Meet the supporting cast

My novel revolves around Sarah Rapalje, but at times, the story follows people connected to Sarah and their experiences of New Amsterdam to give a fuller picture. Here's a quick summary of Sarah (and how I chose to characterize her) before I introduce her friends:

Sarah Rapalje: First child born in New Netherland. Eldest Rapalje child.

Personal traits: Grew up with a lot of freedom but also responsibility. Strives to impress others by never letting them down. Vigorous and determined. Being social refuels her. Hates to ask for help but will drop everything to help someone else. Blond hair, light eyes that change color with the weather or environment.

Sarah's friends—the supporting characters based on real people—and their fictionalized personal traits:

Phebe Seales: An English girl who fled the Massachusetts colony to New Amsterdam with her father. She lost her mother and baby sister on the journey to the New World with the Winthrop Fleet. She has connections to Anne Hutchinson, an influential Puritan spiritual advisor whose popularity and charisma helped create a theological schism that threatened the Puritan religious community in New England.

Personal traits: Reserved and overwhelmed with culture shock arriving in New Amsterdam. Auburn brown hair, large intelligent eyes.

Sarina du Trieux: Daughter of Walloon settler, Philippe du Trieux, who arrived around the same time as the Rapaljes. Her name was Sarah Du Trieux but I call her Sarina in the book to avoid confusion. "Sarah" was a very popular name at the time.

Personal traits: Small and sickly as a child, which made her parents over-protective. Dark hair, porcelain skin, with deep blue eyes. Delicate featured.

Hans Bergen: A Norwegian ship carpenter for the West Indies Company and tobacco farmer. He is the Rapalje's neighbor in New Amsterdam.

Personal traits: Popular for his craftsmanship and charming personality. Likes to have powerful friends. Very tall. Blond hair, stunning blue eyes. Large mustache that's bushed up on the ends. Talent for singing.

Isaac de Forest: Son of Jessé de Forest, the man who petitioned the West Indies Company to start a Walloon colony in New Netherland. Jessé doesn't appear directly in my novel but expect an upcoming post about him as a founding father of New York.

Personal traits: Ambitious and hardworking. Protective of his family and loyal to his father's ambitions. Seeks to serve the growth and stability of the colony. Brown hair, brown eyes, acne scars. Workaholic.

Teunis Bogaert: A Netherlander working as a Company sailor and farmer who comes to New Amsterdam at a pivotal time in Sarah's life.

Personal traits: Proud Netherlander. Inquisitive, easy-going, and industrious. Wavy light brown hair, thin mustache, tidy facial hair. Compelling dark brown eyes.

Nys Nyssen: Former sailor turned tobacco farmer. His name is actually Teunis but I nickname him Nys to not be confused with Teunis Bogaert. His last name is variously given as Denyse or Nyssen. Some of his children took the surname Van Middleswaert.

Personal traits: Gregarious. Loves to be social but always jockeying for an advantage. Voluminous brown curly hair and large mustache with a vandyke beard.

Some other characters based on real-life New Netherlanders who might be familiar if you've read about this period:

Peter Minuit, Willem Kieft, Peter Stuyvesant, Adriaen van der Donck, Jochem Kuyter, Cornelis Melyn, Cornelis van Teinhoven, Johannes de la Montagne, Tryntje Jonas, Sara Roelofs Kierstede, Margaret Hardenbroeck Philipse, and Govert Loockermans.

Note: I recently received beta reader feedback that there are too many side characters... so the list above may be culled down and/or I will include a character list at the beginning of the book.

I try to stay as close to the records as possible but there's a fair amount of interweaving stories in speculation. The characters I invented whole cloth were specific Native Americans, as their voices don't appear in records very much. In the early days of New Amsterdam, some Native children attended bible studies, perhaps with Sarah. I speculate Sarah had friendly relationships with Natives since her parents traded freely with them, based on Catalyna's deposition.

I wanted to give the feel of jostling through this unique microcosm of time like a common person would on a market day in New Amsterdam. You'd rub elbows with people from many different walks of life, and hear many different languages and points of view. You'd hear the gossip, politics, religion, and above all, trade. Trade was not exclusive of class, race, or gender— which is why the market would be an amazing cross-section of society.

My novel is about Sarah Rapalje because she experienced this jostling marketplace as a sort of everywoman. She was extraordinary in many ways but she was also just a common person living in an extraordinary time. Through her eyes (and her friends)—we can experience New Amsterdam for what it was—more than just the most notable tidbits confined to a blurb in our history books.