DUTCH IN COLONIAL AMERICA

WOMEN IN DUTCH AMERICA:

HOW THE COLONIAL DUTCH CONTRIBUTED TO WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN

NEW NETHERLAND

Ashley Pollard

History 398: Cultural Identities in Colonial America

December 4, 2015

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WOMEN IN COLONIAL AMERICA:

HOW THE COLONIAL DUTCH CONTRIBUTED TO WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN NEW

NETHERLANDS

The tale of American colonization is a complicated history most often told from the

English point of view. In the United States, schools focus on the success of the English during

colonization, and then teach how the other European nations that settled America assimilated to

English social and legal systems within their colonies. This popular focus often mentions the

Spanish conquistadors or the journey of Henry Hudson, but it rarely invites the reader to an in-

depth study of other European settlers. Until recent years, American classrooms have operated

under the adage “history is told by the winners,” giving greater significance to the English

settlers who came to control the New World. Scholars are now researching the cultures of non-

Anglo-American colonies before English capture. This research demonstrates the significant

impact non-English settlers had on American colonization and the principles by which the nation

operates under today. This paper will specifically focus on the Dutch settlers and their

contribution to American colonization. Although their colony was short-lived, the colonial Dutch

of New Netherland impacted the social and political systems of colonial America through the

introduction of their unique culture and legal system.

In the early 1620s, the Dutch settled the colony of New Netherland, which extended from

what is now Albany, New York to what is now the state of Delaware. The Dutch West India

Company, a joint-stock company designed to oversee Dutch colonization in the New World,

sponsored the settlement because the location provided great opportunities for trade and

commerce. The fertile land and vigorous trade opportunities led many Europeans to New

Netherland. Settlers of the colony enjoyed social freedoms, such as freedom of religion, because

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the Dutch respected religious liberty. This freedom of conscience within New Netherland

attracted many Europeans and colonists who were experiencing religious persecution. This

attraction created a socially diverse and tolerant society within New Netherland that allowed

underrepresented social groups to prosper. These various social groups included a variety of

religiously persecuted groups and women. The Dutch culture provided a safe and prosperous

environment for these minority groups, and Dutch law allotted these people rights which they did

not possess within the Anglo-American colonies. Although these rights would gradually decrease

and eventually dissolve when the English capture New Netherland in 1667, the presence of these

progressive ideals are important to understanding the experience of the colonial Americans. This

paper will explore the way in which Dutch culture provided women with rights and opportunities

in the seventeenth-century colony of New Netherland; as well as, evaluate several women’s

experiences in the colony as these rights gradually dissipated following the English takeover.

For a large majority of history women lived in the background of society. Before the

feminist movement, American society rarely heard the voices of early American women, and

historians hardly bothered to study the American female experience. This is partially due to the

lack of female leaders within early society. As of recent, women’s history has become a hot topic

among American historians. Historians have begun to see that understanding American women’s

history is necessary in understanding American history as a whole. These historians find the

experiences of early American women in women’s letters, diaries, and legal documents. While

early American culture restricted the lives of women and their social involvement in a number of

ways, there were exceptions to the underrepresentation of women. The most prominent exception

to this underrepresentation was the Dutch colonies in North America. Located primarily in the

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Northeast, the Dutch colonies ran on the legal and social principles established in Holland.1

These principles allowed for women in Holland to be “so well vers’d in Bargaining, Cyphering

and Writing, that in the absence of their Husbands in long Sea voyages they beat the trade at

home.” 2 The Dutch’s unique values and laws allowed women to gain social standing that they

did not have in English colonies.

The most significant difference between the Dutch colonies and their English

contemporaries was that the Dutch operated under Roman-Dutch Law while English colonies

operated under the English Common Law. Roman-Dutch Law provided a plethora of

opportunities for women in the Dutch colonies because it advocated fair treatment under the law.

Because of the influence of Roman-Dutch Law in the colonies, the Dutch colonies of colonial

America allowed women to exercise social, legal, and economic freedoms that did not exist for

them in English colonies.

