USA > New York > New York City > History of the New Netherlands, province of New York, and state of New York : to the adoption of the federal Constitution. Vol. I > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54
The four first great Patroons were Samuel Godyn, Samuel Bloemart, M. Pauw, and Kilian Van Rensselaer. Godyn and Bloemart united, and obtained the first deed for land in Dela- ware. Godyn purchased from the natives the soil from Cape Henlopen to the Delaware river; a territory of more than thirty miles, which purchase was ratified and duly recorded. This now constitutes the two lower counties of the state of Delaware. The patroons likewise bought the opposite shore of New Jersey ; and one of them, M. Pauw, purchased the soil on the west bank of . Hudson's river and of New Amsterdam bay, behind Hoboken, extending on the shore to the kills, with all Staten island, and the whole territory was called Pavonia. The agent of Mr. Van Rensselaer pitched his tents on the Hudson from Fort Orania (or Albany,) to the mouth of the Mohawk river. Of the four patroons the name of Van Rensselaer is the only one now known, and that is known in the most advantageous manner as the name of men; patriots, and true philanthropists.
These four original patroons, in the first place, sent out agents to secure places for their colonists, in consequence of a de- cree, or regulation, made by a council of nine, who were entrust- ed with the management of colonizing New Netherland, which decree granted privileges to those who as patroons, or private in- dividuals, should carry out and plant bodies of settlers.
· By this decree the agent of the patroon, having selected the land for the colony, four years were granted for perfecting the settle- ment. The patroon might, hold his land as an eternal heritage, devisable by testament, with certain other provisions ; among which, he might, if he founded a city, appoint officers and magis- trates. The services of the colonists, or servants of the patroons, were assured to them by the government.
It was provided, that as the company intended to people the island of Manhattoes first, all colonial productions intended for exportation, should be brought thither, the patroons having pri- vileges of trade, by paying five per cent on goods brought to Man-
* See Appendix H.
49
INDIAN CLAIMS.
hattoes for exportation to Holland. The patroons held courts on their domains, but an appeal lay to the Director-general for all Mums over fifty guilders, (twenty dollars eighty-three cents.)
Individuals wishing to settle lands might take up as much as they could cultivate, and they had a variety of privileges for fishing, hunting, mining, &c.
It was stipulated that colonists, not on Manhattan island, should extinguish the Indian claims, and that they should, as soon as practicable, establish a minister and a schoolniaster. Wouter Van Iwiller came out as the agent for the four patroons, and having arranged the various tracts for liis employers, returned to Holland. It was on the disagreement between Peter Minuits and the com- pany, that Van 'Twiller returned as the Director-general or Governor of New Netherland.
In the year 1625 De Laet, a director of the West India Com- pany, published his book on the New World. He endeavoured to invite colonists by describing the New Netherlands as a para- dise, where nothing was wanting but what it was the interest of the settler to transport thither ; but it was only by the union of the author with Kilian Van Rensselaer and others, that colonization was thrifty in and about New Amsterdam.
. By MSS. deposited in the New York Historical Society,
1631 and by others submitted to Mr. Moulton the historian, it appears that Kilian Van Rensselaer purchased from the Indian owners the lands extending on both sides of the river, from Fort Orange or Albany, to a small island at the mouth of the Mohawk river, and paid in goods.
These great purchases by the patroons were not favourable to the settlement of the country by independant cultivators. There was dissatisfaction among the purchasers ; and the colonists sent, or brought over, were poor dependants, who became tenants to the proprietors of the soil. These great landholders were direc- tors of the West India Company, and Kilian Van Rensselaer in particular, was an opulent merchant of Amsterdam. They asso- ciated for mutual benefit; and Godyn having been informed that whales were plenty about Delaware bay, and both whales and seals frequent near New Amsterdam, the associates fitted out an expe- dition for whaling and colonization, and induced David Petersen De Vries to become commander, and sundry other persons to take shares: De Vries (who is sometimes called Petersen and sometimes David Petersen Van Hoorn,) arrived in Delaware early in 1631, and erected a fort in that part called Hooren Kill, or Swanendel. Houses were built and agriculture began in the spring. This plantation was within Godyn's purchase, and (as Fort Nassau had been abandoned,) was the only European settle- ment in Delaware. Mr. Moulton has sufficiently proved that the VOL. I. 7
.
