Ooh, that'd be a neat idea! In essence, you'd have Celtic Protestants in general moving there in a more homogeneous fashion, which really is largely how the Appalachian South ended up anyway in terms of ethnicity (the Welsh element in Kentucky and Tennessee tends to get overlooked, really). Regarding New England, is it still just Puritans from England proper that move there for the most part? Also, what of the Dutch colony of New Netherlands at this point (unless not much has changed)?
The Rise and Fall of the Amerikaner Republics
- Thread starter Sevarics
- Start date
Ooh, that'd be a neat idea! In essence, you'd have Celtic Protestants in general moving there in a more homogeneous fashion, which really is largely how the Appalachian South ended up anyway in terms of ethnicity (the Welsh element in Kentucky and Tennessee tends to get overlooked, really). Regarding New England, is it still just Puritans from England proper that move there for the most part? Also, what of the Dutch colony of New Netherlands at this point (unless not much has changed)?
[1] Yeah. I think it would be a neat idea and if they settle in Northern New Caledonia (so North Carolina) as I'm thinking they should originally. There settlement will help in terms of splitting New Caledonia into New Caledonia and New Cambria and then heading into OTL Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia from there.
[2] Yeah. As in OTL New England is still pretty Puritanical at this point. And, still mainly white in contrast to the southern colonies. So far it also doesn't really have a landed gentry yet. Though, I'm thinking of eventually having some sort of merchant aristocracy developing there out of the powerful shipping families that will eventually be established.
[3] New Netherlands is Brazil in this TL so I'm assuming you mean New Holland since that's in this TL's New Netherlands colony location. New Holland will be covered in the next update which should be posted either tonight or tomorrow hopefully. It's still developing at a slower pace because Dutch Brazil is getting most of the settlers and New Holland has up to this point been where most of the super religious Dutch families have been going to rid themselves of their Papist and Jewish neighbors in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
-Interesting, should make for a neat cultural mix in an already (in my opinion) culturally better-off southern North America. The funny thing is that most of American southerners of Celtic origin tended to enter the region via Pennsylvania of all places, and then trickle south and west. Here, it's almost like a reversal if they're entering the area via *North Carolina, although I'd still imagine that settlement in New Caledonia's backcountry and *Georgia would be likely to happen as well.
-A merchant aristocracy based on shipping makes sense as an alternative to the religious hierarchy of the Puritans. Either that or whaling of course, either one could work given their geography. Of course whatever aristocracy that does emerge would likely be different from that in the south, given different societal leanings and settlement patterns.
-Yeah I meant New Holland
. A stronger Dutch Brazil is kinda neat, especially if they're able to adapt to the tropical environs therein (either that or settle mostly in the temperate regions of the country). As for New Holland, the update may answer most of my questions of late, but I'd wager that they're more "Bible-thumpy" if the name of the TL is anything to go by .Yeah. I don't think New England could support a system similar to the landgraviates and cassiques. Probably just barons and the like. I'll have to see if any European countries had merchant aristocracies with titles that they could potentially adopt in New England.
Great to see this back!
I assume that landgrave and cassique are titles that exist only in the New World (at least as far as the British nobility is concerned)? How would the son of a cassique, especially a mixed-race one, fit into the British class system if he went to study at Oxford?
I assume that landgrave and cassique are titles that exist only in the New World (at least as far as the British nobility is concerned)? How would the son of a cassique, especially a mixed-race one, fit into the British class system if he went to study at Oxford?
Nice to see this back!
When you said merchant aristocracy, I immediately thought of a New England Merchant Republic, like Venice!
Serene Doge George Smith of the Most Serene Republic of New England!
It makes it's money off of trade and Whaling.
Also, I like the culturally mixed Southern America! I was excited when I first saw the indentured African servants and was a bit disappointed when slavery reared it's head, but I was satisfied with the hierarchy by the end.
Just wondering, would those hierarchy things push west into my home state of Tennessee? Or would the Mulatto community be primarily on the East coast, while the landlocked southern states are left with only slavery?
When you said merchant aristocracy, I immediately thought of a New England Merchant Republic, like Venice!
Serene Doge George Smith of the Most Serene Republic of New England!
It makes it's money off of trade and Whaling.
Also, I like the culturally mixed Southern America! I was excited when I first saw the indentured African servants and was a bit disappointed when slavery reared it's head, but I was satisfied with the hierarchy by the end.
