The First Italian-American (and Italian New Yorker): Pietro Cesare Alberti

By Ron Spence, ICI NY Press Office

This past weekend in New York was like any other. Subways were packed, Traffic on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway snarled to a halt, and pedestrians in Battery Park unassumingly walked passed a humble marker just to the right of the Verrazano Monument. The marker commemorates the beginnings of a permanent Italian presence in the New World and New York City, and the first Italian-American and Italian-New Yorker- Pietro Cesare Alberti.

The year was 1635 and the setting was Dutch New Amsterdam (the future NYC) – a fledgling town suffering from government mismanagement, lack of support from its primary financial backer the Dutch West India Company, and the constant threat of takeover from the other European powers vying for colonial supremacy. Into this uncertainty stepped Pietro, the son of Guilo Caesare Alberti Secretary of the Ducal Treasury of Venice, and Lady Veronica, a descendant of the great Medici family. Pietro was a sailor by trade and was no doubt inspired by the great Italian explorers that had made their name on the world stage before him- Marco Polo (explorer of the Far East), Giovanni da Verrazano (the first European to explore the future site of New Amsterdam and New York), Giovanni Caboto (who served on behalf of the English), Amerigo Vespucci (explorer and cartographer for whom America is named after) and of course the first modern discoverer of ‘Terra Nova’ Christoforo Colombo (Christopher Columbus).

Alberti’s sailing career began in the employ of the Dutch, as a result of the close relationship between the Dutch Republic of the United Provinces, who were fighting the 30 Years’ War against Spain and the Holy Roman Empire at the time, and the Venetian Republic, who were trading partners with the Dutch. Alberti began his adventures by serving as an officer and advisor to David Pietersen, the Captain of the Dutch Ship ‘King David,’ which was scheduled to explore lands in the New World. One such trip required the ‘King David’ to sail into New York Harbor to make ship repairs in New Amsterdam. After a dispute with Captain Pietersen, Alberti (who was in his mid-20s) decided to stay ashore on Manhattan Island and make a new life for himself. While he was the only Italian in the city of New Amsterdam, he adapted very well and became a successful tobacco farmer in what is today land stretching from the Brooklyn Navy Yard to Fort Greene, in addition to owning a house and land on Broad Street in modern Manhattan. Alberti intermarried into the Dutch aristocracy, but was later killed, along with his wife Judith Manje, in a raid by Native Americans in 1655 on his farm in Brooklyn. He was survived by seven children who intermarried with such early influential New York families as the Wyckoff, Remsen, Mott, and Nostrand families- names that to this day dot the streetscape of New York.

Next Columbus Day in New York make sure to visit the spot in Battery Park in which the first Italian-American left his mark and opened the door for future immigrant generations to come. One small step for Pietro Cesare Alberti became a giant leap for Italian-Americans.