50
DELAWARE.
Swedes did not settle there until 163S, (which agrees with Du- ponceau,) owing to the engagements and death of Gustavus Adolphus.
The pleasant sounding name of Pavonia no longer designates the territory of patroon Pauw, but perhaps his name is found in that of a township or village on the border of our bay, where the primitive Dutch dress and manners, have continued with the lan- guage little changed, to this time. The often, without cause, ridi- culed, name of Communipauw, seems to mark the Commune, or community, planted there by the patroon Pauw. Rensselaerwyk, and the venerable Colonie, are never mentioned without suggesting the virtues of one patroon ; and perhaps Communipauw may be entitled to the respectful attention of the New York antiquary.
Messrs. Godyn, Bloemart, and Van Rensselaer made the first settlement in Delaware, and the historian De Laet was one of the proprietors under them. This colony was antecedent to any in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, and was led by De Vries, who has written an account of the voyage, which is to be found in the' Philadelphia library. By this voyage, the Netherlanders were the' first occupants of Delaware. De Vries left the Texel on the 12th December, 1630 ; ascended the river as high as the site of Philadelphia ; and as Fort Nassau, mentioned above, had been previously abandoned, all this country was in possession , of the natives.
De Vries, after residing a year with his colonists, re- 1632 turned home, and again coming to visit them, found no' remains but the bones of his countrymen. In the account of his voyage, as translated by Dr. G. Troost of Philadelphia, the. navigator says, " We sounded at thirty-nine degrees, had fifty -- seven fathoms-sand-and smelled land, (the wind being N. W.) occasioned by the odour of the underwood, which at this time of the year," December, " is burned by the Indians in order to be less hindered in their hunting. The 3d, we saw the opening of the south bay or south river. We went the 5th in the bay. We had a whale near the vessel. We promised ourselves great things -plenty of whales, and good land for cultivation." They found the unburied remains of their former comrades ! A quarrel had oc- curred between them and the Indians, who, repenting their first hospitality, flew to arms and massacred the intruders before they had become strong enough to become masters of both natives and: soil. As the Europeans tell the story, the natives purloined a' plate of metal on which the arms of the States-general were en- graved, and affixed it to a column, as a token that they had certain claims to the soil according to European usage. It is more pro- bable that the Indians, by this inscription and column, had their suspicions awakened, that the country was claimed as being under
-
51
HARTFORD.
the dominion of foreigners, when the natives, by selling the land, never meant to resign themselves or their country to any foreign authority whatever. The result was the destruction of the in- truders.
In the meantime, Peter Minuits, who had been the first Direc- tor-general at New Amsterdam, and had superintended the colony formed upon the plan of 1621, having some disagreement with the Dutch West India Company, returned to Holland, and the se- cond Director-general, Wouter Van Twiller, arrived in 1633* this year. De Vries finding only the ruins of his colony in Delaware, and narrowly escaping what is called the perfidy of the natives, sailed north, after visiting Virginia, and ar- rived at New Amsterdam shortly after Governor Van Twiller, under whose administration, this year, the fort or trading-house of Good Hope was built on Fresh river, within the precinctstof the present city of Hartford.t The Netherlanders had not only dis-
* A list of the returns from New Netherland.
Date.
Beavers,
Otters.
Guilders.
In 1624
4000
700
· 27125
1625
5295
463
35825
1626
7258
857
45050
1627
7520
370
56420
1628
6951
734
61075
1629
5913
681
62185
1630
6041
1085
68012
1632
8569
546
94925
4944
1115
48200
1633
8800
1383
91375
1635
14891
1413
134925
725,117
" Cost of New Netherland, now New York.
