Bowne House, NYC Landmark for Religious Freedom

"Flushing Remonstrance" Was Precursor to US Bill of Rights

Oct 8, 2009

American history tourists: learn about Bowne House, site of pre-Revolutionary War colonies' fight for religious freedom, a half-hour from Manhattan and Kennedy Airport

Everyone knows that there's American Revolutionary War history in Boston and Philadelphia. But Flushing, Queens? Today it is a melting pot of immigrants from many nations, largely from Asia. But its worth the half hour trip from Manhattan to Flushing to take a walking tour of historic sites, and especially to learn about the area's impressive history in the early colonial fight for religious freedom.

To set the stage: Turn the clock back to the 17th century, over a hundred years before the colonies proclaimed independence. New York was under the control of the powerful Peter Stuyvesant. Religious freedom was not yet considered a right; it was, of course, the subject of enormous political struggle. And some of that struggle played out in an area that, fittingly, today is populated by people of nearly every major religious group in the US.

National Shrine to Religious Freedom in Colonial Era

This old house, with “1661” stenciled under the dormer is the oldest house in Queens. John Bowne built this home on land sold to him by the Matinecock Indians. (It didn't come cheap; it cost him eight strings of wampum, about the price of all of Manhattan). The powerful Dutch administrator Peter Stuyvesant had forcefully prohibited the practice of Quakerism. However, the colonialists were of a more democratic nature, and at a town meeting in Flushing they took the risk in 1657 of defiantly issuing a written letter. They called it the Flushing Remonstrance. Bowne, a non-Quaker, went a step further. He opened this home for Quaker meetings, leading to his arrest, imprisonment, and deportation. The Flushing Remonstrance, by the way, is considered the precursor to the Bill of Rights.

A marker in the garden honors George Fox Stone, a leader of the Religious Society of Friends in England who preached here 1672 under two large oak trees subsequently named "The Fox Oaks." The house is believed to have played a role in the Civil War, as well, as a stop in the Underground Railroad

The Museum holds a collection of over 5,000 objects. (Note: Check for hours; undergoing renovation.)

Before the Bill of Rights, Religious Freedom Cited in Flushing Remonstrance

A precursor to the Bill of Rights, written over a century later. the 1657 Flushing Remonstrance was a document written by the freeholders of the town of Flushing in defiance of Governor Peter Stuyvesant’s persecution of Quakers. The freeholders who signed the document wrote, "We are bounded by the law of God and man to doe good unto all men and evil to noe man." They set forth an argument “not to judge least we be judged, neither to condemn least we be condemned, but rather let every man stand and fall to his own Master.”

New York City is full of Revolutionary War sites. But the Bowne House, and its association with the precursor to the Bill of Rights, the Flushing Remonstrance, is unusual. It tells the story of resistance to despotic rule through the heroism of one man, John Bowne, and his community in the area of New York now known as Flushing, Queens.

The copyright of the article Bowne House, NYC Landmark for Religious Freedom in Colonial America is owned by Ellen Freudenheim. Permission to republish Bowne House, NYC Landmark for Religious Freedom in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.