Pavonia Massacre
The Pavonia Massacre refers to a violent event that occurred on February 26, 1643, in a Dutch settlement situated in what is now Staten Island and the Bayonne-Jersey City area. Tensions between Native American tribes, particularly the Hackensack, and Dutch colonists had escalated due to a series of provocations, including a use tax imposed by the Dutch in 1639. The massacre was instigated as retaliation for the killing of two Dutch settlers by the Hackensack tribe. A contingent of eighty soldiers launched a surprise attack on an Indian camp, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 80 to 120 Native Americans, along with the capture of about thirty prisoners. This violent episode significantly strained relations between the Dutch and regional tribes, culminating in a decade of retaliatory actions from Native communities against Dutch settlements. The Pavonia Massacre is an important historical event that highlights the complex and often tragic interactions between European settlers and Native American groups during the colonial period.
Pavonia Massacre
Date: February 26, 1643
Place: Pavonia, New Amsterdam (modern New Jersey)
Tribes affected: Hackensack, Wecquaesgeek
Significance: This massacre, perpetrated by European settlers on peaceful Indian tribes, led to brutal retaliation by the Indians and the eventual destruction of Pavonia
Pavonia, a Dutch settlement located in the current Staten Island and Bayonne-Jersey City region, was the terminus of a trail used by Indians to move trading goods. A use tax imposed in 1639 and other incidents affected relations between Native Americans and the Dutch colonists. The Hackensack were so outraged that in 1642 the tribe killed two settlers. In 1643, a number of Wecquaesgeek Indians fled in terror from raids by the Mohawk—some to Pavonia, near the Hackensack, seeking Dutch protection.
Following a carefully laid-out plot, eighty soldiers launched a brutal surprise attack on the Indian camp shortly after midnight on February 26 to revenge the killing of the settlers. Between 80 and 120 Indians were killed and about thirty prisoners taken. In retaliation for this massacre, regional tribes intermittently terrorized the Dutch over the next decade.