Lucy Garrison Green

The de Forests and the Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam Lucy Garrison Green

This work was the author's Master's Thesis for the Dept. of American History at the University of Nebraska in 1916. Green outlines for us the first families who colonized New Amsterdam, the area located on the southern tip of Manhattan Island, now referred to as New York City. She presents her argument that it was not the Dutch who were the first settlers on the Island of Manhattan; it was a group of Belgian-French Protestant refugees by the name of Walloon, under the leadership of Jesse De Forest. They were not part of a colony established and planned by the Dutch Government, but created for themselves their own community, and sought nothing more from the Dutch than transportation to the new land and permission to be left to establish their own community. They arrived at the mouth of the Hudson in 1624, and shortly thereafter the Walloon family formed the first permanent colony. This work is well researched and raises some interesting questions about the records kept during colonization. Who indeed were the first to settle New Amsterdam, and what part did the Walloon colony under the leadership of Jesse De Forest play in the first days of New Amsterdam? This work is complimented with a bibliography, an outline, and a new full-name index.