It was enough to make old Peter Stuyvesant stomp around on his stump. From Brazil, 23 Jews had arrived in Governor Stuyvesant's New Amsterdam in 1654. Peter sent off a letter to his superiors in the Dutch West India Company seeking permission (unsuccessfully) to evict the members of the "very repugnant, deceitful race, hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of Christ, lest they infect and trouble this new colony with their customary usury and deceitful trading."
Stuyvesant was neither the first nor the last New World citizen to vent a hatred...
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