Social Freedom This paper will first explore the social freedoms allotted to women in Dutch culture

because the precedents that allowed for these social freedoms were founded in Dutch culture

rather than law. Although Dutch culture was rooted within the customary laws of the

Netherlands, the social freedoms did not originate as legal rights, but rather social rights allotted

to the people through Dutch custom. It was this Dutch custom that influenced the law to allot for

1 Kim Todt, “‘Women Are as Knowing Therein as the Men’: Dutch Women in Early America,” Women in Early

America, ed. Thomas A. Foster (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 43. 2 James Howell, Epistolae Ho-Elingae: The Familiar Letters of James Howell , (London, 1645), 141.

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both social and economic freedom, but the social freedoms originated with Dutch custom rather

than Dutch law.

Women in Dutch colonies experienced social freedoms such as religious freedom and

educational opportunity. These freedoms took foundation in the socially diverse and

economically-minded Dutch culture. Women were not necessarily given leadership roles in the

church because of this freedom, leadership within the church depended upon the member’s

denominational ties. However, Dutch culture allowed women to practice whatever religion they

wished and did not persecute them for the ways the worshipped. This freedom could allow

women to take leadership roles within the church, if their denomination allowed, because Dutch

society did not discriminate against female prosperity. Women were also able to gain knowledge

to become economically active through the Dutch education system. The Dutch commercial

focus cared not about the gender or spiritual identity of a person, so long as they were

economically beneficial to the colony. Because of this economic focus, the Dutch colonies

allowed women social freedoms denied to them in the English colonies.

Religious Freedom

Women in the English colonies were not able to gain social standing in the church, and

thus in social life, because the English colonies ran on moral code outlined by the laws in

Scripture stating things such as, “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not

permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the

law.”3 Because of passages such as this and the important role religion played in English society,

women were unable to have high social standing in the English colonies. In contrast, women

3 1 Corinthians 14:34

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benefitted from the presence of Dutch culture because it focused upon economics rather than

morality.

Dutch culture allotted for freedom of conscience, which respects the right to follow one’s

own beliefs in the matters of religion and morality. Settlers throughout the colonies knew of

Dutch tolerance thanks to writings by men who had experiences in New Netherland and wrote

about the lives of the Dutch people. These men, typically English, did not appreciate the ways of

the Dutch and saw their tolerance as something of abhorrence. The political satire Amsterdam

and Her Other Hollander Sisters Put Out To Sea described New Amsterdam as “a Gally-

mophrey of all Religions; except only what's true and pure,” and that, “they account the best

Religion which brings most gains to them for toleration, were it the Turks Alchoran, that's their

best God that brings the most Gold.”4 The satire shows that the Dutch allowed peoples of all

religions to live within their colony as long as they contributed to the financial success of the

colony. This attitude of religious tolerance contrasted the English colonies which

excommunicated those who challenged the Puritan faith. Although English bias fills this passage,

it dictated the diversity and tolerance of New Netherland to its readers.5

Because Dutch tolerance was well-known throughout the English colonies, English

settlers who faced religious persecution and excommunication were aware of religious freedom

and opportunity offered by the Dutch. Women especially took advantage of Dutch tolerance in

the mid-1600s as colonial leaders suppressed their attempts to lead in the church. Two women

who faced such persecution were Anne Hutchinson and Lady Deborah Moody. The English

colonial court excommunicated both Hutchinson and Moody from the English colony at

4 Anonymous, Amsterdam and her other Hollander sisters put out to sea, by Van Trump, Van Dunck, and Van

Dumpe (London,1652), 3. 5 Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs, "Dutch Contributions to Religious Toleration." Church History 79, no. 3, (September

2010), 585-613.

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Massachusetts Bay because they believed these women were undermining the church authority

by questioning Puritan doctrine. Upon excommunication, both women eventually relocated to

New Netherland in search of religious opportunity. It is important to see that English leaders

excommunicated these women because they found the women’s religious activity and leadership

threatening to the English colony. These women experienced freedom to live, lead, and worship

as they pleased within New Netherland, freedoms that the English colonies denied them.

Anne Hutchinson

The English leaders in Massachusetts persecuted Anne Hutchinson for challenging the

Puritan doctrine and leading a Bible study that included men. This persecution eventually led

Hutchinson to New Netherland in search of religious freedom and opportunity to discuss biblical

principles without fear of excommunication.