"The Dutch West India Company failed in 1634 ; and from a statement of their accounts drawn up in 1635, (part of which was in possession of Mr. Henry Kip, late of New York, deceased, and from which this extract is made.) it appears that Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland, cost the company 4,172 guilders, 10 stuyvers, and that New Netherland. (the province) cost 412,800 guilders 11 stuyvers."-Hazard.
t But the Dutch were soon conscious of the designs of the New England settlers, for in 1635 Hooker and Haynes conducted a colony of puritans to Fresh river, and planted them as neighbours to the Netherlanders ; this was the commencement of the colony of Connecticut. The Dutch fort long remained in the possession of the original planters, but surrounded and sorely annoyed by English towns. In 1635 (July 7th) Lord Say and Seal, Sir Arthur Hazelrigg. Sir Richard Saltonstal, Messrs. Lawrence, Dailey, and Fenwick, appointed John Winthrop, jun. " Governor of the river Connecticut in New England," for one year : there to advance "the company's service." He was instructed as " soon as he comes to the bay." to provide at least fifty men to build houses and make fortifications "at the river Connecticut and har- bour adjoining." They are to build first " for their own present accommodation, and then such houses as inay receive men of quality," the latter, within the fort. The planters are to "plant themselves" at the harbour or near the mouth of the river. One thousand or fifteen hundred acres are to be reserved adjoining the fort for its maintenance.
52
VAN TWILLER.
covered this river, but had actually purchased the lands adjacent, on the Sth January, 1633, for the States-general, by their agent Jacobus Van Curles.
The Indians called themselves Sequelins, and the river Sivacok. In the October following, the Dutch protested against Willian Holmes, who as commander or leader of men from Plymouth. " built a house on the Fresh river." They desiredhim to desist, but he continued to occupy the land previously purchased by the Netherlanders, and to cultivate and build as though on his own property, and in a short time Hartford arose, and the Dutch found themselves enclosed by English plantations and an English town. Soon after the arrival of Van Twiller he appears to have 1634 commenced agriculturist. One of his plantations was at
Red Hook. Governors Island, which is supposed always from the first settlement, to have been a perquisite of the Director- general for the time being, was so near Red Hook that cattle crossed the channel to and fro at low water. This channel has since become a passage for vessels, and is known under the name of Buttermilk channel. It has been formed by washing away the lands of Long Island and part of Van Twiller's plantation. Under his administration both Dutch and English villages were settled on Long Island, and the land at Harlaem was purchased from the Indian claimants. Flatlands, first called Amersfort,
1636 was commenced. The inhabitants of each town, settled
by the English, adopted or framed laws for their own gov- ernment : they armed themselves and made military regulations for defence against the Indians ; they established courts to prevent and punish crimes ; they had trial by jury when required, the jury consisting of seven, and a majority deciding the question ; they had town meetings which imposed taxes and appointed tax- gatherers. Each town judged of the character of any person propo- sing to become a member, and admitted or excluded him as his standing and opinions suited them. The New England colonies and the English towns of Long Island were peopled by republicans driven from Great Britain by civil and ecclesiastical tyranny .*
* In 1636 a warrant was given to the Lord Admiral to stop all ministers who are unconformable to the discipline and ceremonies of the church, from transporting them- selves to the Summer islands and other of his majesty's plantations abroad, " where they take liberty to nourish and preserve their factions and schismatical humours, to the hindrance of good conformity and unity in the church." Therefore, no clergy- man is to be henceforth permitted to go abroad to said places, without permission of the archbishop of Canterbury and bishop of London.
Rushworth says, " The severe censures of the Star Chamber, and the greatness of the fines, &c. and suspending and silencing multitudes of ministers for not reading in the church, the book for sports to be exercised on the Lord's day, caused many of the nation, both ministers and others, to sell their estates and set sail for New Eng- land, (a late plantation in America,) where they hold a plantation by patent from the king."
In 1637 the English government seem to have been alarmed by the great num-
·
63
THE SWEDES.
