Bill's Brownstone
Wander through New York's Past and Present with
the author of The Mevrouw Who Saved Manhattan
Dutch Days
"The large oysters are proper for roasting and stewing. Each of these will fill a spoon, and make a good bite. I have seen many in the shell a foot long."-- Adriaen van der Donck in A Description of New Netherland, 1655.
The Dutch arriving on the Hudson River found one of the great oyster beds of the world, by some estimates containing half the world's supply. The Indians had long enjoyed the delicacy, piling great mounds of oyster shells along the Manhattan waterfront. And so the lane running along the shore eventually became known as Pearl Street. Landfill has since extended the island, but originally the shore ran from a jut of land below the fort known as Schuyler's Hook up the East River along today's Pearl.
Along Pearl is where Griet Reyniers, a prostitute known for measuring manliness with a broomstick, lifted her skirt at sailors shouting "Whore, whore!," slapped her rump and shouted back, Blaes my daer achterin!" - no translation needed.The gallows stood on Pearl, and in 1641, a crowd gathered for the hanging of Manuel the Giant, one of eight Africans present when a ninth was murdered. While the court could not determine which of the Africans wielded the murder weapon, no such crime could go unpunished. Manuel had the bad luck to draw the odd lot determining who would be hung, but his luck changed on the gallows. The two ropes looped around his neck broke, the crowd pleaded for mercy and Manuel went free.Bill's Book
The Mevrouw Who
Saved Manhattan
A Novel of New Amsterdam
like etchings by
Van Ostade and Steen."
-- Charles Wendell, Ph.D.,
President of the
New Netherland Institute
on a madcap ride through
New York history.
More about the book.
Amazon
for the Kindle
and the Nook
and see what you think
laughing out loud."
right on the money."
better ... toward a
highly satisfying resolution."