Adriaen Van Der Donck
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Adriaen Cornelissen van der Donck (1618 – 1655) was a
lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...
and landowner in
New Netherland New Netherland () was a colony of the Dutch Republic located on the East Coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states ...
after whose
honorific An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an Honorary title (academic), h ...
''
Jonkheer (female equivalent: ; in the masculine only; ''jonkvrouw'' is used in the feminine, even in French; ) is an honorific in the Low Countries denoting the lowest rank within the nobility. In the Netherlands, this in general concerns a prefix used ...
'' the city of
Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is the List of municipalities in New York, third-most populous city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the most-populous City (New York), city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County. A centrally locate ...
, is named. Although he was not, as sometimes claimed, the first lawyer in the Dutch colony (an 'honor' that befell the lesser-known Lubbert Dinclagen who arrived in 1634), Van der Donck was a leader in the political life of
New Amsterdam New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...
(modern
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
), and an activist for Dutch-style republican government in the
Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...
-run trading post. Enchanted by his new homeland of New Netherland, Van der Donck made detailed accounts of the land, vegetation, animals, waterways, topography, and climate. Van der Donck used this knowledge to actively promote immigration to the colony, publishing several tracts, including his influential ''Description of New Netherland''. Charles Gehring, Director of the
New Netherland Institute The New Netherland Institute (formerly Friends of the New Netherland Project) is a non-profit organization created to support the translation and publication of 17th-century Dutch documents from the period of the Dutch colonization of New Netherla ...
, has called it "the fullest account of the province, its geography, the Indians who inhabited it, and its prospects ... It has been said that had it not been written in Dutch, it would have gone down as one of the great works of American colonial literature." Records from the colony brought to public attention in the early 2000s suggest that van der Donck was a significant figure in the early development of what would later become the United States, neglected by history because of the eventual English conquest of New Netherland. Shorto, Russell (2004) '' The Island at the Center of the World''. New York: Vintage Press. p.9 and ''passim''. Today, he is also recognized as a sympathetic early Native American ethnographer, having learned the languages and observed many of the customs of the
Mahican The Mohicans ( or ) are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe that historically spoke an Algonquian language. As part of the Eastern Algonquian family of tribes, they are related to the neighboring Lenape, whose indigenous territory was ...
s and
Mohawks The Mohawk, also known by their own name, (), are an Indigenous people of North America and the easternmost nation of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy (also known as the Five Nations or later the Six Nations). Mohawk are an Iroquoi ...
. His descriptions of their practices are cited in many modern works, such as the 2005 book '' 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus''.


Early life

Van der Donck was born in approximately 1618, in the town of
Breda Breda ( , , , ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. ...
in the southern Netherlands. His father was Cornelis Gijsbrechtszoon van der Donck and his mother was Agatha van Bergen. His family was well connected on his mother's side, as her father,
Adriaen van Bergen A Dutch skipper from Leur, Adriaen van Bergen devised the plot to recapture the city of Breda from the Spanish during the Eighty Years' War. In February 1590, he approached Prince Maurice with a Trojan Horse In Greek mythology, the Troja ...
, was remembered as a hero for having helped free Breda from Spanish forces during the course of the
Eighty Years' War The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt (; 1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish Empire, Spanish government. The Origins of the Eighty Years' War, causes of the w ...
. In 1638, van der Donck entered the
University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange as a Protestant institution, it holds the distinction of being the oldest university in the Neth ...
as a law student.
Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...
had rapidly become an intellectual center due to Dutch religious freedom and the lack of censorship. At Leiden, he obtained his
Doctor of both laws A doctor of both laws, from the Latin , , or ("doctor of both laws") (abbreviations include: JUD, IUD, DUJ, JUDr., DUI, DJU, Dr.iur.utr., Dr.jur.utr., DIU, UJD and UID), is a scholar who has acquired a doctorate in both civil and church law ...
, that is, both civil and canon law. Despite a booming Dutch economy, van der Donck decided to go to the
New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...
. To this end, he approached the
patroon In the United States, a patroon (; from Dutch '' patroon'' ) was a landholder with manorial rights to large tracts of land in the 17th-century Dutch colony of New Netherland on the east coast of North America. Through the Charter of Free ...
Kiliaen van Rensselaer, securing a post as '' schout'', a combination of sheriff and prosecutor, for his large, semi-independent estate, Rensselaerswijck, located near modern Albany.