Although the Dutch visited the Delaware for the pur- 1637 poses of trade, no effort . at colonization was made from 1633 to 1637, about which time the Swedes sent out a colony to that part of New Netherland : they were led and directed by Peter Minuits, who had been dismissed from the service of Holland, and now arrived in the Delaware. -
The heroic champion of protestantism, Gustavus Adolphus, had long before lent his name and influence to colonizing Ameri- ca, as a place of refuge for the oppressed of the reformed religion : but the call he received from Germany for the protection of the same cause and its suffering adherents, deferred his plans. After his wonderful German conquests, made not like those of pre- ceding conquerors, over undisciplined multitudes-not like the triumphs of Alexander, and other leaders of well appointed bodies of men, trained to war over hordes without knowledge or practice in the science of man-killing-but victories obtained over those best instructed and flushed with success in battles innu- merable ; the soldiers of Tilly, confident in their leader, inured to carnage and delighting in blood. Gustavus conquered, solely by the justice of his cause, the favour of heaven, a gigantic genius and the valour of his hardy Swedes ; and after these heroic achievements, which resulted in the death of the hero, at Lutzen. in the arms of victory, his worthy minister, Oxenstiern, renewed the design of an American settlement, the conduct of which was entrusted to Minuits. He sailed with two vessels, the " Key of Colmar," and the " Griffin.". He entered the Delaware, and purchased from the Indians the lands from the southern cape, which the Swedes called " Point Paradise," to the Falls of Tren- ton. About this time fort Christina was erected at the creek of the same name.
The liberal views of the Swedes, (particularly on the subject of slavery,) were avowed. The Netherlanders made use of slave- labour from the commencement of their colonial speculations ;
ber of people who left the country to go to the plantations ; and the 30th April the king issued his proclamation against the disorderly transporting his subjects to the plantations, he having been informed that great numbers of his subjects are every year transported into those parts of America which have been granted by patent to several persons, and these subjects transported or transporting themselves for the pur- pose of living " without the reach of authority :" he therefore commands all officers, &c. not to permit any persons, being " subsidy men," to embark at any port, &c., without certificate of conformity to the church of England. And on the Ist May. 1638, " the privy council made another order for reasons importing to the state. best known to themselves, to stay eight ships now in the river Thames, prepared to go for New England, and for putting on land all the passengers and provisions, &c. And forasmuch as his majesty knows the factious dispositions of a great part of the peo- ple of that plantation, prohibits all ships to set forth" with passengers for New Eng- land without permission from the lords of the privy council.
-
54
KIEFT.
$
and like other people, English as well as other European na- tions, seem to have thought the traffic in men as lawful as any other. As early as 1620, the Dutch carried a cargo of African slaves to Virginia. The tobacco and other plantations at Man- hattoes, were cultivated by negroes; but we must remember that long after this, when the good queen Anne was, establishing churches in the English colonies, she was no less active in prose- cuting the trade in Africans, and in introducing slaves to her Amer- ican dominions. It is only the more remarkable and worthy of admiration, that the Swedes at the early period of which we are treating, should have avowed their intention of eschewing the evil ; and should have seen the policy of a contrary practice. They declared their intention to cultivate their lands by the labour of freemen. " Other nations," they said, " employed slaves ; the Swedish people are laborious and intelligent ; and surely we shall gain more by the efforts of the free who labour for their wives, their children and themselves."
About the same time that Sir William Kieft arrived* 1638 at New Amsterdam, and superseded Van Twiller in the directorship, Minuits arrived with a ship of war and a transport, and planted the Swedish colony at Christina. With the emigrants came out a minister and an engineer. They first Janded at Cape Henlopen. Kieft considered this as an intrusion upon his territories, and sent a remonstrance to the Swedes. At the same time he found himself daily more and more crowded by the ever thriving colonies of New England, particularly Con- necticut.
Already the territories of the Pequot Indians had been declared the just and rightful property of the English colonists by conquest. On the twentieth day of September, " at a general court," it was declared, that " whereas the lord had delivered the Pequots into the hands of the court, and thereby given a just title to all their lands both at Pecoit and Quinapiack, and the parts beyond towards the Dutch, the court declares that they and their " associates upon Connecticut," have "just right and title" to " all the said lands and territories." They accordingly proceed to appoint a time for the planting or settling this territory, to pay by sales to the set- llers a part of the expense of the war of conquest. It is well to notice, that it was only in 1635 that the Massachusetts emi-
* In this year the first printing press was sent out to British America, and in 1639 the first printing was done ; whereas in Mexico, Mr. Thomas in his History of print- ing, tells us, that a press was set up in 1569, and Gazettes published in the seven- teenth century. The first Gazette of the English colonies was the Boston News Letter in 1704. Samuel Greene commenced printing in Cambridge in 1639, and his son Bartholemew printed the first Gazette in English America at Boston on the seven- teenth of April, 1704 on a half sheet of " pot paper.".
