The Americanization of
Albertus C. Van Raalte:
A Preliminary Inquiry
GERRIT J. TEN ZYTHOFF
Albertus C. Van Raalte was born a Frenchman, 1 grew up a Dutchman, and died
as an American. 2 Trained in the Netherlands as a minister for the Netherlands
Reformed Church, Van Raalte experienced ecclesiastically two crucial moments in
his life. The first occurred in 1834, when he left the Netherlands Reformed Church in
which his father was a pastor, to join the Christian Seceded Church; 3 the second took
place in America in 1857, when the True Holland Reformed Church seceded from
the Protestant Reformed Dutch Church in which Van Raalte had become a minister. 4 These two moments are separated not only in time but also in place. Van Raalte
had left the Netherlands in 1846, taking a party of 101 persons with him to Western
Michigan where they founded Holland and other Dutch settlements. 5
The migration from the Netherlands to the United States affected Van Raalte
and his group very deeply: it made Ame1icans out of Dutchmen. This paper does not
enter into the larger questions of what kind of Dutchmen in 1846 were willing to
emigrate to the United States and conversely, what kind of Americans these immigrants made of themselves in the course of time . The importance of such a larger study
is obvious, of course, but several detailed inquiries will have to be made into important facets of this Dutch migration before this more comprehensive history can be
attempted. This paper focuses on only one of those facets: how one of his three
biographers has assessed the Americanization of Albertus C. Van Raalte. The three
biographers of whom the first one is the subject of this paper are: (I) Henry E.
Dosker, Levensschets van Dr. A. C. VanRaa/te (Nijkerk: C. C. Callenbach, 1893); 6
(2) Dr. Albert Hyma, A lber/us C. Van Raa/te and His Dutch Settlements in the
United States (Grand Rapids: Wm . B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1947); and
(3) J. A. Wormser, In Twee Wer elddeelen: H et Leven van Albertus Christiaan Van
Raalte (Nijverdal: E. J. Bosch Jbzn., 1915).
For our purposes, Americanization can probably best be brought into focus by
inquiring into how Dosker has interpreted first, the push factors which caused Van
Raalte to leave the Netherlands, and secondly, the pull factors which made Van
Raalte decide to migrate to America. To proceed in this manner is following Octavio
Paz who rightly claims that while people, as individuals as well as groups, understand
and interpret themselves in many different ways, they certainly do so by identifying
historically and mythically with place and land. 7 Emigrants leave their homes which
were until that moment the center of their universe. They become immigrants
elsewhere by re-establishing in the new place that "holy center," either real or
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imagined, which they left involuntarily or against their will. It is this change in
self-identification which the historian studies and seeks to interpret.
Push Factors
Dosker devotes chapter VII of his book to Expatriatie (expatriation). 8 He
begins by pointing out that "an epidemic has seized the countries of Europe: the
fever of emigration." It had been caused, he claims , by rumors of abundance in
America where "gold had been found, much gold!" Suc h reports, originating mostly
in Germany, caused Dutchmen to think that dollars in America "were waiting to be
picked."
Dosker describes the condition of the Netherlands as one of depression and
disappointment. After mentioning King William I's abdication of 1839, he notes that
crown prince William II took over the government but he adds, "alas in this case,
too , the hope was disappointed. The terrible needs of the land were not helped by it .
Ecclesiastically: rupture and persecution; socially: a depression as the Netherlands
had never experienced." Dosker offers as explanation for this situation that "undoubtedly the longterm consequence of the revolution caused it with the subsequent
(result of) national exhaustion." But Dosker shrinks away from tha t clear position
because he continues in the same paragraph: "whatever the reason: for many the
situation had become intolerable; all commerce and indu stry had weakened; it appeared that there was death in the pot. " 9
It is not certain to which revolution Dosker refers. He may mean the French
revolution which has often been interpreted as the cause of the Netherland's diminished role in the world and the source of its internal problems. 10 On the other
hand , Dosker may well refer to the Belgian revolution of 1830, culminating in its
independence in 1839. This revolution effectively ended one of the post-Napoleonic
settlements of the Vienna Congress which had created a united Belgium and the
Netherlands as a strong se ntinel on France's borders in the north. 11
The Belgian revolution would more correctly interpret the difficult situation in
the Netherland s. King William I had kept his country mobilized for war s ince the
Belgians revolted in 1830 and until he abdicated in 1839. The costs had been e normous , the more so because William's policy fai led and the Dutch taxpayers had to
foot the bill.
Dosker, however, is not satisfied with presenting this economic interpretation .
