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Jacob Leisler has been more an icon in historical writing than a person. That the icon has served very different groups over the centuries only shows that is has had little to do with the real person. In his own century he was both the fanatical and villainous despot and the martyred hero. In later times he was a forerunner of American democracy, and a symbol of colonial rebelliousness. He has also been pilloried in the Catholic press, not without justification, although Catholics were not among those treated most harshly during his administration. To Marxist theoreticians he was a voice for the proletariat; to National Socialist propagandists he was a German martyr. In short, much that has been written about Leisler has had to do with the interests of various groups and causes, many of them unrelated, or only distantly related, to anything happening in Leisler's time. It is only today that articles and books are beginning to appear in which his career is examined dispassionately. Many of the untruths are so ingrained that one must almost begin by saying what is not true before going on to discuss what is true about Leisler. Suffice it to say that, despite a long tradition of popular writing that he was base-born, resentful of being outside the mainstream of colonial life and commerce, and failing in his enterprises, he none of these. For much of our enlightenment we are indebted to the research by David William Voorhees, who has assembled copies of several thousand documents from private institutions and government archives from throughout Europe and North America.
"This book traces the origins and development of New York's slave system from its Dutch beginnings in New Netherland to its demise and legal extinction in the late eighteenth century."--Preface.
Covers the period of colonial history from the beginning of European colonization in the Western Hemisphere up to the time of the American Revolution.
Today, New York stands as the capital of American culture, business, and cosmopolitanism. Its size, influence, and multicultural composition mark it as a corner-stone of our country. The rich and varied history of early New York would seem to present a fertile topic for investigation to those interested colonial America. Yet, there has never been a modern history of old New York--until this lively and detailed account by Michael Kammen. Gracefully written and comprehensive in scope, Colonial New York includes all of the political, social, economic, cultural, and religious aspects of New York's formative centuries. Social and ethnic diversity have always been characteristic of New York, and this was never so evident as in its early years. This period provides the contemporary reader with a backward glance at what the United States would become in the twentieth-century. Colonial New York stood as a precursor of American society and culture as a whole: a broad model of the American experience we witness today. Kammen's history is enlivened by a look at some of the larger-than-life personalities who had tremendous impact on the many social and political adjustments necessary to the colony's continued growth. Here we meet Peter Stuyvesant, director of New Netherland and an executive of the West India Company--a man facing the innumerable difficulties of governing a large, sprawling colony divided by Dutch, English, and Indian settlements. Ultimately, history would view him as a failure, but his strong, Calvinist approach left such an indelible stamp on the burgeoning colony that readers will be tempted to do a little revisionist thinking about his tenure. Looking at a later governor, Lord Cornbury, gives us the very opposite example of a man despised by his contemporaries as the most venal of all the colonial governors (he was an occasional public cross-dresser, wearing the clothes of his distant cousin, Queen Anne), but who forcefully guided the colony through a transition to Anglican rule. The book culminates in chapters that investigate New York's strategic role in the bloody French and Indian War, and the key part it played in the economic protests and political conflict that finally led to American independence. The intricate and tangled web of alliances, loyalties, and shifting political ground that underlies much of colonial New York's past has clearly daunted many historians from taking on the task of writing an understandable account. Michael Kammen has accepted this challenge and gives us much more than a mere chronicle. Rather, he paints a compelling portrait of colonial life as it truly was. Although this important book is thorough and informed by primary sources, Colonial New York's clear and vivid prose offers a delightful narrative that will entertain both general readers and serious scholars alike. It pays special attention to localities and contains numerous illustrations that are attentive to the decorative arts and the material culture of early New York. Surprising and enlightening, Colonial New York is a delight to read and provides new perspectives on our nation's beginnings.