New Netherland and the Dutch Origins of American Religious Liberty PDF
Preview New Netherland and the Dutch Origins of American Religious Liberty
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
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