Adriaen van der Donck
Adriaen Cornelissen van der Donck (* around 1618 ; † September 1655 ) was a lawyer and landowner in New Netherlands , after whose name in Dutch Jongheer the city of Yonkers in New York was named. Not only was he the first lawyer in the Dutch colony, but he was also a leader in the political life of New Amsterdam , now New York City .
Life
Van der Donck made calculations for the country and noted his observations of flora and fauna , rivers, topography and the climate. Van der Donck used this knowledge to encourage immigration to the colony and published extensive descriptions of New Netherlands. Charles Gehring, director of the New Netherlands project, called it "the best description of the province, its geography and the Indians who inhabited it."
Van der Donck is the central figure in Russell Shorto's "Island in the Middle of the World," who claims, based on the very records of the colony translated by Gehring, that he was a great early American patriot who only because of the English conquest of the colony has been forgotten by history.
youth
Van der Donck was born around 1618 in the city of Breda in the southern Netherlands. His family was well off on his mother's side, her father, Adriaen Packwagen Bergen, was a national hero in the fight for freedom for Breda against the Spaniards.
In 1638 Van der Donck began studying law at the University of Leiden . Leiden was an intellectual center at the time. There he was presumably influenced by some radical admitted thinkers like Hugo Grotius . After his exam, Van der Donck decided in 1641 to emigrate to the new world. For this purpose he hired the landowner Kiliaen van Rensselaer as a schout, a combination of police chief and prosecutor.
New Netherlands
Rensselaerwyck
In 1641 Van der Donck sailed to America on board the Den Eykenboom ( The Oak Tree ). He was immediately impressed by the country, which, unlike the Netherlands, was heavily forested, hilly and full of wilderness. The owner of the colony, Van Rensselaer, expected Van der Doncks mainly to increase the colony's profits. According to Van Rensselaer, it was his job to “seek my advantage and protect myself against loss.” Instead, Van der Donck ignored Van Rensselaer's orders and preferred to take care of building the colony. So he organized the construction of a brick factory and built improvements to mills.
During this time Van der Donck explored the country and its inhabitants, neglecting his duties as a "schout". He met residents such as Mohawks and Mohicans, ate their food, and learned their language. Van der Donck made an objective and detailed record of their habits, beliefs, medicine, political structure and technology.
Through his contacts with the Indians, van der Donck finally decided to buy land himself. When his client Van Rensselaer found out, he did not extend the contract with Van der Donck in 1644.
politics
After his time in Rensselaerwyck, Van der Donck settled in New Amsterdam and, in 1645, was able to support the acting general director of the New Amsterdam colony, Willem Kieft, in his peace negotiations with the Indians as a translator and mediator. In doing so, he demonstrated political skill. Kieft went to the negotiations without the usual favors. Van der Donck had not previously informed Kieft about this important part of the negotiations, but he was able to lend him suitable gifts on the fly.
In exchange, in 1646, Kieft granted Van der Donck 24,000 acres (97 km²) on the mainland in north Manhattan. He named the area Colen Donck. The area was so large that locals called him Jonkheer ("young gentleman"), from which the name "Yonkers" is derived. Van der Donck had already married Mary Doughty of England.
Van der Donck was instrumental in the deposition of Kieft in 1647 by the West India Company. He gave the letters and petitions the right legal polish. Peter Stuyvesant became the new general director .
Stuyvesant tried to rule the colony with a hard hand. Due to Van der Donck's work, however, he had to set up a council in 1647, the so-called Council of the Nine. Van der Donck's political endeavors came to fruition when he was elected to the council as "President of the General Public" the following year.
Return to the Netherlands
Back in the Netherlands, Van der Donck got involved in enforcing Dutch law in the American colony. He presented the conditions in New Netherlands to the States General. He also published a Remonstrance in 1650 as a pamphlet. His enthusiastic description of the country and its potential caused excitement and a growing flow of emigrants. During this time, the Jansson-Visscher map was created under the guidance of Van der Donck, and it was to remain the most accurate map of Northern America for almost 100 years.
The decision of the States General
In April 1650, the States General passed a provisional resolution instructing the West India Company to create a more liberal form of government in New Netherlands to encourage emigration. In 1652 it was decided to recall Stuyvesant, Van der Donck was to deliver this recall personally. But the Anglo-Dutch war intervened and all hopes for New Amsterdam died. The States General feared experimenting with such a liberal government during the war and revoked their decision. Van der Donck was only able to return to America in 1655.
Return to New Amsterdam
In order to return home, Van Der Donck renounced any political activity, as the following petition to the directors of the West India Company confirms:
“The undersigned, Adriaen van der Donck, humbly asks for permission to board a ship sailing to New Netherlands; He offers to resign from the office previously assigned to him as President of the Community or as a deputy, and promises not to accept any office of any kind upon his arrival and settlement in New Netherlands, but there in a peaceful and calm manner to live as a normal citizen and to follow the orders and orders of the company or its directors ”.
This promise seemed to satisfy the directors and Van der Donck was allowed to return to his new home. There is no record of Adriaen van der Donck's death, but he was alive during the summer of 1655, and a testimony by Stuyvesant in early 1656 shows that he was already dead by that time. He probably died on his farm during Indian raids in September 1655, during the so-called Peach War .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Russell Shorto: New York - island in the middle of the world . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2004, ISBN 3-498-06360-X .
- ^ Charles Gehring: Correspondence, 1647-1653 (New Netherland documents) . Syracuse University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8156-2792-0 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Donck, Adriaen van der |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Donck, Adriaen Cornelissen van der; Groot, Hugo de (Dutch) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch colonialist in North America |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1618 |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 1655 |