Hutchinson was the wife of a successful merchant and a Puritan woman whose family

followed Reverend John Cotton to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634.6 During her time in

the colony, Hutchinson served as a midwife to the local community. This service allowed her

influence among the people, which she used to discuss John Cotton’s sermons with the

community. The group steadily grew until it reached about sixty to eighty regular attendees.

These meetings posed a problem for the Puritan leaders who controlled the government at

Massachusetts Bay because a woman led them, and more specifically a woman who challenged

the Puritan doctrine led them. The content of Hutchinson’s meetings mainly focused upon the

“Covenant of Grace.” This teaching challenged Puritan beliefs, which according to Hutchinson,

focused on the necessity of works to prove one’s salvation. Because she taught against this in, “a

6 Nancy Woloch, Early American Women : a Documentary History, 1600-1900. Third ed. (New York, NY:

McGraw-Hill), 2014, 137.

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manner not appropriate for her sex,” the Puritan leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony tried

her for heresy before the church at Newton.7

During the trial, Hutchinson defended herself eloquently and Cotton dismissed those that

opposed her. She gave the Puritan leaders little hope of convicting her until the end of the trial

when she claimed to have had a revelation from God. She said that in the revelation God had told

her He would destroy all her enemies. This claim of direct revelation strictly contrasted Puritan

code, and gave the church officials the evidence they needed to convict Hutchinson of heresy and

excommunicate her.

Upon her excommunication, Anne Hutchinson began to pursue religious freedom. She

moved with her family to Rhode Island, however their time in Rhode Island was short lived.

During this period, Rhode Island was petitioning the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

to become a part of Massachusetts. As Hutchinson was now a widow and raising six children, the

thought of once again being under the rule of the intolerant Massachusetts Bay Colony gave

Hutchinson much anxiety. She and her family relocated to New Netherland in an attempt to, yet

again, find religious solace. In 1643, a short period after arriving in New Netherland, a group of

Indians killed Hutchinson and five of her children. Although her stay in New Netherland was

short and resulted in a tragic end, Hutchinson’s decision to move to New Netherland as a widow

searching for religious sanctuary is one that reflects the knowledge of Dutch religious acceptance

and freedom offered to women in New Netherland.8 Her stay in New Netherland is more

symbolic of the freedoms offered by the Dutch rather than the social mobility those freedoms

allotted her.

7 Ibid., 105. 8 Carole Chandler Waldrup. Colonial Women : 23 Europeans Who Helped Build a Nation, (Jefferson, N.C.:

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers ), 1999, 56.

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Lady Deborah Moody

The English leaders at Massachusetts Bay Colony religiously persecuted Lady Deborah

Moody, another English woman, causing her to flee to New Netherland in pursuit of religious

liberties. Like Hutchinson, Moody faced excommunication for challenging the Puritan doctrine.

However, unlike Hutchinson, Moody was able to take advantage of the religious freedom offered

by the Dutch to gain societal leadership within New Netherland.

Lady Deborah Moody was the wife of Baronet Sir Henry Moody. Before her marriage,

her name was Deborah Dunch Avesbury. She became a lady upon her marriage to the baronet.

Her father was a Member of Parliament and an advocate of the constitutional rights of the

English people. Her husband died early in their marriage leaving Moody widowed at a young

age. Following the death of her husband Moody began experiencing discontent in England due to

social enmity towards her Anabaptist faith. 9 The Church of England was so intermingled into

the State that those of high station in the Church began gaining political roles within the State.

Dignitaries within the church used the court to persecute those who diverged from the written

doctrine in any way. Because of this, Moody felt it necessary to leave her homeland.10

Moody longed to make a home in an environment that would support her spiritually. She

made the decision to relocate to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1640 with hopes of finding

religious solace. While in Massachusetts, Moody joined the church of Salem and lived in that

area for a short period. She soon met religious persecution as the Puritans were highly intolerant

of other faiths. Moody was tried for heresy before the church of Salem because her Anabaptist

9 Anabaptists believe that Christians should save baptism until later in life because infants do not yet understand the

faith. This discredits the doctrine of infant baptism which was widely accepted by several denominations, namely

the Anglicans and Puritans. 10 James W. Gerard, Lady Deborah Moody: a Discourse Delivered Before the New York Historical Society, May

1880. (New York: F.B. Patterson), 1880.