55
SLAVE TRADE.
grants, who, under the directorship of Kieft's predecessor, Van Twiller, had purchased the lands claimed by the Dutch on Con- necticut river, from the Pequots, who, led by their chief Susacus, had driven off the native chiefs, and had a just claim by conquest to this territory ; but Sasacus having quarrelled, or being driven into hostilities with the English, he and his Pequots were sub- jugated, and the above just title is given to the people of New England.
CHAPTER IV ..
Tendency which the ignorant have in all ages to worship idols of their own making-Universality of Negro Slavery in the begin- ning of the seventeenth century-Superiority of Eastern Colo- nists-Absurdity of a community of property in mixed societies - The population of New Amsterdam-State of society under Sir William Kieft-Various encroachments upon his jurisdic- tion-Canadian affairs-Foundation of the enmity borne by the Iroquois to the French.
. THE disposition (caused by an ignorance of their rights and power) which mankind have ever evinced to worship the jugger- nauts who crush them, and to bow to the idols which they them- selves have set up, while they tremble, and yet curse them, has in- duced writers to bestow unmerited praise upon Elizabeth Queen of England. During her reign, the persecutions which chris- tianity and conscience underwent, were partly the cause of the attempts to colonize America. Puritans were marked as the ene- mies of hierarchal pomp and tyrannical bigotry. In process of time they fled their pleasant native land, in the hope to commune with their God without the interference of man.
It was during the reign of Elizabeth that England con- 1562 menced the slave trade. Four titled Englishmen, " all ho- norable men," Sir John Hawkins, Sir Lionel Duchet, Sir Thomas Lodge and Sir William Winter, were the leaders in that infamous traffic, which has cursed and still continues to curse the free United States of America. In 1562, Hawkins by the aid of the three men above named, (made honourable and titled as well as himself, by that fountain of honour a monarch,) carried a cargo of Africans from Sierra Leone to Hispaniola, and sold such as were not murdered on the voyage, as slaves to the Spaniards. Even Elizabeth was shocked at this novel atrocity. and called Hawkins to hier presence to reprove him ; but he convinced her that it was an act of humanity to carry men from a worse to a better country, where they would become civilized and converted to christianity.
56
COMMUNITY OF PROPERTY.
She afterwards encouraged the trade. The same argument is still used by the interested, in the face of fact, reason, religion and humanity.
The first cultivators of New Netherland employed African slaves for labourers on their plantations of tobacco or corn. But where shall we turn our eyes to the place at which slavery did not exist, or to what man at that time who discountenanced it? William Penn was a slave-holder; and John Locke the framer of constitu- tions for Carolina, contemplated negro slavery as part of the esta- blishment, and gave to every freeman absolute authority over his negro slaves. Even in New England, where I confess that I love to look, negro slavery existed.
Already the inhabitants of Boston in 1635, only five years after the settlement of the peninsula, established a free school. In 1639 the puritans of Plymouth, who at first governed themselves by the voices of all who belonged to the church, that is, by the votes of all the settlers, found it necessary to establish a representative government. They had previously abandoned a community of property, for they found that even in that band of brothers it repressed individual exertion, and encouraged some evil propen- sities.
Community of property cannot exist in any society combined for political government, which consists of a number beyond a very small limit; and a good government must not be exclusive. All the good should participate. Equality of rights constitutes democracy, and numbers require a representative assembly .- Among many, or even a few, there cannot be cquality of body or mind ; so neither can there be equality of power, property or en- joyment in any community of persons associating for self-govern- ment. Equality of property in such a community, neither can nor ought to exist. Individual property, individual power or hope of enjoyment, stimulates to actions which result in the good of all. The man that can and will do more than others, deserves more, and he will receive more : he has more power, and if he exerts it for the common good, -he deserves and receives more confidence, love and respect. If he is selfish, he will forfeit this confidence, love and respect ; and his gratification will be sordid. The desire to possess power is in itself good, ard with the inequality of individual gifts, proves the absurdity of en- deavouring to establish a society where community of property shall exist.
Equality in the opportunities for acquiring education found no- thing to oppose it among the puritans. In Massachusetts the general court enacted that in every township of fifty householders, a person should be appointed to teach children to read and write ; and they said " this person shall be paid either by the parents or
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.