The American Dutch, their church, and the revolution

Abstract

F the outset of the American Revolution, the British rightly realized that their hope for victory lay in dividing the northern colonies from the middle and southern colonies by controlling the Hudson River valley. Little could Henry Hudson have realized in 1609, as he sailed up the river that was to bear his name, that the who were to take up his claim would provide the backbone of resistance to the British cause 170 years later. These middle colony Dutch—those who spoke the language, worshipped mostly in the Reformed Church, and exemplified the heritage in their homes and manners—were by no means limited to those of Netherlandish blood. Some, like the House of Orange itself, were German in origin; others were Swiss; some were French; and some had even come from Britain. A few were assimilated in the colonies; but most had Dutch in the old country itself. A typical example was the boy Robert Livingston, who, with his family, migrated to Rotterdam from Scotland among a group of religious refugees at the time of the Stuart restoration. In 1673, having adopted the culture of his neighbors, nineteen-year-old Robert sailed for the New World, where he was to become one of the richest and most powerful men in New York. In Albany he married the widow Alida Schuyler van Rensselaer, and their offspring for generations were among the leaders of the community. The ancient hospitality to foreigners was a part of the cultural pattern that these new Dutch absorbed and brought with them to America. The pivotal role of the Hudson Valley in American history became most powerfully clear in the 1750's, at the time of the French and Indian War. Archibald Kennedy, married to the widow of a settler, was an astute American political observer of the time. He noted