24-04-2025
Johnstown native Shorto traces Dutch influences, New York City origins in 'Taking Manhattan' presentation
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Author Russell Shorto often visited St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery's cemetery when he lived in New York City's East Village neighborhood a quarter-century ago.
It was home to the remains of Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Netherland, who died in 1672. His presence got Shorto thinking about the Dutch colony's founding and the days of New Amsterdam, which eventually became New York City.
'I tend to be drawn to origins,' said Shorto, a Johnstown native and current Cumberland, Maryland resident, during a presentation at Heritage Johnstown's Heritage Discovery Center Wednesday.
From that beginning, the subjects of Dutch history and culture have frequently appeared in Shorto's work throughout the years. His most recent book, 'Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America,' was released earlier this year. His other writings on the Dutch include 'Amsterdam: A History of the World's Most Liberal City' and 'The Island at the Center of the World,' a predecessor to 'Taking Manhattan.'
His latest book tells the story of when in 1664, Richard Nicolls, a military officer, was sent by the king of England to gain control of the colony. Both sides pointed cannons at each other, ready to fight.
But a compromise that Shorto described as 'a bill of rights' was reached instead between Nicolls and Stuyvesant.
'The Dutch had argued for these terms that they would keep their homes, they would keep their families, their businesses, their trade networks all over the world,' Shorto, a knight of the Netherlands' Order of Orange- Nassau, said. 'The only thing that would change is the city would become English and Nicholls would become its governor.'
And that was how New Amsterdam became New York City.
The agreement preserved the tolerant and multicultural society established by the Dutch, along with its economic base, all of which Shorto said was the 'secret sauce' that Nicolls wanted. 'Those two things – a mixed society and this capitalistic economic support – are kind of the recipe for New York, and not just for New York, but for America, because ,eventually New York would become powerful enough that it would influence America,' Shorto said.
That created two distinct English centers in the colonies – New York City and the more theocratic, puritanical society in New England.
'These two ideologies in a way, if you think about it, are competing with each other throughout all of American history, even to where we are today,' Shorto said. 'I think frankly – this is just my editorializing – I think the country needs both, but it needs to figure out how they can work together.
'When the country has functioned at its best has been times when they can figure out ways for those two to compromise, the way Stuyvesant and Nicholls did in creating something.'
The presentation was the latest event in which Shorto has collaborated with Heritage Johnstown.
'Certainly, he's been a great friend to our organization over the years,' said Shelley Johansson, Heritage Johnstown's director of marketing and communications.
'To have an author of his caliber from Johnstown and he writes books that have to do with history, of course it's a natural we would want to present him with his newest book any time the opportunity presents itself.'
