History of New York City (1665–1783)
History of New York City |
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Lenape and New Netherland, to 1664 New Amsterdam British and Revolution, 1665–1783 Federal and early American, 1784–1854 Tammany and Consolidation, 1855–1897 (Civil War, 1861–1865) Early 20th century, 1898–1945 Post–World War II, 1946–1977 Modern and post-9/11, 1978–present |
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Transportation Timelines: NYC • Bronx • Brooklyn • Queens • Staten Island Category |
The history of
Early English Period
The English had renamed the colony the Province of New York, after the king's brother James, Duke of York and on June 12, 1665, appointed Thomas Willett the first of the Mayors of New York. The city grew northward and remained the largest and most important city in the Province of New York, becoming the third largest in the British Empire after London and Philadelphia.[citation needed]
The Dutch regained the colony briefly in 1673, then traded it away to the English in 1674 in the Treaty of Westminster ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War.
Leisler's Rebellion, an uprising in which militia captain Jacob Leisler seized control of lower New York from 1689 to 1691, occurred in the midst of England's "Glorious Revolution". It reflected colonial resentment against King James II, who in the 1680s decreed the formation of the provinces of New York, New Jersey and the Dominion of New England as royal colonies, with New York City designated as the capital. Royal authority was restored in 1691 by English troops sent by James' successor, William III.
New York was cosmopolitan from the beginning, established and governed largely as a strategic trading post. One visitor during the early revolutionary period wrote that "the inhabitants are in general brisk and lively," the women were "handsome," he recorded—as did others new to the city—though, he added, "it rather hurts a European eye to see so many Negro slaves upon the streets."[1] There were numerous marriages of people from different ethnic groups. "Joyce Goodfriend's study of colonial New York City, for instance, suggests that many interracial marriages occurred more because of a lack of opportunity to marry within their own group than a desire to marry outside it. ...over 60% of Englishmen in the New York capital in the late 17th century married women of non-English origins." However, by the 1730s over three fourths of the Dutch men and women still married within their own groups, though by this point there was a generation of children of mixed European ancestry.[2] Freedom of worship was part of the city's foundation, and the trial for libel in 1735 of John Peter Zenger, editor of the New-York Weekly Journal established the principle of freedom of the press in the British colonies. Sephardic Jews expelled from Dutch Brazil after Portuguese recapture, were welcome in New York when the governor realized their value and gave them exemptions from restrictions on Jews.[3]
The
Revolution
The city was the base for British operations in the
The Sons of Liberty, a secret and sometimes violent patriot group, formed chapters in New York and other cities and frightened the royal officials.[4] The "Sons" engaged in a running conflict with British authority in the city over the raising of liberty poles in prominent public locations (see Battle of Golden Hill), from the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766 until rebel control of the city in 1775. The poles, often when a signal device such as a red cap was placed atop the pole, served as rallying points for public assemblies to protest against the colonial government. The city was the main location of organized political resistance in the form of the Committee of Sixty and then later the New York Provincial Congress. Following the first reading of the Declaration of Independence, the statue of King George III in Bowling Green was torn down and melted into musket balls. The city, however, was a hotbed of Royal fervor and probably held a larger proportion of Tories than any other place in the colonies—though likely still a minority in the city. Many prominent New Yorkers, "living in a commercial city blessed by the profits of empire" were reluctant to "jeopardize their well-established connections to the empire."[5]
General
The city's traders, stock brokers, and mariners brought with them great wealth. Henry Knox wrote his wife admiring New Yorkers' "magnificent" horse carriages and fine furniture, but condemning their "want of principle," "pride and conceit," "profaneness," and "insufferable" Toryism.[6] Manhattan's free-wheeling ways did create an environment of loose tongues and loose women. A young Presbyterian chaplain "worried what the consequences might be to the American cause of so many of all ranks so habitually taking the name of the Lord in vain." "But alas, swearing abounds, all classes swear," he lamented.[7]
The abundance of prostitutes in New York City—an estimated 500 women plying "their trade" in 1776
April 22, barely a week after the Continental Army arrived in the city, two soldiers were found dead hidden in a bordello, one corpse "castrated in a barbarous manner," Bangs reported. Soldiers went on a rampage in the brothel district "in furious retaliation." General Washington condemned all such "riotous behavior" and ordered military patrols in the district, a strict curfew, and other restrictions.[9] General Washington understood the crucial strategic importance of New York and its waterways to the war effort, but "...had seen enough of New York on prior visits to dislike and distrust the city as the most sinful place in America, a not uncommon view."[1]
American Revolutionary War
General Washington correctly surmised that after their defeat at the
Early British military success resulted in military occupation of the city and the exodus of any remaining Patriots combined with a large influx of Loyalist refugees from throughout the former colonies, making the city solidly Loyalist for the remainder of the British occupation. The city became the British political and military center of operations for the rest of the conflict. For this purpose the map now known as the British Headquarters Map was drawn in 1782, the best map of Manhattan Island's largely natural, unengineered condition.[10]
The city's status as the nexus of British control in the region made it the center of attention for Washington's
Social upheaval
When the British left in 1783, they took along many loyalists including prominent businessmen, lawyers, financiers and clergymen.
Notes
- ^ a b c McCullough 2005, p. 122
- ^ Daily Life in the Colonial City - Krawczynaski
- ^ Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace (1998). Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. Oxford University Press. pp. 133–34.