Just wondering, would those hierarchy things push west into my home state of Tennessee? Or would the Mulatto community be primarily on the East coast, while the landlocked southern states are left with only slavery?
Yeah. OTL the Landgrave and Cassique titles were originally only used in the Carolinas and even then they didn't last too long. In OTL, the landgrave title has also been used in German-speaking lands so I'm assuming that's where the English colonists adopted it from in Carolina. Cassique supposedly comes from a Native American tribe/word according to wikipedia.
So, in this ATL they will only be used in the colonies as far as the English aristocracy is concerned. And, since the landgraves and cassiques are titles of colonial nobility, I'm sure that the English gentry is going to look down on their American cousins somewhat. However, since many of the landgraves and cassiques that were originally established in Queensland were the younger sons and brothers of English nobility, they're probably not going to think that they're too inferior in the case of the criolls at least. I'd imagine that they pureblooded English nobles are going to stick their noses up at the miscegenation that occurred in some of the bloodlines though. As a result, I don't think too many of the mulatto gentry in the colonies are going to attempt to fit into the traditional social structure of England proper, at least not at first.
[1] I've decided that in New England, the merchant aristocrats are going to adopt two title that are going to pop up in the update that I'm almost finished with.
[2] At the very least, by keeping all the previous indentured Africans free I've created a better social structure than existed in OTL when the slave codes that eventually got passed resulted in all Africans and their descendants being enslaved instead of just new arrivals as in this TL.
[3] I think that with colonization eventually spreading west into Tennessee and the like, the cassique/landgrave system will spread with it and the hierarchical system will as well.
Nieuw Amsterdam in 1625
Between 1615 and 1645, the population of New Holland increased dramatically due in large part to the arrival of populations of French and German Calvinists. While Henry IV of France had won the French throne as a Huguenot, the Gallican Church that he created had, similarly to the Anglican Church of England, sought a middle path between Catholicism and the staunch Protestantism of the Huguenots. As a result, many Huguenots viewed the Gallican Church only slightly more favorably than they did the Catholic Church. Yet, following Henry IV’s assassination in 1613 at the hands of a Catholic Parisian and the succession of his son, Nicolas, many Huguenots had hoped that their new King would see that the Gallican Church was still very much tainted by Papist ideologies. Nevertheless, Calvinists throughout France found themselves disappointed as Nicolas had been born into and raised upon Gallicanism. As a result, he began to place limitations on the rights of non-Gallican Protestants in the hopes of curbing their power and guiding them to the middle path.
Consequently, in 1621 many Huguenots began to look to the colonies in the New World as a potential safe haven for themselves from the reach of the Catholic and Gallican Churches. Knowing that New Holland had been specifically founded by Dutch Calvinists attempting to create their own Jerusalem in the Americas, New Amsterdam would ultimately become the destination of choice for French Calvinists and in 1623 the first Huguenots arrived in the capital of the colony and began to settle there and along the River Mauritius. While the first ships had only carried a few dozen Huguenot families totaling 200 settlers, by 1645 the number of Huguenots in New Holland had increased substantially to six thousand French settlers. Of these settlers, four thousand lived either in New Amsterdam or in communities along the Mauritius River and Wilhelmus Island. The remaining two thousand had formed communities in lower New Holland up the Orange River [1] centered around the Dutch settlement at Oranjestad [2].
Young Huguenot Lovers Arrive in New Holland
Knowing that they needed to compete with the fast-growing English colonies, the American Company encouraged the settlement of German-speaking Calvinists in the New Holland colony. Ultimately, the American Company was able to settle five thousand Germans in New Holland by 1645 with three thousand settling along the Mauritius River and two thousand settling along the Orange River. Even with the population growth in the colonies from German and French immigration though, the American Company was having a hard time making a profit off of the colony. As a result, in 1646, the financial backers of the American Company were able to get the States-General of the Netherlands and the King to agree to empty the debtor’s prisons of able-bodied men so that the debtor’s could work off their debts in service to the Company as beaver trappers, thereby enabling the Company to attempt to make a profit off of the expanding fur trade.
