USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York in the seventeenth century. Vol. I > Part 2
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In citing dates I have been obliged to use, with regard to months and days, at times the New Style chronology adopted
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in the sixteenth century by the Dutch and at times the Old Style to which the English adhered until the middle of the eighteenth century, thus lagging ten days behind other na- tions until the year 1700 and after that eleven days behind. But I have always explained the transition and have always used the New Style or historical year, beginning with January 1, and not the English legal year which began on March 25.
The notes that follow each chapter give the chief docu- mentary and secondary sources of information for the period it covers, special references regarding important or debatable points, and the origin of the quotations in the text. By the use of the numbers attached, the full form of the titles some- times abbreviated and almost always incompletely given in the chapter notes may be read in the general list, printed at the end of Volume II, of the books and essays I have found most useful.
This general list embraces no material still in manuscript, and the chapter notes refer to such material in only a few instances. Every one must use manuscript sources who hopes to investigate for himself the early history of New York. But only the serious student will make this attempt, and he will know or can easily learn what is accessible, where it may be found, and how to come upon the documents he wants. An attempt to indicate here all the pages I have consulted in manuscript would have enlarged my book to an unwieldy size and have given it an aspect deterrent to the class of readers for whom it is primarily intended. The same is true in re- gard to that citation by volume and page of all printed au- thorities for all statements which is to be desired in books for scholars.
As I have arranged the general list not according to authors' names but according to subjects it will have, I hope, an inde- pendent value of its own. I do not present it, however, as a bibliography of the history of New York in the seventeenth cen- tury. While including even very brief compilations and mono- graphs which throw a real light upon major or minor points in the story, and also some books which bear only casually
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upon the main theme but enlarge understanding of those general conditions, colonial or European, which had a direct or indirect influence upon the little colonial city, on the other hand I have left out a number of books, some of them well known, which if judged only by their titles may seem to have demanded admittance. Nor can I call the list a list of author- ities. By no means every work it contains is even approxi- mately authoritative from end to end. But all contain useful material; and the chapter notes often indicate the special utility of one and another. With regard to the outlying branches of my subject, like the course of events in the other colonies, in Canada, and in Europe, I have set down only a few references, chiefly to books which will give the inquirer knowledge of a larger number.
Sometimes the reason for excluding a book from the gen- eral list has been constant inaccuracy of statement. Some- times it has been falsity in general conception or in perspective - a misunderstanding of the true import of the story which tends seriously to mislead or to confuse the reader's mind. Irving's Knickerbocker History is, of course, the chief example of a book thus fundamentally faulty ; or, more exactly, it is a book which, written as a jest, was accepted as a history (if as a humorous history) of a period with which no historian had yet familiarized the public. To-day it shares the fate of many another classic. Few people read it, fewer enjoy it; but its reputation is still great, and the substance of what it says, and above all the tone in which it is written, having tinctured the thoughts and the writings of three generations, still affect the point of view of many an American, not merely distorting his ideas about this fact or that, this personage or another, but perverting his general mental and emotional attitude toward the place, the times, and the people in ques- tion. Even the professed historian still sometimes helps to propagate the influence of Irving's burlesque. More than one writer of recent days, although otherwise serious in mood and method, quotes long passages from Diedrich Knicker- bocker while more or less explicitly telling the reader that
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they are not to be believed. Others recast the substance of his fantasies without giving any warning at all, or have plainly been biassed by his temper or indirectly swayed by the gen- eral attitude of mind that it has nurtured.
There have always been voices to protest against the influ- ence of Irving's book. For example, James Grahame, a Scotchman who never even visited America, published in 1827 the first portion of a long and for its time remarkably good history of the American colonies (506); and in a note to it he says :
Founders of ancient colonies have sometimes been deified by their successors. New York is perhaps the only commonwealth whose founders have been assailed with ridicule from the same quarter. It is impossible to read the ingenious and diverting romance entitled Knickerbocker's History of New York without wishing that the author had put a little more or a little less truth into it; and that his talent for humour and sarcasm had found another subject than the dangers, hardships, and virtues of the ancestors of his national family. ... Probably my discernment of the unsuitableness of the writer's mirth is quickened by a sense of personal wrong, as I cannot help feeling that he has by anticipation ridiculed my topic and parodied my narrative. If Sancho Panza had been a real governor misrepresented by the prior wit of Cervantes, his posterior historian would have found it no easy matter to bespeak a grave attention to the annals of his administration.
