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The Story of
Sarah Rapalje and Dutch Manhattan

A tale of survival, the eternal quest for belonging,

and the origins of American culture.

In 1625, Manhattan is a wilderness at the edge of the known world

and the center of the Dutch colony of New Netherland.

Inspired by the real life of the first child born there—Sarah Rapalje is confronted with upheavals of war, navigating love and destruction amid shifting allegiances.

One peril leads to another until Sarah must choose between

what is most important- her identity or her homeland?

It's a coming-of-age story for a frontier woman,

but also for the city that would become New York.

Release date June 9, 2025

Read the FREE prequel

THE SPOTCH BLOG

Interview with Lana W. Holden

Lana Waite Holden is the author of Catalyntje Trico: A Life in New Amsterdam , a deeply researched historical fiction novel about the...

Dec 30, 20246 min read

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1 comment

Historical Fiction set in New Netherland

Browse all titles here on my bookshop.org page where you can buy from independent booksellers. Historical Fiction: Catalyntje Trico: A...

Oct 23, 20242 min read

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0 comments

Jessé de Forest: Forefather of New York

In 1620, Jessé acutely felt the weight of expectations and a pang of jealousy in his heart as he watched the Mayflower depart. He and his...

Aug 13, 20247 min read

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0 comments

Best non-fiction books about New Netherland

1. The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto Narrative non-fiction at its best. Pre-recquosite reading. It tells the...

Aug 8, 20243 min read

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2 comments

Meet the supporting cast

My novel revolves around Sarah Rapalje, but at times, the story follows people connected to Sarah and their experiences of New Amsterdam...

Jul 9, 20243 min read

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0 comments

The Revolutionary War and the Rapaljes

What do the Revolutionary War, the founding of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and Brooklyn records from the Dutch days going missing have in...

Jul 4, 20242 min read

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Meet the Mother: Catalyna Trico

Catalyna is an iconic OG (original grandmother) to millions. I don't know if a single blog post can scratch the surface. A whole book...

Jun 28, 20247 min read

126 views

1 comment

Black and white photo of Fawn Brokaw Doyle, a young woman with wry smile and dimples

My name is Fawn. I'm a history nerd, flatware designer, toddler mom, nature lover, and travel enthusiast who is writing a novel!

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🔊Sound on for an excerpt from Taking Manhattan by Russell Shorto.

I was delighted to hear him talk about Sarah, Catalyna, and the Rapalje household- especially imagining how their households must have been similar to a New World Jan Steen painting!

It’s a great book! Shorto’s narrative approach illuminates history in such an engaging style with underrepresented POVs of women, Native American, African, and Jewish residents. His research on Richard Nicolls and the real impetus for the English takeover was particularly enlightening!

Also- I love that he narrated the audiobook!

#newamsterdam #oldnewyork #newnetherland #nyhistory

3 months from today, you will be able to buy Salt People of the Cloud Houses! 😊

Question: Where do you like to buy books? What format? Ebook, paperback, hardcover, large print, audio?

Currently, I’m planning on releasing ebook and print via Amazon and Bookshop.org (where you can order it through your local indie bookstore).

Stay tuned for the cover reveal next month! (Hint: it incorporates this painting of New Amsterdam by Johannes Vingboons)

#historicalfiction #nyc400 #newamsterdam #newnetherland

Happy International Women’s Day! Women are 50% of history, but haven’t been 50% of the story. The names above are REAL women from history that have inspired characters in my novel, Salt People of the Cloud Houses. They are Walloon, Dutch, English, African, and Lenape. You’ve probably never heard of them. But you will! They are “ordinary” but extraordinary in the ways they found to survive and help their families thrive in the nascent settlement of New Amsterdam.

#internationalwomensday #womenshistory #historicalfiction

Today is Shrove Tuesday aka Fat Tuesday- or Vastenavond- “fasting eve” in Dutch. It’s the last day to indulge before Lent. Shrove Tuesday is a pivotal moment twice in my novel. Both forever change Sarah and the world she is familiar with.

