Read The Story of New Netherland, the Dutch in America

The Story of New Netherland, the Dutch in America

William Elliot Griffis

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Description:An excerpt from the beginning of the:PREFACELet us understand the difference between Germany and Holland, the Dutch and the Germans, separate history from fairy tales, and distinguish jokes from facts.Despite official documents, book-titles, and memorial tablets, there was never any such place or state as New Netherlands, nor any admiral named "van" Tromp, nor any Dutch clergyman with the title of "Dominie." The word "schnapps" was not in the Dutchman's vocabulary, nor did Hollanders ever talk Pennsylvania German, — as is represented in the stage dialect of Rip van Winkle. The earliest settlers of New Netherland did not smoke tobacco. The Dutch folks of New Amsterdam did not associate Santa Claus with Christmas, but on the 6th of December they celebrated St. Nicholas’s Day, and on the 25th of the same month the birthday of the Christ. The hardy, active men who made New Netherland were not fat, or old, or stupid fellows. They were young men, lithe, alert, and. venturesome. The first comers knew little or nothing about tobacco, though they quickly learned its use from the Indians, and even smoked the homegrown article, presented to them by the Pilgrims of Massachusetts. Not one of them pronounced the syllable "dam" in "Amsterdam" or "Rotterdam," as if he were swearing in English.Most of the grotesque stories about the Hollanders in New Amsterdam grew up in late times, long after Dutch ceased to be spoken in America. Then their geographical names were corrupted and a luxuriant crop of mythology, like fungus, gave the funny fellows their chance. Then the vulgarity and dregs of Dutch speech, with much of its snap and vitality, also, entered into American English. Then "schnapps," a German word, "Dominie," a Scotch spelling of the Latin "Domine," and "van" Tromp with his legendary broom, — prefix and besom being both purely British inventions, — came into our speech to corrupt English. Then young Washington Irving, without having seen any but the southern portion of decadent Holland, took the world-wide myth of Rip from the Shop, which has nothing in it peculiarly Dutch, out of its setting in Germany, located it in the Catskills, and made a funny picture of New Netherland men and ways. What if he had got hold of Pilgrims or Puritans first?In hundreds of volumes purporting to be serious history, Irving's comic supplement to the early history of New York is quoted as both fact and truth. Its coloring has been accepted as exact by so-called American historians. Darley's caricatures and Boughton's delicious jokes on canvas have kept up the illusion. With such material historiographers, taking themselves seriously, pieced out their narratives when original research and documents were both lacking.After the English conquest of 1664, the Dutch language, gradually falling out of law and business, was heard in the church and home, but written only by the ministers. Even after it was bowed out of the pulpit, it was lovingly kept in use by the aged. It lingered longest in the country and in the city kitchens among the black slaves and the servants. Yet its snap (the very word, in this sense, is Dutch), vigor, and picturesqueness have enriched American English. Often grotesquely altered in form, as in "boss," "boom," "hunker," "boodle," etc., or in familiar terms like "forlorn hope," — "taps," etc., it has furnished many of our expressions in military, political, and social life and much of our slang. "Americanisms," borrowed from Low Country speech, have puzzled European students of English as spoken on this side of the Atlantic, who do not recognize old friends and the ghosts of history. Even the colors in "Old Glory" are criticised harshly, because the historically Dutch origin of our flag, especially of the stripes, which stand for federal government, is not known or considered. Many British jibes and falsehoods about the Dutch, to our shame, mar our speech and writing. Of this we should repent, because four of our original thirteen states were settled from the Netherlands.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with The Story of New Netherland, the Dutch in America. To get started finding The Story of New Netherland, the Dutch in America, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

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ISBN: 1374272337

Description: An excerpt from the beginning of the:PREFACELet us understand the difference between Germany and Holland, the Dutch and the Germans, separate history from fairy tales, and distinguish jokes from facts.Despite official documents, book-titles, and memorial tablets, there was never any such place or state as New Netherlands, nor any admiral named "van" Tromp, nor any Dutch clergyman with the title of "Dominie." The word "schnapps" was not in the Dutchman's vocabulary, nor did Hollanders ever talk Pennsylvania German, — as is represented in the stage dialect of Rip van Winkle. The earliest settlers of New Netherland did not smoke tobacco. The Dutch folks of New Amsterdam did not associate Santa Claus with Christmas, but on the 6th of December they celebrated St. Nicholas’s Day, and on the 25th of the same month the birthday of the Christ. The hardy, active men who made New Netherland were not fat, or old, or stupid fellows. They were young men, lithe, alert, and. venturesome. The first comers knew little or nothing about tobacco, though they quickly learned its use from the Indians, and even smoked the homegrown article, presented to them by the Pilgrims of Massachusetts. Not one of them pronounced the syllable "dam" in "Amsterdam" or "Rotterdam," as if he were swearing in English.Most of the grotesque stories about the Hollanders in New Amsterdam grew up in late times, long after Dutch ceased to be spoken in America. Then their geographical names were corrupted and a luxuriant crop of mythology, like fungus, gave the funny fellows their chance. Then the vulgarity and dregs of Dutch speech, with much of its snap and vitality, also, entered into American English. Then "schnapps," a German word, "Dominie," a Scotch spelling of the Latin "Domine," and "van" Tromp with his legendary broom, — prefix and besom being both purely British inventions, — came into our speech to corrupt English. Then young Washington Irving, without having seen any but the southern portion of decadent Holland, took the world-wide myth of Rip from the Shop, which has nothing in it peculiarly Dutch, out of its setting in Germany, located it in the Catskills, and made a funny picture of New Netherland men and ways. What if he had got hold of Pilgrims or Puritans first?In hundreds of volumes purporting to be serious history, Irving's comic supplement to the early history of New York is quoted as both fact and truth. Its coloring has been accepted as exact by so-called American historians. Darley's caricatures and Boughton's delicious jokes on canvas have kept up the illusion. With such material historiographers, taking themselves seriously, pieced out their narratives when original research and documents were both lacking.After the English conquest of 1664, the Dutch language, gradually falling out of law and business, was heard in the church and home, but written only by the ministers. Even after it was bowed out of the pulpit, it was lovingly kept in use by the aged. It lingered longest in the country and in the city kitchens among the black slaves and the servants. Yet its snap (the very word, in this sense, is Dutch), vigor, and picturesqueness have enriched American English. Often grotesquely altered in form, as in "boss," "boom," "hunker," "boodle," etc., or in familiar terms like "forlorn hope," — "taps," etc., it has furnished many of our expressions in military, political, and social life and much of our slang. "Americanisms," borrowed from Low Country speech, have puzzled European students of English as spoken on this side of the Atlantic, who do not recognize old friends and the ghosts of history. Even the colors in "Old Glory" are criticised harshly, because the historically Dutch origin of our flag, especially of the stripes, which stand for federal government, is not known or considered. Many British jibes and falsehoods about the Dutch, to our shame, mar our speech and writing. Of this we should repent, because four of our original thirteen states were settled from the Netherlands.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with The Story of New Netherland, the Dutch in America. To get started finding The Story of New Netherland, the Dutch in America, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

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The Story of New Netherland, the Dutch in America

The Story of New Netherland, the Dutch in America

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