r/DutchEmpire

Source: https://notevenpast.org/how-taiwan-became-chinese-dutch-spanish-and-han-colonization-seventeenth-century/

A gang of black men labored as long as daylight allowed, digging a three-foot-deep trench from the East River all the way across Manhattan Island to the Hudson River. The trench followed a rough path that ran along the north edge of the village. It was March 1653, and Governor Stuyvesant had been sent orders to fortify New Amsterdam. English warships were gathering in Boston Harbor, readying to sail south and take the Dutch colony.

The men digging the trench had names such as Paulo d’Angola, Simon Congo, and Anthony Portuguese. As their names showed, many were Africans who had worked aboard Spanish or Portuguese ships before the Dutch seized them. These Africans were owned by the Dutch West India Company, but some had gained a form of half-freedom. They worked for themselves, but owed the company labor whenever needed. Half-free or enslaved, they could own property, testify in court, bear arms in emergencies, attend church, and marry. But their children were not free.

When the Africans finished the trench, they formed a wall by standing big logs into it. Each log was 18 inches around and 12 feet long. Then they pounded dirt and stones back into the trench around the base of each log to make the wall strong. They built blockhouses at the ends of the wall, and gates were added where roads ran through it. But as soon as the wall was finished, it was no longer needed. The Netherlands and England had signed a peace treaty. However, the wall built by the Africans gave the rough path that eventually became a street with a new name: Wall Street.

Image: Manhattan in 1660, when it was part of New Amsterdam. North is to the right. Drawn in 1916 by John Wolcott Adams (1874–1925) and Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes (1867–1944). Published before January 1, 1923 in the United States.

The work titled "Epigrammata Americana ad Excellentisimum Illustrisimumque Comitem I. Mauricium, Comitem Nassaviæ, Cattimeliboci, ac Dietiæ, Beilsteinii Dominum, & Brasiliæ Terra Marique Imperatorem," by Jani Bodecheri Banningi, dated 1639, praises the Nassauvian administration in bombastic terms. He graduated in Letters from the University of Leiden at the age of 18, becoming a professor of Ethics five years later. In 1635, Banning was appointed extraordinary professor of Physics and, the following year, joined the examining committee for Philosophy students.

Recognized by intellectuals such as Constantijn Huygens, he was appointed in 1638 to the position of Political Advisor to the West India Company in Brazil. He arrived in Recife on June 13th of that year, tasked with guiding the Aldermen on civil, criminal, and matrimonial matters. Alongside his administrative duties, he maintained his literary output, publishing in 1639, in Leiden, the pamphlet Epigrammata Americana, dedicated to John Maurice of Nassau.

Also in 1639, he worked in the Company's food warehouses in Recife. This new role, however, revealed a profound melancholy and hallucinations. Despite showing some improvement, his colleagues on the Political Council did not tolerate his "impertinence." His main accuser, Balthasar Vande Vooder, wrote to the Directors of the Zeeland Chamber accusing him of drunkenness and fornication. The situation reached such a point that John Maurice himself requested Bodecher's return to the Netherlands from the Company's directors. His dismissal occurred in August 1639.

In 1640, given his lamentable mental state, Bodecher's parents requested financial assistance from the Trustees of Leiden University, obtaining two installments of 400 florins. Two years later, on August 20, 1642, the university granted another 200 florins to the family, intended to settle debts resulting from his death. Throughout his intellectual career, the professor published seven works, among which stands out Epigrammata Americana, written in Recife and published in 1639 by David Lopes de Haro's publishing house. The poems belong to the humanist tradition of the 17th century and follow the classical Greco-Roman model, especially that of authors such as Martial. Although called "epigrams," many function as short panegyric poems, intended to celebrate the virtues, military victories, and government of Nassau in Brazil, comparing him to figures such as Alexander, Caesar, Hercules, and other heroes of the Greco-Roman tradition.

Source(s):

.- MELLO, José Antonio Gonsalves. Fontes para a História do Brasil Holandês. Published in Brazil.

.- MELLO, José Antonio Gonsalves. A Administração da conquista. Recife: MinC-Secretaria da Cultura, Brazil, 1985.

Available at: Banningi, Jani Bodecheri. (1639). Epigrammata Americana. Published by David Lopes de Haro in Leiden, Netherlands.

Credits to: O Brasil Holandês 1624-1654