In 1845, when a select committee of the senate of New York was reporting upon the proposal that the documents collected in Europe by Brodhead should be printed, it quoted Gra- hame's words, adding:
The traits ascribed by the mock historian to the first settlers of New York can scarcely be supposed to have characterized such a people; . . . the manly virtues they displayed amid the toils and hard- ships of colonial life .. . deserve a very different commemoration at the hands of their descendants and successors.
This commemoration they have not yet received in ade- quate measure. But within the last few years there has been a marked improvement in the point of view of the makers of books that describe or refer to colonial New York. And there has been a great awakening of a sane and appreciative
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concern for the history of their city among the rank and file of its people - a result almost wholly due to the wise activity of the City History Club and its founder, Mrs. Robert Abbe. If I can share a little in the same good work it will be a high additional reward for many years devoted to a subject which, I can truly say, has itself richly repaid me from hour to hour. So interesting are the chronicles amid which I have long been living that if my transcript from them is dull the fault is en- tirely my own.
I am deeply conscious that my book must have suffered from the fact that I have been able to ask scarcely any guid- ance or correction of other students of colonial history. To the many friends who are not such but who have given me aid at one point or another I am very grateful, and also to the administrators of the libraries where I have worked. Chief among these are the archive department of the State Library, the New York Public Library (Lenox Building), the library of the New York Historical Society, and the New York Society Library.
About the Society Library I must say a further word. While it does not offer the student manuscript material or such a vast array of books as are gathered together in public and university collections, it serves him in ways that they cannot attempt. Deficiencies that ought not to exist will be found in its collection of historical books. But it owns many -old, rare, or very costly - that one would scarcely expect it to have; and almost everything it owns it will lend with a lavish generosity, even books which everywhere else are piously kept on reference shelves. I need not explain to other writers the immense difference between using a book in a public library and using it at home in as leisurely a manner as one may wish. But for their benefit as well as to discharge a debt of gratitude I am glad of the chance to say that the existence of the Society Library has saved me what would have run into many months of tedious labor within other walls, labor as exasperating to the mind as exhausting to the body. It is the oldest library
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in the city, and its story as recently written by Mr. Austin Baxter Keep, forms an interesting chapter in the eighteenth and nineteenth century history of New York. May it enlarge its historical collection as widely as possible and continue to serve the student as helpfully and as graciously as now it does.
In conclusion I beg that I may not be suspected, because of the name I acquired by marriage, of any inborn partiality for the Dutch-Americans who appear in my pages. My own people were of English and Scotch origin and, until my four grandparents became citizens of New York, lived in Connecti- cut, New Jersey, and Maryland and on Long Island. I like to remember that the forbears of at least two of my grandparents came to America as soon as they could - with the earliest settlers of New England. But, so far as I know, the only drops of Dutch blood I can pride myself upon I get from an inconspicuous New Jersey family and from the first wife of Captain John Underhill. Underhill himself is the only an- cestor with whom I have had to deal; and I trust that his spirit has not moved me to speak of him with unjust indulgence.
MARIANA GRISWOLD VAN RENSSELAER.
March, 1909.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
EXPLORERS AND FUR-TRADERS. 1524-1609-1621
PAGE
Early navigators visit the waters of Manhattan. - Its history begins with the coming of Henry Hudson. - His employers. - His voyage. -Its immediate results. - Rivalry of European nations for the wealth of the New World. - Claims and early enterprises of France and of England. - The Virginia Charter. - Influence of the New World upon the Old. - Planting of Jamestown; and of Quebec. - History and condition of the United Netherlands. - Their supremacy in ocean traffic. - The first map of 'Virginia' : the Velasco Map. - Dutch merchants begin to trade on Hudson's Great River. - Adriaen Block builds the Restless on or near Manhattan ; and ex- plores the coasts to the northeastward. - The United New Nether- land Company ; first use of the name 'New Netherland.' - Hendrick Christiansen builds the first Dutch trading post in New Netherland. - Baseless story of Argall's visit to Manhattan ; Plow- den's New Albion. - The Figurative Maps. - First scheme for colonizing New Netherland : desire of the Englishmen to settle there who eventually founded New Plymouth. - Partisan strife in Holland. - Establishment of the West India Company. - Its charter 1
CHAPTER II
THE BIRTH OF THE PROVINCE. 1619-1624
Voyage of Captain Dermer. - English attempts at colonization. - Attitude of England toward the Dutch in North America. - New Netherland constituted a province. - The first effort to colonize it ; Jesse De Forest. - " Arrival of the first settlers in the ship New Netherland. - Their distribution. - After history of De Forest. - Mixed character of the emigration to New Netherland. - The voyage from Holland. - Aspect of Manhattan. - Geographical features of the province. - Commercial and strategic importance of the Great River. - Its various names. - Names of places near Manhattan. - Derivation and use of the name 'Manhattan.' -The aborigines. - Value of Indian corn. - The Algonquins ; the Iroquois or Five Nations. - Relations of the Indians with the first white men. - Wampum. - Attitude of the Dutch toward the savages. - Its good results .
