THE COLONIZATION OF THE MIDDLE COLONIES (1609-1700).
82. References.
Bibliographies.--Larned, _Literature of American History_, 92-100; Andrews,
_Colonial Self-Government_, ch. xx.; Avery, II. 417-421, 438-444, III.
413-418, 430-432, 443-445; Winsor, III. 411-420, 449-456, 495-516, IV.
409-442, 488-502; Channing and Hart, _Guide_, §§ 104-108.
Historical Maps.--Nos. 1, 2, and 3, this volume (_Epoch Maps_, Nos. 1, 2,
3); Winsor, as above.
General Accounts.--Fiske, _Dutch and Quaker Colonies_; Doyle, _Colonies_,
IV.; Lodge, _Colonies_, chs. ix.-xvi.; Channing, _United States_, I. chs.
xvi., xvii., II. chs. ii., iv., v., vii.; Avery, II. chs. iv., xi., xii.,
III. chs. iv.-vi., xv., xvii., xviii., xxvi.; Andrews, as above, chs.
v.-viii., xi., xii.; Winsor, III. chs. x.-xii., IV. chs. viii., ix.
Special Histories.--New York: Roberts (Commonwealths), and Brodhead:
O'Callaghan, _New Netherlands_; G. Schuyler, _Colonial New York_, I.; W.
Griffis, _New Netherland_; histories of New York city by Innis, Janvier,
Lamb, Rensselaer, Roosevelt, Stone, and Wilson.--Delaware: Conrad and
Scharf; Jameson, _Willem Usselinx_.--New Jersey: Lee, Mulford, Raum, and
Tanner; F. Stockton, _Stories of New Jersey_; A. Melick, _Old New Jersey
Farm_.--Pennsylvania: S. Fisher, _Making of Pennsylvania_; H. Jenkins,
_Pennsylvania_; I. Sharpless, _Two Centuries of Pennsylvania_, and _Quaker
Government_; A. Myers, _Irish Quakers_; O. Kuhns, _German and Swiss
Settlements_; J. Sachse, _Pennsylvania Germans_, and _German Pietists_;
Scharf and Westcott, _Philadelphia_.
Contemporary Accounts.--Josselyn, _Two Voyages_ (1675); Dankers Sluyter,
_Voyage to New York_ (1679); Penn, _Some Account_ (1681); Budd, _Good Order
Established_ (1685); Sewel, _History of Quakers_ (1722); Hazard, _Annals of
Pennsylvania_; Gabriel Thomas, _West Jersey_. Reprints: _Colonial
Documents_ and _Records_ of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; _Half
Moon Series_; _American History told by Contemporaries_, I. part vi.;
Jameson, _Original Narratives_; publications by colonial and town record
commissions, and historical and antiquarian societies.
83. Dutch Settlement (1609-1625).
Sidenote: Hudson's discovery.
In September, 1609, Hendrik Hudson, an English navigator in the employ of
the Dutch East India Company, sailed up the river to which his name has
been given by the English--the Dutch called it North River--as far as the
future site of Albany. He found "that the land was of the finest kind for
tillage, and as beautiful as the foot of man ever trod upon." Six weeks
earlier Champlain, the commander of New France, had been on the shores of
Lake Champlain about one hundred miles to the north, fighting the native
Iroquois. The object of Hudson's search was a familiar one in his
time,--the discovery of a water-passage through the continent that might
serve as a short-cut to India, where his masters were engaged in trade. He
did not find what he sought, but opened the way to a lucrative traffic with
the American savages, whose good graces the thrifty Dutch strove to
cultivate. The French leader's introduction to the Iroquois had been as an
enemy, but the explorer from Holland came as a friend: the Dutch reaped
advantage from the contrast.
Sidenote: Early Dutch trading-posts.
Dutch traders annually visited the region of Hudson River during the next
few years. There was at first no attempt at colonization, for Holland just
at that time was not prepared to give offence to her old enemy, Spain,
which claimed most of North America by the right of discovery and Pope
Alexander's bull of partition. Nevertheless, the country was styled New
Netherland, and Holland recognized it as a legal dependency. A Dutch
navigator, Adrian Block, as the result of an accident, spent a winter on
either Manhattan or Long Island, and built a coasting-vessel (1614) for
trafficking in furs. A small trading-house, called Fort Nassau, was also
erected this year on the site of Albany; a similar establishment, without
defences, and surrounded by a few huts for traders, was built on Manhattan
Island, at the mouth of the river, the following season (1615); a new Fort
Nassau was afterwards (1623) set up on the Delaware River, four miles below
the site of Philadelphia, but was soon abandoned.