He quotes the Seceders among the emigration leaders approvingly to the effect that
the malaise or depression in the Netherlands had been caused by the "bui lders of
Babylon's tower." Dosker agrees that the very structure of the Netherlands was
erroneous if not sinful. It is therefore not surprising to hear Dosker quote, again
approvingly , that the remedy for these ills should be: "The same God Who said 'In
the sweat of your brow will you eat your bread' has also said 'be fruitful and fill the
earth.' " There is indeed room on God's earth. Only move over a little. While emigrat ion was more and more welcomed as a solution , the secession leaders most
seriously considered where one would migrate to. Dosker speaks of two "canals of
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migration." In the first place there was the unknown although desirable America;
but who dared to go there? America seemed at the time little better than a huge
penal colony . The second possibility was the island of Java which was considered
'.' an other and better place. The pearl of the East, the fame of great waters."
It was their patriotism that made the secession leaders very reluctant to remove
themselves completely from Dutch territory. Dosker quotes a revealing statement
from Van Raalte, "whether the monarchical Dutch Christian emigrants were free to
become citizens of the American republic.'' 12 The push and the pull factors appear
to neutralize each other at this point. But there was more, as Dosker quotes Van
Raalte again:
But on Java where the air is healthier than elsewhere, the winds blow
so well for cooling, all plants grow luxuriously , the forests teem with
deer , cattle and wild boar , so that one can dedicate to God all his powers
which are here wasted in the stiffling cares for the earthly life and in the
dejected question: 'what are we to eat and drink?' to see ourselves
placed in the possibility of settling there with a colony to labor there with
wives and children as missionaries; to work there as a Williams among
the Southsea Islanders and to establish there a central point to spread
the Gospel: that thought set our heart aflame; our prayers climbed often
to heaven for fulfillment of this dearest of our wishes and would almost
cause us to forget the migration to the itself so desirable interior of
America.
Dosker relates that a mass meeting of would-be emigrants sent a delegation to the
Minister of Colonies in the Hague. He refused to grant permission for Java, recommending other islands like Ceram and Obi for settlement. 13 For the leaders of the
Christian Seceded Church the crux of the matter was religious freedom. Their quest
for freedom opened again the old conflict between the government of King William I
and the Seceders who had wanted to restore the Netherlands Reformed Church to
the glorious status it had enjoyed prior to 1795 when the French revolution overtook
the Netherlands. King William could ill afford to restore the Reformed Church to
its former privileged position while he was fighting to keep his nation together with
equality for both Protestants and Roman Catholics. Religious freedom, even at this
late date , would therefore be restricted to mean that the Seceders, once they were
settled in the Dutch colonies, could not raise again the issue that they and they alone
were entitled to the name and all the properties of the Netherlands Reformed Church.
Dosker, who had become an American, so identifies with the Seceders' desire
to stay within the Dutch realm that he remarks,
This is a fact that the Dutch Government in this action let hopelessly
slip one of her best opportunities to decide .the Javanese question. Had
the Ministry been wise, the Javanese highlands would have been opened
for immigration. The stream, once it had been formed, would have given
Java probably a mighty, purely Dutch population whereby this wonderful garden of Eden would have become what only diligent industry and
a reg ime totally different from the one under which it has been, can make
of it. 14
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One may summarize the push factors as Dosker sees them in thi s man ner: (I) foreigners especially from Germany spread rumors about gold in America; (2) the revolution , howe ver conceived , had caused disruption in church and society; (3) the
religious counterpart to that revolution was the fact that "bui lders of Babylon"
were present in the government ; and (4) removal to the colonies would be best because the right type of (God-fearing) society and government would there be organized.
Pull Factors
Dosker summaiizes the difficulties for emigrants inclined to go to America in
these words:
In· those days America seemed to be situated outside the world and the
journey there demanded a farewe ll that closely resembled a deathbed .
At that time emigrants were still moral outcasts, mostly people who had
a bad reputation and were put off by friends and relations. 15
Against this background it is not surprising to hear Dosker stress the great importance of the events that changed Van Raalte's mind. At the time, Van Raalte was
closely allied with his brother-in-law Anthony Brummelkamp. Van Raalte had joined
Brummelkamp in the city of Arnhem where they were responsible not only as pastors for their flock but also for the budding seminary in which they were training
ministers for the Christian Seceded Church. Brummelkamp was here vis ited by
Alexander Hartgerink, a teacher from the little town of Neede, coming to bid farewell since he was leaving for America. According to Dosker , Brummelkamp expressed his surprise at this plan, but was even more surprised when he read the
letters Hartgerink had received from Dutch immigrants now living in America.
