Nechtanc

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Map of Lower Manhattan from 1922 showing the location of the settlement as Rechtauk (shown in the lower right) R P Bolton, indicating Native American Paths in Manhattan ,rendered 1922.jpg
Map of Lower Manhattan from 1922 showing the location of the settlement as Rechtauk (shown in the lower right)

Nechtanc ("sandy point") was a Lenape settlement of the Canarsee located in what is now Two Bridges, Manhattan or the Lower East Side where the East River begins to turn north. [1] [2] In 1643, the settlement was the site of a massacre of Lenape people, mostly women and children, after the governor of New Netherland ordered the people killed as they slept. [2] A simultaneous massacre occurred at Pavonia, just across the East River. [3] The village is alternatively referred to in historical documents as Rechtauk. [4] [5]

Contents

History

Pre-colonial

Nechtanc had an established path to a deep pond, now known as Collect Pond, where trade with other settlements in the area would frequently occur. [2] The pond fed the fresh rivers of Manhattan that fed into large marshes. The people paddled on canoes, the main mode of transportation for the coastal settlement, through these marshes to reach the other side of the island as well as across the East River and beyond. [6] [7] Nearby Lenape settlements included Sapohanikan to the northwest and Konaande Kongh to the north. The settlement was a frequent fishing spot for the people. [8]

New Netherland

With the establishment of Dutch settlements in the area starting in the early 17th century, the Lenape were increasingly pushed out of Manhattan. The first European who gained title to the land where Nechtanc was situated was Jacob van Corlear, who purchased the land by 1639 as approved by then governor Wouter van Twiller. [9] [10] The land was leased for a period of three years by Corlear to Willem Hendricksen for a plantation. The settlement location existed adjacent to the plantation for a few years. [11] In 1639 and 1640, the name of the settlement was recorded in Dutch colonial records as both Nechtanc and Nechttanck. [12]

Nechtanc massacre

A map of New Amsterdam (redrawn from a 1660 map) showing the wall that was solidified after the Nechtanc massacre and the "Negro" farms located outside the wall as a "buffer zone" for the Dutch colonists. Castelloplan.jpg
A map of New Amsterdam (redrawn from a 1660 map) showing the wall that was solidified after the Nechtanc massacre and the "Negro" farms located outside the wall as a "buffer zone" for the Dutch colonists.

On the night of February 25th 1643, Nechtanc was the site one of the earliest massacres of Native Americans by European colonists in North America. A large group of Lenape refugees from New Jersey took refuge at Nechtanc and Pavonia from the Mohicans, who they were in conflict with to the north. [3] At around midnight, the governor William Kieft ordered the Lenape slaughtered as they slept. About 40 people were massacred at Nechtanc and 80 at Pavonia, many of whom were women and children. [2] Some residents of New Amsterdam had opposed Kieft's decision to initiate the massacre. [3]

After this massacre, the Dutch solidified a barrier between New Amsterdam and Lenape territory as a "buffer zone" in case of retribution, which soon broke out as Kieft's War. This "buffer" area was given to freed slaves, as they were deemed to be the most disposable part of the colonial population. [2] Between the European settlement and the area referred to by the Dutch as "the negroes' farms" stood a 12-foot-high wall made of sharpened oak posts that ran for some 2,340 feet. The site of this street along the wall would later become known as Wall Street. [6]

This massacre unified the Lenape of the lower Hudson River area to unify in an unprecedented manner in their history against the Dutch. As noted by David Pietersz de Vries, "They burned all the houses, farms, barns, grain, haystacks, and destroyed everything they could get hold of. So there was an open destructive war began." [1] Dutch fears over a Lenape assault continued for years after the massacre, being a reason for Kieft's replacement as governor and his successor Peter Stuyvesant replacing this barrier with a more reinforced wall. [6]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kieft's War</span> Conflict in 1643-45 between Dutch colonists and Lenape Indians

Kieft's War (1643–1645), also known as the Wappinger War, was a conflict between the colonial province of New Netherland and the Wappinger and Lenape Indians in what is now New York and New Jersey. It is named for Director-General of New Netherland Willem Kieft, who had ordered an attack without the approval of his advisory council and against the wishes of the colonists. Dutch colonists attacked Lenape camps and massacred the inhabitants, which encouraged unification among the regional Algonquian tribes against the Dutch and precipitated waves of attacks on both sides. This was one of the earliest conflicts between settlers and Indians in the region. The Dutch West India Company was displeased with Kieft and recalled him, but he died in a shipwreck while returning to the Netherlands; Peter Stuyvesant succeeded him in New Netherland. Numerous Dutch settlers returned to the Netherlands because of the continuing threat from the Algonquians, and growth slowed in the colony.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vriessendael, New Netherland</span>

Vriessendael was a patroonship on the west bank of the Hudson River in New Netherland, the seventeenth century North American colonial province of the Dutch Empire. The homestead or plantation was located on a tract of about 500 acres (2.0 km2) about an hour's walk north of Communipaw at today's Edgewater. It has also been known as Tappan, which referred to the wider region of the New Jersey Palisades, rising above the river on both sides of the New York/New Jersey state line, and to the indigenous people who lived there and were part of wider group known as Lenape. It was established in 1640 by David Pietersen de Vries, a Dutch sea captain, explorer, and trader who had also established settlements at the Zwaanendael Colony and on Staten Island. The name can roughly be translated as De Vries' Valley. De Vries also owned flatlands along the Hackensack River, in the area named by the Dutch settlers Achter Col. Parts of Vriessendael were destroyed in 1643 in reprisal for the slaughter of Tappan and Wecquaesgeek Native Americans who had taken refuge at Pavonia and Corlears Hook. The patroon's relatively good relations with the Lenape prevented the murder of the plantation's residents, who were able to seek sanctuary in the main house, and later flee to New Amsterdam. The incident was one of the first of many to take place during Kieft's War, a series of often bloody conflicts with bands of Lenape, who had united in face of attacks ordered by the Director of New Netherland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Achter Kol, New Netherland</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Everts Bout</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jochem Pietersen Kuyter</span> Colonist of New Netherland

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The Land of the Blacks was a village settled by people of African descent north of the wall of New Amsterdam from about 1643 to 1716. It represented an economic, legal and military modus vivendi reached with the Dutch West India Company in the wake of Kieft's War. This buffer area with the native Lenape is sometimes considered the first free African settlement in North America, although the landowners had half-free status. Its name comes from descriptions in 1640s land conveyances of white-owned properties as bordering the hereditament or freehold "of the Blacks".

The Massacre at Corlears Hook of February 25, 1643 was a colonial massacre of forty Wecquaesgeek of all ages and genders on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, perpetrated by a force led by Maryn Adriansen, acting under Willem Kieft, the Director of New Netherland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sapohanikan</span> Former Lenape settlement

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Konaande Kongh</span> Former Lenape settlement

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References

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40°42′54″N73°58′44″W / 40.715°N 73.979°W / 40.715; -73.979