Sidenote: The New Netherlands Company.
In 1615 the New Netherland Company obtained a trading charter from the
States-General of Holland. The corporation was granted a monopoly of the
Dutch fur-traffic in New Netherland for three years, and conducted
extensive operations between Albany and the Delaware, coastwise and in the
interior. The Dutch thus far had not ventured to exercise political control
over the New Netherland. The country was still claimed by the English
Virginia Company. The land originally granted to the Pilgrims from Leyden
by the latter company was described as being "about the Hudson's River." We
have seen how the party on the "Mayflower" were prevented by storms--or
possibly by the design of the captain--from reaching their destination and
planting an English colony in the neighborhood of the Dutch trading posts.
Sidenote: The Dutch West India Company.
In 1621 the Dutch West India Company came upon the scene as the successor
of the New Netherland Company. Its charter bade it "to advance the peopling
of those fruitful and unsettled parts," and to "do all that the service of
those countries and the profit and increase of trade shall require." The
corporation was given almost absolute commercial and political power in all
Dutch domains between Newfoundland and the Straits of Magellan, the home
government reserving only the right to decline confirmation of colonial
officers. Three years elapsed before the company attempted to plant a
colony. Thirty families of Protestant Walloons--a people of mixed Gallic
and Teutonic blood, living in the southern provinces of Holland, whose
offer to settle in Virginia had been rejected by the English--were sent
over by the Dutch proprietors (1624) to their new possessions. The greater
part of the emigrants went to Albany, which they styled Fort Orange; others
were sent to the Delaware River colony; a small party went on to the
Connecticut; a few settled on Long Island; and eight men stayed on
Manhattan. These settlements, relying for their chief support on the
fur-trade with the Indians, were quite successful, and the New Netherlands
soon became an important group of commercial colonies.
84. Progress within New Netherland (1626-1664).
Sidenote: The settlements united.
In 1626 Peter Minuit, then director for the company, purchased Manhattan
from the Indians, united all the settlements under one system of direction,
and founded New Amsterdam (afterwards New York city) as the central trading
depot. In every direction the trade of New Netherland grew.
Sidenote: The patroon system.
As the settlers seemed to be interested in commerce, and agricultural
colonization did not flourish, the corporation secured from the
States-General a new charter of "freedoms and exemptions" (1629), which
they thought better adapted to the fostering of emigration. This document
sought to transplant the European feudal system to the American wilds.
Members of the Dutch West India Company might purchase tracts of land from
the Indians and plant colonies thereon, of which these proprietors were to
be the patroons, or patrons. Each patroon thus establishing a colony of
fifty persons upwards of fifteen years of age, was granted a tract "as a
perpetual inheritance," sixteen miles wide along the river, or eight miles
on both sides, "and so far into the country as the situation of the
occupiers will permit." The company retained intervening lands; but no one
might settle within thirty miles of a patroon colony without consent of the
patroon, subject to the order of the company's officials. The patroons were
given political and judicial power over their colonists; the latter might
take appeals to the New Netherlands council, but the patroons were
generally careful to bind the settlers before starting out not to exercise
this right.
Sidenote: Patroon settlements.
Leading members of the company were quick to avail themselves of this
opportunity to become members of a landed aristocracy and absolute chiefs
of whatever colonies they might plant. Small settlements were soon made on
these several domains, which were taken up chiefly along Hudson River, the
principal highway into the Indian country. Van Rensselaer founded
Rensselaerswyck, near Fort Orange; Pauw secured Hoboken and Staten Island;
while Godyn, Blommaert, De Vries, and others settled Swaanendael, on the
Delaware. Many of the old patroon estates long remained undivided, and the
heirs of the founders claimed some semi-feudal privileges well into the
nineteenth century. Attempts to collect long arrears of rent on the great
Van Rensselaer estate led to a serious anti-rent movement (1839-1846),
which broke out in bloody riots and affected New York politics for several
years.
Sidenote: Collisions with English traders.
The patroons, as individuals, haughtily assumed to shut out the Dutch West
India Company, of which they were members, from the trade of their petty
independent States. The corporation was not only torn by internal
dissensions, but soon had on hand a quarrel with New England because of the
establishment of a Dutch fur-trading post at Hartford, on the Connecticut
(1633), and the vain assertion of a right to exclude English vessels from
the Hudson river. On the south, the Dutch came into collision with
Virginians trading on the Delaware and the Schuylkill. Trade increased, but
colonization did not thrive, owing in part to the rapacity of the patroons,
and partly to the mismanagement of the governors sent out to represent the
company.
