New Netherland and the Dutch Origins of American Religious Liberty

372 Pages·2012·3.038 MB·English

by  Evan Haefeli

NEW NETHERLAND
and the DUTCH ORIGINS
of AMERICAN RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
EARLY AMERICAN STUDIES
Serieseditors:
DanielK.Richter,KathleenM.Brown,
MaxCavitch,andDavidWaldstreicher
Exploringneglectedaspectsofourcolonial,revolutionary,
andearlynationalhistoryandculture,EarlyAmerican
Studiesreinterpretsfamiliarthemesandeventsinfreshways.
Interdisciplinaryincharacter,andwithaspecialemphasis
ontheperiodfromabout1600to1850,theseriesispublishedin
partnershipwiththeMcNeilCenterforEarlyAmericanStudies.
Acompletelistofbooksintheseries
isavailablefromthepublisher.
NEW NETHERLAND
and the DUTCH ORIGINS
of AMERICAN RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
EVAN HAEFELI
university of pennsylvania press
philadelphia
Copyright(cid:2)2012UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsused
forpurposesofrevieworscholarlycitation,noneofthis
bookmaybereproducedinanyformbyanymeanswithout
writtenpermissionfromthepublisher.
Publishedby
UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
Philadelphia,Pennsylvania19104-4112
www.upenn.edu/pennpress
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaonacid-freepaper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Haefeli,Evan,1969–
NewNetherlandandtheDutchoriginsofAmerican
religiousliberty/EvanHaefeli.—1sted.
p. cm.—(EarlyAmericanstudies)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-8122-4408-3(hardcover:alk.paper)
1.NewNetherland—Religion. 2.Religious
tolerance—UnitedStates—History—17thcentury.
3.UnitedStates—Religion—17thcentury. 4.United
States—Churchhistory—To1775. 5.Dutch—United
States—History—17thcentury. 6.Netherlands—
Religion—17thcentury. I.Title. II.Series:Early
Americanstudies.
F122.1.H34 2012
323.44(cid:2)2097309032—dc23 2011046060
To Ieneke,
who opened the door
and let me into Amsterdam
and Andries Suidman,
who then brought me tea.
This page intentionally left blank
contents
Preface ix
NoteonTranslations,Transcriptions,andDates xiii
Introduction 1
1 DutchTolerance 20
2 Connivance 54
3 Toleration 82
4 Non-Christians 108
5 Babel 135
6 LibertyofConscience 156
7 PublicChurch 186
8 Borders 211
9 Radicalism 223
10 Conquest 253
Conclusion 279
ListofAbbreviations 289
viii Contents
Notes 291
Bibliography 313
Index 343
Acknowledgments 351
preface
Religious tolerance has become a matter of great debate in recent years.
When I first wrestled with the topic in the 1990s, it had seemed a fairly
straightforward matter. However, since then, incidents and controversies
on both sides of the Atlantic coupled with a new burst of more sophisti-
catedscholarshiphaveconvincedmethattoleranceisamuchmorecompli-
cated matter than we think. Though it is a central theme of American
history,thereisstillmuchthatwedonotunderstandaboutwhattolerance
isorhowitcametoAmerica.Dutchtoleranceinparticularbecameatopic
of political controversy during the uproar over New York’s so-called ‘‘9-11
Mosque’’ in the summer of 2010. Mayor Michael Bloomberg invoked the
legacyofDutchtolerance indefenseofthe constructionof anIslamic reli-
gious center in lower Manhattan, while Dutch politician Geert Wilders
drew on it to oppose the very same institution. How could the religious
toleranceofNewNetherlandleadtotwosuchdiametricallyopposedinter-
pretations? Barriers of language, culture, and history make the case of the
DutchandtheirwayofmanagingtolerationparticularlydifficultforAmeri-
cans to understand.Nonetheless, as Bloomberg and Wilders madeclear, it
remainsavitalpartofAmericancultureandpolitics.
Whatfollowsisanewtellingofanoldstory.Thisisnotthefirstaccount
ofreligioustolerationin NewNetherland,norhaveIuncovered atrove of
hitherto unused sources, though I have cast my research net wider than
earlier scholars. Many of the Dutch sources I rely on are published and
have been available in English translation for a hundred years or more
(thoughitisalwaysbesttogobacktotheDutchoriginals).Yetmyversion
issignificantlydifferentfromearlieraccounts,inbothscopeandapproach.
Recent work in several languages by scholars on both sides of the Atlantic
has helped me to set the story of Dutch America firmly within its broader
Dutch context. Though I am an American historian, and my training and
interests in that field led me to this topic, I have gone to some lengths to