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=The Mevrouw Saved Manhattan: A Novel of New Amsterdam=

=Summary= Bill Greer’s 2009 novel, The Mevrouw Who Saved Manhattan: A Novel of New Amsterdam, describes the experiences of a Walloon named Jackie Lambert in her journey from the Netherlands to the new world. It is 1624 and Jackie is a maidservant for a Dutch family living in Leiden. Soon she finds herself out on the streets and realizes that her only chance to become a mevrouw, the Dutch title given to married women, would come as a colonist of the Dutch West India Company.

Finding a husband on the voyage to America, Jackie arrives ready to live her life as mevrouw Lambert. Life in Manhattan was riddled with conflicts and reining in the power-hungry Directors of the Company proved a constant struggle for the colonists. Jackie converts her home into The Spotted Cow tavern, which serves as a safe gathering place for the townspeople to gripe about the directors.

In 1647, the authoritarian Petrus Stuyvesant was appointed director and the colonists repeatedly try to have him recalled, to no avail. By 1664, when war with the more powerful English forces seems imminent, Stuyvesant refuses to surrender without a fight because of his duty to serve the WIC and, more importantly, his belief that God will allow the Dutch to prevail. In desperation, the colonists attack the Director’s fort in an attempt to remove Stuyvesant and prevent an English invasion. Safe inside the barracks, Stuyvesant is ready to wage war until Jackie realizes that the Director’s son was the only person who could possibly change his mind and she rushes him to his father. The young boy persuades Stuyvesant to peacefully surrender and New Amsterdam becomes New York.

Greer based his novel on archival evidence from the New Netherland Research Project, giving vivid insights into the colonists who first settled Manhattan. Reviews have been uniformly positive, praising the novel’s "very authentic ring,” and Greer’s "deftly blended fact and fiction.”

=Historical Context= Historical records reveal that in 1624 the Dutch West India Company sent around 300 Walloons to America to establish a settlement on the Hudson River; the result was Fort Orange, present-day Albany. In 1626, the Director of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, Pieter Minuit, purchased Manhattan Island from the local Natives. Many of the settlers at Fort Orange relocated to the southernmost part of Manhattan, later to be named New Amsterdam.

The 1640’s brought hardships to the colonists as conflicts developed with the Company’s Directors. In 1647, the unpopular Director Willem Kieft was replaced and the arrival of his predecessor, Peter Stuyvesant, was met with rejoice by the people. The excitement of the colonists was short-lived as they found Stuyvesant's stern and zealous behavior difficult to handle. Stuyvesant imposed his strict Calvinist beliefs upon the people. Although the colonists despised Stuyvesant, he was an effective governor and remained Director for seventeen years.

In 1664, New Netherland became a target for the expansion of English imperialism and Richard Nicolls provided Governor John Winthrop a letter to deliver to Stuyvesant that laid out terms of a peaceful surrender. It stated that the Dutch colonist would be allowed to maintain their property and religious freedom, if they became subjects of King Charles II. Winthrop presented the letter to the Director but Stuyvesant's honor and zealous beliefs would not allow him to surrender without a fight.

When the townspeople heard about the meeting they demanded Stuyvesant surrender to avoid destruction of the city. Right before the English forces were about to lay siege, Stuyvesant realized his small force would stand no chance against the English and he agreed to the terms of surrender before an invasion occurred. New Amsterdam was renamed New York after the brother of King Charles II; James II, Duke of York.

=Analytic Essay= The individuals in Greer’s novel are a mixture of fiction and nonfiction. Many of the main characters are based on actual figures and take on the roles that history has proven to be accurate. Although the narrator of the book, Jackie Lambert's character is fiction, she is a loosely based on the historical figure Catalina Trico. The real-life journey of Catalina began in Amsterdam and ended in New Amsterdam. After settling in Manhattan, Catalina opened a tavern on Pearl Street and Greer uses the fictitious Spotted Cow to serve as the main setting in the book. Through her history Bill Greer is able provide his readers insight into the Dutch experience from the time they established Fort Orange to the surrender of New Amsterdam.

The first chapter of Greer’s novel introduces Peter Stuyvesant and he does not appear again until midway through the book when he is appointed Director of New Netherlands. Greer presents Stuyvesant as an authoritarian director who likes to drink beer, acts as a zealot, and who gives his total loyalty to the WIC. The author writes that Stuyvesant is ultimately the one who surrenders New Amsterdam to the English, and although the Director holds out as long as he can, English forces annex the Dutch colony without a battle. Greer portrays Stuyvesant as not willing to go down without a fight due to his military nature and his strong belief that God destined him to achieve great things.

In Mevrouw, each night Stuyvesant returns home from University, he did attend the University of Franeker, he would have dinner and drink beer with his landlord then recite scripture until it became dark. Stuyvesant was a devout Calvinist and the son of a preacher. Not long after his arrival, Jackie is put out on the streets when she receives blame for bringing devilry into the house after Stuyvesant was caught fornicating with the landlord's daughter Freda. As indicated by Burrow, Stuyvesant was kicked out of school, but not until after two or three years, because he seduced his landlord’s daughter. After his expulsion, Stuyvesant traveled to Amsterdam and became an employee of the West India Company where he entered the military.