Sidenote: An Indian war.
The singular lack of tact displayed by Governor Kieft led to an Algonquian
Indian uprising (1643-45), which resulted in the death of sixteen hundred
savages, but left the border settlements in ruins, and seriously checked
colonial growth for several years. The Algonkins being enemies of the
Iroquois, the friendship originally formed between the Dutch and the latter
was not disturbed by this outbreak.
Sidenote: Attempts to foster colonization.
In 1640 the company fixed the limits of a patroon's estate at one mile
along the river front and two miles in depth, but did not disturb the
feudal privileges. As a counter-influence, a new class of settlers was
provided for. Any one going to New Netherland with five other emigrants
might take two hundred acres of land as a bounty and be independent of the
patroons. A species of local self-government was also provided for at this
time, the officers of each town or village being chosen by the directors of
the company from a list made up by the inhabitants. These inducements do
not seem to have attracted many colonists, for when Peter Stuyvesant came
out as governor (1647), and strutted about Manhattan "like a peacock,--as
if he were the Czar of Muscovy," there were only three hundred fighting men
in the entire province.
Sidenote: The colonists struggling for political rights.
Up to this time the people had been obliged to rely chiefly on petitions as
a means of presenting their political grievances. In 1641 Kieft had been
forced by popular opinion to call a council of twelve deputies from the
several settlements to advise him in regard to treatment of the Indians,
and again in 1644 to consult as to taxes; but he rode rough-shod over the
deputies. The public outcry over this arbitrary conduct led to his recall
and the institution of some minor reforms. Under Stuyvesant there was
formed a council of nine, the members being selected by him from a list of
popular nominations. The board was so arranged as to be self-perpetuating,
and the people, after the original election, ceased to have any hand in its
makeup. In an important struggle between Stuyvesant and the residents of
New Amsterdam (1651) relative to an excise tax, the director general was
obliged to yield.
Sidenote: A heterogeneous population.
A source of anxiety to the rulers of New Netherland was the heterogeneous
character of the population. The first permanent settlers had been the
Walloons. The Dutch themselves soon followed. Besides these were several
bands of Protestant reformers who had fled from persecution in Europe, and
numerous sectaries from New England who had found life intolerable there.
There were so many French-speaking people in the district that public
documents were often printed both in French and Dutch. In 1643 it was
reported that eighteen languages were spoken in New Amsterdam.
Sidenote: Encroachments by the Swedes.
The South Company of Sweden sent out a colony in 1638 under charge of
Minuit, formerly employed by the Dutch West India Company. He built Fort
Christina, on the future site of Wilmington, Del., and called the country
New Sweden. The Dutch governor at New Amsterdam vainly protested against
this occupation of territory claimed by his employers. Two years later
(1641) a party of Englishmen from New Haven built trading-houses on the
Schuylkill, and at Salem, N. J., near Fort Nassau, but were soon compelled
to leave. The Swedish enterprise went unchecked until Stuyvesant's rule,
when a fort was built (1651) on the site of Newcastle, Del., below the
Swedish fort; and four years after this (1655) the South Company was
obliged, upon display of force, to abandon its enterprise.
85. Conquest of New Netherland (1664).
Sidenote: English interference.
So long as a foreign nation and a formidable commercial rival held the
geographical centre, the northern and southern colonies of England were
separated, intercommunication was hampered, and international boundary
disputes arose. Moreover, New Amsterdam had the best harbor on the coast,
and the Hudson river was an easy highway for traffic with the Indians; it
was, as well, altogether too convenient for possible raids of French and
Indians from the north. For these reasons England was desirous of obtaining
possession of the New Netherlands. There were not wanting excuses for
interference. Englishmen in Connecticut, on Long Island, and on the
Schuylkill had had land disputes with the Dutch, and there had been much
bad temper displayed on both sides.
Sidenote: England captures New Netherlands.
In 1654 Cromwell sent out a fleet to take the country; but peace between
England and Holland intervened in time to give to New Netherland a respite
of ten years. In 1664 Charles II. revived the claim that Englishmen had
discovered the region before the Dutch. In August of that year Colonel
Nicolls appeared before New Amsterdam, then a town of fifteen hundred
inhabitants, with a fleet of four ships, having on board four hundred and
fifty English soldiers and Connecticut volunteers, and demanded its
surrender. There was a stone fort and twenty cannon; but the enemy were too
strong to be profitably resisted. Despite Stuyvesant's protest, "I would
rather be carried to my grave" than yield, the white flag was eagerly run
up by the frightened town officers, and Dutch rule in New Amsterdam came to
an end.
