Governors Island’s Tolerance Park HISTORIC NEW AMSTERDAM Restore Governors Island’s historical truth+protect vital tolerance message
Historic New Amsterdam

The Foundation for Historic New Amsterdam’s mission is to restore Governors Island’s historical integrity and to preserve its historic message of toleration for future generations (click on Governors Island Tolerance Park). This dynamic precept of [religious] tolerance as the basis for successful pluralism and cultural diversity will help us better understand the meaning of Liberty Island (personal freedom) and Ellis Island (welcome).

This unique conception of tolerance was rooted in the birth of New York State on Governors Island in 1624 and was vital in the development of American and Western liberty as we know it today.

As a vibrant notion, tolerance is the Lifeblood of American Liberty. As America's National Symbol in a National Heritage Triangle of primary American values, the Tolerance Park Historic New Amsterdam with its iconic emblem as centerpiece—the Tolerance Monument—will help unite us in American freedom through broad awareness and conscious vigilance.

This fundamental New York State history is to be reflected in the living museum Historic New Amsterdam as a museum park to tolerance. It will transform Governors Island, the nation’s only natural historic symbol since 1624, to a crucial national symbol.

The planting of the laws and ordinances of the Dutch Republic on Governors Island by the New York Tri-State region's first settlers has left an enduring legacy on both American cultural and political life.

 

Of the settlers’ specific instructions, the most important was the one that echoed the 1579 founding document of New York’s birthfather—the Dutch Republic.  It promulgated that "everyone shall remain free in religion and that no one may be persecuted or investigated because of religion."

 

This legal-cultural instruction of toleration formed the basis for religious and ethnic diversity in New Amsterdam, now New York City:

 

In 1643, on his visit to New Amsterdam, Father Isaac Jogues reported that more than 18 languages were spoken and that besides Calvinists there were "Catholics, English Puritans, Lutherans, Anabaptists, etc."

 

This religious freedom was preserved by treaty for New Netherlanders exclusively under English authority.

 

In 1682, the visiting Virginian William Byrd commented about New Amsterdam that "they have as many sects of religion there as at Amsterdam."

 

In 1686, religious diversity in the now English acquired territory was described by its English governor as “Here be not many of the Church of England; few Roman Catholics; abundance of Quakers; preachers, men and women especially; singing Quakers, ranting Quakers; Sabatarians; Antisabatarians; some Anabaptists; some independents; some Jews; in short of all sorts of opinion there are some, and the most of none at all.”

 

This diversity was the result of the dynamic conception of tolerance as planted first in the Western Hemisphere on Governors Island in 1624.

 

This historic event and the island’s natural message of tolerance were affirmed by the New York State Legislature in May 2002.

 

In that month, the Legislature acknowledged and declared thus that Governors Island is New York State’s oldest landmark as well as a National Symbol because of its inherent, historic message of tolerance as the foundation of American freedom.  

 

President@TolerancePark.org

 

 

In acknowledgment of New York State’s historic beginning on Governors Island and its momentous contribution to American culture, we composed a triad of islands in one iconic whole where each island represents a symbol and exemplifies its own unique facet of American history.

The sum of this National Heritage Triangle of America’s primary values in New York harbor is worth more than its collective parts. It would promulgate that tolerance and liberty define the juridical and cultural construct to which American freedom refers—that the dynamic precept of tolerance distinguishes the specifically American notion of freedom from the generic or static.

TOLERANCE (embodied by Governors Island as the nation’s leading, natural, historic symbol), because it precedes liberty while also being its partner in the definition of “American” freedom;

LIBERTY (embodied by the island symbol of “Liberty” signified by its statue), because it is a function of tolerance (is liberty possible in an intolerant society?); and

IMMIGRATION (embodied by the Ellis Island symbol of "Welcome" as portrayed by the American Immigration Museum), because it is a function of American freedom which comprises the twin notions of tolerance and liberty.

A two-way street, tolerance demands reciprocal respect rather than unilateral accommodation. Embedded in Governors Island—New York State’s legally recognized, historic birthplace—tolerance is a critical part of New York’s cultural patrimony and its unique contribution to American culture. Without doubt, it is the very foundation for successful pluralism and the lifeblood of American liberty.

