The most favorably situated, and, for its extent, the most valuable
region of the country was first settled by the Dutch, Hollanders and
Swedes.
For some ten years there had been a trading post and small village on
Manhattan Island; and, in 1623 the “Dutch West India Co.,” with a charter
covering the whole coast from the Strait of Magellan to Hudson’s Bay,
landed a colony of thirty families at New Amsterdam.
The first colonists were mostly Protestant refugees from Belgium, who
came to America to escape the persecutions endured in their own country.
A part of the colonists took up their abode at New Amsterdam; others went
down the New Jersey coast, and landed on the eastern shore of the Bay
of Delaware. The same year a colony of 18 families ascended the Hudson,
and located at or near Albany. This was the most northern post, and was
called Fort Orange.
A civil government was established for New Netherlands, in 1624,
Cornelius May being the first governor.
In 1626 Peter Minuit was appointed governor, and during his
administration he purchased of the native inhabitants the whole of
Manhattan Island, containing more than 20,000 acres, for forty dollars.
Some settlements were also made on Long Island. The Dutch of New
Amsterdam and the Pilgrims of New England were early friends, and helped
each other. Both enjoyed a good degree of prosperity, and the population
steadily increased.
For more than ten years the Indians, with few exceptions, received the
strangers who came among them kindly and in good faith. When injured
and wronged their resentment was kindled, and terribly did they avenge
themselves on their enemies. The first notable instance was at Lewistown,
on Delaware Bay, where Hosset, a governor of violent temper and little
sagacity, seized and put to death a chief, who in some way offended him.
The tribe was aroused, and assailed the place with such violence that
not a man was left alive. When the next ship-load of colonists arrived,
instead of a thrifty town, and friends eagerly waiting to receive them,
they found but the bones of the slain, and the ashes of the homes that
had sheltered them. Afterward there was not, for many years, the same
sense of security; and in 1640 New Netherlands became involved in a
general war with the Indians of Long Island and New Jersey, a war that,
on both sides, was far from honorable, and marked with treachery,
cruelty, and murders most revolting. If the whites were surprised and
massacred by the Indians, there were as terrible massacres of Indians by
the whites, who were, too often, the aggressors. An impartial historian
says: “Nearly all the bloodshed and sorrow of those five years of war may
be charged to Governor Kief. He was a revengeful, cruel man, whose idea
of government was to destroy whatever opposed him.” For his headstrong
course and cruelty he lost his position, and, to the great relief of the
colonists, who had suffered much on his account, sailed for England. But
the ship was wrecked on the coast of Wales, and the guilty governor found
a grave in the sea. He was succeeded by Peter Stuyvesant, a resolute
man, of more ability than most who preceded him. He, for seventeen
years, managed the affairs of the colonists successfully. He conciliated
the savages, settled the boundaries of his territory, and enforced the
surrender of New Sweden, which became a part of his dominion. There was
afterward some difficulty with the Indians, but more from a quarter
whence no danger was expected. Lord Baltimore, of Maryland, claimed,
under his charter, all the territory between the Chesapeake and Delaware
Bay. Berkley claimed New Sweden, while Connecticut and Massachusetts were
equally aggressive on the territories adjacent to their lines.
In 1664 the unscrupulous king of England, Charles II., issued patents
to his brother, the Duke of York, covering the territory called New
Netherlands, and more beside. It was in utter disregard of the rights
of Holland, and of the West India Co., who had settled the country. No
time was given for protest against the outrage. An English squadron soon
appeared before New Amsterdam, and demanded the immediate surrender of
the country, and the acknowledgment of the sovereignty of England. No
effectual resistance could be made, and the indignant old governor,
his council ordering it, had to sign the capitulation; and, on the 8th
of September, 1664, the English flag was hoisted over the fort and
town. The Swedish and Dutch settlements likewise capitulated, and the
conquest was complete. From Maine to Georgia, in every settlement near
the coast, the British flag was unfurled. This high-handed injustice,
which robbed a sister state of her well earned colonial possessions, was
but slightly mitigated by the fact that the armament was insufficient to
enforce submission without the shedding of blood. The capitulation was
on favorable terms, and with fair promises, that were never fulfilled.
The government was despotic, and the people were sorely oppressed. The
policy of the tyrannical governor was to tax the people till they could
do nothing but think how possibly to pay the amount assessed.
In 1673, England and Holland being at war, the latter sent a small
squadron to recover the possessions wrested from her in America. When
the little fleet appeared before New York, the governor was absent, and
his deputy, either from cowardice, or, knowing the people preferred to
have it so, at once surrendered the city, and the whole province yielded
without a struggle.
But the re-conquest of New York by the Dutch, gave them no permanent
possession, as the war was soon closed by a treaty of peace, in which all
the rights of Holland in America were surrendered.
The Dutch and Swedes again became subject to English authority. Popular
government was overthrown, and the officers appointed by the crown,
directly or otherwise, with few exceptions, were unjust and tyrannical.
Their oppressive measures were met with resistance, and, so intense
was the hatred excited, that obstructions were thrown in the way of
everything that was attempted. The people, when not repelling the attacks
of the French and the Indians, or carrying the war into the territory
of the invaders—campaigns in which much was sacrificed and nothing
gained—were in a constant struggle with the royal governors, intent on
collecting the revenues and enriching themselves, but careless of the
best interests of the people.