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CHAPTER III THE FOUNDING OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 1624-1631 (GOVERNOR MINUIT)
PAGE
A letter from New Netherland quoted. - The first settlement on Man- hattan. - The first white children born in the province. - Arrival of the first governor of the province, Peter Minuit. - He establishes a government. - He buys Manhattan from the Indians. - The Schaghen letter. - The founding of New Amsterdam. - The aspect of Manhattan. - Contemporaneous descriptions of the settlement. - Letters of its first clergyman, Domine Michaelius. - Establish- ment of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in America. - Intercourse opened with New Plymouth. - Secretary De Rasières visits New Plymouth. - Its governor warns Minuit that the Dutch have no right to their province. - The Treaty of Southampton. - Fears of the New Netherlanders with regard to the people of Ply- mouth. - Scheme of the West India Company for the colonization of its province. - The Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions. - Patroonships. - Kiliaen Van Rensselaer ; his papers. - New Neth- erland customs regarding the acquisition of lands. - Establishment of the first patroonships .
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CHAPTER IV
MISMANAGEMENT. 1630-1636
(GOVERNOR MINUIT, GOVERNOR CROL, GOVERNOR VAN TWILLER)
Lack of harmony at New Amsterdam. - Trade and industry. - The great ship New Netherland. - Disputes in the Amsterdam Chamber of the West India Company. - Governor Minuit recalled. - Gov- ernor Crol appointed. - His brief administration. - English activity in America. - English protests against the Dutch occupation of New Netherland. - Ambiguous position of the Dutch province. - Monopolies and colonization. - The populating of New England and of New Netherland contrasted. - Relative unimportance of New Netherland to the West India Company. - Gains of the Com- pany in other regions ; their significance to the Dutch. - Condition of the West India Company. - Its mismanagement of New Nether- land. - Wouter Van Twiller appointed governor. - His arrival at New Amsterdam. - Establishment of the school now the oldest in the United States. - Van Twiller's character. - Captain De Vries ; his book. - The affair of the ship William. - Dutch and English on the Connecticut River. - Obligations of the New Englanders to the Dutch. - Parts of New Netherland granted to British patentees. - The English government and New England ·
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CHAPTER V
BETTER PROSPECTS. 1632-1642
(GOVERNOR VAN TWILLER, GOVERNOR KIEFT)
PAGE
Captain De Vries returns to Holland. - Charges against Governor Van Twiller ; Van Rensselaer's advice to him. - The West India Com- pany, colonization, and the patroons. - Development of Van Rens- selaer's patroonship. - His views on colonization. - Van Twiller improves New Amsterdam. - Virginians attempt to settle on the Delaware. - Thomas Hall, the first English New Netherlander. - More charges against Van Twiller. - First settlements on Long Island. - Grant of the tract on Manhattan afterwards famous as Annetje Jans's Farm. - First settlements on the Harlem Flats. - Quarrels of the officials at New Amsterdam. - William Kieft ap- pointed to succeed Van Twiller. - His character. - He assumes the government. - Van Twiller and Van Dincklagen in Holland. - First ordinances of Governor Kieft. - Orders given in England regarding the Dutch colony. - A Swedish colony established on the Delaware. - The Dutch government directs that new regula- tions be made for New Netherland ; relaxes the West India Com- pany's monopolies. - Increased activity in the province. - First title deeds for lands on Manhattan. - New settlements. - Jonas Bronck. - Oath prescribed for English residents. - English and Dutch on the Connecticut River. - Disputes among the New Eng- landers. - New Haven Colony established. - Lion Gardiner and his settlement. - New Englanders settle on Long Island. - Disputes at Fort Good Hope (Hartford). - New Haven tries to plant a colony on the Delaware. - New Sweden . . 137
CHAPTER VI PROSPERITY AND DANGER. 1638-1643 (GOVERNOR KIEFT)