Following thereafter, the American Company was able to transport four thousand debtors to the colony over the next ten years for use in the fur trade. As a result of their forced relocation to New Holland, the Company did manage to make a profit off of the colony. Nevertheless, the arrival of debtors into the colony caused the masses of puritanical settlers to begin to despise the Company for its profit-driven viewpoint. In an ill-gotten attempt to pacify the colony, the American Company dispatched a new governor, Pieter van Rosenvelt, to take charge of New Holland.
The Fur Traders of New Holland
Hailing from Tholen in the Dutch province of Zeeland, van Rosenvelt had risen to fame in the service of the New Netherlands Company when he proved instrumental in the capture of Rio de Janeiro in Portuguese Brazil in 1637 (now known as Mauritius, New Netherlands), which ultimately resulted in the capitulation of Spain in recognizing the Dutch conquest of the colony. Following his service to the New Netherlands Company, van Rosenvelt had returned to the Netherlands in order to be made into a jonkheer, one of the lower noble positions available in the kingdom. Having attained a noble title, Pieter was then able to marry the daughter of one of the van Roosevelts, a noble family of Tholen, thereby further elevating his position within the Netherlands. As a result, van Rosenvelt was able to gain a position within the American Company as a minor company official before rising through the ranks, so to say, before the American Company sent him to New Holland to lead the colony’s militia in fighting a small war against the Iroquois.
Arriving in New Amsterdam in 1652, van Rosenvelt quickly fell into the good graces of then colonial governor, Claes van Coeverden, who readily granted him control over all of the colonial military forces. Leading his troops up the Mauritius River, van Rosenvelt was able to inflict a series of defeats upon the Iroquois while only experiencing two defeats in battle of his own. As a result, by 1654, van Rosenvelt was able to get the various Iroquois tribes to agree to peace with the colony and to reestablish the fur trade that the colony had been profiting off of. Thereafter, van Rosenvelt was made a patroon by van Coeverden and granted a large patroonship in New Holland, thereby causing the jonkheer to move his wife and their two sons, Adriaen and Nicolaes, from Tholen, Zeeland to their new vast family estate north of New Amsterdam.
Pieter van Rosenvelt
[1] Delaware River
[2] Philadelphia
Indeed, good update . Going on your comments about the Orange River and Oranjestad, I keep forgetting that *Maryland is part of New Holland. Does that mean the border between them and Queensland is the *Potomac, or is it another separate waterbody?
Also, would it be safe to say that Pieter van Rosenvelt is somehow related distantly to another certain Northeastern family of OTL fame?
. Going on your comments about the Orange River and Oranjestad, I keep forgetting that *Maryland is part of New Holland. Does that mean the border between them and Queensland is the *Potomac, or is it another separate waterbody?Also, would it be safe to say that Pieter van Rosenvelt is somehow related distantly to another certain Northeastern family of OTL fame?
Indeed, good update
[2] Also, would it be safe to say that Pieter van Rosenvelt is somehow related distantly to another certain Northeastern family of OTL fame?
[1] As of right now, New Holland has a southern border along the OTL Potomac, a northern border that is contested with New France, and, an eastern border along the OTL Connecticut River.
[2] Pieter van Rosenvelt is a stand in for the OTL Claes van Rosenvelt who changed his last name to van Roosevelt after the more prestigious family of that name in Tholen where he hailed from. I figured that being born after the POD, I'd just change his first name to reflect that and have the ATL Pieter rise to prominence in service to the various Dutch mercantile companies and marry an actual van Roosevelt before settling in New Holland and being the progenitor for the ATL van Rosenvelts.
Not or reveal too too much on them but my plan is to build off the OTL split between the liberal Roosevelt's and conservative Roosevelt's in different family branches and to instead have one branch go Amerikaner while the other branch assimilates after the English conquest of New Holland. That's why Pieter has two sons
A couple of my "would have been" ancestors are (quite possibly) in that newest group of arrivals. Excellent story Sevarics.
So I guess "jonkheer" and "patroon" become two titles of nobility/peerage in New Holland? I wonder if those stick around if/when the English take over the place...or if the New Englanders pick up on them by themselves. Also, what's going on with New Hibernia, are they considered alike the Puritans or something else?
Yeah. Jonkheer is going to be slightly Anglicized to Jonker (think of Prussian Junkers) and Patroon will stay as Patroon following the eventual conquest of New Holland by the English. Whereafter, the titles will be adopted by the English in dolling out titles to the colonial nobility, promulgated by intermarriages by various prominent New Hollander families with the various prominent New English families.
