WEBVTT NOTE 40. The Dutch and New Sweden 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.700 Volume 1, Chapter 40, The Dutch and New Sweden 2 00:00:04.700 --> 00:00:13.200 The Kieft administration had witnessed another development annoying to the Dutch West India Company and to the Dutch government, 3 00:00:13.200 --> 00:00:20.200 the settlement by Sweden of arbitrarily proclaimed Dutch territory on the Delaware. 4 00:00:20.200 --> 00:00:29.900 The Delaware and indeed America as a whole presented a vast virgin territory for virtually any settlers of any nationality who wished to emigrate. 5 00:00:29.900 --> 00:00:35.900 But government sovereignty is always jealous of its self-trumpeted monopoly. 6 00:00:35.900 --> 00:00:43.900 In 1633, the New Sweden Company was formed, of equal parts of Dutch and Swedish capital, 7 00:00:43.900 --> 00:00:48.900 as a successor company to one of William Usseling's projects. 8 00:00:48.900 --> 00:00:55.900 The idea was the creation of Peter Minuet, the disappointed, ousted governor of New Amsterdam, 9 00:00:55.900 --> 00:01:04.900 and of Samuel Blumert, a director of the Dutch West India Company, at odds with the controlling interest of that company. 10 00:01:04.900 --> 00:01:12.900 Blumert, who became an agent of the Swedish Crown, was by far the largest Dutch investor. 11 00:01:12.900 --> 00:01:19.900 Of the Swedish investors, three were of the family of Uxen Scherna, the Prime Minister of Sweden. 12 00:01:19.900 --> 00:01:27.340 In the spring of 1638, the first small party of Swedish settlers, led by Minuet, landed 13 00:01:27.340 --> 00:01:33.640 on the west bank of the Delaware and built Fort Christina, now Williamton. 14 00:01:33.640 --> 00:01:36.360 Land was purchased from the local Indians. 15 00:01:36.360 --> 00:01:41.420 The Swedes lived in uneasy coexistence with their neighbors. 16 00:01:41.420 --> 00:01:46.920 The Dutch quickly protested the infringement of their monopoly and Virginia carped at the 17 00:01:46.920 --> 00:01:51.720 and the competition of Swedish fur trade with the Indians. 18 00:01:51.720 --> 00:01:57.600 But the Dutch were constrained from war against New Sweden by the fact that the two countries 19 00:01:57.600 --> 00:02:03.200 were allies in the Thirty Years' War, then raging in Europe. 20 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:09.180 Dutch colonists planted a settlement 20 miles north of Fort Christina, but characteristically 21 00:02:09.180 --> 00:02:12.600 the Dutch area was thinly populated. 22 00:02:12.600 --> 00:02:16.720 Those who did settle there were soon outnumbered by the Swedes. 23 00:02:16.720 --> 00:02:24.480 By 1640, the Swedish colony had a Lutheran minister, Rev. Rehoris Torquilas. The Dutch 24 00:02:24.480 --> 00:02:30.400 were less tender, however, with the English settlers. In 1640, the leaders of New Haven 25 00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:36.680 Colony, including Governor Theophilus Eaton, formed the Delaware Company in an attempt 26 00:02:36.680 --> 00:02:43.600 to secure prosperity for the colony by promoting settlements on the Delaware. The effort was 27 00:02:43.600 --> 00:02:48.940 Supported Financially by the General Court of New Haven Colony. The first New Haven 28 00:02:48.940 --> 00:02:55.940 settlement on the Delaware took place in the summer of 1641 in southwestern New Jersey. 29 00:02:56.640 --> 00:03:03.420 The small group of settlers began to grow tobacco and trade with the Indians. Promptly 30 00:03:03.420 --> 00:03:10.260 the Dutch troops at Fort Nassau, aided by a Swedish force, invaded the New Haven land, 31 00:03:10.260 --> 00:03:16.260 burned the houses of the settlers and shipped the prisoners to Manhattan. 32 00:03:16.260 --> 00:03:23.740 Meanwhile, Sweden asserted its rampant nationalism by moving to put the New Sweden Company under 33 00:03:23.740 --> 00:03:30.740 Swedish governmental control. In 1641, the Swedes bought out the Dutch investors in the 34 00:03:30.740 --> 00:03:36.380 company, and the following year the Swedish Crown moved in to exert full control over 35 00:03:36.380 --> 00:03:38.740 of the Company's Affairs. 