For four centuries, people from the Netherlands have gone to America by boat or plane, to explore the country, to trade, to colonise, to settle, to do business, to find a new future or simply to visit the country as a tourist. And for four centuries, Americans, of diverse backgrounds, of native, African or European descent, have come to the Netherlands. These are their stories.
This book begins in the seventeenth century, when settlers commissioned by the West India Company settled on the south side of Manhattan and started a settlement that grew first into New Amsterdam and later into New York City. In 2024, both the Netherlands and the United States will commemorate these beginnings through commemorations, exhibitions, conferences and high-level Dutch visits to New York. 2024 is therefore a prime opportunity to tell the stories of the people who crossed the ocean and shaped the relationship between the Netherlands and the United States, and with New York in particular. The stories have a human touch, an emphasis on the individual as the bearer of one culture interacting with another. Feelings of admiration, liberation, expectation and hope play an important role in the stories. But there are also negative sides to Dutch-American history, for instance when it comes to the relationship with Native Americans and the Dutch role in American slavery. It is not going to be exclusively jubilant: success stories alternate with black pages here.