In New Netherland


Rensselaerswyck

In 1641, van der Donck sailed to the New World aboard ''Den Eykenboom'' (''The Oak Tree''). He was immediately impressed by the land, which, in contrast with the Netherlands, was thickly forested, hilly, and full of wildlife. Once in his post, he attracted the ire of Van Rensselaer with his independence. This manifested itself first when the ''schout'' selected one of the patroon's finest stallions for himself and then decided that his appointed farm was poorly chosen and simply picked another site. The patroon expected van der Donck's primary concern to be the colony's profit rather than the colonists' welfare. According to Van Rensselaer, his duty was "to seek my advantage and protect me against loss". This was to consist mainly of cracking down on the
black market A black market is a Secrecy, clandestine Market (economics), market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services who ...
and catching those who ran away before their service contracts expired. Instead, van der Donck ignored Van Rensselaer's orders when told to collect late rent from those who obviously could not pay, protested that colonists could not swear binding oaths of loyalty on behalf of their servants, and began organizing improvements to various mills and the construction of a brickyard. Van Rensselaer's letters indicate that he became increasingly frustrated with his ''schouts behavior, chiding him, "from the beginning you have acted not as officer but as director". In his employer's eyes, van der Donck also spent a disturbing amount of time exploring the surroundings. During these excursions, he learned a great deal about the land and its inhabitants, often neglecting his duties as ''schout'' in his eagerness to observe and document as much as he could about this new land. He met local Indians, such as the Mahicans and the Mohawks, ate their food, and became adept at their language. Van der Donck recorded their customs, beliefs, medicine, political structure, and technology in an objective and detailed way. Unsatisfied in his post and realizing the potential of the land, van der Donck eventually began to use his contacts amongst the Indians to negotiate for land in the
Catskills The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province and subrange of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined a ...
, where he wanted to found his own colony. When Van Rensselaer learned that van der Donck sought to acquire neighboring land to his own, he snapped it up first. Van der Donck's contract as ''schout'' was not renewed when its term expired in 1644.


Early political activism

In
New Amsterdam New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...
, disgruntled colonists had been sending ineffective complaints to the
Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...
about the
Director of New Netherland This is a list of Directors, appointed by the Dutch West India Company, of the 17th century Dutch province of New Netherland (''Nieuw-Nederland'' in Dutch) in North America. Only the last, Peter Stuyvesant, held the title of Director General. A ...
,
Willem Kieft Willem Kieft, also ''Wilhelm Kieft'', (September 1597 – September 27, 1647) was a Dutch merchant and the Director of New Netherland (of which New Amsterdam was the capital) from 1638 to 1647. Life and career Willem Kieft was appointed ...
, who had begun a bloody war with the Indians against the advice of the council of twelve men. Kieft's War badly damaged relations and trade between the Indians and the Dutch, made life more dangerous for colonists living in outlying areas, and drained the colony's resources. He exacerbated his relationship with the already financially strained colonists by enacting a tax on beaver skins and beer to fund the war. In 1645, Kieft tried to mend relations with the Indians and asked van der Donck to assist as a guide and interpreter. At the negotiations, Kieft found himself in the awkward position of coming without the necessary gifts. Van der Donck had not informed Kieft of this important component to negotiations in advance, but happened to have brought an appropriate amount of ''sewant'' (''
wampum Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of Native Americans. It includes white shell beads hand-fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western ...
''), which he loaned to Kieft. In return for this favor, Kieft granted van der Donck on the mainland north of
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
in the territory of the
Wecquaesgeek The Wecquaesgeek (also Manhattoe and Manhattan) were a Munsee-speaking band of Wappinger people who once lived along the east bank of the Hudson River in the southwest of today's Westchester County, New York,Their presence on the east bank of th ...
in 1646. He named the estate '' Colen Donck'' and built several mills along what he named the ''Saeck Kill'', later to become the ''Nepperhan River'' and today the
Saw Mill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...
. The estate was so large that locals referred to him as the ''
Jonkheer (female equivalent: ; in the masculine only; ''jonkvrouw'' is used in the feminine, even in French; ) is an honorific in the Low Countries denoting the lowest rank within the nobility. In the Netherlands, this in general concerns a prefix used ...
'' ("young gentleman" or "squire"), a word from which the name "
Yonkers Yonkers () is the List of municipalities in New York, third-most populous city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the most-populous City (New York), city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County. A centrally locate ...
" is derived. By this time, van der Donck had already married the Englishwoman Mary Doughty, whose father had lost his land after irking Kieft. Kieft remained out of favor with the colonists in New Amsterdam. Van der Donck stepped into this environment of political unrest and used his rhetorical legal skills to give voice to the disaffected colonists. Upon his arrival, the tone of the colonists' petitions suddenly changed. While ostensibly putting himself at Kieft's disposal as a lawyer and a translator, he was working with disgruntled members of the community to get Kieft recalled and convince the company of the need for a Dutch-style representative government in New Amsterdam. The Dutch West India Company did decide to remove Kieft from his post in 1645, citing the terrible damage caused to trade by his war against the Indians. But rather than yield to the colonists' requests for the establishment of local government, the company decided that a stronger representative would succeed in squelching political dissent. They chose Peter Stuyvesant as Director-General. Despite this change, van der Donck continued his flurry of documents against Kieft, apparently using his example now solely to make a case for the creation of a local government.


