Bowne Odyssey Led To Religious Freedom
BY LIZ GOFF

Bowne was arrested in 1662 and brought before Stuyvesant, pictured. Unrepentant, Bowne was sentenced to banishment to Holland.

John Bowne's role in securing religious freedom in the United States dates back to the early 1600s, when he arrived in the colony of New Amsterdam and built his home in the community now known as Flushing.

Bowne's odyssey began when a religious group known as the Society of Friends, or Quakers, settled in New Amsterdam in the Dutch colony of New Netherland, where they began to openly practice the Quaker version of the Protestant faith. Shortly thereafter, the governor of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant, banned all forms of religious worship in the colonies, with the exception of the Dutch Reformed religion.

The citizens of Flushing, who believed the town should be open to all forms of religious expression, called on the town clerk, Edward Hart, to draw up a document which would declare that New Amsterdam would be open to everyone for free expression of religious views. That document, which was all encompassing - even extending freedom to worship to Jews and Muslims, was dubbed the "Flushing Remonstrance".

The Flushing Remonstrance was signed on December 27, 1657 by 28 freeholders of the town, settlers who put their lives and welfare on the line by putting pen to paper. The move set off a sevenyear struggle for freedom of religious worship in the colony of New Netherland.

Bowne, who had observed the Quakers worshipping in nearby woods to avoid persecution, opened his home to the group for worship. When Peter Stuyvesant learned of this, he had Bowne arrested and imprisoned on a ship which, on Stuyvesant's orders, was to sail "to wherever [the ship] shall land."

After a long and arduous journey, the ship docked in Ireland, where Bowne was released, penniless, owning only the clothes on his back.

It was here that Bowne began another step of his odyssey, which eventually took him to Holland- where he pleaded against Stuyvesant's ban before officials of the Dutch West India Company in Amsterdam. To his surprise, the officials agreed with Bowne's argument. They sent a strong message to Stuyvesant, ordering him to keep "hands off" the issue of religious freedom in the colonies. And they set Bowne free.

Bowne returned to Flushing in 1664, having won his battle for freedom of worship in the new world.

More than 125 years later, the tenets of the Flushing Remonstrance would be included in the Bill of Rights as a guarantee of religious freedom in the United States.