Paintings are:
The Wedding Dance by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1566
Merrymakers at Shrovetide by Frans Hals, ca. 1616–17

For February being a short month, my need for escapism was HIGH and I fit in a lot of historical fiction, some non-fiction, literary fiction, and romance.

I didn’t include ratings because I enjoyed or valued reading each of these and would recommend reading if the subject/ time period appeals to you.

Have you read any of these? Any on your TBR?

Sarah’s mother, Catalyna, is quoted as saying that, in the early days of the New Netherland colony, they had good relations with the Native Americans. “They were all quiet as lambs… came and made covenants of friendship… and traded with all the freedom imaginable.”

But tensions rose under the leadership of Director Kieft and on February 25, 1643, tensions turned to war. Dutch soldiers and colonists brutally attacked and murdered 80-120 Native men, women, and children. The Natives had sought refuge from warring tribes in the north. Their encampments at Corlear’s Hook (lower east side Manhattan) and Pavonia (NJ) were attacked at night, when they were asleep.

Director Willem Kieft had been fomenting a war with Natives for 2 years prior to the massacre. He formed the Council of Twelve Men (the first representative assembly in NY) to gain popular approval for attack. Sarah’s father, Joris, served on the council, which refused to condone provocation with the Natives. One week prior to the attacks, the council was disbanded. Director Kieft justified the attack with a petition signed by 3 council members—one of whom later attempted to assassinate Kieft!

With this massacre, Kieft’s War began. By the end, over 1,000 Lenape Natives were killed. Less than 30 colonists were killed but Sarah’s little brother was among those slain in retaliation. Farms were burned and the colony was pushed to the brink of ruin. It’s a brutal and heartbreaking chapter of New Netherland history for Natives and colonists.

Depictions of the home of a Rapalje/Rapelyea descendant. I’ve been looking at this artwork a lot lately as a mental escape from the doldrums of winter.

Sarah and her parents had boweries (large farms) in the area known as the Waalebocht (Wallabout) in Brooklyn, at the site of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

In 1637, Sarah’s father made a deal with chiefs of Keskaechquerem, a nearby Canarsie village, for about 300 acres of land. Sarah’s first husband, Hans Hansen Bergen, was granted about 400 acres next to Sarah’s parents’ land in 1647. A stream called Remegakonck served as a border line between Sarah’s and her parent’s land.

Sometime in the early 1650’s Sarah and her parents moved from New Amsterdam (Manhattan) to their boweries across the East River. So, the second half of my novel is mostly set in Brooklyn.

1. Lithograph from Valentine’s Manual, 1866
2. Rapelyea House by William Rickarby Miller, 1884
3. Home of the Rapelje family, foot of 34th Street and the North River. Drawing by Eliza Pratt Greatorex

An excerpt from Salt People of the Cloud Houses:
“This is officially the city of New Amsterdam now,” Sarah said to her father as they watched the ceremony. She looked around. There were handsome, new brick homes, but she could see clearly in her mind’s eye the dilapidated roughhewn homes abandoned during Kieft’s War. She had a murkier memory of the site of the Stadthuis being a Native encampment during the summer months when she was a child.”

#NewAmsterdam #NewNetherland #nyc400anniversary #historicalfiction #oldnewyork #OTD

Have you read any of these?

Also- What do you use to keep a record of what you’ve read? Goodreads? Fable? StoryGraph? Booksloth? Basmo? A notebook? Any recommendations? I’m on GoodReads but I have fomo with so many other options😆

#bookstagram #historicalfiction

For #NationalHandwritingDay I wanted to highlight how beautiful the handwriting is in the records of New Netherland. I love the swooping ascenders and descenders!

I would also like to thank Charles Gerhing, Janny Venema, and the @new_netherland_institute for their immense contribution in transcribing and translating thousands of Dutch era documents that I used as a framework of my novel!

Interesting detail- the first document is written by Cornelis van Tienhoven (the villain from 2 posts back- a bad guy with good handwriting). Also a fun detail are the little doodles in the last slide!

