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On 27 Dec 1657, 353 years ago, the Flushing Remonstrance was signed. Dutch citizens of New Netherland told Gov Peter Stuyvesant that his persecution of their non-Dutch Quaker neighbors was an affront to God...
and that "Jews, Turks, & Egyptians" alongside "Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist or Quaker" deserve the same liberties as they do. Stuyvesant arrested petitioners, disbanded local government, exiled some petitioners & Quakers. (It's in English if you can read it!)
One of the exiled, Englishman John Bowne, who had given his house illegally as a place of worship for his Quaker neighbors, took the case to the directors of the Dutch West India Co. who were in charge of New Netherland. His house still stands.
The Dutch directors agreed that Stuyvesant was wrong and told him to rescind any orders of persecution - all were welcome in New Netherland & New Amsterdam (better still if they made some money!) Here's Stuyvesant, suitably un-Remonstrated.
A couple years later, in 1664, the British took New Amsterdam, renamed it New York, and a subsequent British leader, Governor Andros, in 1674 noted the multitude of religions, gave up & "permit[ed] all persons of what religion soever, quietly to inhabit within the precincts"
Andros DID try to tax Quakers - and only Quakers - by putting tolls on Quaker trade from Jersey & Delaware but was quickly rebuffed. Andros also tried to shut down printing in Massachusetts but to be fair, anyone who pisses off Bostonians like this gets points:
Today, the oldest continuously operating house of worship in the US is Flushing's 1694 Quaker House seen here:
The moral of the story is your freedom to worship has ALWAYS been welcome in New Amsterdam-come-New York & it's ironic, currently, that the foundation of religious freedom in the entire US is *also* from Queens...
Oh. One more thing. I'M TERRIBLE AT MATH IT'S 363 YEARS AGO so dumb.
