Was Anthony the Turk Really a Turk?: "Islam" in Dutch New York

Alan Mikhail is the Chace Family Professor of History at Yale University. He is the author of six books that have been translated into ten languages. His work has helped to establish the field of Middle East environmental history, positioned the Ottoman Empire at the center of global early modern history, and creatively scrutinized the place of the archive in the making of past and present. He has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Literary Hub, and Time.

He will discuss his most recent book, Newcomers: The Story of Anthony and Grietje and the Founding of New York (Liveright: 2026), the tale of an impoverished couple who left a life of piracy and prostitution in Europe for 1630s Dutch New Amsterdam. They faced bigotry and violent conflicts with Dutch authorities and neighbors. But their fortunes would later turn in English New York, and Anthony would become one of the city’s wealthiest men. Their descendants would come to include notable Americans like the Vanderbilts and President Warren G. Harding.

Sponsored by the Axinn Center for the Humanities - Mellon Humanities for All Times Initiative and the Department of History.