Anthony Janzoon Van Salee (1607-1676): First recorded Muslim settler in Colonial North America, a profile.
In part of researching history, genealogy is one aspect of history that is appealing as well. Mostly, because its the story of how one comes to be. From both of my grandfathers my ancestry extends to the colonial settlement of North America back in the 17th century. That ancestry is a mix of English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, French, German and Dutch among others. One of the most interesting and unexpected finds in my ancestry was that of Anthony Janzoon Van Salee, who was my 9th great-grandfather. Anthony is notable for two primary reasons, first the detailed record of his character and deeds and secondly, his religion and unique parentage and upbringing.
Anthony was born around 1607 in Cartagena, Spain the son of an interesting pairing. His mother was recorded as a Moorish woman, known only as Margarita. Her own ethnic background and history is lost to time and only a matter of speculation. She was only positively identified as a Moor which has no ethnic connotation but a religious one, meaning she was a Muslim who had inhabited Spain. She could have been of a Berber or Arab background or most likely been of European Spanish descent in a family that had converted to Islam during the days of the Moorish Conquest of Iberia, though definitively there is no record of this known. Anthony’s father was Jan Jansen or Jan Janzoon Van Haarlem (c.1570-c.1641). Jan was a Dutch privateer or sailor in the service of the Dutch Republic, then trying to establish its independence from the Hapsburg-Spanish Monarchy during the Eighty Years War (1568-1648). Jan’s early life is little attested to other than he married a Dutch woman and started a family with her, though his profession at sea kept him away at times and he subsequently abandoned his Dutch family. He is known to have entered into a “union” with Margarita at this time. They had four sons, of which Anthony was the second born. Jan mostly attacked Spanish ships but is known to have attacked ships of all nations and made runs into the Barbary Coast of modern day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya which at time were nominally part of the Ottoman Empire but were in fact semi-autonomous city states that had as their source of income, piracy and slavery. European slaves destined for all parts of the Muslim world were their primary source of income. Jan Janzoon himself was captured in 1618 and converted to Islam, in the words of Europeans he had “turned Turk” which was a euphemism for all Islamic conversions at the time, since all Muslims were associated with the Ottoman Turks.
Jan Janzoon eventually became renamed Murat Reis the Younger and became quite the powerful Barbary pirate. His knowledge of European coasts would take him to great distances the Barbary pirates had not yet undertaken. He also was a master of deception, from his days as a Dutch privateer, he and his crews would fly friendly or neutral flags to lull their targets into a false sense of security before attacking with swift ferocity. He setup his base in Salee or Sale Morocco, opposite the river bank of the modern capital in Rabat. Sale had a small but nice natural harbor from a river flowing into the Atlantic coast. There a Republic of Sale (1624-1668), a short lived independent Barbary Republic existed with Murat Reis serving as its first President/Grand Admiral of the Republic leading the dreaded Sale Rovers and their distinct corsair ships. Murat ventured at one point back to the Dutch Republic where the authorities tried to sway him back by bringing forth his original Dutch family to no avail. Though it did reconnect him with his children from his first marriage, namely his daughter Lysbeth, who would visit him later in life. During this time, his sons with Margarita were all brought up Muslim and lived with him in Sale, including Anthony.
Murat would set up base on small islands off the coast of England namely Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel and he was responsible for the pirate slave raid on Baltimore, Ireland where English settlers were abducted and sold into slavery and as far away as Iceland in the so called Turkish raids of 1627. That same year due to political instability in Sale, he moved his family and operations to Algiers, Algeria. He also conducted raids in Italy, Spain and France and the surrounding islands. He often was known to attempt to convince other Europeans to convert to Islam and though he was known to secure the release of his fellow Dutch from other pirates. 1635 saw him captured by the Knights of Malta where he was imprisoned on Malta for five years before being released after a Barbary raid on the island. He was restored to Barbary service in 1640 and returned to Morocco and was visited by his daughter Lysbeth during this time. He was serving as a governor of the fortress of Oualidia. Though he lived a life of luxury he was older and enfeebled by age and imprisonment. No record of his life beyond here is mentioned and he likely died shortly thereafter. The story continues with his son Anthony and the New World.