Yesterday was #nationalcheeseloversday 🧀💛

In New Netherland (and all of colonial America), cheesemaking was an important way to preserve milk for a later meal. While researching my novel, I liked to try daily activities 17th century colonists would do. So I made some jong kaas (young cheese- ie. not aged).

I took a jug of milk, heated it in a pot, added some rennet (you can also use vinegar). I waited for the curds to form and the liquid whey to separate. Then the curd was cut (the cubes in the video) and strained. Then I stretched the curds like bread dough into a ball. It came out something between fresh mozzarella and farmers cheese! The Dutch would sometimes add caraway seeds or ground horseradish, then enjoy it fresh, or more often age it in brine or seal it with wax. The whey could be drank or used in baking.

The Dutch colonists apparently liked cheese so much, the English derisively called them “bread and cheese men,” meaning they were simpletons🤷‍♀️

What’s your favorite cheese? I love Gouda, Gruyère, and Manchego!

It’s been a busy week. Lovely to end it receiving book mail from my critique partner and fellow author Martha! Thank you @marthabush1979

Cornelis van Tienhoven was secretary and right hand man to 3 of New Netherland’s directors. In my novel he is a VILLAIN. Unearthing Gotham details what archeologists found excavating his privy!

There’s several versions of Sarah’s mother meeting Pierre Minuit (aka Peter Minuit) that were written in family histories of the Rapalje family. They always involve him giving her a cow in exchange for eating the last bit of food she had prepared.

Minuit was the 3rd Director of New Netherland, most famous as brokering a deal with the Lenape to inhabit Manhattan. The colonists had been spread out from Delaware Bay, Albany (Fort Orange), to Connecticut but under Minuit everyone was consolidated to the newly built Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan. Minuit was the only director with Walloon (French Protestant) heritage. He served for 5 years as Director of New Netherland. He then partnered with the Swedes to found New Sweden in the Delaware River Valley.

The myth of “buying” Manhattan for 60 guilders (or by one estimate $26) worth of trade goods is inaccurate and not accepted by Lenape descendants. It was an exploitive, European interpretation of a deal to peacefully share the land and trade, with gifts of goodwill, not payment.

Happy Twelfth Night! If I could time travel to a certain day, it might be this holiday during the Dutch Golden Age. The paintings make it look like so much fun—certainly not a bevy of ways the night could end badly! A toddler jumping over 3 candles representing the magi. Mothers distractedly making pancakes or nursing babies while partying. Fathers drinking from impossibly long flutes of alcohol. The King of Misrule often seems to appropriately be a toddler or an old man. The painter Jan Steen made sure we remembered Twelfth Night was a night where everyone could be part of a beautifully chaotic mess.

One more favorite book of the year—and an interview with the author is up now on my blog!

Lana Waite Holden is the author of Catalyntje Trico: A Life in New Amsterdam, a deeply researched historical fiction novel about one of the very first Walloon settlers of New Netherland in 1624 (what became New York State-specifically a pioneer of Albany, Manhattan, and Brooklyn). Catalyntje is also the mother of my main character, Sarah Rapalje!

Lana and I connected just before her novel was published this past summer. It’s been so much fun talking about our research and interpretations through our respective lenses of Catalyna and Sarah, mother and daughter!

Comment “CAT” to have the link sent to your DMs

(Link in bio, also)

#historicalfiction #bookstagram

I had the privilege of reading advance copies of these 2 new releases—both by indie authors. Both were excellent!!👍👍

📍Fun fact about Insidious Inheritance: The inspiration for the rural small town setting is located 10 minutes south of where I grew up in upstate western NY!

🏅Fun fact about Where the Wildflowers Lay: The “Hello Girls” of WWI were JUST THIS PAST WEEK honored with Congressional Gold Medals!!

#historicalfiction #indieauthor

My fav historical fiction books of 2024. Have you read any of them? Any on your TBR? Let me know in the comments!

