Johannes de Graaff

Who is Johannes de Graaff?

Johannes de Graaff was a Dutch colonial administrator appointed commander, or governor in everyday parlance, of the island of Sint Eustatius on 5 September 1776. At the time, Sint Eustatius was a thriving free port nicknamed "the Golden Rock," and de Graaff became the island's richest man, reportedly owning ten plantations, three hundred enslaved people, sixteen trading ships, and a quarter of the island's real estate. His lasting fame rests on a single evening: on 16 November 1776, the American brig-of-war Andrew Doria arrived at Sint Eustatius flying the flag of the fledgling United States and fired a salute toward Fort Oranje. De Graaff ordered the fort to answer with an eleven-gun salute, an act now remembered as the "First Salute" and widely regarded as the first international acknowledgment of American independence by a foreign power. He continued to govern the island until February 1781, when a British naval force under Admiral George Rodney captured and sacked Sint Eustatius, partly in retaliation for its support of the American cause. In 1939, United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented a commemorative plaque, still mounted at Fort Oranje, honoring the salute ordered "by Johannes de Graaff, Governor of St. Eustatius."

Sources: Wikipedia, "Johannes de Graaff" · Wikipedia, "The First Salute" · Openbaar Lichaam Sint Eustatius (Statia government), "The First Salute"