Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times
An art handler at the Queens Public Library cleaned the display case Tuesday where the Flushing
Remonstrance will be shown.
Posted on 12/05/2007 4:38:26 AM PST by Pharmboy
Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times
An art handler at the Queens Public Library cleaned the display case Tuesday where the Flushing
Remonstrance will be shown.
The Flushing Remonstrance made a rare visit yesterday to the old neighborhood.
...the] Remonstrance...an important early recorded defense of the freedom to worship that has been called the religious Magna Carta of the New World.
Relatively little known, this 1657 appeal by some 30 Flushing farmers for freedom to practice their Quaker religion goes on display...
snip...
According to historians, a group of about 30 freeholders in Flushing, which was then called Vlissingen, drafted and signed a remonstrance, or traditional form of Dutch protest, opposing the policy of Peter Stuyvesant, the provincial director general, that restricted the worship of Quakers because they were not members of the Dutch Reformed Church.
These English nationals, subject to Dutch law, signed the document on Dec. 27, 1657. After they presented it to the colonial government, some of them were arrested (and released a short time later).
“They went to jail for it; they put their money where there mouth was,” Dr. Jackson said.
John Bowne, a Flushing farmer, subsequently invited Quakers to meet in his home — now a museum on Bowne Street that bears his name. For his daring, he was arrested, jailed and banished.
Bowne journeyed to the Netherlands and made successful arguments to the Dutch West India Company, which ultimately freed him and upheld the ideals of the Remonstrance, in a rebuke to the irascible Stuyvesant.
... The Remonstrance exhibited in Flushing is the 1657 record of the original, copied by a notary onto rag paper and included in the colonial-council minutes of New Amsterdam. The original petition has never been found.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Thanks for the ping, the WIC was not as important to the Dutch as the VOC but still a it made a small country big.
I had to reread it a couple of times & see your point.
BTW happy Sinterklaas
ping
BTTT!
Thank you—and the same to you, your family and your friends!
I also grew up in NYC (Queens, in fact) but don’t remember learning about the Flushing Remonstrance (nor what I had for lunch today for that matter). Sent the article to my sibilngs whose memories may be better. Pretty exciting stuff. Thanks so much for posting.
Bump
These 30 Flushing farmers were really brave.
Thanks for the ping.
Thank you for posting this.
More about it and the area here (including Nacy Reagan’s birthplace): http://www.forgotten-ny.com/forgotflush/flushing.html
And here: http://www.forgotten-ny.com/forgottentour21/tour21.html
And you, PR, are most welcome.
Thank you! It’s wonderful that anything has survived the grown of Queens and Long Island. I’m sharing with family who grew up in that area.
read later
Fascinating info—I was previously unaware of this incident or document. I was reading the article and wondering what the house looked like—and you a posted a picture! Thanks so much!
My pleasure—and I love your new tag line! LOL!!
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