Old Dutch Church NYC
Worship and Activism Since 1656
Revolution in the Air
To 18th
Century 2
The idea of individual liberty,
germinating since apostolic times among the Waldenses
had been firmly planted in the New Amsterdam colony
by Gov. Stuyvesant and the Dutch Reformed Church.
In the Thirteen Colonies of the 1700s
there was a revolution in individual identity itself.
An individual had obligations to society & to the government, yes, but --first and foremost-- an individual had rights.
The individual came first, and the state served him or her. Listening to the inner voice was part of American life. The popular culture was alive with stories of people following their inner voices, listening to their feelings, believing they knew which way personal happiness and fulfilment lay, and believed this was their right.
The summer of 1774, with individual liberty already having been discussed for more than a century in England, and reacting to news of the Boston Tea Party the previous December, some in Parliament were defending the American Colonists; one even called them "The Sons of Liberty," a name the Colonists readily adopted.
The British determined that New York,
especially Staten Island,
was the geographical and strategic fulcrum of the original 13 colonies
On July 9, 1776 George Washington read
the Declaration of Independence, just delivered from Philadelphia,
to his troops at Wall Street.
The British first read it when Gen. Howe addressed his officers
headquartered at the Rose and Crown Tavern on Staten Island
The Rose and Crown Tavern, New Dorp, was built by Huguenots ca. 1665 (demolished in 1854). During the Revolution it was owned by the uncle of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt (a member of our Congregation). The Battle of Long Island was planned here. After the war it was owned by William B. Gifford, who was a Congregant of our Church and is buried beneath the sidewalk in front of the present church. By 1803 it was a favorite hangout for veterans.
The state of affairs is told very effectively in a private letter,
written in New York, August 22nd, 1776.
"This night we have reason to expect the grand attack from our barbarous enemies, the reasons why, follow. The night before last, a lad went over to Staten Island, supped there with a friend and got safe back again undiscovered; soon after he went to General Washington, and upon good authority reported,— that the English army amounting to fifteen or twenty thousand, had embarked, and were in readiness for an engagement, —That seven ships of them were to surround this city and cover their landing, — That the Hessians being fifteen thousand were to remain on the Island and attack Perth Amboy, Elizabeth-town point, and Bergen, while the main body were doing their best here; . .
"Last evening, in a violent thunder storm, Mr. [?], (a very intelligent person), Adventured over. He brings much the same account as the above lad, with this addition, — That all the horses on the Island were by Howe's orders killed, barreled up and put on board; the wretches thinking that they could get no landing here, of any consequence and would be soon out of provisions.