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faith questioned the doctrine of infant baptism. Following her trial, the English court

excommunicated Moody from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and again she was without the

spiritually supportive home for which she longed.

Moody searched for a new home among the religiously tolerant Dutch, and found

opportunity for leadership within the colony. Many Anabaptists also left Massachusetts to follow

Moody to New Netherland. Moody displayed administrative skill through her role as a leader

among the Anabaptists on the search for religious freedom in the Dutch colonies. It was she who

found the area where the Anabaptists would make their home. Upon arrival in New Netherland,

the Director General of New Amsterdam gave Moody a land grant and she used her leadership

skills to begin a colony that was built upon religious freedom. Moody plotted the area and

planned the colony to be one that ran in the interest of the people. Because of her desire for

religious freedom and devout beliefs, Moody became a leader among the Anabaptists and the

first and only woman to found a colony in North America.

Although religious freedom in itself did not benefit women economically, it did benefit

them socially. Both Hutchinson and Moody influenced people through their faith, and sought the

opportunity to express that faith freely in New Netherland. Although religious freedom in New

Netherland did not provide these women with leadership roles within the church, it did benefit

their lives by relieving anxiety caused by religious persecution, and, in the case of Lady Deborah

Moody, allowed them to experience other leadership opportunities outside the church.

Education

Dutch social freedom also came in the form of education opportunities for women.

Because Dutch law allotted women economic freedom, Dutch girls had the social freedom to

attend schools and receive the same formal education as boys through elementary school.

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Because Dutch society enabled women to become merchants and traders, it allowed girls to

receive the education required to become economically successful. Following elementary school,

boys and girls split, and the girls’ formal education ended. However, female education did not

stop with the end of formal education. Women were able to receive indentures for service to

craftsmen or they could receive vocational training from family or businessmen.

An example of the informal education women gained is the story of Maria van Cortlandt,

a Dutch woman who received vocational training from her father. Maria’s father, Olaf Stevenson

van Cortlandt, was a businessman and worked in the brewing industry. Maria’s husband,

Jeremias van Rensselaer, wrote his mother about Maria’s involvement in the brewing industry

saying, “…in her father’s house she always had the management thereof, to wit, the disposal of

the beer and helping to find customers for it.” Maria’s experience in her father’s house

demonstrates that she received vocational training from him, possibly while learning from her

mother about household duties. Jeremias also reveals that Maria had the “management thereof”

meaning she had a managerial leadership role within this industry. Maria’s story demonstrates

the opportunities created for women through the informal education offered to them by the

Dutch.11

Legal Rights

The Dutch legal system was systematically and culturally different from that of the

English. Dutch social culture influenced the law of New Netherland through the implementation

of customary law, which accepts what has always been done and accepted by the law within a

culture. Because Dutch societal culture accepted women as partners to men both spiritually and

11 Todt, “‘Women Are as Knowing Therein as the Men,’” 48.

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economically, the Dutch law also accepted women and granted them rights not available to them

in English culture. It was through social culture that women obtained legal rights, and through

legal rights that women participated in the economic system. Thus, Roman-Dutch law was the

central factor in the Dutch female experience.

The English legal system categorized women under a law known as coverture. The

English derived the term coverture from the term feme covert, which means a married woman. In

common law systems (which is what the English abided under) coverture was “the protection

and control of a woman by her husband.” Coverture relinquishes all property rights of the

woman to her husband and removes the power of the woman to enter into lawsuits as an

independent person. Women under a common law system relinquished all their personal rights to

her husband upon marriage.12

The Dutch of New Netherland operated under a version of the civil law known as

Roman-Dutch law. This law combined Roman law with Dutch customary law to create a

codified system for judicial reference. The codes within the law of New Netherlands allowed

women independence status in legal proceedings. Women under Roman-Dutch law could own

property, partake in legal discourse, own and manage businesses, and commission trade without

male help, permission, or sponsorship.

