WHO FOUNDED THE COLONY OF NEW YORK?
Who founded the colony of New York? Everyone may not be sure of the answer to that question, but I bet a lot of us know that some guy paid $24 for Manhattan Island or rather the equivalent in beads and trinkets. It was actually the Italian Giovanni da Verrazano who first recorded sailing into New York harbor in 1524. But only much later in 1609 did the English explorer Henry Hudson, sailing for the Dutch on the Half Moon, claim the area for the Netherlands. Over the next decade Dutch vessels traveled to what eventually would become New York on several voyages primarily trading liquor,cloth, forearms and trinkets for beaver and otter pelts. It was not until the newly incorporated Dutch West India company obtained a trading monopoly in America that a permanent colony was planted. The company's main goal was to control trade between the Netherlands whose principal city, Amsterdam was the wealthiest and busiest port in Europe and the New World. In 1624 the ship Nieu Netherland departed with the first wave of settlers. Some of these early settlers were deposited on Governor's Island and some at Fort Orange, near the present site of Albany. It wasn't this first wave of pilgrims that paid for the Island of Manhattan, but Peter Minuit, one of the colony's early governors who anted up to the local Indians by giving them 60 dutch guilders or 2,400 English cents worth of goods, most notably trinkets and beads. The dollar of course did not exist then, but it is close enough to 2,400 English cents is it not? The actual deed for the purchase has not survived so we do not know the terms and conditions that it spells out, but the purchase price is engraved in the minds of most American school children. This story is found in virtually all accounts of the founding of the colony that would become New York. But in 1986 the historian Peter Francis, Jr. wrote an article that pointed out that the mention of beads first appeared in the historical literature in a work by Martha J. Lamb on the history of New York City written in 1877. "He [Minuit] then called together some of the principal Indian chiefs and offered beads, buttons and other trinkets in exchange for their real estate. They accepted the terms with unfeigned delight, and the bargain was closed." The story has been and is repeated so often as to defy all questions of its authenticity. It has become part of our national story, but is more likely myth than historical fact.
The Dutch ran the colony of New Netherland until 1664 when a British fleet sailed into New York harbor and took control not only of Manhattan, but all of New Netherland, not withstanding a brief return to Dutch rule form 1673-1674. Washington Irving in the early eighteenth century described the end of Dutch rule as one with "no other outrage that that of changing the name of the province and its metropolis which thenceforth was denominated New York." All the inhabitants were allowed to retain their possessions. But at the same time the leading citizens of the town agreed unanimously to "never ask any of their conquerors to dinner." Writing in 1906 Theodore Roosevelt described the event stating, "the arrogant red flag fluttered without rival along the whole seaboard from Acadia to Florida." Seems as though neither of these writers was enamored of the British, even centuries after the event and decades after the American Revolution.
Besides the legend of the story of the $24 another one seems to also have currency--that the colonists who came to America came for primarily to escape religious and political oppression. Maybe elsewhere, but in the New Netherlands they came seeking wealth and the majority of those who came were single males. Unable at first to attract large numbers of newcomers the Dutch West India soon established a policy of welcoming settlers from any nation. At least 18 languages were spoken in New York in 1640 and the major one was not English. There were also considerably more taverns than in Puritan New England. This is not like the picture most Americans are likely to envisions when thinking about the original thirteen colonies. Right from the very start this was a polyglot post of entrepreneurs and free spirits.
That the thirteen colonies were originally all founded by the British is another common belief. Clearly the Dutch not only founded the colony that was to become New York, but their influence was to profoundly influence the nature of New York's financial, political and cultural institutions. The onset of British rule did not precipitate the expulsion of Dutch influence, money or populace, but rather created a unique environment where the two trading giants were able to continue to do business--a sort of Dutch treat if you will.
SOURCES:
Davis, Kenneth C. Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History But Never Learned. New York: Avon Books, 1990.
Francis,Peter J. "The Beads That Did Not Buy Manhattan." New York History 67:1 (1986:Jan) p.5.
Knickerbocker, Diedrich [Washington Irving]. Irving's Works. Chicago:Belford, Clark and Co., 180?
Roosevelt, Theodore. New York. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1906; Bartleby.com, 2000. www.bartleby.com/171/. [Date of Printout].
Shorto, Russell. The Island at the Center of the World: the Epic Story of Dutch Manhattanand the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America. New York: Doubleday, 2004.
Van Der Zee, Henri and Barbara Van Der Zee. A Sweet and Alien Land: The Story of Dutch New York. New York: Viking Press, 1978.