Sidenote: Importance of the conquest.
By October every possession of Holland in North America was in the hands of
the English, who now held the Atlantic coast from the Savannah to the
Kennebec. The achievement of Nicolls had rendered it possible for the
American colonies to unite, and thus was of the greatest importance to the
political development of the country. Had King Charles been able to foresee
the trend of events, he would no doubt have been glad to allow the Dutch to
stand as an obstacle to the union of his transatlantic possessions.
Sidenote: Introduction of English rule.
The Duke of York was made proprietor of the conquered territory, the
province and capital being now styled New York; Fort Orange was
rechristened Albany. But beyond the change of names, little was done to
interrupt the smooth current of life, and Dutch customs in household and
trade were retained so far as practicable; while the public offices were
impartially shared, and former Dutch officials were consulted. There was
one notable act of injustice: all land-grants had to be confirmed by the
new governor, Nicolls, and fees were exacted for this service. Under
English rule the prosperity of the colony greatly increased.
86. Development of New York (1664-1700).
Sidenote: Local government.
The methods of local self-government were quietly transformed. Under the
Dutch, the towns, manors, and villages held direct relations with the West
India Company. A systematic code drawn by Nicolls and a convention of the
settlers (1665)--promulgated as "the duke's laws"--provided for
town-meetings for the election in each town by a "plurality of the voices
of the freeholders," of a constable and eight overseers. These officers
were the governing board of the town, with judicial and legislative powers,
thus differing from the New England selectmen, who but carried out the
mandates of the town-meeting. There was created a judicial district called
a "riding," with an area embracing several towns and presided over by a
sheriff. In 1683, these ridings developed into counties; afterwards (1703),
it was arranged that a supervisor was to be elected by the freeholders in
each town, to represent it in a county board whose duties were chiefly to
levy, collect, and apportion taxes. Thus we see the genesis in the middle
colonies of the mixed system of local government,--town and county being of
equal importance, with elective executive officers in each: it was a
compromise between the town system of New England and the county system of
Virginia; and this mixed system now prevails in perhaps most of the States
of the Union. The duke's charter enabled him to make all laws, without
asking the advice or assistance of the freemen. By "the duke's laws," power
was vested in the hands of the governor and council, the people being
wholly ignored in all matters above the affairs of the riding. Perfect
religious liberty was allowed throughout the province.
Sidenote: Recapture by the Dutch.
In 1672 England and Holland were again at war, and Francis Lovelace, then
governor of New York, made such preparations as he could against
anticipated attack. The Dutch colonists had had more or less trouble about
taxes with the English authorities, and there had been some friction
because the duke had made grants to Carteret and Berkeley in what
afterwards by the release became New Jersey, and thus had still further
complicated land-titles; but in general the English rule had been borne
with comparative equanimity. Nevertheless, the Dutch were highly delighted
when a fleet from Holland appeared before the city (1673), and easily
secured the surrender of the place.
Sidenote: England again in possession.
Fifteen months later (1674) the treaty of Westminster ceded the province
back to England, and it became New York once more. The population at this
time was about seven thousand.
Sidenote: The rule of Andros.
Edmund Andros, later concerned in the attempt to reduce New England (page
174, § 72), now came out as governor. His domestic policy was wise, and the
province experienced a healthy growth, the fur-trade being greatly expanded
under his administration. Both Nicolls and Andros sought to neutralize the
ill effects of the New Jersey grants by contending that they were still
tributary to New York, and Andros, in particular, adopted aggressive
measures to maintain what he held to be his prerogative; but Carteret and
Berkeley were too influential at court, and the governor was recalled
(1680) and given other employment.
Sidenote: Charter of liberties.
Under Gov. Thomas Dongan (1683-1688) the government yielded to the clamor
of the people, who pointed to the greater freedom allowed the New
Englanders; and an assembly was formed composed of eighteen deputies
elected by the freeholders. A charter of liberties was adopted by this
body, with the king's consent, making the assembly co-ordinate with the
governor and council; freeholders and freemen of corporations were invested
with the franchise; religious toleration was ordained for all Christians;
taxes were not to be levied without the assembly's sanction: but all laws
were to require the assent of the duke, who was also to grant lands and
establish custom-houses. This liberal treatment was of short duration. The
Duke of York came to the throne in 1685 as James II., and his reign was
signalized by depriving his subjects in New York of their representative
government (1686). The governor and council were ordered to establish the
Church of England in the province, and to refuse permits to schools not
licensed by the Church.