Anthony was known as Anthony Janzoon Van Salee though the specifics of his childhood are little known other than his parentage, his being raised Muslim and living variously in Spain, Morocco and Algeria during his youth. However, due to his Dutch ancestry and his father’s connections he made his way to the Dutch Republic as a young adult and in 1629, he married a Dutch-German woman by the name of Grietse Reyniers and in 1630 under the auspices of the Dutch West India Company, he and his wife left Amsterdam for North America and a colonial life in the New Netherlands colony, the city of New Amsterdam was their destination, the precursor to modern New York City. Initially, Anthony lived in Manhattan. It is speculated that his father left him considerable wealth and as such he was able to independently purchase land with his inheritance and became a prominent and successful farmer, merchant, landholder and creditor within the colony. His farm was located on present day Wall Street in Lower Manhattan.
The Dutch were known for their relative tolerance of certain matters but were primarily driven by a capitalist free enterprise ethos, a legacy instilled in their American descendants’ ideology. In matters of religion, Anthony appears more pragmatic than anything, his Islamic upbringing did not stop his at least nominal conversion to Dutch Reformed Calvinist Christianity. He and Grietse appear to have ever since their arrival been nominal Christians and their four daughters, including my 8th great-grandmother Sara Jansen (Emans) married into prominent Dutch Christian colonial families. By that same token, Anthony may have practiced Islam privately and is known to have kept a copy of the Qu’ran and read from it at times, it was later sold at auction. Anthony and Grietse were also reported in records of the time as being characters about town, in records from 1638-1639 there were responsible for 15 out 93 court cases in the colony. Everything from cases of slander, drunken behavior, to property disputes and pointing his guns at neighbors and colonial authorities who angered him. Anthony was also known for his outspoken character in defense of minorities including better treatment of African slaves, and audaciously housing an English Quaker in his house in defiance of the Dutch Reformed Church’s strict rules. He became so defiant to the colonial authorities and religious leaders that he and his family were eventually booted from the colony for their disturbing the peace and for not being devout enough in their Christianity, but he appealed the decision and a compromise was made, he had to leave Manhattan but he was allowed setup a new farm and purchased land in nearby modern day Gravesend, Brooklyn and Coney Island. He was friendly with his neighbor and Gravesend founder, English Anabaptist, Lady Deborah Moody, the only known woman to establish a colony in North America. This new colony setup was in part a collaboration with the Dutch West India Company who sought to add more settlers and was allowed for total religious freedom as part of the attraction, which was in line with Anthony’s somewhat loose religious affiliations. His wife Grietse preceded him in death and he remarried another Dutch woman who was a Quaker she supposedly helped bridge some of the damaged relations between him and the church, making him more tolerant of it which in turn made them relatively tolerant of him. He died in 1676 still a successful farmer and landholder despite his relative alienation within the colony.
Anthony’s physical appearance is unverified he was described at quite tall for the time period and very strong in build. Beyond on that all physical descriptions are varied and hard to discern with any accuracy.
There you have the story of the first recorded Muslim within American history, a character with an interesting and unique backstory, the son of a Dutch sailor turned successful Barbary pirate. A story of one who entered European society with one foot in the door, the other ever the outsider and his personality and deeds reflected this. He was a capitalist, defender of the rights of minorities, pragmatic in his religion, proud of his past and proud of his business accomplishments and willing to stick up for himself, true to himself as much as he could be. In some ways a precursor to the quintessential early American: enterprising, skeptical and defiant of authority, a pioneer in more ways than one. On a personal note I’m quite glad to count him among my ancestors and am truly fascinated by his story and the little portrait/slice of life it gives in colonial America and in particular the Dutch influence on the stew of ideology that later lead to the American Revolution and USA itself.