- ISBN 9781317911456.
- ^ Chopra, Ruma. Unnatural Rebellion: Loyalists in New York City during the Revolution. University of Virginia Press, 2011, p. 28.
- ^ McCullough 2005, pp. 122–123
- ^ McCullough 2005, p. 123
- ^ a b McCullough 2005, p. 124
- ^ McCullough 2005, p. 125
- ^ The Mannahatta Project British Headquarters Map of Manhattan Island
- ^ https://longreads.com/2015/04/30/slavery-and-freedom-new-york-city/
- ^ Edward Countryman, "The uses of capital in revolutionary America: the case of the New York loyalist merchants." William and Mary Quarterly (1992): 3-28 in JSTOR
- ^ Kyle T. Bulthuis, Four Steeples over the City Streets: Religion and Society in New York's Early Republic Congregations (NYU Press, 2014)
References
- Goodfriend, Joyce D. (2009). "Foreigners in a Dutch Colonial City". New York History. 90 (4): 241–269.
- ISBN 0743226712.
Further reading
- Archdeacon, Thomas J. New York City, 1664-1710: Conquest and Change (1976)
- Bridenbaugh, Carl. Cities in the Wilderness-The First Century of Urban Life in America 1625-1742 (1938) online edition
- Bridenbaugh, Carl. Cities in Revolt: Urban Life in America, 1743–1776 (1955)
- Burns, Ric, and James Sanders. New York: An Illustrated History (2003), large-scale book version of Burns PBS documentary, PBS. It originally aired in 1999 with additional episodes airing in 2001 and 2003.
- ISBN 0-195-11634-8.
- Carp, Benjamin L. Rebels Rising: Cities and the American Revolution (2007); Focus on role of taverns
- Countryman, Edward. "The Uses of Capital in Revolutionary America: The Case of the New York Loyalist Merchants," William and Mary Quarterly, 49#1 (1992), pp. 3–28 in JSTOR
- Gellman, David N. "No Shelter from the Storm: Slavery and Freedom in Early New York City." New York History 103.1 (2022): 23-35.
- Goodfriend, Joyce D. Before the Melting Pot: Society and Culture in Colonial New York City, 1664-1730 (1994)
- Harris, Leslie M. In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863 (2004)
- ISBN 0300055366.
- Jackson, Kenneth and Roberts, Sam (eds.) The Almanac of New York City (2008)
- Krawczynaski, Keith T. Daily Life in the Colonial City (2013)
- Middleton, Simon. "The World Beyond the Workshop: Trading in New York's Artisan Economy, 1690-1740." New York History (2000): 381–416. Page Count: 37 in JSTOR
- Tiedemann, Joseph S. Reluctant Revolutionaries: New York City and the Road to Independence, 1763-1776 (1997) excerpt and text search; Online edition
Primary sources
- Jackson, Kenneth T. and David S. Dunbar, eds. Empire City: New York Through the Centuries (2005), 1015 pages of excerpts excerpt
- Still, Bayrd, ed. Mirror for Gotham: New York as Seen by Contemporaries from Dutch Days to the Present (New York University Press, 1956) online edition
- Stokes, I.N. Phelps. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909 compiled from original sources and illustrated by photo-intaglio reproductions of important maps plans views and documents in public and private collections (6 vols., 1915–28). A highly detailed, heavily illustrated chronology of Manhattan and New York City. see The Iconography of Manhattan Island All volumes are on line free at:
- I.N. Phelps Stokes; The Iconography of Manhattan Island Vol 1. 1915 v. 1. The period of discovery (1524-1609); the Dutch period (1609-1664). The English period (1664-1763). The Revolutionary period (1763-1783). Period of adjustment and reconstruction; New York as the state and federal capital (1783-1811)
- I.N. Phelps Stokes; The Iconography of Manhattan Island Vol 2. 1916 v. 2. Cartography: an essay on the development of knowledge regarding the geography of the east coast of North America; Manhattan Island and its environs on early maps and charts / by F.C. Wieder and I.N. Phelps Stokes. The Manatus maps. The Castello plan. The Dutch grants. Early New York newspapers (1725-1811). Plan of Manhattan Island in 1908
- I.N. Phelps Stokes; The Iconography of Manhattan Island Vol 3. 1918 v. 3. The War of 1812 (1812-1815). Period of invention, prosperity, and progress (1815-1841). Period of industrial and educational development (1842-1860). The Civil War (1861-1865); period of political and social development (1865-1876). The modern city and island (1876-1909)
- I.N. Phelps Stokes; The Iconography of Manhattan Island Vol 4. 1922; v. 4. The period of discovery (565-1626); the Dutch period (1626-1664). The English period (1664-1763). The Revolutionary period, part I (1763-1776)
- I.N. Phelps Stokes; The Iconography of Manhattan Island Vol 5. 1926; v. 5. The Revolutionary period, part II (1776-1783). Period of adjustment and reconstruction New York as the state and federal capital (1783-1811). The War of 1812 (1812-1815) ; period of invention, prosperity, and progress (1815-1841). Period of industrial and educational development (1842-1860). The Civil War (1861-1865) ; Period of political and social development (1865-1876). The modern city and island (1876-1909)
- I.N. Phelps Stokes; The Iconography of Manhattan Island Vol 6. 1928; v. 6. Chronology: addenda. Original grants and farms. Bibliography. Index.