And, since New Hibernia is Newfoundland it's not really as attractive to settlement right now. No one has really attempted to settle there yet so it's only the name of New Hibernia that is sticking.
In 1656 the directors of the American Company chose Pieter van Rosenvelt to be the eighth governor-general of New Holland following the death of his predecessor, Claes van Coeverden. Following in van Coeverden’s footsteps would be no easy task for van Rosenvelt as van Coeverden had been not only the longest serving governor-general appointed by the American Company but he had also been the longest serving government official in the colony, having previously served under the three colonial governors that had presided to rule before him, Jacobus van Eps, Willem van der Reiger, and Salomon Tasman. More importantly, van Coeverden had been extremely well liked in the colony for his strict Calvinist beliefs, easily winning over the many faithful settlers that lived within the vicinity of New Amsterdam. Ultimately, it had been this connection to the devout that enabled van Coeverden to pursue a policy of controlled expansion of the New Hollandish settlements, as his personal relationship with many of the settlers enabled him to exert his influence over them and ensure that new townships would only be founded with his consent so as to minimalize conflicts with the Native Americans. As a result, Claes had been able to play a role in the founding of several settlements that began to rise to prominence under his rule. Among them, Wilhelmina [1], Coeverden [2], Tasmania [3], Stellenbosch [4], and Franschhoek [5] were the most notable. Additionally, it was under the rule of van Coeverden that tobacco cultivation spread to New Holland, although this was limited primarily to the southern reaches of the colony.
Admittedly, van Rosenvelt did feel somewhat uneasy about the task of following the man that had governed New Holland for sixteen years. Nevertheless, Pieter was determined to follow through with the honor that had been given to him by the company. However, van Rosenvelt realized that following the expansion that had occurred under his predecessor, the colony was too spread out as it was to be effectively governed from New Amsterdam. As a result, he took it upon himself to divide the colony up into different administrative provinces that would be under the management of deputy governors chosen directly by him. The first portion to be separated off was the administrative province of New Zeeland [6], the only part of New Holland where the cultivation of tobacco was permitted. Thereafter, van Rosenvelt established the administrative province of Orania [7] based around the Orange River and the growing township of Oranjestad. Finally, van Rosenvelt split the remaining portion of New Holland into New Holland proper [8] and Sylvania [9] based around Fort Nassau [10].
Following the division of New Holland, each of the three deputy generals began ruling as a proxy for van Rosenvelt in their assigned administrative provinces. Ultimately, this process enabled each of the provinces to establish their own colonial militias in order to better defend the far-flung settlements that had previously relied on New Amsterdam for their defense. Now, van Rosenvelt was better able to concentrate on improving New Amsterdam’s fortifications, thereby responding to the growing English threat as English settlers poured into the Queensland and New English settlements. Within the first year of his rule, Pieter had had Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan expanded with new guns imported directly from the furnaces of Europe. Additionally, he had a shipyard and small naval academy established on Wilhelmus Island so that the colony wouldn’t have to rely solely on the American Company’s ships for protection from the possibility of pirates or other enemy vessels.
With the completion of the shipyard in 1659, van Rosenvelt ordered the immediate construction of three new ships for the defense of New Amsterdam. Ever the strategist, Pieter also began drawing up ideas for new forts with improved fortifications to be stationed on the smaller islands that guarded the entrance to the waters immediately surrounding Manhattan. However, after he ordered their construction, he soon found himself needing to raise funds in order to pay for the colonial defenses. As a result, he decided to pass a small tax on buildings with white exteriors in New Amsterdam. However, the settlers in an act of self-defiance took it upon themselves to paint their houses and almost overnight New Amsterdam became the most colorful city in North America. Seeing this as a slight challenge against his rule, van Rosenvelt passed a series of ordinances requiring New Amsterdamers to either pay for the construction of the new fortifications or to serve in the colonial milita or navy. As a result, the settlers began to develop a heavy resentment against their governor.