36 00:03:38.740 --> 00:03:45.860 By 1642, New Sweden was under the direct rule of the Swedish Council of State, which appointed 37 00:03:45.860 --> 00:03:51.700 as the new governor the veteran soldier of fortune, Johann Prinz. 38 00:03:51.700 --> 00:03:57.700 Prinz immediately began a campaign of harassment of the small New Haven settlement and its 39 00:03:57.700 --> 00:04:03.900 leader, George Lamberton, whom he forbade to trade without a license. 40 00:04:03.900 --> 00:04:09.380 After this treatment, the New Haven settlement soon collapsed. Flushed with the victory, 41 00:04:09.380 --> 00:04:16.340 Prince established a series of forts, including Fort Elfsborg, near Salem Creek, and Fort 42 00:04:16.340 --> 00:04:23.940 Newcrisum at the mouth of the Schuylkill River on the west bank of the Delaware. By 1644, 43 00:04:23.940 --> 00:04:31.060 New Sweden reached its peak of population, less than 300. This contrasted to a population 44 00:04:31.060 --> 00:04:38.360 in all of New Netherland of 2000. But from that point on, this already small colony entered 45 00:04:38.360 --> 00:04:45.340 into a decline. For one thing, Sweden was interested in tobacco and not in the fur available 46 00:04:45.340 --> 00:04:51.960 in the Delaware Valley. To return to New Netherland proper, we have seen that Peter Stuyvesant 47 00:04:51.960 --> 00:04:58.140 was every bit as rigorous a tyrant as his predecessor, albeit more sophisticated and 48 00:04:58.140 --> 00:05:03.900 and systematic in his depredations. As soon as he took office, he persecuted the critics 49 00:05:03.900 --> 00:05:10.900 of Kieft and threatened to hang anyone appealing his decisions to Holland. He also decreed 50 00:05:10.940 --> 00:05:17.140 that no liquor be sold to any Indians and that none at all be sold on Sunday mornings 51 00:05:17.140 --> 00:05:24.140 or after nine o'clock curfew. Taxes were raised sharply, a new excise was laid on wines and 52 00:05:24.140 --> 00:05:32.580 and Spirits, and export taxes on FERS increased to 30%. When these laws were not observed, 53 00:05:32.580 --> 00:05:38.420 Stuyvesant added corporal punishment to the usual fines. All forms of smuggling and illegal 54 00:05:38.420 --> 00:05:44.660 trading were, of course, forbidden on paying of heavy penalties. Stuyvesant, therefore, 55 00:05:44.660 --> 00:05:49.420 was rapidly acquiring the reputation in the colony of being little different from the 56 00:05:49.420 --> 00:05:56.420 The Hated Kieft, but Stuyvesant elaborated a sophisticated refinement. After enmeshing 57 00:05:56.420 --> 00:06:01.940 the economy in a network of restrictions and prohibitions, Stuyvesant, in return for heavy 58 00:06:01.940 --> 00:06:09.900 fees, sold exemptions from these regulations. In short, Stuyvesant saw that the key to wealth 59 00:06:09.900 --> 00:06:17.460 for a government ruler is to create the opportunity for monopoly privilege, for example by outlawing 60 00:06:17.460 --> 00:06:24.460 and Regulating Productive Activities, and then to sell these privileges for what the traffic can bear. 61 00:06:24.460 --> 00:06:32.460 Stuyvesant's sales yielded him a fortune during his term in office, in currency and in land. 62 00:06:32.460 --> 00:06:40.460 Two levy increased taxes. Stuyvesant, too, was forced to call together representatives of wealthy families of the colony, 63 00:06:40.460 --> 00:06:57.460 In this case, a group of nine men. The nine men were chosen as advisors and judges by eighteen men, who in turn had been elected by Dutch householders of Manhattan, Flatlands and Brooklyn, now northwestern Brooklyn. 