Opening Statements -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments with thanks -- Acknowledgments of Previous or Prospective Appearances -- Foreword -- Introduction -- 1. "… a well regulated country where justice and government prevail " -- 2. The Souls of New Amsterdam's African American Children -- 3. Matters of "Trifling Moment ": New Netherland and the New York Tradition of Arbitration -- 4. The Declaration of Independence and the Dutch Legacy -- 5. Real Estate or Political Sovereignty? The Dutch, Munsees, and the Purchase of Manhattan Island -- 6. Crimen Læsæ Maiestatis or Abuse of Power? The 1647 Trial of Cornelis Melijn and Jochem Pietersz Kuijter Jaap Jacobs -- 7. Imagining the Stadt Huys -- 8. Prosecution or Persecution? The 1657 Flushing Incident -- 9. Lutherans and the Law in New Netherland: The Politics of Religion -- 10. A Flourishing City: Jews in New Amsterdam, 1654 -- 11. Governors Island and the Origins of Religious Tolerence -- 12. Marital Litigations in New Netherland and Proprietary New York: Similarities and Differences in Application of Dutch and English Law -- 13. English Law through Dutch Eyes: The Leislerian Understanding of the English Legal System in New York -- Contributor Biographies -- Index.