Jasper Danckaerts

Born on May 7, 1639, in Vlissingen in the Dutch Republic, Jasper Danckaerts became associated with the Labadists, a Protestant religious community shaped by the teachings of Jean de Labadie. He later emerged as an important figure in the group’s efforts to build a communal life in North America.

Danckaerts is remembered above all for the journal he kept while traveling with fellow Labadist Peter Sluyter through New York and several other American colonies in 1679 and 1680. That narrative, published in English as Journal of Jasper Danckaerts, 1679–1680, is valued for its lively descriptions of landscapes, towns, and everyday life in the late seventeenth century, especially in the region once known as New Netherland.

He also helped establish a Labadist colony along the Bohemia River in what is now Maryland. Sources differ slightly on the exact year of his death, but he is generally said to have died between 1702 and 1704 in Middelburg.