64 00:06:57.460 --> 00:07:19.460 In September 1647, Stuyvesant realized that, rather than rule totally alone, it would be far shrewder to share his monopoly gains with the nine men, thus cementing them to his rule and warding off the rise of the sort of serious opposition that had ousted Kieft. 65 00:07:19.460 --> 00:07:32.460 And so Stuyvesant pleased the nine men by restricting the crucial fur trade of the Hudson Valley to the old residents, the new ones needing considerable property to be admitted. 66 00:07:32.460 --> 00:07:42.460 This was later expanded, however, to a fee requirement for all residents, with the fee being a purchase of the approval of Governor Stuyvesant. 67 00:07:42.460 --> 00:07:48.460 After this expansion there was no incentive for the nine men to continue to back the director. 68 00:07:48.460 --> 00:08:00.460 All these various taxes and regulations, however, were generally evaded by shippers and traders, the reaction of traders to harassment and depredation from time immemorial. 69 00:08:00.460 --> 00:08:06.460 These successful evasions benefited the traders and the mass of consumers alike. 70 00:08:06.460 --> 00:08:17.460 The honeymoon with the nine men did not last long, for one thing, Stuyvesant had refused to permit New England ships end New Netherland ports. 71 00:08:17.460 --> 00:08:28.460 In 1648, New England retaliated against all Dutch trade with the Indians, causing considerable economic distress in the Dutch colony. 72 00:08:28.460 --> 00:08:37.460 Another important factor in this distress was the high customs in New Amsterdam and the heavy penalties for evasion imposed there. 73 00:08:37.460 --> 00:08:42.460 Spurred by the withering of commerce subsequent to the New England Regulation, 74 00:08:42.460 --> 00:08:48.340 Averred by the withering of commerce subsequent to the New England Regulation, the nine men 75 00:08:48.340 --> 00:08:55.420 led by their president, Adrien van der Donk, Patron of Yonkers, appealed the Stuyvesant 76 00:08:55.420 --> 00:09:03.020 ruling to Holland. Stuyvesant seized the papers of the nine men, arrested van der Donk and 77 00:09:03.020 --> 00:09:06.840 expelled him from their membership. 78 00:09:06.840 --> 00:09:13.600 At this point, none other than Cornelius Mellon arrived from Holland, brandishing a safe conduct 79 00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:20.040 from the States General as well as a condemnation of Stuyvesant's harsh treatment of Mellon 80 00:09:20.040 --> 00:09:26.940 and Coyder. Chastised temporarily, Stuyvesant released van der Donk and allowed the nine 81 00:09:26.940 --> 00:09:34.440 men to send their petition to the States General. The petition, sent in the fall of 1649, asked 82 00:09:34.440 --> 00:09:40.240 the states general to take over the government of New Netherland from the West India Company 83 00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:46.560 in order to allow local self-government in New Amsterdam and to encourage rather than 84 00:09:46.560 --> 00:09:48.680 restrict trade. 85 00:09:48.680 --> 00:09:53.840 The petition also included a severe indictment of the government of Peter Stuyvesant and 86 00:09:53.840 --> 00:09:56.920 of the Dutch West India Company. 87 00:09:56.920 --> 00:10:02.960 As the petition charged, nobody is unmolested or secured in his property longer than the 88 00:10:02.960 --> 00:10:08.460 The director pleases, who is generally inclined to confiscating. 89 00:10:08.460 --> 00:10:14.900 The petition wisely noted, a covetous chief makes poor subjects. 90 00:10:14.900 --> 00:10:20.120 Oddly enough, Stuyvesant's main support at this time came from a group of English settlers 91 00:10:20.120 --> 00:10:26.000 on Long Island, headed by George Baxter of Graves End, who is Stuyvesant's appointed 92 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:28.500 English Secretary of State. 