Sidenote: Leisler's revolution.
In 1688 New York was annexed to New England under the rule of Andros, who
was represented in New York by a deputy, Francis Nicholson. Later in the
year news came of the Revolution in England. Jacob Leisler, an energetic
but uneducated German shopkeeper, who had come out as a soldier in the West
India Company's employ, headed the militia in driving Nicholson out and
proclaiming the Prince of Orange. Leisler assumed the government; but his
rule was rash and arbitrary, although there is no doubt of his patriotic
spirit, and soon there arose a demand from the conservative element for his
withdrawal. By various subterfuges, however, he retained office for three
years. His term was distinguished by his issuance of a call for the first
Colonial Congress held in America; it met at Albany, February, 1690, with
seven delegates, chiefly from New England, and sought to organize a
retaliatory raid against the French and their Algonquian allies, who had
recently swept Schenectady with fire and tomahawk. The following year
(1691) Leisler was forced to surrender to the royal governor, Col. Henry
Sloughter, who soon after, while intoxicated, was induced by Leisler's
enemies to sign the death-warrant of his predecessor.
Sidenote: Closing years of the century.
A representative assembly was called, which annulled Leisler's proceedings
and formulated a code similar to the earlier charter of liberties. Gov.
Benjamin Fletcher (1692-1698) was notoriously corrupt. He levied blackmail
on the pirates and smugglers who swarmed in the harbors, and intrigued for
money with members of the assembly; but in his dealings with the hostile
French and Indians he was firm and successful. In 1698 the Earl of
Bellomont was appointed governor, and New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts,
and New Hampshire were jointly placed under his rule. In New York he
restored order, reduced crime, and rooted out corruption and piracy, so
that when he died (1701), his loss was sincerely regretted.
Sidenote: Characteristics of New York.
New York had gone through a development which down to the end of the
eighteenth century marked the colony out from her sisters. No other colony
had a history of any importance before the English domination; in no other
colony were a foreign race and a foreign language and customs so
intrenched. No colony had such an experience of control from England. The
history of New York up to 1700 is chiefly a history of administrations. The
commercial pre-eminence of New York was hardly shown in colonial times. Its
chief importance among the colonies arose out of the relations with the
Iroquois.
87. Delaware (1623-1700).
Sidenote: Early Dutch settlers.
We have seen that the Dutch West India Company established (1623) a trading
post, called Fort Nassau, on the banks of the Delaware River within the
present town of Gloucester, N.J., and four miles below the future site of
Philadelphia. The settlers were a portion of the party of Walloons sent out
to America in that year. Eight years later (1631), De Vries, Blommaert,
and other patroons (page 199, § 84) of New Netherlands founded
Swaanendael, near the site of Lewes, Del.; but a quarrel soon arose
between the new settlers and the Indians, resulting in the complete
massacre of the Swaanendael colonists and the driving away of the garrison
at Fort Nassau. In 1635 the patroons owning lands on both shores of
Delaware Bay and River sold their possessions to the Dutch West India
Company, and a small garrison was sent by the latter to re-occupy Fort
Nassau. A party of Englishmen from New Haven attempted that year to settle
in the district, but were taken to New Amsterdam as prisoners.
Sidenote: The South Company of Sweden.
A third nation now appeared upon the scene as a competitor for the Delaware
country. The South Company of Sweden--which purposed trading in Asia,
Africa, and America, but especially in the last--had been chartered in
1624, under the auspices of the enterprising and ambitious Gustavus
Adolphus, by Willem Usselinx, an Amsterdam merchant, founder of the Dutch
West India Company. Usselinx had become embittered against the Dutch
company, which pursued a narrow and exclusive policy; and with him in this
new enterprise were associated several who had been formerly connected with
the Dutch corporation. Among these were Samuel Blommaert, one of the chief
patroons in the Delaware region, and Peter Minuit, a Walloon, once governor
at New Amsterdam. Minuit led the first Swedish trading colony to the
Delaware River (1638), and erected Fort Christina on the future site of
Wilmington, Del.
Sidenote: The rivals on the Delaware.
The governor at New Amsterdam, Kieft, protested loudly against this
invasion of soil claimed by the Dutch, although it was clearly within the
grant already made to Lord Baltimore by the English, who probably had as
good right in the district as the Dutch. The latter had indeed for a time
allowed it to revert to the Indians, after their first colonizing attempt.
Kieft rebuilt Fort Nassau, a menace to which the Swedes replied by
fortifying the island of Tinicum, six miles below the mouth of the
Schuylkill, thus planting the first colony in Pennsylvania as well as in
Delaware. In 1643 this island became the seat of Swedish government.