In 1644, during a siege upon St. Martin, a cannonball blew off the lower portion of Stuyvesant’s leg below the knee. He held the belief that God had spared him in battle so that he could accomplish great things. When the WIC appointed him Director-General of New Netherland the colony was in terrible condition and he felt this was what God had planned for him to do and he prepared to govern with “ruthlessness and piety.”

As the novel accurately portrays, the people of New Amsterdam were excited for the arrival of their new director in 1647. The colonist despised his predecessor, William Kieft, for instigating war with the Natives and ruling tyrannically. Much to the peoples dismay they soon realized that Stuyvesant would rule with absolute power and take counsel from no one. He proclaimed, “I shall reign over you as a father governs his children.”

Stuyvesant, a strong adherent to the Reformed Church, which was the official religion of the colony, started to implement more Draconian punishments for lawbreakers; especially, those of different religions and he fanatically pursued to eradicate nonconformists. This was frowned upon by the Directors in Amsterdam who felt Stuyvesant’s behavior would thwart immigration to the colony and they directed him to turn a blind eye to these actions and allow people to practice any religion as long as they did so in the privacy of their own home. Prior to this order from the High Mightiness, those in charge of the colony but who resided in Amsterdam, the book correctly highlights some confrontations Stuyvesant had with dissenters. When Lutherans petitioned to organize a church Stuyvesant denies them permission and referenced his oath to tolerate no other religion but the Reformed. When Jews entered New Amsterdam he refers to them as a “deceitful race” and “blasphemers of the name of Christ” and wants to expel them. However, the Directors in Amsterdam deny his request and instead order them to be segregated. Mainly because of the amount of capital Jewish stockholders invested in the WIC. Stuyvesant had altercations with some Quakers as well: When two Quaker women fell to the ground and were overcome with spasms in a public street he had them arrested. Also, a Quaker named Robert Hodgson was arrested and sent to New Amsterdam when he attempted to publicly preach in Hempstead. After Hodgson refused to pay a fine because he claimed to have committed no crime, Stuyvesant has him beat and tortured until public pressure compelled the director to release him. In the book however, Jackie used her beer to influence Stuyvesant's sister Anna to persuade her brother to release the Quaker.

Greer accurately points out that as this type of behavior continued from the Director the people became agitated with him and sent a representative to Amsterdam to have the Governor removed and issued a remonstrance. The States-general in Amsterdam who had also grown tired of Stuyvesant's actions issued for his recall. However, the increased threat of war with England compelled them to revoke the order because they deemed it necessary to have a director with military experience, so he held on to his position. With war with England seemingly imminent the director was instructed by Amsterdam to fortify the town. As Jackie points out, men were required to provide a certain amount of labor to build up their defenses. They worked to rebuild the walls and breakwater; the wall that protected Manhattan to the north turned into present day Wall Street. Despite this effort and the fiery spirit of the Governor, the New Amsterdam forces were both vastly outnumbered and overpowered compared to the English forces. A colonist from the book states that New Amsterdam only has 300 able-bodied men; when the British navy traveled close enough for Stuyvesant to see them he had weak defenses and a force with less than 150 professional soldiers under him. Still Stuyvesant had no intention to give up and pronounced it was his duty to fight for the Company.

The Spotted Cow became the place Stuyvesant and the Governor of Connecticut John Winthrop finally met. In the book, as in reality, the meeting did not go well; Winthrop presented the Director a letter with terms a peaceful surrender but Stuyvesant's character would not allow him to surrender without a fight. The letter laid out terms of a surrender which guaranteed New Amsterdam the freedom to maintain their culture, and continue commercial trade and immigration; but only if they became subjects of the King Charles II. Stuyvesant stated, “I had rather be carried a corpse to my grave, than to surrender the city.” Historical records have proven that Stuyvesant actually grabbed the letter and tore it in half to show his noncompliance. Greer wrote that Stuyvesant took the letter from Winthrop and stormed out of the door.

As history has proven, and as Greer includes in his work, when the public heard of a meeting and possible terms of surrender they demanded the Governor reveal the letter; he refused. Stuyvesant recognized this as his last chance to muster up the spirit of the people to put up a fight against the English for honor and country and he invoked God, the townspeople would hear none of it. Jackie tells that the public again confronted the director and when he still refuses, they decide to attack him. He took off on his horse before anyone could grab him and headed to the fort. Once safe inside the Director watches the people begin to gather in revolt outside the fort walls. Jackie realizes that the only chance to convince Stuyvesant into accepting the terms before the panicked mob tares down the gates or before the English forces infiltrate the town, was to get the Governor's son to ask him the question he poses to her, “Why does he want to die?” She storms toward the barracks and demands the guard to open the gate for the Director’s son. When Nicholas climbs to where Stuyvesant stands he asks his father why. This question is what finally compels Stuyvesant to agree to the terms of a peaceful surrender.

Stuyvesant was actually persuaded by his councilman Domininie Drisius, that there was no chance the Dutch could prevail. He was also petitioned by ninety-three influential citizens, which included his seventeen year old son, to accept the terms offered by such a "generous foe." In August of 1664, Stuyvesant arranged a meeting on his farm to formally negotiate the terms of the surrender. The end result became the Articles of Capitulation and included twenty-three sections that secured rights of the Director-general's former colonists. New Amsterdam was then taken over by the English and renamed New York.

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