93 00:10:28.500 --> 00:10:34.700 The magistrates of the English settlements of Gravesend and Hampstead fawningly expressed 94 00:10:34.700 --> 00:10:41.380 the fervent hope for no change of government, praised the existing strong government and 95 00:10:41.380 --> 00:10:46.620 warned that any democratic procedure in New Netherland would surely lead to anarchy and 96 00:10:46.620 --> 00:10:48.620 ruin. 97 00:10:48.620 --> 00:10:55.260 Three years after the petition, the company's sole concession was to order Stuyvesant to 98 00:10:55.260 --> 00:10:59.260 to grant a municipal government to New Amsterdam. 99 00:10:59.260 --> 00:11:05.260 However, this was only a pro forma victory for the idea of limiting government. 100 00:11:05.260 --> 00:11:12.260 Stuyvesant insisted on retaining the power to appoint all of the municipal officials 101 00:11:12.260 --> 00:11:15.260 and to decree the municipal ordinances. 102 00:11:15.260 --> 00:11:23.260 In foreign affairs, Stuyvesant was cautious and conciliatory regarding the power of the English colonies, 103 00:11:23.260 --> 00:11:28.700 Realizing, as he did, that Connecticut's and New Haven's activities on the Connecticut 104 00:11:28.700 --> 00:11:35.540 River, Westchester and Long Island constituted a potential threat to Dutch rule. 105 00:11:35.540 --> 00:11:42.740 In 1650, Stuyvesant negotiated a boundary settlement with the New England Confederation, 106 00:11:42.740 --> 00:11:46.820 partitioning Long Island at Oyster Bay. 107 00:11:46.820 --> 00:11:52.700 This partition continued to be upheld even after the outbreak of the first Anglo-Dutch 108 00:11:52.700 --> 00:12:00.500 Dutch War, 1652-54. Indeed, the only loss suffered by New Netherland in that war was 109 00:12:00.500 --> 00:12:07.260 Connecticut's seizure of Fort Good Hope, which had been a hopeless enclave in hostile territory 110 00:12:07.260 --> 00:12:13.380 for a long while. The Dutch West Indies Company, however, suffered very seriously from the 111 00:12:13.380 --> 00:12:21.380 Anglo-Dutch War, for England was allied with newly independent, 1640, Portugal, which proceeded 112 00:12:21.380 --> 00:12:28.020 to Reconquer Angola and Northern Brazil, the company's most lucrative possessions. England 113 00:12:28.020 --> 00:12:33.420 was rewarded with rights in the slave trade by the Portuguese. The company's financial 114 00:12:33.420 --> 00:12:39.220 problems were compounded by lack of support from the government and the merchants, who 115 00:12:39.220 --> 00:12:46.300 preferred private trade to the expenses of monopolies and colonial government. Stuyvesant's 116 00:12:46.300 --> 00:12:56.660 on the outbreak of the war, the English settlers were alienated by the company's prohibition 117 00:12:56.660 --> 00:13:03.980 of any but Dutchman in public office. Captain John Underhill organized a one-man rebellion 118 00:13:03.980 --> 00:13:11.260 at Hempstead in Flushing, claiming allegiance to England and denouncing Stuyvesant's tyranny, 119 00:13:11.260 --> 00:13:17.420 The seizure of private land, imposition of heavy taxes, religious persecution, banning 120 00:13:17.420 --> 00:13:23.380 of any election procedures, and imprisonment of men without trial. 121 00:13:23.380 --> 00:13:27.060 Underhill was forced to flee to Rhode Island. 122 00:13:27.060 --> 00:13:32.060 More significant was the disaffection of such former lieutenants of Stuyvesant as George 123 00:13:32.060 --> 00:13:33.060 Baxter. 124 00:13:33.060 --> 00:13:45.060 Baxter's opposition forced the reluctant director to agree to a Lontdog, or popular convention, to meet to discuss public affairs. 125 00:13:45.060 --> 00:13:55.060 The Lontdog met in December 1653 with four Dutch and four English towns represented by 19 delegates. 126 00:13:55.060 --> 00:14:04.240 The Dutch towns New Amsterdam, Brooklyn, Flatlands and Flatbush, the English, Flushing, Gravesend, 127 00:14:04.240 --> 00:14:06.900 Hempstead and Middelburg. 128 00:14:06.900 --> 00:14:13.020 Despite the Partition Treaty of 1650, most of the new settlers of Western Long Island 129 00:14:13.020 --> 00:14:18.980 were English, and many of these settlements had acquired some rights to local self-government 130 00:14:18.980 --> 00:14:22.020 from the Charter of 1640. 