Nine Men

The new director-general tried to take a firm hand with the colonists — it was noted that anyone who opposed Stuyvesant "hath as much as the sun and moon against him" — but eventually he had to agree to the creation of a permanent advisory board. Following a Dutch tradition, eighteen people would be elected, from whom Stuyvesant would choose nine to serve. Van der Donck was among the
Nine Men The Nine Men was a council of citizens elected by the residents of New Netherland to advise its Director General Peter Stuyvesant on the governance of the colony. It replaced the previous body, the Eight Men, which itself had superseded th ...
selected in December 1648, and quickly became a leading figure. Van der Donck began keeping a journal of the colonists' many grievances against the West India Company, Kieft, and Stuyvesant, planning to synthesize their complaints into a single document to be presented to the Dutch States General. When Stuyvesant got wind of this, he ordered van der Donck put under house arrest, seized his papers, and arranged his removal from the Nine Men. Despite this, on July 26, 1649, eleven current and former members of the Nine Men signed the ''Petition of the Commonality of New Netherland'', which requested that the States General take action to encourage economic freedom and force local government like that in the Netherlands. Van der Donck was one of three men selected to travel to the Netherlands to present this request, along with a description of the colony written primarily by van der Donck entitled ''Remonstrance of New Netherland''.Also sometimes called ''The Representation of New Netherland''. The latter makes the case that the colony is unusually valuable and in danger of being lost due to mismanagement under the Dutch West India Company.


Return to the Netherlands

While in the Netherlands, van der Donck engaged in political and
public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...
campaigns in addition to organizing groups of new colonists for New Netherland. He repeatedly presented his case to the States General opposite a representative sent by Stuyvesant, Cornelis van Tienhoven.


Activism on behalf of the colony

The case before the States General was delayed because of During this delay, van der Donck turned his attention to public relations. In 1650, he printed his ''Remonstrance'' as a pamphlet. His enthusiastic description of the land and its potential created much excitement about New Netherland; so many were suddenly eager to immigrate that ships were forced to turn away paying passengers. A Dutch West India Company director wrote, "Formerly New Netherland was never spoken of, and now heaven and earth seem to be stirred up by it and every one tries to be the first in selecting the best pieces f landthere." To go alongside the ''Remonstrance'', van der Donck commissioned the Jansson-Visscher Map of the colony. The map was color engraved by Johannes Blaue and designed in such a way that it would appear visually appealing. It showed New Netherland along the original Dutch territorial claim from Cape Hinlopen just south of the Delaware Bay at 38 degrees to the start of New England at 42 degrees and included drawings of typical Indian villages, wild game, and the town of New Amsterdam. The map itself remained the definitive depiction of the area for over a century, cementing many Dutch place names. It would be reprinted thirty-one times before the mid-18th century.