Brummelkamp called in Van Raalte, for both of them had known these immigrants as
poverty stricken Dutchmen who were now reporting about life of such abundance as
was unthinkable in the fatherland. Dosker states that both pastors "were struck
dumb as it were ." Then he quotes Brummelkamp:
A light began to shine for us in the darkness of deaconal assistance. 16
God opened our eye and we saw that a great part of the "malaise" 17 in
which we found ourselves had to be sought in the builders of Babylon's
tower. Like those builders we were crowding each other out.
School teacher Hartgerink departed , says Dosker, but "in the soul of Van Raalte
something had been awakened that occupied him day arid night: the thought of emigration . " 18 Dosker points out that Van Raalte was not the only mini ster among the
Seceders to be so intensely occupied with emigration. H . P. Scholte , the fo under of
Pella, Iowa, was equally concerned. And so was 0. G. Heldring, a pastor in the
Netherlands Reformed Church who while he did not emigrate yet deeply influenced
charity and the social conscience of the Netherlands.
The brothers- in-law Brummelkamp and Van Raalte now published a brochure
under the title, Emigration or Why Do We Advocate Migration to No rth-America
and not to Java? 19 The authors included in this brochure a copy of an earlier letter
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which they had addressed very generally: To th e Faithful in th e Unit ed States of
North America. 20 They sent this letter to America by the hand of thei r ministerial
student Rudolf Sleyster who gave it to Dr. J . (sic) N. Wyckoff, pastor of the Protestant Reformed Dutch Church in Albany, New York. 21
In the summer of that same year , 1846 , Van Raalte was attacked by typhus.
During this illness he as ked himself,
T hose people, those migrants, not knowing the language of that land ,
Godfearing people coming from the circl e of the Godfearing-where will
they now land , who will be their Moses, their Aaron? If no teac her , if
no in structor accompanies them , will they not soon have to become a
prey to atheism, when they will miss the means of grace?
Dosker continues by commenting that in these two qu estions is to be found the
"healthy solution " to the question whether colonization is to be preferred to individual emigration . He acknowledges that this question had long been a bone of contention among some (Dutch) American leaders. Dosker defends Van Raalte as the
father of the plan to colonize and characterizes his decision as "a principle deeply
felt, a rightly felt conclusion on the basis of his work to aid emigration ." In short ,
Dosker sees the pull factors as follows: (I) reports about the abundant life enjoyed
by recent immigrants in America brought to Van Raalte (and Brummelkamp) by
Alexander Hartgerink, a person they could trust. Hartgerink's visit and the
letters he brought from immigrants they had known as poverty stricken were seen
as an illuminating sign of God. (2) Van Raalte's illness. It caused him to rethink
his role and he felt called to assume a pastorate among the immigrants in America
who might otherwise be los t to atheism.
Conclusion
Within the confi nes of this paper it is not possible to deal exhaustiv ely with the
question to what extent Van Raalte, in Dosker's judgment, was successfully Americanized . Nor is it possible here to continu e the study of the push- and pull-fac tors
as interpreted by Hyma and Wormser, not to mention other equ ally important historians . But it has become apparent, hopefully , that the Americanization of Albertu s
C. Van Raalte can be studied profitably , a nd probably understood more adequ ately
by beginning with his biographers and the way they have interpreted him .
FOOTNOTES
' Van Raalte was born on October 17, 1811 at Wanneperveen, a small village in what was then known as
the D eparteme111 des Bouches de I' I ssel, the name France had imoosed upon the province of Overijssel
after Napoleon annexed the Netherlands in 1810. A map of this Departeme111 appears in P. J. Blok,
Geschiede11is van het Neder/a11dsche Volk . Vier delen; tweede druk, (Leiden: A. W. Sijthoff, 1915), IV ,
589-90.
81
2
Van Raalte died in Holland, Michigan, on November 7, 1876.
As a candidate for the ministry, Van Raalte wrote the letter by which he withdrew from the Netherland s
Reformed Church in December of 1835. See: Comp leete Uitgave va n de Offlcieele St11kke11 betreffende den
3
Uitgang 11it her Nederlandsch H ervormde Kerkgenootschap van de leerare11 H. P. S c/10/te, A. Bmmmelkamp, S. Va11Ve /ze11, G . F . Ge zelle Meerburg, en Dr. A. C. Van Raalte. Tweede druk, (Kampen: G. Ph.
Zalsman, 1886), p. 530. Soon Van Raalte was ordained as minister of the Word of God. This took place on
March 2, 1836, during the first synodical gathering of the Christian Seceded Church . See Dosker, op . cit . ,
p. 23.
