September 7: The Jews of New Amsterdam

The captain of the ship that brought the first sizable group of Jews to North America petitioned for payment of their fare on this date in 1654. These “23 souls, big and little” were passengers in a convoy of sixteen ships carrying Dutch colonists from Recife, Brazil back to Holland in the wake of Portugal’s reconquest of Recife. Captain Jacques de la Motthe of the St. Catrine had rescued them from a pirate attack and conveyed them to New Amsterdam (other accounts state that the Jews were simply forced by bad winds to switch to the St. Catrine in Spanish-held Jamaica). Governor Peter Stuyvesant responded to the captain’s petition by seizing the refugees’ few possessions and selling them at auction, then jailing two as debtors. A notable struggle for sanctuary and equal rights thus began — see the Jewdayo for April 20th.

“We pray that the deceitful race — such hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of Christ — be not allowed to further infect and trouble this new colony.” —Peter Stuyvesant