Over time, the rift between the New Hollandish and van Rosenvelt began to grow larger and larger. Consequently, van Rosenvelt decided that the best way to remain in power was to create his own allies. Therefore, as the governor of New Holland, van Rosenvelt began dolling out huge tracts of land to his supporters and to settlers willing to relocate from the Netherlands. For their support, van Rosenvelt’s new allies were granted these patroonships and with them the rights allotted to the patroons as the landed colonial nobility of New Holland. While many of the new supporters claimed their land in New Zeeland to take advantage of the administrative province’s right to cultivate tobacco, van Rosenvelt was able to settle many of the new patroons in New Holland proper by gifting those patroonships double or even triple the amount of land as given to the patroonships of New Zeeland. Additionally, for patroons that paid for the transportation of additional families as their indentured servants, van Rosenvelt ennobled them as jonkheers of New Holland, thereby granting them the additional privileges within the colony.
However, while the Rosenvelt Gifts did gain him new allies, it further alienated him from the stalwartly pious settlers that had chosen New Holland as their new Jerusalem. Led by Salomon Abrams, the grandson of Cornelius Abrams and considered the patriarch of the faithful, the settlers staged a vigil outside of the governor’s mansion wherein they sang hymnals all night long in April of 1662. Not too keen on being challenged so openly, van Rosenvelt ordered the militia to surround the gathering and form their ranks. While cooler heads did prevail and the assembly dispersed peacefully, van Rosenvelt and the settlers had forever soured their opinions of one another. Nevertheless, Abrams would have the last laugh when Pieter’s eldest son, Adriaen, became one of the stalwarts after falling in love with Abrams’ daughter, Amelia, and marrying her in Abrams’ church. This betrayal by his own son proved to be too much for van Rosenvelt, who promptly disowned his eldest son upon finding out about the elopement.
[1] Wilmington, DE
[2] Baltimore, Maryland
[3] Annapolis, Maryland
[4] New Haven, Connecticut
[5] Hartford, Connecticut
[6] Combined Maryland and Delaware
[7] Southern half of New Jersey and Pennsylvania
[8] Northern half of New Jersey, Southern New York, and Connecticut west of Connecticut River
[9] Northern half of New York
[10] Albany, New York
Admittedly, van Rosenvelt did feel somewhat uneasy about the task of following the man that had governed New Holland for sixteen years. Nevertheless, Pieter was determined to follow through with the honor that had been given to him by the company. However, van Rosenvelt realized that following the expansion that had occurred under his predecessor, the colony was too spread out as it was to be effectively governed from New Amsterdam. As a result, he took it upon himself to divide the colony up into different administrative provinces that would be under the management of deputy governors chosen directly by him. The first portion to be separated off was the administrative province of New Zeeland [6], the only part of New Holland where the cultivation of tobacco was permitted. Thereafter, van Rosenvelt established the administrative province of Orania [7] based around the Orange River and the growing township of Oranjestad. Finally, van Rosenvelt split the remaining portion of New Holland into New Holland proper [8] and Sylvania [9] based around Fort Nassau [10].
Following the division of New Holland, each of the three deputy generals began ruling as a proxy for van Rosenvelt in their assigned administrative provinces. Ultimately, this process enabled each of the provinces to establish their own colonial militias in order to better defend the far-flung settlements that had previously relied on New Amsterdam for their defense. Now, van Rosenvelt was better able to concentrate on improving New Amsterdam’s fortifications, thereby responding to the growing English threat as English settlers poured into the Queensland and New English settlements. Within the first year of his rule, Pieter had had Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan expanded with new guns imported directly from the furnaces of Europe. Additionally, he had a shipyard and small naval academy established on Wilhelmus Island so that the colony wouldn’t have to rely solely on the American Company’s ships for protection from the possibility of pirates or other enemy vessels.
With the completion of the shipyard in 1659, van Rosenvelt ordered the immediate construction of three new ships for the defense of New Amsterdam. Ever the strategist, Pieter also began drawing up ideas for new forts with improved fortifications to be stationed on the smaller islands that guarded the entrance to the waters immediately surrounding Manhattan. However, after he ordered their construction, he soon found himself needing to raise funds in order to pay for the colonial defenses. As a result, he decided to pass a small tax on buildings with white exteriors in New Amsterdam. However, the settlers in an act of self-defiance took it upon themselves to paint their houses and almost overnight New Amsterdam became the most colorful city in North America. Seeing this as a slight challenge against his rule, van Rosenvelt passed a series of ordinances requiring New Amsterdamers to either pay for the construction of the new fortifications or to serve in the colonial milita or navy. As a result, the settlers began to develop a heavy resentment against their governor.
