Lecture: Great Disasters in New York History

GREAT DISASTERS IN NEW YORK HISTORY: The Dutch Surrender of New Amsterdam in 1664. Governor Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch governor of the colony, wanted to fight the British, but his son and most of the town’s residents urged surrender. His son won out, and on August 27, 1664 New Amsterdam became New York. Stuyvesant returned to the city after a short time in Amsterdam and lived his final years at his Bowery residence. His remains, and those of all male Stuyvesants, are buried in the crypt under Saint Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery. It’s said that his ghost emerges every Christmas Eve to visit the streets of the city he loved and built. Join Ron Brown for the first in a series of four lectures on New York disasters.