I remember that article: in my recollection it was more about holding up
a romanticized view of New Amsterdam/New York as a bustling, tolerant
multi-cultural center than about Jamestown per se (although they did
ride down the Virginians pretty hard).    They were claiming that in
light of what America became later, New Amsterdam/New York was more like
that than Jamestown.   The problem with that view of New York's origins
is that it ignores all the bad parts of the Dutch colonial experiment:
treatment of Indians, slavery, etc.  The Dutch were rapacious
capitalists after all, exploitative and harsh in their pursuit of profit
(which also fits in with modern New Yorkers like Trump).

David Kiracofe

David Kiracofe
History
Tidewater Community College
Chesapeake Campus
1428 Cedar Road
Chesapeake, Virginia 23322
757-822-5136
>>> Sunshine49 <[log in to unmask]> 01/31/07 10:32 PM >>>
Late last year there was an article on the NY Times website, maybe  
you all discussed it here. Talk about hooey- a few NY "historians"  
claiming Jamestown had no hold on the national development at all, it  
was a bunch of wood and mud hovels that soon fell into the mud, the  
real beginning that should get the credit was... Henry Hudson! Boy I  
wrote them a pointed letter, and my guess is I was not the only one.  
By the time the day was half gone, they had pulled the prominently  
placed article from the website. The arguments by those "historians"  
were the most biased, ignorance-based loads of baloney I have ever read.

Nancy

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