131 00:14:22.020 --> 00:14:26.420 Now they were in the forefront of the complaints of arbitrary government. 132 00:14:26.420 --> 00:14:34.500 Ostensibly called to concentrate on the English war, the Lontoc meeting was turned by Baxter, 133 00:14:34.500 --> 00:14:41.060 attracted out of office to the liberal cause, to the most pressing problem, Stuyvesant's 134 00:14:41.060 --> 00:14:42.740 own tyranny. 135 00:14:42.740 --> 00:14:49.820 Baxter drew up and the Lontoc unanimously approved a remonstrance and petition attacking 136 00:14:49.820 --> 00:14:55.460 and all the despotic evils of the existing regime, especially arbitrary government by 137 00:14:55.460 --> 00:15:00.480 the director and his council, appointment of officials and magistrates without consent 138 00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:06.100 of the people, and granting of large tracts of land to favorites of the director. 139 00:15:06.100 --> 00:15:12.840 They also demanded a permanent lontdog with power to raise taxes and help select officials, 140 00:15:12.840 --> 00:15:18.900 and they asserted that the law of nature authorized all men to associate in defense of their liberty 141 00:15:18.900 --> 00:15:26.260 and Property. Here were the very rights of man which Peter Stuyvesant had always despised. 142 00:15:26.260 --> 00:15:33.900 Stuyvesant, like Kieft, had thought his subjects would come together to meet an external threat. 143 00:15:33.900 --> 00:15:39.420 He found them, instead seizing the opportunity to challenge the threat to their life, liberty 144 00:15:39.420 --> 00:15:45.300 and property that they were suffering chronically at home. Stuyvesant, of course, brusquely 145 00:15:45.300 --> 00:15:53.300 He rejected the remonstrance and promptly declared the assembly illegal and ordered it dissolved. 146 00:15:53.300 --> 00:16:03.300 Savison poured his scorn on the law of nature. Only appointed magistrates, not private individuals, had the right to hold political meetings. 147 00:16:03.300 --> 00:16:12.300 We derive our authority from God and the company, not from a few ignorant subjects, and we alone can call the inhabitants together. 148 00:16:12.300 --> 00:16:18.300 Moreover, charged the director the whole proceedings smelt of rebellion. 149 00:16:18.300 --> 00:16:27.300 Stuyvesant was able to continue the arbitrary rule that was crippling and greatly slowing down the development of the colony. 150 00:16:27.300 --> 00:16:38.300 Indeed, the company not only approved the director's treatment of the long dog, but gently chided him for engaging in any sort of dialogue with the rabble. 151 00:16:38.300 --> 00:16:46.300 Encouraged, Stuyvesant expelled Baxter and James Hubbard of Gravesend from their civil offices. 152 00:16:46.300 --> 00:16:53.300 When the latter raised the English flag at Gravesend and both proclaimed their allegiance to Cromwell, 153 00:16:53.300 --> 00:16:58.300 Stuyvesant sent a troop to imprison Hubbard and Baxter. 154 00:16:58.300 --> 00:17:02.300 The director's victory over his opposition was complete. 155 00:17:02.300 --> 00:17:11.300 As we have noted, Stuyvesant's foreign policy, in welcome contrast to Keefe's, was cautious and conciliatory. 156 00:17:11.300 --> 00:17:20.300 When Stuyvesant assumed office, he found Governor Prince of New Sweden constructing many forts on the Delaware River. 157 00:17:20.300 --> 00:17:28.220 To counter this expansionist policy, Stuyvesant built Fort Bavarsreid, now Philadelphia, in 158 00:17:28.220 --> 00:17:36.380 the spring of 1648, across the Schuylkill River from the new Swedish fort, New Crism. 159 00:17:36.380 --> 00:17:42.860 But the rambunctious Swedes twice burned Fort Bavarsreid during that year, and each time 160 00:17:42.860 --> 00:17:45.900 the Dutch simply rebuilt, without retaliation. 