The Story of the Walloons

William Elliot Griffis

• Publisher: Barakaldo Books
• Year: 2020
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781839745621
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

THE first permanent settlers who, in any number, came with wives and children to make homes and to till the soil in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware were Walloons, or French-speaking people, from the Belgic Netherlands.
Who were they, and why did they come?
Few people from northern Europe, three hundred years ago, wanted to go and live in America, when it was a howling wilderness full of savage beasts and men. A great, wide, stormy ocean had first to be crossed, and many who made the attempt died on the way or were massacred when on land. In most cases, colonization meant starvation.
So it was that before men would come with families to what is now the best of all countries, they had to be pushed or driven out from their home lands, like fledglings from the nest. Cruel kings or church rulers must force them to leave their own towns and cities, houses and gardens, before they could think of exile. With most of the first pioneers, it was a choice between prison and torture, being burned alive, or having their heads chopped off.

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• DEDICATION
• PREFACE
• AUTHORITIES CONSULTED
• ILLUSTRATIONS
• CHAPTER I-BEGINNERS OF THE MIDDLE STATES
• CHAPTER II-WHO WERE THE WALLOONS?
• CHAPTER III-HOW THE NATIONS OF EUROPE WERE FORMED
• CHAPTER IV-HOW ASIA ENRICHED EUROPE
• CHAPTER V-THE GLORIOUS BURGUNDIAN ERA
• CHAPTER VI-IN THE TIME OF CHARLES V
• CHAPTER VII-THE DEATHLESS BOOK
• CHAPTER VIII-WHERE AND WHEN BEGAN THE REFORMATION?
• CHAPTER IX-THE WALLOON HERO: GUIDO DE BRAY
• CHAPTER X-THE CHURCH UNDER THE CROSS
• CHAPTER XI-IN THE LANDS OF EXILE
• CHAPTER XII-THE WALLOONS ENRICH SWEDEN
• CHAPTER XIII-THE FLOATING PURGATORY
• CHAPTER XIV-THE ECONOMIC CREATORS OF EUROPE
• CHAPTER XV-JESSE DE FOREST AND THE SHIP NEW NETHERLAND
• CHAPTER XVI-MAKING THE WILDERNESS BLOOM
• CHAPTER XVII-GOVERNOR PETER MINUIT
• CHAPTER XVIII-SECRETARY ISAAC DE RASIERES
• CHAPTER XIX-FOOD FOR THE SOUL
• CHAPTER XX-RICH FARMS ON MANHATTAN
• CHAPTER XXI-THE ISLAND OF THE STATES
• CHAPTER XXII-THE AMERICAN PALATINATE
• CHAPTER XXIII-THE ENGLISH CONQUEST
• CHAPTER XXIV-WHO WAS JACOB LEISLER?
• CHAPTER XXV-WALLOONS BECOME FRENCHMEN
• CHAPTER XXVI-GREATER WALLOONIA
• CHAPTER XXVII-THE AMERICAN WALLOON DOMINES
• CHAPTER XXVIII-NAMES IN TRANSFORMATION
• CHAPTER XXIX-LIFE’S JOURNEY AMONG THE WALLOONS
• THE FRAMEWORK OF TIME