#historicalfiction #bookstagram

Dec 25th is the 125th birthday of Humphrey Bogart, arguably the most famous descendant of Sarah Rapalje. His eyes inspired my description of Sarah’s 2nd husband, Teunis Bogart, in my novel.

Casablanca has always been my answer to “favorite movie?” long before I knew Humphrey Bogart was my 8th cousin.

“Bogie’” as he was called by friends, was born in NYC Dec 25, 1899 to Dr. Belmont Deforest Bogart and Maud Humphrey. His father was a cardiopulmonary surgeon and his mother was a prolific commercial illustrator and suffragette. There are some wild, unfortunate stories of his upbringing- worthy a of lengthier exploration (perhaps a future novel?). It resulted in Bogie’s lifelong distain for pretension and phoniness.

He served in the navy during WWI, toward the end of the war. He attempted to reenlist during WWII but was rejected due to his age.

He reportedly never had romantic attachments to his co-stars until Lauren Bacall. They married and had two children. She wrote, “No one has ever written a romance better than we lived it.”
Humphrey died of esophageal cancer in 1957.

An Airbnb I stayed at near Joshua Tree, CA had some of his Western Union communications on display

Goodreads end of year summary- but I’m not done!! Closing out the year with some 5⭐️ bangers that aren’t on here! Do you want to know my favorite top 5 books I’ve read this past year?

Ice skating was a popular pastime among 17th-century Dutch men, women, and children in the home country and New Netherland. I love these paintings by Hendrick Avercamp- there’s so many little scenes within each painting.

While researching the genealogy of early Dutch/Walloon New Yorkers I found Isaac Irving Brokaw, champion figure skater, is my 5th cousin 3x removed. Irving, as he was known, was the first American figure skater to compete in the Winter Olympics in 1908 and in 1910 wrote the “bible” of figure skating.

He’s not directly related to Sarah, but the Rapalje and Brokaw families intermarried, as they both descended from early NYC Walloon families.

Do you like to ice skate? When I was little, my family would skate on our pond if it was frozen enough, but I was more often falling on my butt than doing pirouettes!

Happy Eve of Saint Nicholas or Sinterklaas! Don’t forget to lay your clogs by the hearth with some carrots, parsnips, and hay for Sinterklaas’ white horse. If you were good, he’ll leave you an orange from Spain and some other sweet treats like kruidnoten (shortcrust cookies spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, ginger, and cardamom, white pepper, and molasses) or chocolate coins.

St Nicholas of Myra was a bishop during the Roman Empire in the 4th-century and patron saint of children, known for gift giving and helping the poor.

Santa Claus as we know him was born out of a resurgence of pride in Dutch heritage in the early 19th-century, made popular by Washington Irving and his “Knickerbocker’s History of New York.”

This marriage medallion belonged to Sarah Rapalje, the main character of my novel and my 8th great-grandmother. Sarah received it from her first husband, Hans Hansen Bergen, in 1639. The medallion was later set into a silver tankard lid by her descendants. It was donated to the Brooklyn Museum in 1926 but, unfortunately, is not available for public viewing.

Hans perhaps presented the medallion to Sarah in a knottedoek or knot cloth (see last slide). It was a piece of embroidered linen tied up with a loose knot. Sarah would have tightened the knot, accepting the marriage proposal.

From the Brooklyn museum: The medal has a design of a man and woman holding hands while the figure of Christ with a halo stands in the background, blessing them. The medallion is encircled by an inscription in Dutch, translated as: “Behold this young woman whom I love and none other. She is my true one, my love and is next to God alone.”

On the underside of the lid the reverse side of the medallion is exposed. It depicts nude figures of a man and woman beside a river with a dog at their feet. A Dutch inscription encircles this scene as well: “May my Creator create us, whole flesh and bone into one.”

The tankard has a spiral corkscrew thumb-piece and a three-piece hinge attached at the handle. The handle is decorated with a rat-tail motif and on the flat oval terminal button is engraved the initial “R” over “I,” which probably stands for Jeromus and Jane (his cousin) Remsen, the owners of the tankard.