161 00:17:45.900 --> 00:17:54.380 Then in 1651, the Dutch built Fort Casimir, Newcastle, below Fort Christina. Strategically 162 00:17:54.380 --> 00:18:00.520 located, it commanded the river approaches to most of New Sweden. 163 00:18:00.520 --> 00:18:06.740 During the early 1650s, friction was building up in Europe between Sweden and the United 164 00:18:06.740 --> 00:18:13.580 Provinces. The Thirty Years War had ended in 1648 and now the two countries would soon 165 00:18:13.580 --> 00:18:20.580 surely this governor, Johann Reising, an associate of the powerful Uxon-Scherena family, must have realized that his time is running out. 166 00:18:43.580 --> 00:18:49.860 Many colony of less than a few hundred souls could hardly have held its own in a war with 167 00:18:49.860 --> 00:18:57.480 New Netherland, and yet inexplicably, rising, suddenly attacked and seized Fort Casimir 168 00:18:57.480 --> 00:19:05.700 in 1654, renaming it Fort Terfaldighet. This provocation was the last straw for the hitherto 169 00:19:05.700 --> 00:19:11.020 patient Dutch who decided to wipe out New Sweden for good. 170 00:19:11.020 --> 00:19:16.740 The following year the Dutch sent seven ships headed by Stuyvesant and quickly forced the 171 00:19:16.740 --> 00:19:19.540 surrender of the two Swedish forts. 172 00:19:19.540 --> 00:19:22.640 The Swedish governor was returned to Sweden. 173 00:19:22.640 --> 00:19:28.020 Most of the Swedish settlers elected to remain, but were forced to take a loyalty oath to 174 00:19:28.020 --> 00:19:29.160 Holland. 175 00:19:29.160 --> 00:19:31.300 New Sweden had ended. 176 00:19:31.300 --> 00:19:35.220 It was now a part of the enlarged New Netherland. 177 00:19:35.220 --> 00:19:40.180 The Delaware Bay area was now governed by the Dutch, who provided the officialdom and 178 00:19:40.180 --> 00:19:47.980 and the Fur Traders but the bulk of the settlers amounting to about 600 by 1659 were Swedes 179 00:19:47.980 --> 00:19:54.340 and Finns who provided the farmers and village governments. Finland was in those years under 180 00:19:54.340 --> 00:20:02.620 Swedish rule and hence many of the Swedish immigrants were Finns. In 1656 there occurred 181 00:20:02.620 --> 00:20:08.840 the fateful separation of the west bank of the Delaware River from Fort Christina Wilmington 182 00:20:08.840 --> 00:20:15.200 and Southward from the rest of the Delaware River Settlements. In short, a separate life 183 00:20:15.200 --> 00:20:21.840 began for the future colony of Delaware. As a direct result of the highly expensive expedition 184 00:20:21.840 --> 00:20:30.040 to conquer New Sweden, the heavily indebted Dutch West India Company in 1656 transferred 185 00:20:30.040 --> 00:20:37.560 its sovereignty over part of this area to its creditor, the city of Amsterdam. Three 186 00:20:37.560 --> 00:20:43.920 Three years later the company transferred the entire West Bank from Fort Christina southward 187 00:20:43.920 --> 00:20:51.640 to Amsterdam. The city of Amsterdam sent out more settlers to its new land, renamed Fort 188 00:20:51.640 --> 00:21:00.640 Christina Altina and named its new colony New Amstel, which was headed by Juan Alrich. 189 00:21:00.640 --> 00:21:09.200 In 1659, all rich was succeeded by Alexander de Gino Llosa, who became the sole governor 190 00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:11.960 of what was later to be Delaware. 191 00:21:11.960 --> 00:21:18.100 The Swedish and Finnish settlers soon found that their lot under Amsterdam rule was much 192 00:21:18.100 --> 00:21:22.840 worse than under New Netherland and the Dutch West India Company. 193 00:21:22.840 --> 00:21:29.280 Their freedom of trade was far more restricted and the city of Amsterdam's officials arrogated 194 00:21:29.280 --> 00:21:33.920 to themselves a tight monopoly of all trade. 195 00:21:33.920 --> 00:21:38.880 Stuyvesant was also bitter at this government rival in his former domain.