Thursday, October 24, 2013

Fort George






Over the history of the city, buildings located at this spot have served three functions:

1     Fort for Dutch and British to defend against hostile outsiders (Indians French, etc.) 
               * Here is where Peter Stuyvesant surrendered the city to the British, who renamed it Fort George in honor of King. 
               * Not surprisingly, the fort became a symbol for colonists’ anger during Stamp Act riots in 1765. 
               * In 1783, the British surrendered the city to Washington here – so we can see both the start and end of British rule at this spot.
2   The 2nd function of site was as the Federal Customs House for the port in later 1800s. Here the national government regulated imports in era of booming international trade in a time when the city’s economy was mostly ocean-going trade.
3   Today, there is a 3rd (and ironic) function of the building: as home of the Museum of the American Indian. Does anyone see the irony?


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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 6, 2013 at 2:22 PM

    It is very cool that a function of this site was that it was the Federal Customs House at one point, because Federal Hall located on Wall Street also acted as the Federal Customs House years before.

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  2. Mr. SwirbulNovember 6, 2013 at 2:31 PM

    And to add to your comment, consider how much larger and more ornate the later Customs House was -- which suggests something about how much larger international trade had become for the US by the early 1900s and how much wealthier and powerful (economically) the nation was by then.

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