Sidenote: Prosperity of New Sweden.
New Sweden prospered. The settlers were industrious, thrifty, intelligent,
and contented. Along the shores of Delaware River and Bay were scattered
neat hamlets, and the company's fur-trade was extended far into the
interior.
Sidenote: Swedish aggressiveness ends in the fall of New Sweden.
In 1641 two English settlements were made on the river by New Haven men;
but there was good reason to distrust the new-comers, who belonged to a
land-hungry race, and Dutch and Swedes united to drive them out. Possibly
the Swedes might have finally settled down into friendly neighborhood
relations with the Dutch, had not the Swedish governor, John Printz,
adopted an aggressive attitude towards the New Netherlanders. This led to
reprisals. Stuyvesant, who succeeded Kieft at New Amsterdam, built Fort
Casimir, near the present city of Newcastle, Del., below the Swedish forts
(1651), and thus endeavored to cut them off from ocean communication. In
1654 a Swedish war-vessel anchored before Casimir, which was quietly
surrendered. The next year (1655) Stuyvesant raised an army of six or seven
hundred men, which suddenly appeared on the Delaware, overawed the Swedes,
and compelled them to abandon control of the region. Thus New Sweden fell,
amid a storm of protest, but without bloodshed.
Sidenote: The Dutch domination.
Part of the Delaware country was sold by the Dutch West India Company to
the city of Amsterdam (1656). The officers sent out by the municipality
were as a rule inefficient, and the colony declined; bad crops, famine,
disease, Indian troubles, quarrels with New Netherland, and boundary
difficulties with the English in Maryland, being additional reasons for
retrogression.
Sidenote: English rule established.
The city had just acquired the whole of the Delaware River region, when the
English took possession (1664), and Amsterdam rule was succeeded by that of
the Duke of York, with laws similar to those in vogue elsewhere in his
province. There were a few outbreaks, but as a rule both Dutch and Swedes
prospered under English domination.
Sidenote: Annexed to Pennsylvania.
The district was for some time the object of contention by rival English
claimants. Maryland and New Jersey both wanted it, but Penn finally secured
a grant of the country (1682), to give his province of Pennsylvania an
outlet to the sea. Delaware, now known as "the territories," "lower
counties," or "Delaware hundreds" of Pennsylvania, was for many years the
source of much anxiety to its Quaker proprietor, for political jealousy of
the "province," or Pennsylvania proper, gave rise to much popular
discontent. In 1691 the "territories" were granted a separate assembly and
a deputy-governor. But the "territories" and the "province" were reunited
under Fletcher's temporary rule (1693), and so remained until 1703, when
Delaware was recognized as a separate colony, with an assembly of its own,
although under the same governorship as Pennsylvania.
Sidenote: Characteristics of Delaware.
The separate existence of Delaware was almost an accident. The colony was
unjustly cut out of the Maryland grant, and was little more than a strip
along Chesapeake Bay. It remained down to the Revolution the smallest and
least important of all the colonies.
88. New Jersey (1664-1738).
Sidenote: Berkeley and Carteret's grant.
We have already noticed the erection of Fort Nassau by the Dutch, and the
struggle over the possession of the banks of Delaware River and Bay between
the Dutch, the Swedes, and the English. When the Duke of York came into
possession of the country (1664), he granted the lands between the Delaware
and the Hudson to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, under the name of
New Jersey; this title was in compliment to Carteret, who had been governor
of the island of Jersey and bravely held it for Charles II. during the
Great Rebellion. New Jersey had a hundred and twenty miles of sea-coast; it
was as yet sparsely settled; it had a fixed natural boundary on the west;
and it was considered a particularly desirable seat for colonization.
Sidenote: Liberal plan of government.
The new proprietors agreed upon a plan of government by which the
administration of affairs was placed in the hands of a governor, council,
and representative assembly, as in the other colonies; the proprietors
reserved the right to annul laws and to control the official appointments.
There was to be religious liberty to all "who do not actually disturb the
civil peace of said province;" and all who were subjects of the king and
swore fealty to him "and faithfulness to the lords, shall be admitted to
plant and become freemen."
Sidenote: A body of laws framed.
Philip Carteret, a nephew of Sir George, came out (1665) as governor, and
with him a body of English emigrants, who founded the town of Elizabeth.