Over time, the rift between the New Hollandish and van Rosenvelt began to grow larger and larger. Consequently, van Rosenvelt decided that the best way to remain in power was to create his own allies. Therefore, as the governor of New Holland, van Rosenvelt began dolling out huge tracts of land to his supporters and to settlers willing to relocate from the Netherlands. For their support, van Rosenvelt’s new allies were granted these patroonships and with them the rights allotted to the patroons as the landed colonial nobility of New Holland. While many of the new supporters claimed their land in New Zeeland to take advantage of the administrative province’s right to cultivate tobacco, van Rosenvelt was able to settle many of the new patroons in New Holland proper by gifting those patroonships double or even triple the amount of land as given to the patroonships of New Zeeland. Additionally, for patroons that paid for the transportation of additional families as their indentured servants, van Rosenvelt ennobled them as jonkheers of New Holland, thereby granting them the additional privileges within the colony.
However, while the Rosenvelt Gifts did gain him new allies, it further alienated him from the stalwartly pious settlers that had chosen New Holland as their new Jerusalem. Led by Salomon Abrams, the grandson of Cornelius Abrams and considered the patriarch of the faithful, the settlers staged a vigil outside of the governor’s mansion wherein they sang hymnals all night long in April of 1662. Not too keen on being challenged so openly, van Rosenvelt ordered the militia to surround the gathering and form their ranks. While cooler heads did prevail and the assembly dispersed peacefully, van Rosenvelt and the settlers had forever soured their opinions of one another. Nevertheless, Abrams would have the last laugh when Pieter’s eldest son, Adriaen, became one of the stalwarts after falling in love with Abrams’ daughter, Amelia, and marrying her in Abrams’ church. This betrayal by his own son proved to be too much for van Rosenvelt, who promptly disowned his eldest son upon finding out about the elopement.
[1] Wilmington, DE
[2] Baltimore, Maryland
[3] Annapolis, Maryland
[4] New Haven, Connecticut
[5] Hartford, Connecticut
[6] Combined Maryland and Delaware
[7] Southern half of New Jersey and Pennsylvania
[8] Northern half of New Jersey, Southern New York, and Connecticut west of Connecticut River
[9] Northern half of New York
[10] Albany, New York
Following the falling out between the van Rosenvelt père and his son, tensions between the stalwarts and Pieter’s supporters began to grow and grown. Ultimately, the build up in animosity could have potentially resulted in an actual revolt taking place. However, instead of allowing themselves to risk the destruction of their families, the stalwart New Hollandish settlers decided to depart from New Holland proper and make a trek to the Orania administrative province, as the Orange River basin had developed into the true heart of religious conservatism following the transformation of New Holland and New Zeeland into profitmaking-centered societies. Indeed, with the spread of tobacco cultivation in New Zeeland and the dolling out of vast patroonships in New Holland, many more conservative and religiously devout Dutchmen, Huguenots and Germans had begun to relocate to the Orange River settlements, further encouraging Orania’s growing reputation as the soul of New Holland.
As a result, Abrams, the patriarch of New Amsterdam’s religious community, led the first great trek from the Mauritius River settlements in April of 1663. Joined by his daughter’s husband, Adriaen van Rosenvelt, Abrams knew in his heart that he was doing the right thing by leading the flock to greener pasture. However, having been born in New Amsterdam, he couldn’t help but feel that he was leaving a part of himself behind, after all, his father and his grandfather, the original shepherd of the Dutch Calvinists in New Holland, were both buried on Manhattan and the church his grandfather had laid the foundation for was there, too.
Nevertheless, upon finding out this his beloved only child was pregnant and that God was giving him the gift of being a grandfather, Saloman realized that he had to make the trek and lead his people to salvation from what he perceived as the tyrannical rule of Pieter van Rosenvelt and the false worship of the American Company’s profit-based empire. When his flock of followers finally reached Orania, the Oranian settlers welcomed them whole-heartedly, having great respect both for Saloman and for his grandfather. In fact, many among the Oranians and the New Amsterdammers thought of Saloman as a sort of Moses that had led his people away from the wickedness of the Pharoah in New Amsterdam. As a result, the Oranians and New Amsterdammers joined together in a great feast of thanks to their God that would ultimately come to be repeated annually as the now-called trekkers continued to give thanks each year in honor of their safe arrival in Orania.
