Melting Pot Goodfriend, Joyce D. Term Paper

Towards the second half of the 18th century, it became more difficult for the Dutch children to obtain an education in Dutch language, and gradually conversion to the Anglican faith increased amongst all non-English groups, including the French. By placing sanctions on Dutch language schools, the English authorities successfully steered Dutch children to English schools. Once, Dutch had been the language at home and within church, but no more. The French Huguenots as well had a thriving community, with their own religious and social institutions, and religion was an equally important force as they too created their own churches early on. They had fled France to escape persecution and were eager to embrace their religious freedom at first. But around the time the Dutch began to lose their language and schools, the French also became more Anglicized and attended English, rather than French institutions of worship.

It must not be forgotten, writes Goodfriend, that it was the Dutch, rather than the English or the French who dominated the city until the middle of the 18th century. Until then, the Dutch made up a greater proportion of New York's population and dominated most trades. Yet even Goodfriend, despite her tendency to stress the importance social, religious, and cultural practices vs. formal political institutions cannot deny the fact that the pressures of the English government eventually resulted in a more hegemonic society, linguistically and socially, by 1730. She focuses on three Dutch men, and studies how the family changed from the English conquest in 1664 until 1730, and by the end of the period, their ancestors had become far more Anglicized, despite her desire to diminish the influence of this cultural process.One of the most interesting aspects of Goodfriend's book is her discussion of the importance of African-Americans in the development of the young New York City. African-Americans comprised 20-25% of the population, and many New Yorkers owned slaves. Unlike the Southerner's culture of slave-owning, most of the first New Yorkers used slave for household help, not to make a profit off of cash crops, and many tradesmen used slaves in their work. Africans too endured a process of deculturation, whereby they were forced to lose the language of their home countries, and literacy was used as a mechanism of social control, although some African-Americans distinguished themselves in trade as a result of the education they received to become more helpful to their 'masters.'

Goodfriend also gives attention to the emerging Jewish and German populations in New York, although to a lesser degree, in deference to their proportionately smaller numbers than the Dutch. At the end of her text she suggests that New York City, in its own way, was just as diverse during the colonial period as it is in its contemporary context, and that the process of 'melting' that occurred was a long process for the Dutch, and occasionally, for some groups such as African-Americans, a painful process.

Works Cited

Goodfriend, Joyce D. Before the Melting Pot: Society and Culture in Colonial New York City, 1664-1730. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.

Joyce Goodfriend, Beyond the Melting Pot, (Princeton: Princeton University….....