States General's decision

Apparently, van der Donck's decision to go public paid off, because in April 1650, the States General issued a provisional order that the West India Company create a more liberal form of government to encourage emigration to the Dutch colony. They produced their final decision in 1652: the Dutch West India Company was forced to order Stuyvesant to set up a
municipal government A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
. A
municipal charter A city charter or town charter (generically, municipal charter) is a legal document (''charter'') establishing a municipality such as a city or town. The concept developed in Europe during the Middle Ages. Traditionally, the granting of a charter ...
was enacted in New Amsterdam on February 2, 1653. The States General also drafted a letter in April 1652 demanding the recall of Stuyvesant to the Netherlands, which van der Donck would personally deliver to the Director-General. Van der Donck prepared to return to New Amsterdam, having successfully secured a liberal government for the colony without the restrictions of the Dutch West India Company and national support for emigrating colonists from the Netherlands to the colonies. He was also reinstated as President of the Board of Nine and would be a leader in the new government. But on May 29, 1652, before van der Donck could sail for home, the
First Anglo-Dutch War The First Anglo-Dutch War, or First Dutch War, was a naval conflict between the Commonwealth of England and the Dutch Republic. Largely caused by disputes over trade, it began with English attacks on Dutch merchant shipping, but expanded to vast ...
broke out, and his hopes for New Amsterdam suddenly and unexpectedly fell apart. The States General feared experimenting in local government in a time of war, and needed the close cooperation of the West India Company (practically a branch of the military) in the struggle, and so rescinded their decision. Defeated, van der Donck tried to return to New Netherland, but was blocked because of the destabilizing effect of his activism. In the meantime, he took a '' Supremus in jure'' degree at the University of Leiden. Still eager to promote the colony, he also wrote a comprehensive description of its geography and native peoples based on material in his earlier ''Remonstrance''. This new book was well-crafted to the interests of his audience, consisting of an analysis of European claims to New Netherland, and extensive description of Indians and their customs, a chapter on beavers, and, finally, a dialogue between a Dutch "Patriot" and a New Netherlander addressing the questions of potential colonists. Though it was finished and copyrighted by July 1653, because of the war, the publication of ''Beschryvinge van Nieuw-Nederlant'' (''Description of New Netherland'') was delayed until 1655. Van der Donck's motivation was directed at encouraging greater settlement in the colony. The book was wildly popular, going into a second edition the very next year; however, it was not published in English until 1841, in a translation that eliminated subtleties and often even reversed the intended meaning, characterized by the editor of a modern edition as "inept". Of special note to modern anthropologists are Van der Donck's descriptions of the indigenous peoples' beliefs regarding God, devils, and the origin of the world. His observations can now readily be obtained from a more modern translation of the ''Description,'' which is still in print.


Return to New Amsterdam

After years of firmly blocking van der Donck's requests to sail, the Dutch West India Company finally agreed on May 26, 1653, to allow him to return home to his family on the condition he retire from public life. The Company sent the following petition to its directors:
The undersigned, Adriaen van der Donck, humbly requests consent and passport of the Board to go to New Netherland, offering to resign the commission previously given to him as President of the community, or otherwise as its deputy, and...to accept no office whatever it may be, but rather to live in private peacefully and quietly as a common inhabitant, submitting to the orders and commands of the Company or those enacted by its director.
However, once arrived, van der Donck's giving up public office was apparently not enough, as he was subsequently denied the right to continue practicing law because there was no one of "sufficient ability and the necessary qualifications" to equal him. These restrictions seem to have not hindered his behind-the-scenes efforts: another political uprising against Stuyvesant broke out just weeks after van der Donck's return. In December, he had to petition for protection from Stuyvesant. There is no record of van der Donck's death, but he was alive and just 37 years old during the summer of 1655, then referred to as deceased in a court case heard January 10, 1656 over parties disputing ownership of two bibles taken from his house by Indians. An affidavit from his widow was presented in that case on the matter. He evidently died on his estate, perhaps peacefully, as it is likely that a violent death in a raid during the Peach War of September 1655 would have been raised and noted in the court record. He was survived by his wife and by his parents, whom he had separately convinced to emigrate.


Legacy

Johnson's translation was long recognized as "defective" and even "inept", but until 2008 remained the only translation available. Nevertheless, Mariana Van Rensselaer called van der Donck's ''Description of New Netherland'' "an exceptionally intelligent book of its kind", especially praising its quality as a natural history monograph. Its quality as an ethnography has also been praised by anthropologists and historians. Thomas O'Donnell wrote,
Had he written in English rather than Dutch, his ''Description'' would certainly have won from posterity the same kind, if not the same amount, of veneration that has been bestowed on Bradford's '' Of Plymouth Plantation''. As it turned out, Van der Donck's book was written, published, widely read, put aside, and, alas, almost forgotten long before Bradford's book was published at all.
Though the English eventually took over the colony, the city of New Amsterdam retained the municipal charter van der Donck had lobbied for, including uniquely Dutch features, such as a guarantee of free trade. In his 2004 work ''The Island at the Center of the World'', the New York Times contributing writer Russell Shorto wrote that van der Donck's character and actions were important to the development of the American spirit and he labeled Donck as a "forgotten American patriot." The author J. van den Hout, in his book ''Adriaen van der Donck: A Dutch Rebel in Seventeenth Century America'', stated that, "At best, he (van der Donck) has been labeled a hero, a visionary, and a spokesman for the people. At worst he has been branded arrogant and selfish, thinking only of his own ambitions.


Notes


References


Sources

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External links


Biography from the New Netherland Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Donck, Adriaen Van Der 1610s births 1650s deaths People from Breda People from New Netherland 17th-century Dutch lawyers 17th-century American lawyers American people of Dutch descent Leiden University alumni People of the First Anglo-Dutch War