The tankard was made by Nicholas Roosevelt (American, 1715–1769). Tankard: 1735–1769; Medallion: ca. 1639. Silver, 5 1/2 x 3 3/4 in. (14 x 9.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Tunis Johnson.

Today is National Native American Heritage Day. Here’s a brief overview of a research trip I took to the NY National Museum of the American Indian. It’s an amazing (free) museum I highly recommend. It’s located at the site where Fort Amsterdam once stood.

The Lenni-Lenape (Delaware), Muhhekunneuw (Mohican), and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) tribes inhabited the land that the Dutch colonized. In the forgotten Dutch chapter of American history, unfortunately a lot of information is also lost on the people who inhabited the land before them for thousands of years.

I’ve done a lot of research on smaller clans within the Lenape in particular to put their names in print and dispel the monolithic thought that all Natives could be broadly summed up as a group. Documentation is often scant, contradictory (especially in how tribes are identified), or written in a time when recorded “history” was closer to propaganda.

One of the most interesting facts I found was that a female Native leader, sunksquaw Quashawam of the Montaukett, warned Peter Stuyvesant of the English conquest. Her warning was disregarded and the English conquest took place just months later.

Happy Thanksgiving friends🦃

I’m thankful for the community of people I’ve met since starting this journey of writing a novel🧡

In New Netherland, I’ve found a few days of thanksgiving. These were often observed by fasting and prayer, not feasting. They were held in response to a battle during Kieft’s War, when a treaty ended that war, and when there was a “dreadful” comet.

If you’re interested in learning Native American traditions of thanksgiving, please look up/ listen to the Haudenosaunee #thanksgivingaddress
(Easily google-able)

Painting by Abraham Mignon ca. 1675

Fun fact Friday: I work as a flatware and cutlery designer as my day job. I have designed over 1,000 forks and knives- some of which are sold at Target, Pottery Barn, Krogers… basically wherever you would buy flatware.

So it’s been a particular interest to see and imagine what flatware Sarah Rapalje and her family would have used.

Back then, people did not go out and buy service for 12. If you went to dinner at a friend’s house, you had to bring your own knife and spoon—or use bread as a trencher. Forks were uncommon for eating with until the late 17th century. Most often they had 2 tines with a wood or bone handle. Sarah’s spoon, noted as having acanthus and shell motif, was likely a marriage gift. Spoons were also a popular baptismal gift. Spoon racks were typical in Dutch homes to display their precious flatware.

Happy Halloween!🎃👻🍂

Here’s parts of my 17th century outfit I’ve been working on. I hand sewed the linen chemise and skirt but I’m not done with the bodice, apron, and coif bonnet. I bought this bodice (aka “smooth covered stays” or later called a corset) as a reference for the one I’m making.

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FOLLOW ME

@spotch_novel

The Story of
Sarah Rapalje and Dutch Manhattan

Release date June 9, 2025

THE SPOTCH BLOG

Interview with Lana W. Holden

Historical Fiction set in New Netherland

Jessé de Forest: Forefather of New York

Best non-fiction books about New Netherland

Meet the supporting cast

The Revolutionary War and the Rapaljes

Meet the Mother: Catalyna Trico

ABOUT ME

FOLLOW ME

@spotch_novel

FOLLOW ME

© 2025 by Fawn Brokaw Doyle

The Story of Sarah Rapalje and Dutch Manhattan

Release date June 9, 2025

THE SPOTCH BLOG

Interview with Lana W. Holden

Historical Fiction set in New Netherland

Jessé de Forest: Forefather of New York

Best non-fiction books about New Netherland

Meet the supporting cast

The Revolutionary War and the Rapaljes

Meet the Mother: Catalyna Trico

ABOUT ME

FOLLOW ME

@spotch_novel

​

FOLLOW ME

© 2025 by Fawn Brokaw Doyle

The Story of
Sarah Rapalje and Dutch Manhattan