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The French gift of the Statue of Liberty (inaugurated in 1886) transformed Bedloe Island to Liberty Island in 1956 to become an omnipresent, fundamental American symbol.

Similarly, the 50-acre canvas for the creation of a masterpiece of thematic and visual excellence—the tolerance park Historic New Amsterdam—will transform Governors Island to a National Symbol.

It will explicitly acknowledge constructive pluralism-through-tolerance as an original, historic, indispensable dynamic notion in American freedom since 1624—the year in which it took root on the very place where it was planted first on Governors Island.

As the nation’s only natural, historic, primary symbol since 1624, Governors Island precedes the later created island symbols (“Liberty” and “Welcome”) in historical priority, national meaning and thematic substance.

These three symbols are ideal complements of each other and are fully interdependent with respect to a more insightful understanding of what constitutes American freedom. Geographically perfectly aligned in a triangle, the island triad thus composes a new ubiquitous American icon: The National Heritage Triangle.

The Tolerance Park Historic New Amsterdam—an education and history project for the benefit of our children and grandchildren—will unleash Governors Island’s currently concealed historic symbolism for the nation. It will provide our children with an opportunity to understand the twin notions of tolerance and liberty in American freedom and imbue them with a deeper appreciation of the meaning of freedom in a pluralist society through broad awareness and conscious vigilance.

The envisaged park will protect the nation’s tradition of tolerance and uphold America’s ultimate ideal as an active virtue to the world while preserving the national significance of Governors Island's historic symbolism as an enduring beacon to humanity. The park’s charismatic presence will generate the third iconic island symbol as a quintessential, fundamental American symbol in New York harbor.

For more about the Governors Island project Historic New Amsterdam press"CLICK HERE" or go to the site www.TolerancePark.org.


 

The Governors Island settlement was crucial for New York’s heritage of cultural pluralism as the basis for religious and ethnic diversity. Its message became New York’s legacy to the nation on September 25, 1789, when religious freedom as an individual right was proposed by the new republic’s Congress. That amendment to the 1787 Constitution, that “Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion or respecting an establishment of religion”, was proposed by John Adams as Vice-President of the United States and President of the Senate. From 1780-1784, John Adams—the second President of the United States—had been the Congressional envoy and first plenipotentiary minister of the United States to the Dutch Republic. Thus became religious freedom codified as a legal-political condition in the First Amendment as a Constitutional right on December 15, 1791. That inheritance originated on Governors Island and was rooted on the other site of the Atlantic in the year 1579. That year, the founding document of the Dutch Republic had stated that “everyone shall remain free in religion and that no one may be persecuted or investigated because of religion.” In the way that a house of stone and brick is held together by cement, tolerance is the glue that holds this world together, that enables cultural diversity and mankind to prosper. When the cement fails, so will the house—as in intolerance. Tolerance builds, intolerance destroys. Check history. As a vibrant precept, tolerance requires ongoing struggle grounded in “broad awareness and conscious vigilance." For 34 slides on a historical overview click on "CLICK HERE".

It will be a place where 350 years of contrasts will visually dissolve harmoniously into a new and unique village, just as divergences and boundaries melt away through the ethical force of tolerance into common humanity.

Visitors arriving via Governors Island’s Lima Pier can board the anchored 17th-century exhibition ship “Servitude.” The Tolerance Walk will take them to exhibitions in the Tolerance Monument.

Throughout the Historic New Amsterdam canvas, art will be infused occasionally with spectacle. Guests will experience commercial and artistic endeavors including music, visual, theater, performance and participatory arts along the themes of religious, ethnic and racial tolerance.

 

The artistic programming will be inspirational which can be captivating, uplifting or joyful edutainment such as, for example, the musical that celebrates racial and religious tolerance – Ana Frank, Un Canto a la Vida – by the Spanish writer and producer Rafael Alvero, or the opera that fosters understanding of shared history – Amistad – by the American composer Anthony Davis.