And of course, when tolerance waned in New Amsterdam, “Religion was the root of it: [Governor Peter] Stuyvesant despised Jews, loathed Catholics, recoiled at Quakers, and reserved special hatred for Lutherans.”60 When Stuyvesant tried to prevent twenty-three Jewish refugees from entering the colony because they were part of a “deceitful race” that would “infect” the island, his superiors back home overruled him, enforcing tolerance and requiring that “each person shall remain free in his religion.” 61
