Jasper Danckaerts

Jasper Danckaerts (7 May 1639, in Vlissingen – 1702/04, in Middelburg) was the founder of a colony of Labadists along the Bohemia River in what is now the US state of Maryland.

The diary journals the travels of Danckaerts and Peter Sluyter (1645 in Wesel – 1722), two emissaries of Friesland pietists known as Labadists, journeying to North America to find a location for the establishment of a community.

Initially Herman did not want to grant land to them, only permit their settlement, but in 1683, he conveyed a tract of 3,750 acres (15 km2) to them because of legal issues.

The group established a colony, with Peter Sluyter as the principal administrator, but it was not very successful, not growing larger than 100 people.

[2] The original Dutch manuscript was acquired in 1864 by Henry C. Murphy, then corresponding secretary of the Long Island Historical Society, in an old book-store in Amsterdam.