S.J. Rozan--The Remonstrance of Flushing

DEBORAH CROMBIE: We have a real treat today! The acclaimed and multiple award-winning S. J. Rozan, whose novels featuring private detectives Bill Smith and Lydia Chin brilliantly evoke contemporary New York City, gives us a thought provoking look at how New York came by its storied diversity.

Here's SJ!

THE REMONSTRANCE OF FLUSHING, or

Take that, Peter Stuyvesant!

My new book, THE MAYORS OF NEW YORK, has Bill Smith and Lydia Chin hunting for a runaway fifteen year old through many New York neighborhoods. It's a book I've had in mind for a long time, a novel that would showcase the glory of New York -- our diversity.

New York is the most diverse city in the world. 'Twere ever thus: in 643 a French Jesuit missionary reported that eighteen different languages were spoken by local inhabitants. (No record of whether he was counting the Lenape.) A lot of reasons exist to help explain this, the most obvious of which is that we're on the edge of a resource-rich land mass previously unknown to Europeans. If you wanted to try your fortune in the New World, New Amsterdam was and New York became an obvious place to touch down. Beyond that, though, two little-known-except-to-historians events had a major role in turning New York City into a place that welcomes everyone.

In 1654 Peter Stuyvesant, the governor of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, wrote to the Dutch West India Company back in Holland asking them to order Jews who had settled in his colony to remove themselves. The Jews also wrote, saying they'd leave if they had to but then there'd be nobody to watch over their trading businesses so they'd have to close them. The directors of the Company wrote back, basically asking Stuyvesant who he thought was financing his little colony over there. The Jews got to stay. Stuyvesant was incensed.

He also wasn't finished. The Dutch had other settlements in the area, to which his governorship extended. One of them, the village of Vlissingen (spoiler: this deteriorated into "Flushing"), way out on Long Island (spoiler: not so far away, now part of Queens) had, though Dutch, been settled largely by Brits. Stuyvesant had never been there so he didn't really care, until he got word that a group of Quakers fleeing England had settled there. Well, dammit, he had to let the Jews stay in New Amsterdam, but Quakers in Vlissingen? No. Just, no.

He wrote to the Dutch king, suggesting everyone not of the Dutch Reformed faith be banished from Vlissingen. This time he sent a list: Jews, Turks, Egyptians, Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, and Quakers. Not that there were any Egyptians around, and no one quite knew what he meant by "Independent." But he was thinking ahead. Once this banishment was enacted he'd have ammunition to go back and rid New Amsterdam of... all the folks he didn't like.

And the moral of the story is, don't overreach.

The king at first agreed; but a group of non-Quaker (but non-Dutch-Reformed) British citizens also wrote to the Dutch king. They spoke of "The law of love, peace and liberty... which is the glory of the outward state of Holland..." and ended, "Therefore if any of these said persons come in love unto us, we cannot in conscience lay violent hands upon them, but give them free egress and regress unto our Town, and houses, as God shall persuade our consciences." And the "said persons?" Yes indeedy, they sent a list: Jews, Turks, Egyptians, Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, and Quakers.

This document was the Remonstrance of Flushing, written two days after Christmas, 1657. The Dutch king didn't take much persuading; he was collecting taxes from a flourishing village and why was it in his interest to rile up its inhabitants? If they wanted to live with Quakers and Egyptians, let them. He reversed himself and told Stuyvesant to mind his own business.

After that, it was essentially open doors all around. By the time the British seized New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1665 there were yet more languages being spoken; now there are over 115 in Queens alone. There's historical evidence that at least some of the Founding Fathers had read the Remonstrance and that separation of church and state was written into the Constitution based on it.

And now? From Harlem to Staten Island to Jackson Heights, every neighborhood, every restaurant, every street I put into THE MAYORS OF NEW YORK is real. Every room I wrote about, I've been in (though some weren't used for the purposes I claim) and of course, every food I wrote about, I tasted. And I'm thrilled I was able to do that. But there's so much more to show. I guess, a bit like that fool Peter Stuyvesant, I'm not done yet.

DEBS: I was so fascinated by this story that SJ sent me the link to the historical document, The Remonstrance of Flushing, and it is truly remarkable. It is also, I think, very appropriate in this season of goodwill. 

Here's more about SJ:

SJ Rozan is the bestselling author of 19 novels and 85 short stories. Her work has won the Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Nero, and Macavity awards, and the Japanese Maltese Falcon.She was born in the Bronx and now lives in Manhattan. Her latest book is THE MAYORS OF NEW YORK.

DEBS: And here's more about THE MAYORS OF NEW YORK.

In January, New York City inaugurates its first female mayor. In April, her son disappears. Called in by the mayor's chief aide—a former girlfriend of private investigator Bill Smith’s—to find the missing fifteen-year-old, Bill and his partner, Lydia Chin, are told the boy has run away. Neither the press nor the NYPD know that he’s missing, and the mayor wants him back before a headstrong child turns into a political catastrophe. But as Bill and Lydia investigate, they turn up more questions than answers.

DEBS: SJ will be stopping in to chat, and if you have favorite New  York stories, share them with us!