Jaap Jacobs. New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America. Atlantic
World: Brill, 2005. xix + 559 pp. $179.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-90-04-12906-1.
Reviewed by Holly Rine (Department of History, Le Moyne College)
Published on H-Atlantic (July, 2006)
Righting the History of New Netherland
what extent culture was transplanted from the Dutch Republic to New Netherland and what factors were of influence on the colonial culture” (p. 4). To answer this question he limits his geographic focus to Manhattan, and the
Dutch presence along the Hudson River and on Long Island. Although New Netherland’s existence was so brief,
from 1624-64, Jacobs nevertheless limits his chronological emphasis to the period after 1650, primarily because
it was after 1650 that the colony experienced its greatest
growth.
In 1999, Joyce Goodfriend published her article “Writing/Righting Dutch Colonial History,” in which she called
for the rehabilitation of colonial Dutch history in North
America and praised the steps that had thus far been
taken to do so. Goodfriend explained that because the
existence of New Netherland spanned only the decades
between the 1620s and the 1660s, and because the Dutch
Republic made no real effort to defend or repopulate New
Netherland, an Anglocentric approach to its history had
come to predominate. This had reduced the Dutch history of the areas that once comprised New Netherland
to a mere footnote, “instead of portraying them as actors
in a drama of empire.”[1] In New Netherland: A Dutch
Colony in Seventeenth-Century America, Jaap Jacobs provides the clearest answer to Goodfriend’s call to both
write and right Dutch Colonial History. Jacobs’s work offers the most comprehensive analysis of the uniqueness
and significance of the relatively short-lived and often
overlooked Dutch colony.
Jacobs argues that the focus on the transfer of culture from the Dutch Republic to New Netherland after
1650 is significant because New Netherland was unique
among the Dutch colonies of the early-seventeenth century. While New Netherland started as a trading post
it developed into a settlement colony whose population
was greater than what was needed to support trade. Furthermore, this settlement colony’s development was not
influenced by any prior European influence. Therefore,
Jacobs’s book is based on his 1999 book Een ze- New Netherland serves as a unique laboratory to invesgenrijk gewest.
Nieuw-Nederland in de zeventiende tigate how Dutch culture transferred and developed in a
eeuw, published by the Amsterdam publishing house, colonial setting.[2]
Prometheus/Bert Bakker. Although this earlier work has
In order to explore the transfer of culture from the
been revised and translated to its current form for the
Dutch
Republic to New Netherland, in chapter 1 Jacobs
Atlantic World series, Jacobs explains that he does not
offers
a
comparison between New Netherland and the
view this as a study of the Dutch Atlantic, “but of the
Dutch Republic that focuses on the differences between
Dutch in New Netherland and their relations with the
the two in terms of climate, geography, flora, fauna, and,
Dutch Republic” (p. 4). Jacobs argues that such a focus
becomes necessary because the colony could only have the largest difference between the two, the presence of
existed through its ties with the Dutch Republic. There- Indians in New Netherland. It was in this unique landfore he states that his “central question is how and to scape that the Dutch West India Company set up its trad1
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ing colony and it is on this aspect of the colony that so
many of its previous historians have focused. However,
as Jacobs argues in chapter 2, it was the peopling of New
Netherland that would allow the colony to develop into a
settlement colony and thereby attain its true significance
in the Dutch Atlantic world. The chapters that follow focus on the development of a system of government, the
continuation of trade, the formation of religious institutions, the stratification of the society, and on the persistence of daily activity and ritual.
evidence from interested parties in both North America
and Europe illustrates how the traditions and framework
of church and state relations in the Dutch Republic led to
the conclusion that while Lutheran attempts to gain freedom of public worship would be quashed, as long as there
was no threat to peace and order in the colony, Lutherans’ right to freedom of conscience would be upheld (pp.
295-305).
