History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 228

American gratitude
On May 20, 1924, for the tercentenary of the founding of New York, a monument was
erected in honor of the Walloon settlers, on the site of Battery Park, in the southern
part of Manhattan.
A 50 cents silver coin, commemorating the tercentenary of the arrival of the Walloons
was also put into circulation at the same time.
The government of the United States paid also homage to the first settlers with the
issuing of 1, 2 and 5 cents postage stamps.

Belgian oblivion
People may ask oneself why the real circumstances wrapping the foundation of New
York remain, even today, almost unknown in the present Belgium.
The schoolbooks and history books are dumb about the subject. Recently, "Génies en
herbe" (Green genius), a game organized by the RTBF (Belgian French-speaking
Radio and Television) between different schools, asked to the candidates who was the
founder of New York. The supposedly good answer was... Peter Stuyvesant. An
answer who teaches a lot about the oblivion into which the ancestors of the
participants... and organizers are fallen!
This oblivion can be explained in different ways. There is one who seems plausible:
the founders of New York being Walloons and Flemish Protestants, Belgium being
catholic, and the teaching having been for a long time influenced by the Catholic
Church, one may assume that the latter deliberately occulted this period of our history.
After three hundred and seventy-five years, the Walloon and Flemish settlers doesn’t
seem to have gained the forgiveness of the Catholic Church.
Ill feelings are sometimes persistent...

Bibliography
Description de la Nouvelle Belgique (par Johannes De Laet - 1640)
Les Belges et la fondation de New York (by Antoine De Smet - from the Royal Library
of Belgium)
Les Wallons, fondateurs de New York (by Robert Goffin, Institut Jules Destrée)
Historique de la colonisation de New York par les Belges (by G. Gomme)
The Belgians, first settlers in New York (by Henri G. Bayer)
History of the Huguenot immigration to America (by Charles W. Baird)
History of the United States of America (by George Bancroft)
History of the city of New York (by Martha Lamb)
Narratives of New Netherland (par Franklin Jameson)
History of the State of New York (by Dr. John Romeyn Brodhead)
Memorial History of the City of New York (by General James Grant Wilson)
La part des Belges dans la fondation de l'Etat de New York (by the Duke of
Borchgrave)
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