This is the second book by this author that I have found to be stimulating and exciting. The previous one, Descartes’ Bones, explored the intersection of faith and reason. This one describes the change in leadership of Manhattan in 1664 from Dutch to English, a change that resulted in a merger of aspects of two cultures that made New York City the richly diverse and financially successful city that it continues to be.
The Dutch had been displacing the Native Americans in the area beginning in the 1620s; in 1664 four English ships showed up, led by Richard Nicholls, and without bloodshed he secured an agreement for the Dutch-led inhabitants to recognize the British monarchy as the authority of their colony in return for a guarantee of their continued trade arrangements. As a result the English acquired a financially successful colony and learned how the Dutch financial arrangements made them rich. The English were able to prevail partly because the Dutch were not providing any military support for their outpost of the Dutch West Indies Trading Company.
Shorto then takes us on a wander through a part of English history that I was barely acquainted with: the civil wars, beheading of Charles I, Cromwell’s rule, and the Restoration. It was the Charles II, son of Charles I, who was restored to the throne. James, also known as the Duke of York was the younger brother of Charles II. He and Nicholls were long-time friends and had fought together in France during the exile of the Stuarts; Nicholls was moved to name the city for his buddy. I find it thrilling to spend time in a far-away century and come away knowing a bit more of how things came to be.
During Nicholls’ lifetime, the English were beset by competing fanatical religious views that culminated in the civil wars and the beheading of Charles I. As Shorto puts it, “…loyalty to the crown was only one element of what English people like him—Royalists—championed. They were fighting for a return to normalcy. They were exhausted by fanaticism, zealotry, fundamentalism.” Nicholls appreciated the religious tolerance practiced by the Dutch, a contrast to the Massachusetts Bay Colony with their persecution of anyone not following their faith. He was given two tasks in North America and was successful at acquiring New Amsterdam for the English, but was unable to convince the Puritans in Boston to acknowledge the Stuarts. Tolerance of others’ religions was one factor in the Dutch shipping and trading successes and Nicholls shared that and enabled the English to share that success.
One figure of importance who turns up in the negotiations was John Winthrop, Jr., the son of one of the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was the father who gave us the “shining city on a hill” phrase. Unlike his father, the son was not a religious fanatic and was interested in creating a colony that was tolerant of other religions. He was well acquainted with the Dutch leader of New Amsterdam, Peter Stuyvesant, as well as knowing Nicholls, and he played an important role in the successful merger of the Dutch colony with the English monarchy.
I want to remember what Shorto wrote about George Downing, an important English figure from this period I had never heard of, although 10 Downing Street in London is a familiar address. Shorto says, “If there is one person in English history who might be thought of as the mastermind of the idea of a British empire, it must be George Downing….” He goes on to say some historians consider him the architect of the modern British state, “And yet one English historian has also called him (in a handsome turn of phrase) ‘the most unscrupulous person of whom record survives.'”
I must stop here and the only way to do that is to stop reading all the passages I have highlighted. I am such a fan of Russell Shorto’s writing: I love the casual almost conversational tone he uses as we tour long-ago time. But wait, one more thought from Shorto. Much as we can admire Nicholls’ and the Dutch tolerant view of religious differences, he reminds us that both Stuyvesant and Nicholls put into place policies that enabled New York to become enriched by the North American slave trade and that the Native Americans in the area were pushed out.
Russell Shorto, Taking Manhattan, W.W. Norton and Company, 2025, 390 pages (I read the Kindle version). Available in the public library.