New Amsterdam, New Netherland in the 1660s

Work

A harbor of pelts

The port handled pelts, lumber, tobacco, Caribbean goods, and European trade⁹. Enslaved Africans also did forced work on farms, roads, and in domestic labor^14,15.

Faith

One public church

The visible public church is the stone Dutch Reformed church inside the fort^3,4. Other believers lived here too, but public worship outside the Reformed Church was restricted under Dutch rule¹⁷.

Law & power

Company, court, fort

Local authority runs through a schout, two burgomasters, and five schepens^5,6. The government meets in the Stadt Huys, a former tavern^7,8, while the fort embodies Company rule.

In the air

Toleration under pressure

Religious liberty is an argument, not a settled fact: Quaker shelter could bring a £50 fine¹⁷, and Jews could reside but not hold synagogue worship¹⁹. In 1663 the Company ordered Stuyvesant to allow private belief when quiet and lawful¹⁷.

What people feared

Warships in the harbor

The town’s great danger in this decade is imperial war: four English warships entered the harbor in 1664^10,11. The surrender was negotiated, and property and conscience were promised protection^10,11,12.

Home & table

Houses and gardens

The 1660 map shows individual houses, gardens, docks, warehouses, and squares¹. What ordinary rooms looked like is harder to recover, because no secure online house-by-house interior description survives.

Money

Guilders, wampum, beaver

People counted value in Dutch coin, beaver skins, and wampum²⁰. A newly admitted resident paid 50 guilders for Great Burgher Right or 20 for Small Burgher Right⁸.

Who lived here

Many peoples, unequal laws

The town’s daily world includes Dutch, English, German, French, Scandinavian, Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, Quaker, African, and Native presences^16,17,18. But those groups lived under unequal rules, including enslavement by the Dutch West India Company and private households^14,15.

Year by year

1. 1657The Flushing Remonstrance protested persecution of Quakers under Stuyvesant’s government. nearby¹⁷
2. 1660Jacques Cortelyou’s survey produced the detailed map now known through the Castello Plan. here^1,2
3. 1661Evert Pieterson became schoolmaster in New Amsterdam. here²²
4. 1663The West India Company instructed Stuyvesant to allow private belief when people behaved quietly and legally. here¹⁷
5. 1664English warships forced the surrender of New Amsterdam and the province of New Netherland. here^10,11
6. 1665The Second Anglo-Dutch War began between England and the Dutch Republic. the world
7. 1666The Great Fire of London destroyed much of England’s capital and would have been major Atlantic news. the world
8. 1667The Treaty of Breda confirmed the English possession of New York while the Dutch retained Suriname. the world

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

• The Castello Plan was made from a 1660 survey by Jacques Cortelyou and shows the walled city of New Amsterdam at Manhattan’s southern tip. from the sources^1,2
• The 1660 map shows a city wall at the northern edge of the settlement, roughly on the line of present Wall Street. from the sources^1,2,3
• Fort Amsterdam stood at the south end of the town and was the center of Dutch West India Company authority, trade, and defense. from the sources^1,2
• A stone Dutch Reformed church, completed in the 1640s, stood inside Fort Amsterdam during the 1660s. from the sources^3,4
• The Castello Plan depicts individual buildings, streets, squares, canals, gardens, docks, warehouses, Peter Stuyvesant’s house, and the fort. from the sources¹
• The Dutch settlement included a canal along the line later known as Broad Street, with bridges crossing it. from the sources³
• New Amsterdam’s municipal court and government consisted of a schout, two burgomasters, and five schepens, with civil and criminal authority. from the sources^5,6
• The city’s court met in the Stadt Huys, the former city tavern, and the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens met twice weekly. inferred^7,8
• Great Burgher Right cost 50 guilders for newly admitted residents, while Small Burgher Right cost 20 guilders. inferred⁸
• New Amsterdam was a port for trade among North America, the Caribbean, and Europe, exporting materials such as pelts, lumber, and tobacco. from the sources⁹
• In August 1664, four English warships entered New Amsterdam’s harbor and demanded the surrender of the town and province. from the sources^10,11
• The Articles of Capitulation in 1664 guaranteed Dutch inhabitants property rights, inheritance customs, and liberty of conscience in worship. from the sources^10,11,12
• After the 1664 surrender, New Amsterdam was renamed New York after the Duke of York. from the sources^12,13
• The Dutch West India Company brought enslaved Africans to New Amsterdam to work on farms, build roads, and perform domestic labor. from the sources^14,15
• By the mid-1660s, New Amsterdam included Dutch, English, German, French, Scandinavian, Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, Quaker, African, and Native presences, though the sources describe them unevenly. from the sources^16,17,18
• The Reformed Church was the only publicly authorized church for much of Dutch rule, although the West India Company told Stuyvesant in 1663 to allow private belief if people behaved quietly and legally. from the sources¹⁷
• Stuyvesant’s government imposed anti-Quaker ordinances, including vessel confiscation and a £50 fine for sheltering a Quaker. from the sources¹⁷
• Jews were allowed to reside in New Netherland, but a 1656 Company instruction said that right did not include synagogue worship or public religious gatherings. from the sources¹⁹
• Money in New Netherland included Dutch coin, beaver skins, and wampum; in 1660, two guilders of seawan were worth one guilder in coin. from the sources²⁰
• A merchantable beaver pelt in the mid-seventeenth-century New Netherland economy was worth about 7 or 8 guilders. from the sources²¹
• Evert Pieterson served as schoolmaster in New Amsterdam from 1661 to 1664. from the sources²²
• New Amsterdam’s surviving street pattern from this decade includes the lines of Beaver Street, Bridge Street, Broad Street, Broadway, Pearl Street, Stone Street, Wall Street, and William Street. from the sources³
• No single online source gives a secure house-by-house description of ordinary interiors in New Amsterdam in the 1660s. not known
• The population of the town in 1664 is uncertain in the opened sources, with estimates ranging from about 1,500 residents to more than 2,000 when enslaved and free Black residents are included. from the sources^4,16,18

Sources

1. The History of the Castello Plan. New Amsterdam History Center
2. Map of New Amsterdam. Atlas of Mutual Heritage
3. Street Plan of New Amsterdam and Colonial New York. New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, 1983
4. New Amsterdam. Wikipedia
5. The Court of the Burgomasters and Schepens, 1650–1660. Historical Society of the New York Courts
6. Courts of Yesteryear. Historical Society of the New York Courts, 2025
7. First Citizens of Manhattan: New Amsterdam’s Burgher Right. New Amsterdam Stories / NYC Municipal Archives
8. Privileges and Responsibilities. New Amsterdam Stories / NYC Municipal Archives
9. New Netherland. Wikipedia
10. The Surrender of New Netherland. American History, 1493–1945
11. The Dutch & the English Part 4: Invasion?. NYC Department of Records & Information Services, 2017
12. Province of New York. Wikipedia
13. Articles of Surrender of New Netherland. Wikipedia
14. African Burial Ground in History. National Park Service
15. Dutch New Amsterdam. National Museum of American History
16. The Legal Rights of the Jews in Colonial America. U.S. Department of Justice digital collection
17. The Flushing Remonstrance, 1657. Historical Society of the New York Courts
18. New Amsterdam. Mapping the African American Past, Columbia University
19. Jews in New Amsterdam. Wikipedia
20. The Dutch Schools of New Netherland and Colonial New York. U.S. Bureau of Education, 1912
21. The Schaghen Letter: The Land Agreement between the Native Americans and the Dutch Settlers. New Amsterdam History Center
22. History of the School of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in the City of New York

New Amsterdam in other decades

Nearby, about the same time