Overseer Of Rensselaerswyck

Dutch Expectations.

Women of the Netherlands were considered the freest in Europe. In part, this freedom was the unintended consequence of their being educated and trained to manage the accounts of their households in good times, and the businesses of their husbands if they died. Dutch women in the New World were also expected to know how to keep a family's wealth together so that when the children were old enough to take over there would be something there for them. Maria van Cortlandt van Rensselaer lived her life in accordance with these expectations and was able to secure for her children one of the largest estates in colonial New York.

Rensselaerswyck.

In 1629 the Dutch West India Company realized that in order to attract settlers it would need the private initiative of those wealthy enough to provide funding. Among...