' See C la ssis H olland Mi1111tes 1848-1858, Translated by a Joint Committee of the Christian Reformed
Church and the Reformed Church in America, (Grand Rapid s: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,
1950). The first edition of this work appeared in 1943.
' The list can be found in Henry S. Lucas, Neth erlanders in America: D11tch lmmig mtio11 to the United
States and Ca nada 1789- 1950. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press and London: Oxford University
Press, 1955). pp. 644-45 .
6 Henry Elias Dosker was born on February 5, 1855, in Bunschoten, the Netherlands . He came to America
where he graduated with a B.A. from Hope College, 1876, and attended New Brunswick Theological Seminary , 1877-78 , and McCorm ick Seminary, 1878-79. He served Western Theological Seminary of Holland ,
Michigan, as lector, 1884-88, and later as professor, 1894- 1903. He taught at Kentucky Theological Seminary , Louisville, Kentucky, 1903-26, where he died December 19, 1926. This paper concentrates on Dosker's biography in the centennial year of Van Raalte's death for two reasons: In the first place , Dosker was
the first to write a biography of Van Raalte. Secondly, in the present year, 1976, it is half a century ago that
Dosker died.
7
Octavio Paz, Th e Labyrinth of Solitude (New York: Grove Press, 196 1). See especially pp. 205-208.
8 See pp. 56-79. The subsequent quotes in the text are taken from these pages, unless otherwise noted.
9 The express ion " death in the pot" is originally found in the Old Testament, II Kings 4:40. It became
a popu lar Dutch saying to indicate that a situ ation had become hopeless.
10
To this day the Anti-Revol11tio11ary Party is active in Dutch politics. The party originated with Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer in opposition to the French Revolution and was later galv anized into more
aggressive act ion by Abraham Kuyper. There is abundant literature on the subject. For the party's originator see: P. A. Diepenhorst, Groen vr111 Prinsterer. Tweede druk, (Kampen: J. H. Kok, 1941).
11
There is no lack of literature on this subject. A good guide is H. T. Colenbrander , De Afscheiding van
B elg ie. Deel XX! in de Nederlansche Historische Bibliotheek onder lei ding van H. Brugmans , (Amsterdam:
Meulenhoff. 1936).
12
A strong patriotism characterized the Seceders as well as oth er orthodox Christians , for instance the
followers of Willem Bilderdijk, the fath er of the Dutch Reveil. They saw in the House of Orange Godappointed leaders who were to bring salvation to the world by means of the Netherlands as God's Israel
of the North. These convictions were not held by everyone to the same degree, of course , but thi s influence
is unmistakably present in all . See for an excellent review of thi s matter: Dr. M. Elisabeth Kluit, H et Protestantse Revei/ in Nederland en Daarb11ite11: 1815-1865, (Amsterdam: H.J. Paris, 1972). This work supersedes
Dr. Kluit's earlier study Her Revei/ in Nederland: 181 7-1854, (Amsterdam: H .J. Paris , 1936).
13
For a more detailed report on thi s aspect of Van Raalte ' s emigration from the Netherlands, see Henry S.
Lucas, op . cit ., pp. 56-58. Successive Ministers of Colonies attempted to tackle the problem of poverty by
recommending emigration to either East- or West Indian territories. Surinam was selected for a demonstration project but it ultimately failed. See: E. F . Verkade-Cartier VanDissel, De Moge/ijkh eid va n La11dbo111vkolo11isatie voor Blanken in S11ri11ame, (Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1937).
1
• The italics are Dosker's.
1
• Again , the italics are Dosker's.
16
Deaconal assistance refers to the solution offered the Seceders by the government to relieve th e predicament created by their clai m to be the sole rightful continuation of the Reformed Church as it ex isted
prior to 1795. The claim to title and properties had been denied in the courts. The Seceders' right to free
worship included acquiescing in this ruling as well as assuming respon sibility for the care of indigent members out of their own funds. This was important because at th e time the Reform~ct Church was heav ily
engaged in the care of the poor through its deaconate. Without access to the funds of the Reformed Church ,
the Seceders would have had to assume heavy financial responsibilities , and thi s in times of economic
di stress.
17 The italics are Dosker's .
18
Idem
10
This brochure was published by Hoogkamer at Amsterdam in 1846.
According to Dosker , op. cit. , p. 63 , the letter was dated at Arnhem , May 25, 1846 .
For what happened after Isaac N. Wyckoff received the letter see: Henry S. Lucas, op. cit., pp. 70-72.
20
21
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