I'm into the ninth chapter of Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. However, you shouldn't be too impressed because this book (a tome, really) is sixty-nine chapters long so I've barely made a dent.
From the Lenape habitation sites, to becoming a key port in the sugar trade, lower Manhattan has a vibrant history with commerce as a constant. Other themes in the flow of history from the beginning of Dutch settlement through the Anglicization period of the early 1700s include the reigning leader's imposition of his own religion on the settlers, usually with little success. Many early leaders, from the East India Company's Peter Stuyvesant to Anglican Royal Governor Cornbury, attempted to put order to this trading center. Most leaders considered the common settlers a bawdy, drunken lot that needed an infusion of religion and morals. Other than scoring political points with interested parties back in the home countries, these efforts usually had little lasting effect on the residents.
Now that this blog is up, I will try to post comments and observations as I continue reading Gotham.
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