However, Saloman was not meant to live for very long thereafter and departed from the world mere days before the birth of his first grandson. Heartbroken by the passing of her father, Amelia and Adriaen mourned his loss and honored him by naming their firstborn after him as Saloman Andries van Rosenvelt. Furthermore, as a result of his marriage to Amelia, Adriaen was seen by many as Saloman’s spiritual heir and began referring to him as the new patriarch of the faithful. As a result, Adriaen swore to live by the image of the man who had become like a father to him and to ensure that the community of Orania wouldn’t fall to the wicked ways of the other New Hollandish administrative provinces. Consequently, Adriaen began preaching to the Oranians about the importance of the boers toiling in the fields to grow crops and looking over their flocks of cows, sheep and goats. Fully espousing the country life, Adriaen built his own homestead of Salomanshoek several miles outside of Oranjestad where he too would toil in the fields when he wasn’t preaching to the faithful. In doing so, he hoped to instill a similar work ethic to his children, which had now expanded following the birth of a twin boy and girl, Sarel Christiaan and Hortensia Cornelia.
But, despite the happy life that Adriaen had created for himself and his followers in the Orange River valley, he would soon be dragged back into the militarism that his father espoused when in 1667 the first of the Anglo-Dutch wars broke out following break down in Anglo-Dutch relations in the wake the Dutch conquest of the Rijnland [1] that resulted from a combined Franco-Dutch victory in the Twelve Year’s War, which had also led to the French acquisition of Alsace and Lorraine.
[1] Rhineland
As a result, Abrams, the patriarch of New Amsterdam’s religious community, led the first great trek from the Mauritius River settlements in April of 1663. Joined by his daughter’s husband, Adriaen van Rosenvelt, Abrams knew in his heart that he was doing the right thing by leading the flock to greener pasture. However, having been born in New Amsterdam, he couldn’t help but feel that he was leaving a part of himself behind, after all, his father and his grandfather, the original shepherd of the Dutch Calvinists in New Holland, were both buried on Manhattan and the church his grandfather had laid the foundation for was there, too.
Nevertheless, upon finding out this his beloved only child was pregnant and that God was giving him the gift of being a grandfather, Saloman realized that he had to make the trek and lead his people to salvation from what he perceived as the tyrannical rule of Pieter van Rosenvelt and the false worship of the American Company’s profit-based empire. When his flock of followers finally reached Orania, the Oranian settlers welcomed them whole-heartedly, having great respect both for Saloman and for his grandfather. In fact, many among the Oranians and the New Amsterdammers thought of Saloman as a sort of Moses that had led his people away from the wickedness of the Pharoah in New Amsterdam. As a result, the Oranians and New Amsterdammers joined together in a great feast of thanks to their God that would ultimately come to be repeated annually as the now-called trekkers continued to give thanks each year in honor of their safe arrival in Orania.
However, Saloman was not meant to live for very long thereafter and departed from the world mere days before the birth of his first grandson. Heartbroken by the passing of her father, Amelia and Adriaen mourned his loss and honored him by naming their firstborn after him as Saloman Andries van Rosenvelt. Furthermore, as a result of his marriage to Amelia, Adriaen was seen by many as Saloman’s spiritual heir and began referring to him as the new patriarch of the faithful. As a result, Adriaen swore to live by the image of the man who had become like a father to him and to ensure that the community of Orania wouldn’t fall to the wicked ways of the other New Hollandish administrative provinces. Consequently, Adriaen began preaching to the Oranians about the importance of the boers toiling in the fields to grow crops and looking over their flocks of cows, sheep and goats. Fully espousing the country life, Adriaen built his own homestead of Salomanshoek several miles outside of Oranjestad where he too would toil in the fields when he wasn’t preaching to the faithful. In doing so, he hoped to instill a similar work ethic to his children, which had now expanded following the birth of a twin boy and girl, Sarel Christiaan and Hortensia Cornelia.
But, despite the happy life that Adriaen had created for himself and his followers in the Orange River valley, he would soon be dragged back into the militarism that his father espoused when in 1667 the first of the Anglo-Dutch wars broke out following break down in Anglo-Dutch relations in the wake the Dutch conquest of the Rijnland [1] that resulted from a combined Franco-Dutch victory in the Twelve Year’s War, which had also led to the French acquisition of Alsace and Lorraine.
[1] Rhineland
I'm glad you like it :]
I'm trying my best to revive it after my very long hiatuses from it.