Marital/Family Relations

Dutch law allowed women many rights within their marital unions. Women were able to

sign and orchestrate legal documents such as prenuptial agreements, get divorced, and own

property independently from their husbands. These legal rights were especially important and

12 Deborah A. Rosen, “Women and Property Across Colonial America: A Comparison of Legal Systems in New

Mexico and New York”. The William and Mary Quarterly 60. (Virginia: Omohundro Institute of Early American

History and Culture, 2003), 355–81.

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unusual in colonial American culture because they strictly violated the rules of coverture that

English colonies followed. Marital legal rights allowed married women to maintain ownership of

family inheritance, own property, and protect their finances and inheritance which they brought

into their marriage.

Margaret Hardenbroek De Vries, a widow and a wealthy merchant and ship owner, had a

prenuptial agreement drawn for her second marriage to protect her children’s inheritance and her

personal finances. Her first husband, Pieter De Vries, was a wealthy merchant and trader. Upon

his death, Margaret took over his business and began shipping goods to Holland to trade for

Dutch goods she could sell in New Amsterdam. When she remarried, the Court of Orphan

Masters requested that she present her daughter’s inheritance in an effort to protect her

daughter’s property from her new marriage. Instead, Margaret had her husband, Fredrick

Philipse, sign the prenuptial agreement prior to their marriage in order to protect the inheritance

her first husband left to her children as well as all the property, personal finances, business, and

goods that she brought into the marriage.13

The Roman-Dutch law allowed women to write wills independent from their husbands.

The will of Anneke Janse, a Dutch woman who was among the first to settle in the colony of

Rensselaerswyck, exemplifies this precedent of women having legal independence.14 In her will

Janse left her children and their families the estate and the valuables therewith to be, “equally

divided among them and used as their own free estate without the opposition of any one.” 15 This

line demonstrates not only the legal authority of the document and the protection it allowed

Janse’s children to have, but also heavily contrasted English common law practice which

13 Waldrup, Colonial Women, 89. 14 Anneke Janse, An account of Anneke Janse and her family : also, the will of Anneke Janse in Dutch and English.

(Albany, N.Y.), 1870, 32. 15 Ibid., 12.

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provides that the sons inherit more than the daughters. Had it not been for the Roman-Dutch law,

Janse would not have been able to dictate the destination of her possessions without the

permission of her husband. In addition, the government would have given her real property to

her eldest son because that was the rightful owner in the eyes of the English law.16

Property/Dowry rights

Dutch law provided women with the ability to own and inherit their own property. This

provision also allowed women to write wills and buy and sell property. Property ownership

allowed women both legal and economic freedom which they did not experience in Anglo-

America. Dutch law also permitted women the ownership of land which allowed them to oversee

and control their land. This provision opened doors of leadership to women in New Netherlands.

Women, whether single, widowed or married, were also able to write wills to appropriate the

distribution of their real and personal property. This was in stark contrast to Anglo-American

colonies that allowed the widow to live on only one-third of her husband’s property to draw from

and gave the remainder of the property to the eldest son.17 Rather than allotting all the real

property to the eldest son, Dutch law allowed women to write wills that would evenly distribute

her and her husband’s property amongst the children, whether they were male or female.18

Equal partnership

Dutch law treated men and women as partners within a marriage. Each spouse had right

to their “community of goods,” the real and personal property acquired within the marriage.

Upon the death of one spouse, the other was entitled to half of the couple’s “community of

goods.”19 During marriage, the law allowed women to buy and sell property because of their co-

16 Rosen, “Women and Property Across Colonial America,” 366. 17 Ibid., 368. 18 Ibid., 368. 19 Ibid., 367.

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ownership of the property.20 This equal partnership was evident through the content of the letters

husbands and wives sent to one another, and the wives control of the estate while their husband

was away on business.