There were already on the ground, at Bergen, a number of Dutch and Swedes,
while at Shrewsbury were several English sectaries, exiles from Connecticut
and Long Island, who had purchased land from the Indians. Other New
Englanders settled Middletown and Newark in 1666. Soon after the arrival of
Carteret, several more companies came out to New Jersey from the Eastern
colonies, together with a plentiful sprinkling of Scotch. In May, 1668,
deputies from each of the towns met at Elizabeth to frame a body of laws
for the colony. The Puritan element strongly influenced the code,
particularly in the penalties for crime, which were remarkable for their
severity.
Sidenote: The Quaker purchase.
Throughout 1672 there was much turbulence, owing to disputes about
quit-rents between the inhabitants and the proprietors. Berkeley was by
this time thoroughly dissatisfied, and sold his undivided moiety of the
province for a thousand pounds to a party of Quakers who desired to found a
retreat for their sect; nine tenths of this purchase soon (1674) fell into
the hands of William Penn and other Friends who were associated with him.
Two years later (1676) the Penn party purchased the remainder of the Quaker
interest.
Sidenote: The Jerseys divided.
In 1673 the Dutch recaptured the district. When they were obliged by treaty
(1674) to give it back to the English, Charles II. and the Duke of York
reaffirmed Sir George Carteret's claim in New Jersey. The new charter for
the first time made a division of the country, giving Carteret the eastern
part,--much more than one half,--and leaving the rest to the Quaker
proprietors. In 1676, Carteret and the Quakers agreed upon a boundary line,
running from Little Egg Harbor northwest to the Delaware, at 41° 40´.
Sidenote: West New Jersey.
In West New Jersey the Quakers set up a liberal government, in which the
chief features were religious toleration, a representative assembly, and an
executive council, whose members--"ten honest and able men fit for
government"--were to be elected by the assembly. As a proprietary body, the
framers of these "concessions and agreements" retained no authority for
themselves; they truly said, "We put the power in the people." To this
refuge for the oppressed, four hundred Quakers came out from England in
1677.
Sidenote: East New Jersey.
Sir George Carteret died in 1680, and in 1682 William Penn and twenty-four
associates--among whom were several Scotch Presbyterians--purchased East
New Jersey from the Carteret heirs. A government was established similar to
that in the western colony, except that the new proprietors and their
deputies were to form the executive council. In neither colony were the
public offices restricted to Quakers, and every Christian possessed the
elective franchise.
Sidenote: Trouble with the Duke of York.
Both the Jerseys had made excellent progress; but for several years there
was difficulty with Andros (page 205, § 86), who claimed that the country
was still the property of the Duke of York and therefore within his
jurisdiction, and who attempted to levy taxes. There was much bitterness
over the dispute, in the course of which Andros displayed a despotic
temper; but in the end the duke's claims were overruled by the English
arbitrator.
Sidenote: The Crown takes possession.
When the duke ascended the throne as James II., he had writs of _quo
warranto_ issued (1686) against the Jersey governments on the ground of
wholesale smuggling by the residents. Under this pressure the patents were
surrendered to the Crown (1688), so far as the government was concerned,
but there was a proviso that the landed rights of the proprietors were to
be undisturbed. Andros took the two colonies under his charge; thus he was
now governor of all the country north and east of the Delaware, except New
Hampshire. But though united to the northern colonies, the Jerseymen did
not cease to assert their independence. Andros again attempted to levy
taxes upon them, and they opposed him as stubbornly as ever, claiming that
there could be no lawful taxation without representation. With the
proprietors also they had ceaseless bickerings over the quit-rents. Affairs
were in a feverish state until the former, tired of keeping up the
profitless discussion, and now rent by dissensions in their councils,
surrendered all their claims to the Crown (1702). The policy of James was
to unite the colonies, and bring them into greater dependence.
Sidenote: New Jersey's condition as a royal province.
New Jersey, at last reunited, was made a royal colony; but until 1738, when
given a governor of its own, it was under the administration of the
governor of New York, who ruled through a deputy. The New Jersey council
was appointed by the king, and there was a popularly elected representative
assembly. All Christian sects were tolerated, but Roman Catholics were
denied political privileges. There was a property qualification for
suffrage,--the possession of two hundred acres of land, or other property
worth £50. The inhabitants were generally prosperous. Their isolated
geographical position secured them immunity from attacks by hostile
Indians; they had scrupulously purchased the lands from the native
inhabitants, and with the few who were now left they maintained friendly
relations. The new government brought them greater political security, and
under it they thrived even better than before.
Sidenote: Characteristics of New Jersey.
The annals of New Jersey are like the population and political
system,--confused and uninteresting. It was many years before a tradition
of common interest could be established between East and West New Jersey.