Condition of Van Rensselaer's patroonship. - A new Charter of Free- doms and Exemptions published by the West India Company. - Its provisions ; a further relaxation of trade monopolies. - First militia regulations of New Netherland. - New patroonships estab- lished. - Unpopularity of Governor Kieft. - Beginning of trouble with the Indians ; the exciting causes. - Outbreak on Staten Island. -A crime against Indians committed in the time of Governor Minuit now revenged. - Kieft orders the election of twelve repre- sentatives of the people ; first dawning of popular government. - Who the Twelve Men were. - They demand for the people a share in the government. - Van Rensselaer's ideas about the government of the province. - Peace with the Indians. - Englishmen settle in
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PAGE
the province. - Terms upon which Kieft received them. - Condi- tion of New Amsterdam. - The City Tavern. - Beginnings of Broadway. - The church in the fort ; how it was built. - The first physicians of New Amsterdam. - The earliest views of New Amster- dam. - Its first monetary law. - Slavery. - Drunkenness, crimes, and punishments. - New Netherland compared in morality with the English colonies. - Ecclesiastical affairs; religious toleration. -The rescue of the Jesuit priest, Father Jogues ; and of Father Bressani. - Disbelief in witchcraft. - Schools in Holland, New Netherland, and New England . 172
CHAPTER VII
THE INDIAN WAR. 1643-1645 (GOVERNOR KIEFT)
The mixture of nationalities on Manbattan. - Dutch, Flemish, and English names still well-known in New York. - Patronymics and surnames. - Origin of some New York families. - Isaac Allerton. -John Underhill. - Democratic spirit of New Amsterdam. - Out- break of the Indian war. - Algonquin refugees on Manhattan and at Pavonia. - Governor Kieft orders an attack upon them. - Cap- tain De Vries describes it. - Its results. - A partial peace con- cluded. - War again. - Election of eight representatives of the people. - Preparations for defence. - Devastation. - Departure of De Vries. - Memorials addressed by the Eight Men to the authori- ties in Holland. - Successful attacks upon the savages. - The first internal taxes laid in New Netherland. - Reinforcements arrive from Curaçoa. - Protest against arbitrary taxation. - Supineness of Governor Kieft. - Ill conduct of the English soldiers. - Cruelty toward the Indians. - Petition of the Eight Men for ' burgher gov- ernment.' - Peace concluded with the Indians. - Rescue of Anne Hutchinson's daughter
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CHAPTER VIII
A NEW START. 1642-1648 (GOVERNOR KIEFT, GOVERNOR STUYVESANT)
Condition of the West India Company. - Advice given by its board of accounts. - Four New England colonies form a confederation. - Governor Kieft protests against the aggressions of the New Eng- landers. - Sir Edmund Plowden asserts a claim to parts of New Netherland. - The Bostonians send a trading expedition to the Delaware. - Vague ideas of the English about America. - The Lucini Map. - Van Rensselaer's patroonship ; his letters about it. - His deputies in dispute with Governor Kieft. - New arrangements
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for New Netherland. - General Peter Stuyvesant commissioned as governor. - Quarrels of Kieft and his people. - English and Dutch towns established on Long Island. - Adriaen Van der Donck and his patroonship. - Governor Stuyvesant ; his career ; his character ; his family. - He takes over the government from Kieft. - Condi- tion of New Amsterdam. - Stuyvesant's first ordinances. - His contest with Melyn and Kuyter. - Kieft sails for Holland. - Wreck of the ship Princess. - Stuyvesant orders the election of nine rep- resentatives of the people. - Who the Nine Men were. - Augus- tine Herrman. - Duties of the Nine Men
CHAPTER IX
THE REMONSTRANCE OF NEW NETHERLAND. 1646-1650 (GOVERNOR STUYVESANT)
The Nine Men convene. - Ordinances for New Amsterdam ; liquor sell- ing. - Itinerant traders. - Claims of Lord Stirling and of Plowden to parts of New Netherland asserted. - Territorial disputes with the New Englanders. - Stuyvesant seizes the ship San Beningo at New Haven. - He disputes with the managers of Rensselaerswyck ; and with his people at New Amsterdam. - Exhausted condition of the West India Company. - Cornelis Melyn returns from Holland ; and serves a mandamus on Stuyvesant. - The Nine Men prepare an appeal to the government of their fatherland. - The Remon- strance of New Netherland. - Van der Donck and others carry it to Holland. - Their reception. - The Breeden Raedt. - Van Tien- hoven's reply to the Remonstrance. - Attitude of the West India Company. - Provisional order for the government of New Nether- land. - Privileges granted to English settlers in the province. - Death of Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts . 277
