Dr. Janny (pronounced “Yanni,” like that Greek schmaltz musician) Venema has been with the New Netherland project for 25 years and is Assistant Director. The Society, under the auspices of the State Library and the Holland Society, is engaged in translating and publishing surviving documents from the Dutch colonial period. Dr. Venema is the author of two books, one about Beverwijck (the Dutch name for Albany) in the 1650s, and one about Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the “first Patroon” of what is now Albany and Rensselaer counties.

 

Dr. Venema gave us some insight into the difficulties of working with these documents. Many have suffered the ravages of time, including the great 1911 fire in the state capitol where they had been stored. And of course they were written by hand – often badly – in a language quite different from the modern.

 

New Netherland, founded in 1609, lasted until the British grabbed it in 1664. (The Dutch grabbed it back briefly, but were booted out again.) It covered not only much of today’s New York State, but also parts of Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Utah. (Just want to make sure you’re paying attention.)

 

Of course, we all know about this early colonization by the Netherlands, probably supposing it was just another of those fungible European countries. But as Dr. Venema’s talk illuminated, the Dutch colony was an outgrowth of some dramatic history. In the 1500s, the 7 northern Dutch provinces were ruled by Spain, part of the Habsburg Empire. Spain was Catholic, and aggressively so. (Remember the Inquisition?) The Dutch went Protestant, and into rebellion. The 7 provinces united, and declared independence, severing their allegiance to the King of Spain. (This story had a later parallel in America). The war lasted from 1568 to 1648 – yes, 80 years – and was abominably hideous. (This history should be studied by anyone who thinks 20th Century war horrors were unprecedented.)

 

But, out of the blood and fire of that awful war there arose a bright star of human civilization – the Dutch Republic, a cosmopolitan, open-minded, intellectually vibrant nation thriving upon free trade. So in more ways than one, the Dutch supplied a model for our own flourishing.

 

Anyway, during the war the Dutch attempted to outflank the Spaniards by invading the New World, most of which of course was also ruled by Spain, and from which Spain was extracting the lucre to finance its war machine. These Dutch incursions ultimately fizzled, but they did establish a toehold in New Netherland.

 

Enter Kiliaen van Rensselaer (1586-1643). Well, actually, he never entered the New World at all; but while staying comfily at home in Amsterdam, he was one of the masterminds behind the New Netherland enterprise, developing the Patroonship system, whereby land would be bought from the natives and bestowed with the requirement that you’d send 50 settlers to populate it. The idea was to make the settlement less vulnerable to British predation. (That didn’t work out, yet the patroonship thing survived the takeover, and indeed, the van Rensselaers continued to rule their Rensselaer County turf as virtual feudal lords until the 1839 death of the last of them.)