to the disaffected colonists. Upon his arrival, the tone of the colonists' petitions suddenly changes. While ostensibly putting himself at Kieft's disposal as lawyer and translator, he was working with disgruntled members of the community to get Kieft recalled and convince the company of the need for a Dutch-style representative government in New Amsterdam.
The Dutch West India Company did decide to remove Kieft from his post in 1647, citing the terrible damage caused to trade by his war against the Indians. But rather than yield to the colonists' requests for the establishment of local government, the company decided that a stronger Director-General would succeed in squelching political dissent. They chose Peter Stuyvesant. Despite this change, Van der Donck continued his flurry of documents against Kieft, apparently using his example now solely to make a case for the creation of a local government. Peter Stuyvesant circa 1660 Petrus Stuyvesant (born c. ...
Board of Nine Van der Donck set about culturing a friendship with Stuyvesant upon his arrival in May 1647. Stuyvesant tried to take a firm hand with the colonists — it was noted that anyone who opposed him "hath as much as the sun and moon against him"[3] — but eventually he had to agree to the creation of a permanent advisory board. Following a Dutch tradition, eighteen people would be elected, from whom Stuyvesant would choose nine to serve. Van der Donck's politicking eventually won him Stuyvesant's approval and selection by his new peers as "President of the Commonality" in 1648.
Within days the Board of Nine declared itself independent of the company. They sought Stuyvesant's blessing for a mission to The Hague to ask the Dutch States General to take over management of the colony. Van der Donck interviewed the inhabitants of New Amsterdam and meticulously documented their many grievances against the West India Company, Kieft, and Stuyvesant. He planned to synthesize their complaints into a single document to be presented to the States General. Feeling betrayed by Van der Donck, Stuyvesant arrested him, removed him from the Board of Nine, and seized his papers to use as evidence of treason. Arms of The Hague The Hague (with capital T; Dutch: officially s-Gravenhage, commonly Den Haag) is the third-largest city in the Netherlands after Amsterdam and Rotterdam, with a population of 472,087 (January 1 2005) (700,000 in the greater metropolitan area) and an area of approximately 100...
The Estates-General (Staten-Generaal) is the parliament of the Netherlands. ...
In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to ones nation or state. ...
Despite this, on July 26, 1649, eleven current and former members of the Board signed the Petition of the Commonality of New Netherland, which requested that the States General take action to encourage economic freedom and force local government like that in the Netherlands, removing the colony from the company's control. Van der Donck was one of three men selected to travel to the Netherlands to present this request, along with a description of the colony written primarily by Van der Donck entitled Remonstrance of New Netherland. The latter makes the case that the colony is unusually valuable and in danger of being lost due to mismanagement under the Dutch West India Company. July 26 is the 207th day (208th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 158 days remaining. ...
// Events January 30 - King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland is beheaded. ...
Return to the Netherlands
 The Jansson-Visscher map of the American Northeast first published by Van der Donck While in the Netherlands, Van der Donck engaged in political and public relations campaigns in addition to organizing groups of new colonists for New Netherland. He repeatedly presented his case to the States General opposite a representative sent by Stuyvesant, Cornelius van Tienhoven. Image File history File links Jansson-Visscher_map. ...
Image File history File links Jansson-Visscher_map. ...
Public relations is the art and science of building relationships between an organization and its key publics. ...
Public relations campaign The case before the States General was delayed because of disruptions within the Dutch government caused by William II of Orange. During this delay, Van der Donck turned his attention to public relations. In 1650 he printed his Remonstrance as a pamphlet. His enthusiastic description of the land and its potential created much excitement about New Netherland; so many were suddenly eager to immigrate that ships were forced to turn away paying passengers. A Dutch West India Company director wrote, "Formerly New Netherland was never spoken of, and now heaven and earth seem to be stirred up by it and every one tries to be the first in selecting the best pieces [of land] there."[2] William II, Prince of Orange (May 27, 1626 - November 6, 1650), stadtholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands (March 14, 1647 - November 6, 1650). ...
To go alongside the Remonstrance, Van der Donck commissioned a map of the colony, the Jansson-Visscher map. It showed New Netherland along the original Dutch territoral claim from Cape Hinlopen just south of the Delaware Bay at 38 degrees to the start of New England at 42 degrees and included drawings of typical Indian villages, wild game, and the town of New Amsterdam. The map itself remained the definitive map of the area for over a century, cementing many Dutch place names. It would be reprinted thirty-one times before the mid-18th century.[2]
The States General's decision
 A page from Van der Donck's Description of New Netherland Apparently, Van der Donck's decision to go public paid off, because in April 1650, the States General issued a provisional order that the West India Company create a more liberal form of government to encourage emigration to the Dutch colony. They produced their final decision in 1652: the Dutch West India Company was forced to order Stuyvesant to set up a municipal government. A municipal charter was enacted in New Amsterdam on February 2, 1653. The States General also drafted a letter in April 1652 demanding the recall of Stuyvesant to the Netherlands, which Van der Donck would personally deliver to the director governor. Image File history File links Page_from_Beschryvinge_van_Nieuw-Nederlant. ...