CHAPTER X
'SUITABLE BURGHER GOVERNMENT.' 1650-1653 (GOVERNOR STUYVESANT)
Depressed condition of New Amsterdam. - Return of two of the people's envoys. - Governor Stuyvesant flouts the Nine Men ; and antago- nizes the people. - Ill conduct of Van Tienhoven. - Petition of the English of Gravesend. - Stuyvesant confers with the New Eng- landers at Hartford. - The Hartford Treaty of 1650 settles boun- dary lines. - Discontent of the New Netherlanders. - Van der Donck's activity in Holland. - Enmity between Stuyvesant and his people ; only the English on Long Island support him. - He goes to the Delaware to deal with the Swedes. - Renewed disputes with the managers of Rensselaerswyck. - Political and commercial
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conditions in Holland and England. - The first Navigation Act. - The West India Company grants New Amsterdam 'suitable burgher government.' - War between England and Holland. - New Am- sterdam constituted a city. - Character of the municipal govern- ment ; its persistence until to-day. - The city court. - Return of Van der Donck. - First debt incurred by the city. - The New Englanders falsely accuse Stuyvesant of plotting with the Indians to destroy them. - Sale of arms to Indians in New Netherland and New England. - John Underhill tries to raise a revolt on Long Island ; seizes the old Dutch fort at Hartford. - New Englanders threaten war against New Netherland
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CHAPTER XI
DISPUTES, COMPLAINTS, AND DANGERS. 1653-1656 (GOVERNOR STUYVESANT)
Discontent persists in New Amsterdam. - Burghers are summoned to consult with the magistrates. - Piratical raids on Long Island. - Delegates from Long Island towns meet with the city magistrates. - Land-dag or provincial diet assembles; prepares a Remon- strance and Petition to the governor. - He rejects it. - It is sent to Holland. - Dutch towns incorporated on Long Island. - An- tagonism to the Dutch in England. - Cromwell sends an expedition to subdue New Netherland. - New Amsterdam prepares for de- fence. - The English ships reach Boston. - The conclusion of peace in Europe prevents the attack upon New Netherland. -- Cromwell's plans for a Dutch and English conquest of all America. - The West India Company grants some of the magistrates' de- mands. - Disputes about taxes. - Decline of the West India Com- pany. - The Swedes take the Dutch fort on the Delaware. - Stuyvesant gives the city a seal sent from Holland. - He goes to Barbadoes. - He leads an expedition to the Delaware and subdues the Swedes. - An Indian raid; New Amsterdam threatened ; neighboring settlements destroyed. - A property tax imposed. - End of Cornelis Van Tienhoven . 346
CHAPTER XII
THE LATTER YEARS OF NEW NETHERLAND. 1655-1663 (GOVERNOR STUYVESANT)
Publications relating to New Netherland ; De Vries's Voyages ; Van der Donck's Description. - Englishmen in New Netherland. - Dela- ware districts ceded to the city of Amsterdam. - Maryland claims
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the Delaware country. - Massachusetts tries to plant a settlement on Hudson's River. - Accession of Charles II. - Condition of the United Netherlands. - Their treatment of New Netherland. - Com- mercial policy of England ; the ' mercantile system.' - The Navi- gation Acts. - Relations of New Netherland with Virginia. - Condition of the West India Company. - Governor Winthrop of Connecticut visits New Amsterdam on his way to Europe ; secures a charter for his colony. - Indian wars in the Esopus region. - Attitude of the Mohawks. - Aggressions of the New Englanders. - Stuyvesant treats with them at Boston ; and sends an embassy to Hartford . 379
CHAPTER XIII
INTERNAL AFFAIRS. 1652-1664 (GOVERNOR STUYVESANT)
Growth of the province. - Stuyvesant's bouwery. - Founding of New Harlem ; and of towns on Long Island. - First Dutch church on Long Island. - Founding of Bergen. - Cornelis Melyn and Staten Island. - Establishment of 'burgher-right' in New Amsterdam. -The city government. - Orphan-masters ; wills ; marriages. - Local officials. - Disputes between the governor and the city mag- istrates. - Official salaries. - Revenue of the province ; of the city. -- Municipal improvements. - Special assessments. - Trade and commerce. - The currency ; beaver skins and wampum. - Schools. - Stuyvesant attempts religious persecution. - Quakers in New Netherland. - Jews in New Amsterdam . . 416
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