Peach War | |||||||
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Part of the American Indian Wars | |||||||
The borders of New Netherland and New Sweden in 1650 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Munsee | New Netherland | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Unknown | Peter Stuyvesant Cornelis van Tienhoven | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
500 | Unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Unknown | 40 killed 100 captured |
New Netherland series |
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Exploration |
Fortifications: |
Settlements: |
The Patroon System |
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People of New Netherland |
Flushing Remonstrance |
The Peach War, sometimes called the Peach Tree War, was a one-day occupation of New Amsterdam on September 15, 1655, by several hundred Munsee, followed by raids on Staten Island and Pavonia. 40 colonists were killed and over 100, mostly women and children, were taken captive.
The cause of the Peach War has been the subject of debate. The armed protest and raids may have been triggered by the murder of a Munsee woman who was stealing peaches from the orchard of Dutch colonist Hendrick van Dyck. Some writers, however, have speculated that the Peach War was orchestrated by the Susquehannock in response to the Dutch attack on New Sweden.
New Amsterdam was established on Manhattan by the Dutch West India Company in 1624. The surrounding area was occupied by various Munsee bands including the Wappinger, Hackensack, Raritan, Navesink, and Tappan. The relationship between the Dutch and the Munsee was often strained particularly in the aftermath of Kieft's War. [1]
In 1655, the Dutch West India Company ordered Director-General Peter Stuyvesant to conquer the colony of New Sweden. New Sweden had been established on the Delaware River in 1638 in territory claimed by the Dutch and had developed a close trading relationship with the Susquehannock who inhabited the lower Susquehanna River valley. In late August 1655, Stuyvesant with seven armed vessels and 317 soldiers sailed from New Amsterdam for Delaware Bay. On September 15, 1655, Governor Johan Risingh surrendered Fort Christina and the colony without a fight. [2]
At daybreak on September 15, 1655, about 500 Munsee in 64 canoes landed near the southern end of Manhattan. They proceeded to break down doors, ransack houses, and threaten or beat some of the occupants, although no deaths or serious injuries occurred. The sachems met with members of the colony's governing council at Fort Amsterdam and agreed to withdraw at sunset. Meanwhile, the councillors called the citizens to arms and a guard was mounted. As the Munsee gathered at the riverbank to depart, Hendrick van Dyck was shot and wounded by an arrow. In response, New Netherland's fiscal, Cornelis van Tienhoven, urged the guard to open fire. In the ensuing skirmish, three Munsee and three colonists were killed. One group of Munsee then crossed the Hudson River and attacked Pavonia while a second group raided Staten Island. [3]
Stuyvesant later reported that in the attacks “40 Christians” were killed and 100, mostly women and children, taken captive. He further reported that 28 farms had been destroyed, 12,000 skipples (9,000 bushels) of grain burned, and 500 head of cattle taken or killed. [2]
Based on the reports of Stuyvesant, van Tienhoven, and members of the governing council, the directors of the Dutch West India Company concluded that the occupation of New Amsterdam was prompted by Hendrick van Dyck's murder of the Munsee woman he caught picking peaches in his orchard. The attacks on Pavonia and Staten Island were blamed on the actions of Cornelis van Tienhoven on the evening of the 15th: "Whoever considers only his last transaction with the savages, will find that with clouded brains, filled with liquor, he was a prime cause of this dreadful massacre." [4]
While the Peach War is often described as a retaliatory attack on New Amsterdam, no blood was spilled until the evening of the 15th. University of Iowa historian Tom Arne Midtrød observed: "If the Natives meant to launch a military attack on New Amsterdam, they could have done far more damage." [5]
A number of historians have speculated that the Susquehannock were behind the armed protest. In a letter to Stuyvesant, the governing council reported the presence of a Minqua (Susquehannock) sachem during the riot. Because of their close relationship with the Swedes, the Susquehannock are thought to have encouraged the Munsee to occupy New Amsterdam to force Stuyvesant to abandon his attack on New Sweden. [6] [7] American historian Allan Trelease, however, noted that direct action on the Delaware by the Susquehannock would have been more to the point. [3]
The Hackensack began releasing their captives in October with other Munsee bands following suit. During negotiations for the release of captives, Captain Adrian Post repeatedly travelled between New Amsterdam and the Hackensack encampment at Paulus Hook. By October 21, 1655, fifty-six captives had been released in exchange for powder, lead, guns, blankets, and wampum. Further negotiations secured the release of almost all other prisoners. [8] A year later Stuyvesant was able to report that only two or three children had not been returned to their families. [1]
Stuyvesant was strongly opposed to taking military action against the Munsee. The Director-General ordered that new settlements include a blockhouse for defence, that alcohol not be to given to Indigenous people nor their muskets repaired, and that trade be restricted to a single location. Van Tienhoven disagreed with Stuyvesant's approach arguing that it was "just and lawful to undertake war" against the Munsee. [3]
In 1656, the Dutch West India Company ordered Cornelis van Tienhoven relieved of his post as fiscal due to "manifold complaints" and allegations of fraud. Several months later his hat and cane were found floating in the Hudson River although it is not known if he drowned or absconded. [4]
New Netherland was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic located on the East Coast of what is now the United States of America. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut, with small outposts in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
The Northern War of 1655–1660, also known as the Second Northern War, First Northern War or Little Northern War, was fought between Sweden and its adversaries the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1655–60), the Tsardom of Russia (1656–58), Brandenburg-Prussia (1657–60), the Habsburg monarchy (1657–60) and Denmark–Norway. The Dutch Republic waged an informal trade war against Sweden and seized the colony of New Sweden in 1655, but was not a recognized part of the Polish–Danish alliance.