Image File history File links Page_from_Beschryvinge_van_Nieuw-Nederlant. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Local government of the United States. ...
A city charter or town charter (generically, municipal charter) is a legal document establishing a municipality such as a city or town. ...
February 2 is the 33rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...
Events February 2 - New Amsterdam (later renamed New York City) is incorporated. ...
Van der Donck prepared to return to New Amsterdam having successfully secured a liberal government for the colony without the restrictions of the Dutch West India Company and national support for emigrating colonists from the Netherlands to the colonies. He was also reinstated as President of the Board of Nine and would be a leader in the new government.
Before Van der Donck could sail for home, the First Anglo-Dutch War broke out, and his hopes for New Amsterdam suddenly and unexpectedly fell apart. The States General feared experimenting in local government in a time of war, and so rescinded their decision. The Battle of Scheveningen, 10 August 1653 by Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraaten, painted c. ...
Defeated, Van der Donck tried to return to New Netherland but, as a demonstrated troublemaker, he was detained. In the meantime, he took a Supremus in jure degree at the University of Leiden. Still eager to promote the colony, he also wrote a comprehensive description of its geography and native peoples based on material in his earlier Remonstrance.
Due to the war, the publication of Van der Donck's Beschryvinge van Nieuw-Nederlant (Description of New Netherland) was delayed until 1655, but was wildly popular, going into a second edition the very next year. However, it was not published in English until 1841, and even then only in a poor translation that eliminated subtleties and often even reversed the intended meaning.[4]
Return to New Amsterdam On May 26, 1653, in the hopes of finally being allowed to return home, Van der Donck sent the following petition to the Dutch West India Company directors: May 26 is the 146th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (147th in leap years). ...
Events February 2 - New Amsterdam (later renamed New York City) is incorporated. ...
- The undersigned, Adriaen van der Donck, humbly requests consent and passport of the Board to go to New Netherland, offering to resign the commission previously given to him as President of the community, or otherwise as its deputy, and...to accept no office whatever it may be, but rather to live in private peacefully and quietly as a common inhabitant, submitting to the orders and commands of the Company or those enacted by its director. [5]
This promise seemed to satisfy the directors, and Van der Donck received permission to return to New Netherland. Giving up public office was apparently not enough, though: once home he was denied the right to continue practicing law because there was no one of "sufficient ability and the necessary qualifications...to act and plead against the said Van der Donck".[5] These restrictions seem to have not hindered his behind- the-scenes efforts: another political uprising against Stuyvesant broke out just weeks after Van der Donck's return.
There is no record of Adriaen van der Donck's death, but he was alive during the summer of 1655, and a statement by Stuyvesant in early 1656 seems to indicate that he was dead. He probably died at his farm in one of a series of Indian raids in September of 1655, called the Peach Tree War.[2] He was survived in New Netherland by his wife and by his parents, whom he had separately convinced to immigrate. The Peach Tree War (1655-1660) took place in the Dutch Colony of New Netherland and was, according to popular belief, started when a young Indian girl was shot by a Dutchman as she tried to get a peach off a peach tree. ...
References - ^ New York State Archives. Title Page from Beschryvinge van Nieuw-Nederlant. URL accessed on January 16, 2006.
- ^ a b c d e f g Russell Shorto (2004). The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America. Random House. ISBN 1400078679.
- ^ Maud Wilder Goodwin (1919). Dutch and English on the Hudson. Yale University Press. ISBN 0766159981.
- ^ Ada van Gastel (1990). "Van der Donck's Description of the Indians: Additions and Corrections". The William and Mary Quarterly 47: 411-21.
- ^ a b Charles Gehring, trans (2000). Correspondence, 1647-1653 (New Netherland documents). Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0815627920.
January 16 is the 16th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Russell Shorto is the author of a book on the Dutch origins of New York City: The Island at the Center of the World. ...
Further reading - Adriaen van der Donck, trans. Jeremiah Johnson (1841). Description of the New Netherlands. ISBN 0815621272.
- Dean R. Snow, Charles T. Gerhing, William Starna, ed. (1996). In Mohawk Country: Early Narratives about a Native People. The Iroquois and their Neighbors. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0815604106.
- Ada van Gastel (1991). "Rhetorical Ambivalence in the New Netherland Author Adriaen van der Donck". MELUS 17: 3-18.
- J. Franklin Jameson, ed. (1909). Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664. ISBN 1556133170.
External links - From Van der Donck to Visscher: a 1648 view of New Amsterdam, discovered in Vienna in 1991
- Biography from the New Netherland Project
- Biography from Early Encounters in North America
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