Birth of a City: Nieuw Amsterdam & Old New York

STREAM FOR WASHING LAUNDRY
Location: ? Maiden Lane
Dutch Name: ? ?t Maagde Paatje

Here, in the 1600's, a stream ran into the East River, along the course of what is now Maiden Lane. A footpath brought Dutch "maidens" to wash laundry in the stream's fresh water. By 1658 this was known as ?t Maagde Paatje, the maidens' path. After the English took over in 1664, it became "Maiden Lane." When New York City expanded northward above Wall Street and the stream was covered over, the name stayed when the path became an urban street.

Cleanliness was a central value in Dutch culture. In the Netherlands, rich merchants hired poor and peasant women as servants to do the wash and other household work. Some young women emigrated to Nieuw Amsterdam after signing contracts to work as family servants. Dutch settlers also used enslaved Africans as domestic laborers. In many cases, family members shared household toil. Though the Dutch allowed females legal and economic rights denied them elsewhere in Europe, gender roles still dictated that women and girls perform most domestic labor. So Nieuw Amsterdam's "maidens" found themselves here, doing the family laundry.

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