Like Maria van Rensselaer, Alida Schulyer Livingston lived in the period following the

English capture of New Netherland. Alida, too, was subject to the gradual assimilation from

Dutch to English culture and law in the colony. Alida stemmed from the commercially dominate

Schulyer family, which was closely tied with the van Rensselaer family. Alida’s letters

demonstrate the equality of her marriage to her husband Robert Livingston, a Scottish

businessman and politician in New Netherland (now New York). In their correspondence, Alida

and Robert discuss the business of the estate and politics within the colony. Alida was in charge

of her and her husband’s affairs in Albany as he was away on business often.21 During their

discourse Alida uses the terms “ours” and “we” when discussing the estate and the money it was

making. She also conducted buying and selling while her husband was away. In one letter she

discussed their cow saying, “when I sold it, it was in the stable….I showed De Schouwer that

one and he let it go. I really cannot help this, so I got another cow.”22 This letter shows that Alida

had buying and selling power over her and her husband’s estate. This instance and Alida’s use of

the terms “ours” and “we” when discussing property proves that their marriage was an equal

partnership as what belonged to one belonged to both. Alida’s letters provide insight into the

marital dynamic and partnership within Dutch families following the English takeover.

Maria van Rensselaer’s husband also exemplified the high esteem he held his wife in, and

the respect he had for her through his letters with his mother. Jeremias wrote his mother to tell

20 Ibid., 367 21 Linda Biemer and Alida Livingston. “Business Letters of Alida Schuyler Livingston, 1680–1726”. New York

History 63 (2). New York State Historical Association (1982) 183–207. 22 Ibid., 197.

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her he was taking up brewing, “for [his] wife’s sake.” 23 this sacrifice demonstrated Jeremias’s

respect for his wife and her involvement within the brewing industry. He learned the craft

because his wife was involved and he wished to help her run her father’s business. This small

letter provides evidence of a man and his wife using their marriage as an equal partnership

between business partners, as well as a partner in a romantic relationship.

Economic Freedom

Dutch law and culture allotted women with certain economic freedoms that allowed them

to own property and partake in business. This happened both independently and through family

connections. Women were able to control and oversee areas of land, conduct trade and other

business, and even lead colonies. Many women in the Dutch colonies were involved in business

and the Dutch accommodated these women through their culture and education. Non-Dutch

leaders such as the King of England recognized female merchants and businesswomen because

of their financial success; however, these leaders were not as widely accepting of female leaders,

and as a result, these women faced challenges to their leadership by Anglo-American colonists

and their leaders.

Businesswomen

Margaret Hardenbroek De Vries Philipse exercised her Dutch right to own and operate a

business through her shipping and trade company. She came to New Amsterdam in 1659 with

her brother, who was on an indenture with a family there. In 1660 Margaret was hired to be a

business agent with Dutch merchants Wouter Valck, Daniel des Messieres, and others involved

in colonial trade.24 Margaret travelled to Holland on business quite frequently and regardless of

23 Kim Todt, “‘Women Are as Knowing Therein as the Men’: Dutch Women in Early America,” Women in Early

America, ed. Thomas A. Foster (New York: New York University Press, 2015) 43. 24 Waldrup. Colonial Women, 89.

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her family ties, she balanced motherhood and business in order to succeed. Margaret lived in the

period following English capture, therefore during her life New Netherland was under the rule of

the English. She, however, was able to continue her business tactics because the English were

still allowing the Dutch culture to influence the colony as they transitioned to English law. This

transitional period allowed Margaret to receive passage from Holland to New Amsterdam

between 1668 and 1669. The king granted this petition, thus acknowledging Margaret’s status as

a businesswoman. 25 This grant proves that Dutch culture and law regarding women’s rights had

an influence on other European powers, such as the English.

However, it is important to note that this Dutch influence was not long lived, and

Margaret seems to be the exception in English acceptance. Had it not been for her profitable

experience and connections with prominent male merchants, Margaret may have not obtained

this approval from the English king. Soon after the return from her voyage, Margaret, and other

Dutch women in New Amsterdam, found the English transition to be revoking the rights they

had so long enjoyed. Margaret no longer had rights to property ownership, and the British laws

forced her to defer to her husband in business affairs.26 Margaret died in 1691, and by 1700,

British leaders had done away with female trade and business in New Netherland.