The Raritan are two groups of Lenape people who lived around the lower Raritan River and the Raritan Bay, in what is now northeastern New Jersey, in the 16th century.
The Twelve Men was a council of citizens chosen by the residents of New Netherland to advise Director Willem Kieft on relations with the Native Americans in the wake of the murder of Claes Swits. Elected on 29 August 1641, the temporary council was the first representational form of democracy in the Dutch colony. The next two such bodies were known as the Eight Men and the Nine Men.
Adriaen Cornelissen van der Donck was a lawyer and landowner in New Netherland after whose honorific Jonkheer the city of Yonkers, New York, is named. Although he was not, as sometimes claimed, the first lawyer in the Dutch colony, Van der Donck was a leader in the political life of New Amsterdam, and an activist for Dutch-style republican government in the Dutch West India Company-run trading post.
Fort Casimir or Fort Trinity was a Dutch fort in the seventeenth-century colony of New Netherland. It was located on a no-longer existing barrier island at the end of Chestnut Street in what is now New Castle, Delaware.
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.
Pavonia was the first European settlement on the west bank of the North River that was part of the seventeenth-century province of New Netherland in what would become the present Hudson County, New Jersey.
David Pieterszoon de Vries was a Dutch navigator from the city of Hoorn.
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.
Achter Kol was the name given to the region around the Newark Bay and Hackensack River in northeastern New Jersey by the first European settlers to it and was part of the 17th century province of New Netherland, administered by the Dutch West India Company. At the time of their arrival, the area was inhabited by the Hackensack and Raritan groups of Lenape natives.
Bergen was a part of the 17th century province of New Netherland, in the area in northeastern New Jersey along the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers that would become contemporary Hudson and Bergen Counties. Though it only officially existed as an independent municipality from 1661, with the founding of a village at Bergen Square, Bergen began as a factory at Communipaw circa 1615 and was first settled in 1630 as Pavonia. These early settlements were along the banks of the North River across from New Amsterdam, under whose jurisdiction they fell.
Cornelis van Tienhoven was an official of New Amsterdam from 1638 to 1656, and one of the more prominent people in New Netherland. He served in the administrations of three governors: Wouter van Twiller, Willem Kieft, and Peter Stuyvesant. As provincial secretary and schout-fiscal, he was deeply involved in the administrative, legal, and financial activities of New Amsterdam. He was widely disliked, and contemporary descriptions of his character and behavior are unflattering.
Oratam was sagamore, or sachem, of the Hackensack Indians living in northeastern New Jersey during the period of early European colonization in the 17th century. Documentation shows that he lived an unusually long life and was quite influential among indigenous and immigrant populations.
Hackensack was the exonym given by the Dutch colonists to a band of the Lenape, or Lenni-Lenape, a Native American tribe. The name is a Dutch derivation of the Lenape word for what is now the region of northeastern New Jersey along the Hudson and Hackensack rivers. While the Lenape people occupied much of the mid-Atlantic area, Europeans referred to small groups of native people by the names associated with the places where they lived.
Fort Beversreede was a Dutch-built palisaded factorij located near the confluence of the Schuylkill River and the Delaware River. It was an outpost of the colony of New Netherland, which was centered on its capital, New Amsterdam in present-day Manhattan, New York City, on the North River, now the Hudson River.
Cornelis Melyn was an early Dutch settler in New Netherland and Patroon of Staten Island. He was the chairman of the council of eight men, which was a part of early steps toward representative democracy in the Dutch colony.
The Pound Ridge massacre was a battle of Kieft's War that took place in March 1644 between the forces of New Netherland and members of the Wappinger Confederacy at a village of its members in the present-day town of Pound Ridge, New York. A mixed force of 130 New Netherland soldiers led by Captain John Underhill launched a night attack on the village and destroyed it with fire. 500 to 700 members of the Wappinger Confederacy were killed while the New Netherland force lost one man killed and fifteen wounded. More casualties were suffered in this attack than in any other single incident in the war. Shortly after the battle several local Wappinger Confederacy sachems sued for peace.
Abraham Isaacsen Verplanck (1606–1690), also known as Abraham Isaacse Ver Planck, was an early and prominent settler in New Netherlands. A land developer and speculator, he was the progenitor of an extensive Verplanck family in the United States. Immigrating circa 1633, he received a land grant at Paulus Hook in 1638.
In September 1655, Dutch soldiers from New Netherland under the command of Peter Stuyvesant conquered the Delaware River colony of New Sweden. Under the terms of surrender the Swedish settlements were incorporated into the Dutch colony.