Arriving at New Amsterdam
“a land of virgin forests of white and black oak, pine and hemlock that were rich in animals whose fur were in high demand on the European markets.”
The commonly recounted history of New York begins in the seventeenth century when the countries of Europe broke free from the Spanish hold and the Dutch ship Half Moon sailed across the Atlantic in search of a faster trade route to the luxuries of the Far East. Instead of returning home with the riches of India, Henry Hudson, commissioned by the Dutch West India Trading Company, stumbled upon “a land of virgin forests of white and black oak, pine and hemlock that were rich in animals whose fur were in high demand on the European markets.”[i] He had found what we now know as New York. Hudson docked at Coney Island and invited the “very civil, deer skin clad Indians[ii]” onto his ship to trade green tobacco for knives and beads. Events escalated until one of Hudson’s crewmen, John Coleman, was shot in the neck by an Indian arrow, and from then began the colonial narrative in New York.[iii]
The Dutch West India Trading Company viewed the newly named New Netherlands as a commercial enterprise, and would incentivize Dutch citizens to settle there starting in 1621. Many of the earliest settlers came from military and seafaring backgrounds, but turned to agriculture upon their arrival in the New World. These early settlers were attracted to America by the prospect of making an honest living on the arable land. Flatbush was filled with woodlands and forests stretching far and wide, leading those who saw it to note that “at the time of purchase it was heavily covered with timber.”[iv]
Flatbush developed separately from the more populated city of Brooklyn to its north. In the early 1600s a large white oak tree that stood in Valley Grove (now Prospect Park) marked a boundary between the two. When Governor Peter Stuyvesant granted a land charter to Flatbush in 1652, Flatbush was divided into three parts: Steenraap (“stone gathering”), Rustenburgh (“resting place”), and the town center, the Dorp, which was located at the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Church Avenue.[v]
Map of New Amsterdam
