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A Description of New Netherland Adriaen van der Donck

A Description of New Netherland By Adriaen van der Donck

A Description of New Netherland by Adriaen van der Donck

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Summary

Provides the first complete and accurate English-language translation of an essential first-hand account of the lives and world of Dutch colonists and northeastern Native communities in the seventeenth century.

A Description of New Netherland Summary

A Description of New Netherland by Adriaen van der Donck

This new edition and original translation of a tract by Dutch settler and lawyer van der Donck makes more widely accessible a document crucial for understanding the history of Dutch colonization in North America. . . . This document is an important primary source for students and researchers in colonial Dutch history, the settlement of New York and North America more generally, and the understanding of Indian cultures in the Northeast. J. Mercantini, Choice
This edition ofA Description of New Netherland provides the first complete and accurate English-language translation of an essential first-hand account of the lives and world of Dutch colonists and northeastern Native communities in the seventeenth century. Adriaen van der Donck, a graduate of Leiden University in the 1640s, became the law enforcement officer for the Dutch patroonship of Rensselaerswijck, located along the upper Hudson River. His position enabled him to interact extensively with Dutch colonists and the local Algonquians and Iroquoians. An astute observer, detailed recorder, and accessible writer, Van der Donck was ideally situated to write about his experiences and the natural and cultural worlds around him.
Van der DoncksBeschryvinge van Nieuw-Nederlant was first published in 1655 and then expanded in 1656. An inaccurate and abbreviated English translation appeared in 1841 and was reprinted in 1968. This new volume features an accurate, polished translation by Diederik Willem Goedhuys and includes all the material from the original 1655 and 1656 editions.
The result is an indispensable first-hand account with enduring value to historians, ethnohistorians, and anthropologists.

A Description of New Netherland Reviews

If youve been waiting for centuries for a full translation of Adriaen van der Doncks 1655 work A Description of New Netherland, your wait is over. In this work, edited by Charles T. Gehring and William A. Starna, one of the colonys most astute observers ruminates on flora and fauna (his six-foot-long lobster sounds like the subject of a proverbial fish story), including meditations on the amazing ways of beavers and sightings of beached whales near Albany. . . . [Van der Donck] paints a generally positive picture of American Indians. His informative book is surprisingly accessible.Sam Roberts, New York Times.
"With this new edition, translator Diederik Goedhuys and editors Charles Gehring and William Starna look to elevate Van der Donck's Description to its rightful place in the canon of early American historical texts. . . . This lively translation is a much-needed teachable primary source for studying both New Netherland and its Indian neighbors."Andrew Lipman, New York History
"This new edition and original translation of a tract by Dutch settler and lawyer van der Donck makes more widely accessible a document crucial for understanding the history of Dutch colonization in North America. . . . This document is an important primary source for students and researchers in colonial Dutch history, the settlement of New York and North America more generally, and the understanding of Indian cultures in the Northeast."J. Mercantini, CHOICE
"Long underutilized, this edition will place A Description of New Netherland alongside Thomas Harriot's A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, John Smith's A Description of New England, and William Wood's New England's Prospect as essential primary-source narratives of the early days of the New World."Wendy Lewis Castro, Southwest Journal of Cultures
"The sources on this geographical area in the Dutch period are sparse, so that the addition of this superb translation of van der Donck is of high importance to scholars."Barbara Alice Mann, Anthropos

About Adriaen van der Donck

Charles T. Gehring is the director of the New Netherland Project with the New York State Library and the coeditor of numerous collections of original documents from Dutch New Netherland. William A. Starna is a professor emeritus of anthropology at the State University of New York College at Oneonta and a coeditor of Iroquois Journey: An Anthropologist Remembers (Nebraska 2007). Gehring and Starna coedited A Journey into Mohawk and Oneida Country, 16341635: The Journal of Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert and (with Dean R. Snow) In Mohawk Country: Early Narratives of a Native People. Diederik Willem Goedhuys is a native of the Netherlands and thirty year resident of South Africa. In addition to having knowledge of Dutch, Afrikaans, and English at his disposal, he also spent several months at the New Netherland Project in Albany, New York, where he had access to the best reference sources for the translation of a seventeenth-century publication.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Publication History of Adriaen van der Donck's A Description of New Netherland

Map of New Netherland

A Description of New Netherland:

The Country

Where New Netherland Is Situated

When and by Whom New Netherland Was First Discovered

Why This Territory Was Named New Netherland

The Dutch, the First Possessors of New Netherland

The Limits of New Netherland and How Far They Extend

Of the Coast, Foreshore, and Seaports

The South River

Of the North River

Of the Fresh River

Of the East River

Of the Various Waters and Their Shapes

Of the Formation and Soil of the Land

Of Wood and Vegetation

Of the Fruit Trees Brought Over from the Netherlands

Of the Vineyards

Of Vegetables Generally

Of the Flowers

Of the Medicinal Herbs and Indigo

Of Agriculture and Field Crops

Of the Minerals and the Kinds of Earth and Stone

Of the Paints and Dyes

Of the Animals in New Netherland

Of the Wild Animals

Of the Avifauna, Aquatic and Terrestrial, and First the Raptors

Of the Terrestrial Birds

Of the Aquatic Birds

Of the Fish

Of the Poisons

Of the Wind

Of the Air

Of the Seasons

Of the Manners and Extraordinary Qualities of the Original Natives of New Netherland

Their Bodily Shape, and Why They Are Called Wilden

Fare and Food of the Indians

Of the Dress and Ornaments of Men and Women

Their Houses, Castles, and Settlements

Ways of Marriage and Childbirth

Of Suckling, and the Relations between Men and Women

Ways of Burial, Lamentation, and Mourning

Their Festivities and Special Gatherings

How Human Beings and Animals First Came to That Country

Of the Different Nations and Languages

Of Money and Their Manufacture of It

The Innate Character and the Pastimes of the Indians

Their Bodily Care and Medicine

The Farming, Planting, and Gardening of the Indians

Special Account of Their Hunting and Fishing

Distinctions of Birth, Rank, and Quality

Of Their Warfare and Weapons

Of Their Administration of Justice and Penalties

Of the Universal Law of Nations

Of Gifts and Offerings

Of the Indians' Government and Public Policy

Their Religion and Whether They Can Be Christianized

Of Their Sentiments regarding Hope of Afterlife

Of the Knowledge of God and the Fear of Devils

Their Thoughts on the Creation and Propagation of Mankind and Animals in the World

Of the Nature, Amazing Ways, and Properties of the Beavers

A Conversation between a Dutch Patriot and a New Netherlander concerning the Condition of New Netherland

Appendix: A List and Suggested Identification of the Latinized Plant Names Recorded by Adriaen van der Donck

Notes

Index

Additional information

NGR9780803232839
9780803232839
0803232837
A Description of New Netherland by Adriaen van der Donck
Adriaen van der Donck
The Iroquoians and Their World
New
Paperback
University of Nebraska Press
2010-01-01
204
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a new book - be the first to read this copy. With untouched pages and a perfect binding, your brand new copy is ready to be opened for the first time

Customer Reviews - A Description of New Netherland