A new book is recommended to NAHC followers: Sara Cedar Miller, in her comprehensive new work, Before Central Park, devotes Chapter 1 to New Amsterdam. She recounts how, in 1637, Isaac de Forest and his brother-in-law Dr. Johannes de la Montagne, with permission from the Dutch West India Company, moved from tiny New Amsterdam to plant tobacco on a 200-acre bouwerie, located at what is today the northern end of Central Park. The first chapter in Sara Cedar Miller’s Before Central Park tells the fascinating story of this family and how, despite inhospitable terrain and climate for the cultivation of tobacco, they succeeded in their dream–and fledged the settlement of
Harlem.
You will love the whole book, especially for its photography, also by Sara! Order online, or through Columbia University Press.