WRITTIN IN FIRST PERSON
An Open Letter to the Future Travelers to New York
~
This is a record of my experience in 17th-century New Netherland, now New York.
It was July in 1608 when we first landed our ships in North America, led by Henry Hudson from the Netherlands. The Dutch East India Company hired Hudson to find a passage to India, but we ended up here. We called this area of the new world New Netherland. The first thing we realized is that the soil was good for harvesting, and that it was hot and humid. Later in the year, we realized the winter season was cold and produced a lot of snow. Initially, we fought with the Native American people over providing room for us to settle in. We simply decided to push the Natives northward, away from New Netherland. Eventually, the fighting decreased, and instead we were able to engage the Natives by trading fur. We gave them fur, and we received beads and cloths in return. By 1614, our Dutch merchants and investors realized the profitability of this new source of cheaper fur. So, they secured a monopoly on all fur trading in America from the states of Holland. By 1664, we surrendered our colony to the British. New Netherland was then named New York, after the Duke of York, James II. In this letter I want to share the details of our experience in New Netherland from 1608 to 1664.
In 1608, the Dutch East India Company sent Henry Hudson and the rest of us over the Atlantic ocean to find a route to India. Instead of India, however, we came upon a river (now called the Hudson River) in the new world, which we called New Netherland. Thirty Dutch families, including mine, arrived in what would later be called Manhattan, which we purchased from the Native Americans. To be honest, we treated the Natives very disrespectfully, considering them weak and viewing them as possible slaves. Our relationship with them centered on trading rum and fur for beads and cloths. Indians were not the only people in our community, however. Settlers from other colonies traveled to New Netherland to escape ethnic and religious persecution. While half of the settlers were Dutch, the rest included Germans, Scandinavians, French, and a small number of Jews from Brazil. During the 1640s, we decided to remove Native Americans from New Netherland in order to deal with the overpopulation of our colony. In 1643, our general, Peter Stuyvesant, commanded an attack on Native American tribes, but thankfully he also prohibited the soldiers from killing innocent women and children. About eleven tribes of the Iroquois Nation combined to fight us back. We fought until 1645, when we finally created a peace treaty. Ten years later, we moved to a fertile area next to the Esopus River in the Hudson River valley, near to Esopus Indians. It was a dangerous time for both us and the Indians: we fought each other, and kidnapped and destroyed each other’s property. War broke out when one of our men killed a Native girl when he discovered her stealing. Our general then commanded our army to destroy Natives and their property. We continued to slaughter Indians until 1664, when we entered into another peace treaty with Esopus Indians. This marked the end of the wars between the Native Americans and the Dutch.
When we told King James I that we found land in the new world, he forbade us to return to the Netherlands. In fact, he told us to settle down and start a colony. Although the King appointed a governor for our colony, we, the people, formed the executive council and the assembly. The latter took care of our colony’s taxes, its budget, and its military. Because there were no shopping markets, we grew the necessary crops and cotton for food and clothing. Later, we made goods that we could trade and sell here and in England for profit. Our top priority was to find communities where fur trade was popular, and that’s how we met the various tribes of Indians. In exchange for goods, such as fur and metal, Native American tribes provided us with beads, cloth, and belts. We encouraged the surrounding villages and colonies to engage in fur trading and farmers to keep growing crops, such as wheat and corn to provide food for our colony.
After Charles II became king, the English were interested in our economy. On August 27, 1664, a powerful English military unit appeared in New Netherland. Unable to fight back, due to our last war, we had to unwillingly surrender ourselves and our possessions. King Charles granted the land to his brother, James, the Duke of York, and he changed the name New Netherland to New York. In 1665, a code of laws was written, and it authorized the royally appointed governor to appoint both the local executive council and an assembly for the colony. So, we, the people, no longer had any civic role. This became known as the Duke's Laws. As a result, the English controlled and outnumbered us, and we eventually surrendered New Amsterdam to them. In the peace treaty that ended the war between us, called the Peace of Breda, the English left a segment of the town to us, Surinam. Life for us in New York was not so different from life in New Netherland. The biggest changes were the names of various places, such as the fact that Fort Orange became Albany. We all continued to live in New York. Our churches still had Dutch ministers, who answered to Dutch councils. Teachers and parents continued to pass on our language and culture. We continued to speak Dutch. Nevertheless, the English colonized and stripped us from our profitable land.
From the time we landed to the time were colonized, New Netherland accomplished and failed many things. We thrived at the beginning. The first successful thing we did was to land our ships and quickly find shelter and food to survive. The second successful thing we did was to trade fur with Natives. Then, we quickly learned how to set up a government to manage our finances and security. Unlike those good things we did, we initially murdered a lot of Natives to deal with the overpopulation of our colony. Then, we murdered them because they threatened fight back for their land. All of this fighting resulted in the weakening of our military defense forces, which made us unable to successfully fight the English when they arrived. Eventually, we received a small portion of our land in a peace treaty with the British. Even though we lost our most profitable land, we still came a long way from surviving to living. I, Hubert Rezoete, witnessed our successes and failures, our strengths and weaknesses, and our capacity for good and evil. Despite our challenges, we thrived. I hope the same for you.
July 13, 1678
Works Cited
Rothbard, Murray N. "The Formation of New Netherland." Mises Institute. Free Markets, 30 Oct. 2012. Web. 25 Feb. 2015. <http://mises.org/library/formation-new-netherland>.
Pace, Elizabeth. "Dutch & Native American Relations in the 1600s." EHow. Demand Media, 25 Apr. 2011. Web. 25 Feb. 2015. <http://www.ehow.com/info_8291714_dutch-native-american-relations-1600s.html>.
Ferris, David. "Important Cities of the New York Colony." EHow. Demand Media, 25 Apr. 2011. Web. 26 Feb. 2015. <http://www.ehow.com/info_8298629_important-cities-new-york-colony.html>.
Chiedozie, Anjus. "The History of New York Colony." EHow. Demand Media, 06 Oct. 2009. Web. 26 Feb. 2015. <http://www.ehow.com/about_5502820_history-new-york-colony.html>.
"New Netherland to New York." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2015. <http://www.ushistory.org/us/4a.asp>.
Chiedozie, Anjus. "The History of New York Colony." EHow. Demand Media, 06 Oct. 2009. Web. 26 Feb. 2015. <http://www.ehow.com/about_5502820_history-new-york-colony.html>.
Hoitink, Yvette. "New Netherlands." Dutch Genealogy. N.p., 11 May 2005. Web. 28 Feb. 2015. <http://www.dutchgenealogy.nl/new-netherlands/>.
