The Hudson Valley Dutch contributed to the American way of life and participated in the American Revolution in significant ways. This book presents a general account of those contributions, and its aim is to be useful to scholars as a summary of what is now known about the Hudson Valley Dutch, as the first coherent account of the developments of their way of life over the three and a half centuries from their first settlements to the present, and for its suggestion of numerous topics on which further research is needed. It is also written for general readers, ordinary people who are curious about how their home towns and their country have come to be as they are. Students of New York State history will be interested in the subject, as will descendants of Dutch families and Hudson Valley residents. The author has drawn on traditional scholarly resources, archives, museums, and interviews with descendants of Dutch settlers who have preserved documents and relics and shared memories of their ancestors.This book was jointly produced by the New York State American Revolution Bicentennial Commission and Syracuse University Press. |