Colony Leaders/Founders

Although Anglo-American colonies did not permit female property ownership because of

coverture, Roman-Dutch law did, and protected the property of the wife upon her marriage.

Because of this provision, women were able to rise to prominence through property ownership.

During the seventeenth century, property ownership was a symbol of wealth, and the most

influential people within society were the property owners. Property ownership allowed women

25 Ibid., 91. 26 Ibid., 92.

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to control areas of land and become overseers of that land. Two women who took advantage of

this freedom within the Dutch colonies were Lady Deborah Moody and Maria van Rensselaer.

Both Moody and Rensselaer became leaders of their areas and worked closely with government

officials to control their land and its inhabitants.

Upon her excommunication from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Lady Deborah Moody

relocated to the colony of New Netherlands in search of religious opportunity. When she arrived,

William Kieft, the director general of New Amsterdam, allotted her an area of land on which to

build a colony and promised her that her people would have freedom within to practice the

Anabaptist faith. Moody began planning and set about a layout for the colony, which she would

name Gravesend (located in modern day Brooklyn).

In the early stages of Gravesend, Moody prioritized her religious ideals while trying to

match the Dutch business focus. She originally wished for the town to be a commercial center,

but the harbor proved to be too small for commercial trade and business. The colony turned to

agricultural business in order to make their incomes. Moody designed Gravesend to be one large

square divided into four smaller squares by a central crossroad. The layout divided each square

among ten lots with a common field for cattle in the center. The colony operated under the

“liberty of conscience,” which provided the precedent of religious freedom these refugees were

searching for. 27

With the settlement of Gravesend, Lady Deborah Moody became the first and only

woman to found a colony. The charter for the colony was written in the name of, “ye Honored

Lady Deborah Moody.”28 Moody worked to achieve a democratic union within Gravesend and

27 Victor H. Cooper, A Dangerous Woman : New York’s First Lady Liberty : the Life and Times of Lady Deborah

Moody (1586-1659?) : Her Search for Freedom of Religion in Colonial America . Bowie, MD: Heritage Books,

1995. 28 Ibid., 107.

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resolved that it would be a land ruled by the people. Her experience with persecution played a

heavy role in the way in which she planned her colony. Moody’s perseverance through the

colonization process was fueled by her convictions for the necessity of a colony run in the

interest of the people, one that provides its people with the freedom to worship God how they

choose. Daniel Webster eloquently described the power of religious liberty in saying, “The love

of religious liberty is a stronger sentiment, when fully excited, than an attachment to civil

freedom…religious liberty…is able…to shake principalities and powers.”29 Lady Deborah’s life

exemplifies both the power of conviction provided by the need for religious freedom and the

opportunities made available to women within the Dutch colonies.

The Dutch colonies allowed women the economic freedom to be colonial overseers,

however, male officials restricted this freedom following the English takeover of New

Netherland in 1667. The life and work of Maria van Rensselaer, the female patroon of the estate

of Rensselaerswyck in New Netherland, demonstrate how women struggled to keep their

economic rights following the English takeover.30

Formerly Maria Van Cortlandt, the woman known for her managing role in the brewing

industry, Maria married Jeremias van Rensselaer in 1662. Jeremias was the patroon of

Rensselaerswyck, a title he received because his family owned the land the colony was fixed

upon. Patroons were any person given land and granted manorial privileges of that land under the

Dutch government. Rensselaerswyck was a colonial town located near modern day Albany, New

York. Jeremias and Maria had six children, but sadly Jeremias died and their marriage ended

after only twelve short years.31

29 Ibid., 113. 30 Joyce D. Goodfriend, "Maria van Cortlandt van Rensselaer." American Women Prose Writers to 1820 , ed. Carla

Mulford, Angela Vietto, and Amy E. Winans (Detroit: Gale, 1999), 299. 31 Ibid., 299.

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Following her husband’s death, Maria became the acting patroon of Rensselaerswyck.

