Explore the lives of the women—Dutch, African, Indigenous, and English—who shaped and built New Netherland and colonial New York in the 17th and 18th centuries. Presented in partnership with the New Netherland Institute, this conference featured two panel conversations and a keynote address inspired by the on-going translation of the papers of Alida Schuyler Livingston (1656-1727), an elite Dutch woman who exerted substantial influence over colonial politics, economics, and diplomacy. Her correspondence with her husband Robert Livingston (1654-1728) represents one of the most significant collections of women’s writing in seventeenth-century North America. Leading historians and scholars used Livingston’s surviving letters, business records, accounts, and documents to unearth the impact of women, including those enslaved by the Livingston family and those indigenous to the region, on the history of the Dutch and later British colony.
Click here for more information on the Saturday, October 1, 2022 event.