Anneke Jans in the New World

In creating her book, Freels has drawn from American colonial history, which is often overlooked in average education: that of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. For those whose classes in American history turned it into a footnote, this book will be a fascinating glimpse into another culture that settled into what would become the United States.

We see it all through the eyes of Anneke Jans, a woman arriving with her husband in search of a better life. With him and her children, she settles onto a farm and must learn how to navigate not only a new climate and relations with Native Americans but also relations with her fellow settlers. She, her sister, and her daughters are among the few women in the colony. She will need to determine a new way to survive.

Freels has crafted a stirring narrative of feminine strength and resilience. In condensing over thirty years into just under two hundred pages, some events feel rushed, but the story itself remains powerful. I would recommend this to anyone interested in seventeenth-century women’s history.