Because the government did not allow women official patroonship, instead they placed Killean

van Rensselaer as the official patroon and allowed Maria to act as patroon because Killean did

not live in Rensselaerswyck. During the time following her husband’s death, Maria was left with

the task of resolving her husband’s estate. Many of her letters deal with business and the settling

of her husband’s estate.32

In a 1681 letter to her brother, Maria outlines the issues that she is having with the British

government of New Netherland. Although Maria had control of the estate, she had trouble

dictating that control because she was a woman. In this instance, Maria was discussing a tax she

did not wish to pay on the estate. The British officials did not listen to Maria concerning the

period of the tax, she determined to contact her brother for his advice. She told the officials that

she was contacting her brother saying that she, “will await [his] orders” before acting. The

government’s approval of Maria’s decisions depended upon the approval of her brother, and

Maria knew this and used the governmental prejudice to her advantage by seeking help in males

which she trusted and knew would help her. This situation demonstrates that although the British

government accepted Maria as the overseer of the estate, they were not fully comfortable with a

woman having complete control of an estate without male supervision.

Maria van Rensselaer lived in the 1680s, following the English capture of New

Netherland. Her story gives insight into the way Dutch culture remained a part of New

Netherland following the English takeover. Although the reservation of Dutch culture allowed

Maria to maintain acting control of a colony, the government did not allow her official control as

patroon and she met many adversities while overseeing the estate because she was a woman. Her

32 Ibid., 299.

20

story exemplifies how the lives of women changed following the English capture of New

Netherland, while still demonstrating the freedoms allotted to women by the Dutch.

Conclusion

Although Dutch colonization was successful, Dutch control of the colony was short-

lived. In 1664, English troops invaded the colony of New Netherland and took control of the

Dutch government therein. With the transfer from Dutch authority, an English administrator set

about the remodeling of the legal structure of New York to fit English traditions. He did his work

gradually, as not to upset the order of the colony.33

Part of the gradual efforts to remodel the Dutch colony was to anglicize the law in

regards to women. The English regarded women as the subordinate to her husband and reflected

this regard in their laws. Following the English takeover, assimilation came gradually, however,

in the 1690s the English began imposing their culture and laws more heavily within the colony

and through doing so changed rights that women had long enjoyed within New Netherlands.34

Two ways in which the English forced their laws upon New Netherland were by imposing the

law of coverture and eliminating female property ownership. Even in the case of widows, the

state only allowed women to keep their husband’s land and home for the forty days following his

death, after this, the state would give the land to the son whom it saw as the rightful heir.35 The

English wished to curb the amount of land a woman owned, so rather than giving the widow half

of her husband’s estate following his death, English law gave the land to the family’s eldest

33 Rosen, “Women and Property Across Colonial America,” 367. 34 Ibid., 367. 35 Ibid., 368.

21

son.36 Although Dutch culture remained prominent within New York beyond the seventeenth

century through architecture and literature, the transfer to English Common Law essentially

erased women’s rights within the colony until the rise of feminism in the late nineteenth century.

Despite the short period they were in power, the Dutch proved that a society that allows

female independence is economically and socially viable. Female participation within the Dutch

colonies was an integral part of the development of New Netherland. Without businesswomen

such as Margaret Hardenbroek De Vries Philipse the trading industry would not have been as

vibrant as it was; without colony leader, Lady Deborah Moody, the colony of Gravesend would

not have existed; and without Maria van Rensselaer’s patroonship, the colony of

Rensselaerswyck would have failed. Wives such as Alida Livingston kept their merchant and

politician husbands updated on colonial happenings and handled their estates while their

husbands were away. The colony of New Netherland offered women the social, legal, and

economic opportunities they did not receive in Anglo-American colonies, and women used these

opportunities to create a place of necessity for themselves within the colony. Had it not been for

women, New Netherland would not have been nearly as successful. And had it not been for

Dutch culture, the women of the colony would not have been able to showcase their talents and

abilities and prove themselves essential to society.

In conclusion, the Dutch of New Netherland were influential to American history because

they allowed women social, legal, and economic freedoms that the English denied them. The

longevity of the Dutch colony is not as important as its influence in women’s history. Although

Dutch women would lose their rights following the English takeover, the Dutch society was

integral to success of women in colonial America. In addition, New Netherland proved itself

36 Ibid., 368.

22

important to the greater American history by serving as an example of a society that successfully

functioned through both male and female participation.

23

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