One of the most remarkable lessons in government furnished by the colony
was a decision of the courts that an Act of the assembly was void because
not in accordance with the frame of government.
89. Pennsylvania (1681-1718).
Sidenote: Penn's charter.
In 1676 William Penn, prominent among the English Quakers, became
financially concerned, with others of his sect, in the colony of West New
Jersey, and thereby acquired an interest in American colonization. His
father, an admiral in the English navy, had left him (1670) a claim against
the government for sixteen thousand pounds; in lieu of this he induced
Charles II. (1681) to give him a proprietary charter of forty thousand
square miles in America. The king called the region Pennsylvania, in honor
of the admiral, but against the protest of the grantee, who "feared lest it
be looked on as vanity in me."
Sidenote: His colonization scheme.
Penn at once widely advertised his dominions. He offered to sell one
hundred acres of land for £2, subject to a small quit-rent, and even
servants might acquire half this amount. He proposed to establish a popular
government, based on the principle of exact justice to all, red and white,
regardless of religious beliefs; there was to be trial by jury; murder and
treason were to be the only capital crimes; and punishment for other
offences was to have reformation, not retaliation, in view. By the terms of
the charter Penn was, in conjunction with and by the consent of the
free-men, to make all necessary laws. The proposals of the new proprietor
were received with enthusiasm among the people of his religious faith
throughout England.
In October three ship-loads of Quaker emigrants were sent out, and a year
later (1682) Penn himself followed, with a hundred fellow-passengers. At
the time of his arrival the Dutch had a church at Newcastle, Del., which
was within his grant, the Swedes had churches at Christina, Tinicum, and
Wicacoa, and Quaker meeting-houses were established at Chester, Shakamaxon,
and near the lower falls of the Delaware.
Sidenote: Constitution and laws.
The constitution drawn up by Penn for his colony provided that the
proprietor was to choose the governor, but the people were to elect the
members of the council, and also deputies to a representative assembly; it
was practically the West New Jersey plan. The laws decided upon by the
first assembly, convened by the proprietor soon after his arrival, were
beneficent. They included provisions for the humane treatment of Indians;
for the teaching of a trade to each child; for the useful employment of
criminals in prisons; for religious toleration, with the qualification that
all public officers must be professing Christians, and private citizens
believers in God. The principles set forth in Penn's original announcement
were thus given the sanction of law.
Sidenote: Relations between the "territories" and the province.
A distinction was made between the original Pennsylvania, as granted by the
king to Penn, and the territory afterwards known as Delaware, which the
latter had obtained in a special grant from the Duke of York,--the royal
grant being known as "the province," and the purchase from the duke as "the
territories," of Pennsylvania. In the province three counties were
established, and in the territories three more. These counties were given
popularly elected governing boards, and were made the unit of
representation in the assembly; the towns were merely administrative
subdivisions of the counties, without any form of local government.
Sidenote: Relations with the Indians.
Penn was eminently successful in treating with the Indians in his
neighborhood. Circumstances favored him greatly in this regard, but
nevertheless much was due to his shrewd diplomacy and humane spirit; and
for a long period the Quaker district of Pennsylvania was exempt from the
border warfare which harassed most of the other colonies.
Sidenote: Political turbulence.
Obliged to return to England in 1684, Penn did not again visit his American
possessions until fifteen years had elapsed, and then but for a brief time
(1699-1701). This intervening period was one of continuous political
disquiet for the proprietor and the colonists alike, despite the fact that
the material condition of the people--Quakers, Swedes, Dutch, Germans, and
Welsh alike--continued to improve. A boundary dispute with Maryland
required the intervention of the English government (1685) as an
arbitrator; during two years (1692-1694), Penn was dispossessed of his
colony by the Crown; and the turbulent "territories" gave him so much
trouble that he sought peace by erecting them into the separate colony of
Delaware in 1703.
Dissensions, however, did not cease either in the provinces or in Delaware.
Penn died in 1718, leaving to his heirs a legacy of petty but harassing
disputes which lasted until the Revolution.
Sidenote: Characteristics of Pennsylvania.
Planted as Pennsylvania was, half a century after the earlier Southern and
New England colonies, and aided by rich men and court favorites, its
progress was rapid and its prosperity assured from the beginning. The
pacific policy of Penn towards the Indians saved his colony from the
expense and danger of frontier wars. Nevertheless from the beginning the
colony showed the same indisposition to submit to the control of
proprietors that had so disturbed Maryland and the Carolinas.
Notwithstanding, Pennsylvania shortly became the most considerable of the
middle colonies, and eventually equalled Virginia and Massachusetts in
importance.