Wall Street Manhattan
A line drawing of a wooden palisade beside which 17th
Century merchants, dressed in breeches, doublets and plumed hats, discussed
trading affairs struck such a chord in my imagination that it would, thirteen
years later, be the basis of a book, Manhattan Legacy, just published, about the early days of New York
City and the settlers who would become the founders of the American nation we
know today.
It came as quite a surprise to me that the Dutch were the
first real European influence in the growth of New York. As an Englishwoman my
education was heavily English-biased as you would expect, and, in doing the
research for my novel, I was constantly surprised by the ingenuity, tenacity
and tolerance of the Dutch settlers. They showed fortitude and bravery in the
face of overwhelming obstacles - a perilous 3,000 mile sea crossing, disease,
famine, hostile natives and the same warring European nations, but in the New
world.
Despite this, they set about working for the West India
Company, without complaint at the uncivilised working conditions, the long hours and
paltry wages.
In 1652, when a new war broke out in Europe between England
and Holland, fear of attacks from the English, whose territory lay on three
sides of the Dutch colony, pushed the Governor of the colony, Pieter
Stuyvesant, to address the issue of defence against hostilities. Stuyvesant
called together the burgomasters and magistrates of the colony and set about
discussing the building an effective defence for the town, not only for its
citizens, but also for Dutch settlers, who had farms and homesteads outside the
town’s boundaries.
In March 1653, it was decided that the woefully inadequate
Fort of New Amsterdam was to have a makeover, a night watch would be set up and
that the newly incorporated city should be walled and have a ‘wall street’. The
cost to the Treasury was 4-5,0000 guilders, the cost being offset by tax levies
on the Dutch according to the value of their estates.
The contract price for the wall alone was 3,166 guilders or
$2,166.
Constructed of pales, 12 feet high, 18 inches in girth and
with sharp points on top, the wall measured 180 rods (990 yards) beginning at
the East River and ending at the North or Hudson River. This is a surprisingly
short distance given that this spanned the entire width of Manhattan. Levelling
and landfill have added extra girth since then. The wall was finished on 1st May 1653, the entire project taking less than two
months to complete.
Since I began writing my novel in 2001 and researching this
period in history, a significant event in Manhattan focussed the entire world’s
attention on this tiny section of New York and, since then, surprising new
information has surfaced about its early days.
I still find myself marvelling at how the response to a
possible aggressor nearly four hundred years ago and the decisions taken to
address have shaped the way the world is today.
I shall be sharing so many more interesting and varied facts
about New Amsterdam, New York and the New World in future blogs.
My book, Manhattan Legacy, is set against a backdrop of slavery, pirates,
Native Americans and the colonization of the New World by feuding European
nations. It charts the lives of three different young men brought together by
murder, rape, ideals and revenge.
Trading is the backbone of
survival and the New World offers untold wealth, but that also brings with it
greed and treachery.
Pioneering settlers sought
freedom from religious persecution, European wars, poverty and social
repression. A new beginning in the New World beckoned.
Pre-Wall Street this story is
about the settlement of New Amsterdam and the beginnings of New York.
Read my novel Manhattan Legacy available on Lulu.com
You can buy Manhattan Legacy in various ebook formats on Smashwords
