Greg Furness's observation about the television media seeing
nothing wrong with sacrificing accuracy for entertainment
value reminded me of my brush with the production process of
the Burns film.

Last year I had two calls from Steeplecase Films (February
and March--I kept notes) concerning the documentary. They
were looking for visuals, especially maps to portray New
Netherland. Eventually we talked about New Netherland and
its place in New York history. I was assured that they were
concerned with getting the story right and thus striving for
historical accuracy (I'm still mystified by the
"French-speaking Belgian Huguenots" who settled Manhattan).
As I answered questions and made suggestions, urging that
new research be incorporated I began to feel uneasy.
Especially when I told them about the return of the
Dutch in 1673. I could almost hear the gears grinding to a
halt. How could the story progress from the Dutch to
the English in a simple entertaining fashion when the Dutch
returned nine years later? I was particularly annoyed by one
of the talking heads who blithely pronounced that the Dutch
could have cared less that they were taken over by the
English in 1664. Where is the documentary evidence for such
a statement? On the other hand I do know from documentary
evidence that the Dutch rose up in 1673 when the Dutch fleet
appeared in NY harbor and told the English soldiers in the
fort to keep their heads down or get them blown off. New
Netherland was negotiated away the following year for
political and economic reasons; the Dutch language and
cultural identity lived on for over a century. This is just
one example.

I was disappointed that they saw fit to use nothing more
than the maps I suggested, ignoring recent research, books,
dissertations, historians (who should have been the talking
heads), sacrificing accuracy for entertainment, opting for
the worn-out stereotypes of the Dutch in the North America.



Charles Gehring
New Netherland Project
New York State Library
Albany, NY 12230
518-4746067 (o)
518-4730472 (fax)
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