Book: New York

Oysters are the food of the poor. Sam often raised modest money by selling it.

On the night of Guy Fawkes in New York, dad was burned. In England, November 5 was considered a significant day. A century and a half have passed since the Catholic Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the Protestant parliament, after which it became customary to burn his effigy every year. For this very reason, the celebrations were in many ways reminiscent of the ancient rituals of Halloween. Guy Fawkes Night has come to New York. Over time, however, New Yorkers decided to improve upon the old English rite and get to the bottom of it. They dragged a stuffed animal of the Pope himself through the streets with further burning in the evening on a huge fire, and everyone rejoiced. At least almost everything. Urban Catholics could have argued, but they were few, and they were smart enough to keep quiet.

The rights in which Eliot the Master believed — the rights asserted by Andrew Hamilton and exercised by the jury — arose from the "general law" of England. It was the British who were the only ones in Europe who executed their king for tyranny, it was the English poet Milton who gave the definition of freedom of the press, it was the English philosopher Locke who postulated the existence of natural human rights. The people who fired from the cannon saw themselves as British and were proud of it. And yet, when old Hamilton turned to the jury, he made another point that they liked. The ancient law, he said, might have been good a long time ago in England, but in America centuries later it could be bad. Although no one really discussed his claim, the seeds were planted. And this idea took root and spread across the vast expanses of America.

Although Zenger's trial did not change the law, it showed all future governors that the residents of New York and the American colonies will generally use, without further ado, the natural right to speak and write whatever they want. This trial has not been forgotten. It became a milestone in American history, and the people of that era correctly grasped where the wind was blowing.

Political events in London were never too late to affect Boston and New York. As Dirk Master liked to say, "London supplies us with laws, wars and whores." True, by "whores" he meant the royal governors.

give people what they want and you will find freedom.

- Tell me, Boss, what's the difference between a privateer and a pirate? The Boss and Mr. Master looked at each other and laughed. - If they rob us, - the Boss answers, - then they are pirates. But if enemies, then privates.

You can live your whole life with people, but you still can't figure them out.

"Trust the trade," van Dijk said. "Kingdoms are born and die, but trade is eternal."

"Beaver," van Dijk said to the children, "is a very useful creature. Beaver fat helps with rheumatism, toothache and gastric colic. The testicles of the beaver, if crushed and dissolved in water, are able to cure the feeble-minded. The fur is thick and warm. But the main temptation was not fur, but its soft leather base. Why? Felt was made of it. Hats. Everyone wanted a felt hat, but only the rich could afford it. It was a cry of fashion. It happened that hatters went crazy, poisoned by mercury, which was used to separate fur from skin. And van Dyck did not rule out a share of madness in the fact that for the sake of fashionable hats an entire colony was founded, and even an empire, where people risked their lives and killed each other. But that's how the world was set up. If the northeast coast of America was colonized for the sake of Atlantic fishing, then the famous bay of New Amsterdam and the large North River - for the sake of felt hats.

Tom was very pleased with his first year in London. And yet he yearned for America. Not Boston or Puritan relatives, but other things that he could hardly describe. Feeling like space, new limits, opening up the world. It was a yearning for freedom - perhaps out of wild will.

Recent historical writings, especially Russell Shorto's remarkable book The Island at Center of the World, dedicated to New Amsterdam, emphasize the immutability of personal and civil liberty bequeathed to New York by the Dutch.