What has truly allowed Jacobs to right the history
of New Netherland is not only his focus on the settleIn illustrating the relationship between the Dutch Re- ment period of the colony and its relationship with the
public and New Netherland in the transfer of culture, Ja- Dutch Republic, but also his uncovering of new sources
cobs does his best work and offers his biggest contribu- in the Netherlands as well as his correction of faulty
tion in analyzing the development of New Netherland’s translations of sources that historians have been utilizgovernment and the formation of its religious institu- ing to write the colony’s history. Many historians of
tions. New Netherland’s transition from trading post to North America’s seventeenth-century history have bensettlement colony forced its residents to develop a form efited from the great contributions of Charles Gehring’s
of government suitable to the situation. For example, translation work with the New Netherland Project. Howwhen the Dutch West India Company lost its monopoly ever, many have also had to rely on nineteenth-century
on the fur trade in 1640, it no longer served as a commer- translations of documents that have proved less than decial institution but as a government. With its growing pendable. Jacobs notes that these works, particularly Edemphasis on the tasks of governance, the DWIC neces- ward T. Corwin’s Ecclesiastical Records (1901-16), are unsarily devoted more time and energy to developing a set- satisfactory (p. 496).
tlement colony (pp. 132-133). Furthermore, New NetherJacobs provides an exhaustively researched and
land’s local communities began to follow their own sepaclearly presented analysis of the significance of New
rate paths. After 1640, for example, small benches of jusNetherland within the context of the Dutch Atlantic Emtice were established in several New Netherland communities, thereby allowing them greater autonomy (p 152). pire and has much to offer scholars of the seventeenthThis transformation was far from smooth with conflicts century Atlantic World. However, non-specialists may
between colonists and local Indian populations, as well as find the amount of detail a bit overwhelming, despite Jaconflicts between the DWIC and local authorities. These cobs’s inclusion of a glossary, maps, and illustrations.
Yet, this criticism is minor compared to the service
conflicts, however, were dealt with according to the trathat Jaap Jacobs has provided in answering Joyce Goodditions and within the context of administration in the
Dutch Republic. Jacobs thereby concludes that instead of friend’s call to reinvigorate Dutch colonial history for the
being fractious and ineffective, as many historians have North American context and bring it to greater promiviewed the New Netherland political system, it was as nence in current historiography.
effective as that of the Dutch Republic, on which it was
Notes.
based.[3]
[1]. Joyce Goodfriend, “Writing/Righting Dutch
Jacobs’s work on the development of religious insti- Colonial History”, New York History 80 (January 1999):
tutions illustrates quite clearly and convincingly the con- p. 6.
tinuation of policies and traditions from the Dutch Re[2]. Jacobs is not the first to investigate the transferpublic as New Netherland continued to transform from a
ence
of Dutch culture into New Netherland. Interested
trade to a settlement colony. He effectively demonstrates
readers
might also look at Donna Merwick, Possessing Alhow, after the colony’s transition to a settlement colony,
bany,
1630-1710:
The Dutch and English Experiences (New
ecclesiastical and government officials on both sides of
York:
Cambridge
University Press, 1990). Of course here
the Atlantic worked together to prevent disagreement or
Merwick
explores
not only the transfer of Dutch culture
destabilization due to religious disputes. Starting in 1649,
into
what
would
become
the city of Albany, but also how
for example, the Lutherans of New Netherland actively
that
initial
Dutch
experience
then influenced the develbegan to pursue attaining a minister for the growing
opment
of
English
culture
upon
that town.
Lutheran population. Jacobs’s analysis of the pertinent
2
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[3]. Jacobs specifically cites Robert Ritchie, The 1977). Ritchie contends that New Netherland’s instituDuke’s Province: A Study of New York Politics and Soci- tions were weak, while those of the English colonies were
ety, 1664-1691 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, much more advanced.
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Citation: Holly Rine. Review of Jacobs, Jaap, New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America.
H-Atlantic, H-Net Reviews. July, 2006.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12029
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