The Taking of Manhattan
By Russell Shorto
Reviewed by Hank Bitten, NJCSS Executive Director
The opening chapters of The Taking of Manhattan provide a descriptive account fitting for a Netflix documentary. The wealth of information about the geography, demography, economy, and social life provides an accurate description for students living in New York and New Jersey today about the changes that have taken place over 400 years.
“New York is all about water. Reasonable people may disagree with this assertion. Surely New York is about trade, finance, power. Fashion food, art, media, design. Fusions and factions. Wall Street and Broadway, Skyscrapers and boroughs.
Yes, but water flows beneath and around all of these. If the coastline of the New York Harbor region were stretched out, it would be loner than the state of California. New York City’s waterfront is bigger than those of Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Boston combined.” (page 15)
The Taking of Manhattan begins on Tuesday, August 26, 1664. It is a dramatic and enjoyable read that provided me with a fresh perspective of world history in addition to the local history of northern New Jersey, Staten Island, Manhattan, Long Island, and the Hudson River valley north to Beverwijck (Albany.) Regarding world history, it is the story of conflicts and opportunities of numerous indigenous populations bearing the names of local cities, the economic monopoly of the Dutch and British East and West India companies, the military rivalries of the Dutch, British, and French, the trafficking of enslaved persons, and the rivalry between the New England colonists and the Dutch of New Amsterdam.
The events leading to August 27, 1664 around New York Harbor also provide a context for discussing the experiences of the people living in England from 1625 to 1664. In 1603, the Stuart Dynasty began to rule and by 1630 they had three colonies in North America. The book provides a context for a discussion about religious differences, corruption, and political rivalry between the French, Dutch, and British states. The “Make England Great Again Movement” that began in 1649 with Oliver Cromwell had lost the support of the people within a few years and ended in 1660 with the Restoration. Charles II was 19 when his brother, King Charles I, was executed and age 21. He was coronated king in 1651, although living in France. For world history teachers the narrative on the Restoration of the monarchy with Charles II is detailed and informative.
These were challenging and difficult years for ordinary people trying to raise a family and earn a living wage. This was also an opportunity for the Dutch to consolidate their power in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The first half of the 17th century is the Golden Age for the Dutch!
New York City was the home of the Dutch, thanks to Henry Hudson in1607. Peter Stuyvesant and his wife, Judith, arrived in May 1647. He is a legend in New York history where his name and legacy continue in the neighborhoods of Bedford Stuyvesant, Stuyvesant Town, and Stuyvesant High School. Although disabled with one leg, he built this city into a thriving economic port, made deals with the Native American leaders in this area, traveled to Albany, Staten Island, Long Island, New Jersey, and made the Dutch Reformed church the dominant houses of worship in this area. There are also references to locals living in New Amsterdam and Fort Orange, namely Asser Levy (from Lithuania), Dorothea Angola (born in Africa), and Catalina Trico (from Paris). These references provide insight into the pluralistic society that is an important part of the American experience. He also understood the future threat from the presence of English colonies in Boston and Williamsburg. The narrative includes a perspective of the independence of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the concerns by the leaders who replaced Cromwell and governed from Whitehall.
New Amsterdam, circa, 1685
The teaching of Native Americans, even the Lenape, is often taught in the limited context of the French and Indian War (1754-63) or the culture of indigenous populations. This book includes narratives of local history that should engage students in reflective thinking about the meeting of different cultures. For example, the attack on Lenape at a fresh water pond on Manhattan in 1626 by Dutch traders who took their beaver pelts. A young boy who witnessed the brutal murder of his uncle recognized the attacker some 15 years later at a tavern in New Amsterdam and viscously murdered him with an axe. The Dutch responded with massacres of Lenape at Pavonia, present day Hoboken and Jersey , and Corlears Hook, just south of the Williamsburg Bridge. Anne Hutchinson, and her five children, were also victims of these Dutch massacres. The impact of diseases on Native Americans is also clearly explained.
Russell Shorto begins the historical account with an understanding of the difficulty of communication in the 17th century. The students we teach receive communications and information instantly and the perspective of the past is important regarding the meaning of words and how time influences the process of making decisions. Today, students are faced with the credibility of information and they need to be taught the skills of discernment and analysis. For Peter Stuyvesant, the calculus was understanding the reasons the British were sending Captain Richard Nicolls and the Guinea across the Atlantic.
The drama begins 18 months before the ships of Richard Nicolls arrive in the last week of August 1664. These events are dramatic, provide information on Dutch spy networks and translators, behind-the-scenes conversations between Peter Stuyvesant and Connecticut’s Governor Jonathan Winthrop, Jr., the financial interests of powerful businessmen in London and Amsterdam, life in New Dorp and Gravesend, and the slave trade port of Goree Island of the African coast. I am a novice regarding these insights that are an important part of the American experience and I also enjoyed the references of the military captains with Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, and Samuel Hartlib, 17th century names in the social studies curriculum.
The instructions prepared for Richard Nicolls were both public and private. Officially, he was sailing to Boston to bring the ‘independent’ Puritans into the party line of the new king, Charles II. His private instructions were to advance the interests of England and the new king.
“Then there was the second task stipulated in the instructions: the possessing Long Island, and reduceing (sic) that people in an entire submission and obedience to us & and our government…that the Dutch may noe (sic) longer ingrosse (sic) and exercise that trade which they have wrongfully possessed themselves of.” (page 174) (Long Island included the colony of New Amsterdam.) The government of England claimed the charter of the Virginia Company gave them all the land of North America.
This claim provides teachers with the framework for a mini-simulation or a structured decision-making activity is a possible activity based on the information provided in the chapter, “White Flag.” Students might research and discuss some (or all) of these questions:
- How would the government of the Netherlands and the West Indies Company react to the decision of Peter Stuyvesant to avoid a fight and give Captain Nicolls and the British control of New Amsterdam?
- Would the hired soldiers with Captain Nicolls release canon fire without orders and cause the conflict to escalate?
- How would history judge a battle for Manhattan knowing that Peter Stuyvesant and the Dutch lacked the weapons, preparation, and supplies for a reasonable defense?
- What could the Dutch gain as a result of a negotiated settlement?
- Would the words in the exchange of corresppondence between Stuyvesant and Captain Nicolls be misinterpreted?
“The only part of the letter to which he (Captain Nicolls) felt obliged to pay attention, he said, was the conclusion, in which Stuyvesant declared he had no choice but to defend the island. Nicoll’s answer, therefore, was that he ‘must and should take the place, refusing henceforth to permit any parleys.’”
- What would life be like in the future for the 2,500 people living in Manhattan under British rule? How would the decision affect their right to worship freely, conduct business, and personal liberty?
- How would the Dutch living along the Hudson River north to Albany react to a negotiated agreement to avoid a military showdown? How did they understand the terms of the First Anglo-Dutch War of 1655 and was the taking of Manhattan a prelude to a Second Anglo-Dutch War?
- Would the Council at City Hall view this as a surrender or a corporate merger?
This is a fascinating account of a unique colony in the 17th century with applications to understanding deals, land swaps, negotiations, the role of citizens, and conflict. New York was a pluralistic community then and continues to be a cosmopolitan center of finance and cultures today.
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