Peter Stuyvesant

Director General

• Born: c. 1610
• Birthplace: Scherpenzeel, Friesland, United Provinces (now in the Netherlands)
• Died: February 1, 1672
• Place of death: Manhattan Island, New York

Dutch-born colonial American governor

As the last Dutch governor of New Netherland, Stuyvesant brought order and prosperity to the fledgling colony and facilitated the rapprochement between Dutch and English settlers.

Area of achievement Government and politics

Early Life

Peter Stuyvesant (stewih-vuh-sont) came from a well-to-do family. His father was the Reverend Balthazar Johannes Stuyvesant, a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, and his mother was Margaretta Hardenstein Stuyvesant. Peter Stuyvesant was born in 1610, or thereabouts, in a Friesland village where his father had a temporary pastorate. For several years, Stuyvesant attended the small theological University of Franeker, in Friesland, but he was expelled, supposedly for having “taken the daughter of his own landlord at Franeker, and was caught at it.”

Stuyvesant then became a clerk with the Dutch West India Company. Promoted in 1635, he signed on as a supercargo for the company at Fernando de Noronha, a small island 125 miles east of Brazil. Then he took a company post at Curaçao, where he became director-general in 1643. In 1644, Stuyvesant led an unsuccessful expedition against the Spanish garrison on Saint Martin’s Island, where the company once had a trading post. During the siege, Stuyvesant’s right leg was crushed below the knee by a cannon ball and part of the leg had to be amputated. For several years Stuyvesant recuperated in the Netherlands, adjusting himself to having a wooden leg.

Stuyvesant, on August 13, 1645, married Judith Bayard, a clergyman’s daughter; they had two sons, Nicholas William and Balthazar Lazarus. In July, 1746, the Dutch States-General commissioned Stuyvesant director-general of “New Netherland and the places thereabouts” and Curaçao and its adjacent islands. In the next year, Stuyvesant, with four vessels, went to Curaçao and then to New Amsterdam, where he arrived on May 11.

At the time of his arrival, Stuyvesant found that New Netherland extended from a few Dutch settlements on the Delaware to Fort Orange (Albany) on the Hudson. The core of this West India Company domain, however, was New Amsterdam, with one thousand inhabitants and about two hundred houses. On the outskirts were fifty “bouweries” (large farms), located along the Hudson (chiefly on Manhattan Island and at “Pavonia,” across the river in modern New Jersey) and on Long Island. In 1650, Stuyvesant purchased for six thousand guilders a farm just north of the town, which became known as the “Great Bouwerie” (between modern Fifth and Seventeenth streets, bounded by the East River and Fourth Avenue in New York City).

Stuyvesant found New Amsterdam in chaos. The populace was bitterly divided politically and, having forced the previous governor, William Kieft, to be recalled, was not in the mood to submit to any authority. Drunkenness and riotous behavior were commonplace. Stuyvesant was determined to clean up the city, to promote trade, and to build up the colony. Because he thought the local population consisted of so many undesirables, Stuyvesant believed that the people of New Netherland were incapable of self-rule. He once said: “We derive our authority from God and the West Indian Company, not from the pleasure of a few ignorant subjects.”

Life’s Work

Stuyvesant did achieve discipline among his “subjects.” Sumptuary regulations were put into effect. Harsh and unusual penalties convinced citizens to abide by the new moral standards. It is notable, however, that there was only one execution during Stuyvesant’s tenure. Stuyvesant attempted to deny non-Calvinists the right to worship. He banished Quakers and sought to curtail privileges of citizenship for the Jews. Pressure from the home government, however, forced Stuyvesant to back down from his religious repression. Stuyvesant, who tried to govern entirely by himself, constantly faced opposition from ordinary citizens and prominent leaders alike.

It was difficult to collect taxes. On two occasions, Stuyvesant recalled all loans made to individuals by the West India Company. Adriaen Van der Donck, who was imprisoned for political opposition, spearheaded a drive with the home government to get Stuyvesant removed. The Board of Nine, which Stuyvesant had created as an advisory body, turned against him and charged him with tyrannical conduct and monopolizing the Indian trade. Prodded by the West India Company and the Dutch government, Stuyvesant, in 1653, allowed the establishment of municipal government for New Amsterdam consisting of two burgomasters (mayors), five schepens (aldermen), and a schout (sheriff and prosecuting attorney).

One of Stuyvesant’s major achievements was his successful negotiation of peace with the Indians, a task which his predecessor had been unable to accomplish. By a combination of military strength and nonabrasive policies, relations were stabilized between the Dutch and the Mohican, Esopus, Hackensack, and Canarsie tribes. Stuyvesant palisaded the northern end of New Amsterdam and required outlying communities to have blockhouses.

Receiving little support from the West India Company or the Dutch government in populating and defending New Netherland, Stuyvesant realized that his colony was facing a losing situation vis-à-vis the rapidly expanding New England colonies. To spur population growth, Stuyvesant encouraged settlement of refugees and other immigrants from New England. Stuyvesant was, however, able to end the threat posed by the Swedes on the Delaware River. Leading a military expedition himself, Stuyvesant captured the Swedish fort in 1655 and then annexed New Sweden to New Netherland.

The expanding English settlements on the rim of New Netherland posed a difficult problem. Quite aware that belligerence toward New England would lead only to a war that he could not win, Stuyvesant pursued a policy of cordial relations with the Puritan colonies. He rode on horseback to Hartford in 1650 to meet with the commissioners of the United Colonies, who represented the Puritan confederation of four colonies established in 1643, and there negotiated the Treaty of Hartford (the only treaty between foreign powers conducted by American colonies on their own). Both parties agreed to a boundary line ten miles east of the Hudson and a border running north to south through Oyster Bay, Long Island.

Events at home and abroad over the next fifteen years negated the treaty. Connecticut and New Haven claimed most of Long Island, so that by 1660 one-half of the towns were English. Stuyvesant was able to avert a potential rebellion in 1653-1654 by arresting John Underhill, who had raised the English standard at Hempstead and Flushing. This occurred at the time of the First Anglo-Dutch War; Stuyvesant was fortunate that Massachusetts refused to join the other three colonies of the New England Confederation in making war on New Netherland, in effect preventing an invasion of the Dutch colony.

Stuyvesant’s troubles with the English, however, only worsened. In 1662, John Winthrop, Jr., had secured from the king a charter for Connecticut, which included in the colony’s borders Long Island and land west to the Hudson—or most all of New Netherland. John Scott, a free-booting Englishman, represented New England settlers on Long Island, who refused to abide by the Connecticut charter. Scott received a commission from the king to take charge of an investigation of the territorial dispute regarding Long Island. He also helped form the “Combination” of local English settlers, who elected him president of Long Island. The king, meanwhile, granted Long Island and all New Netherland to his brother, James, duke of York. A fleet was then sent over to establish the new proprietary and thereby oust Dutch rule.

Colonel Richard Nicolls, with four ships and four hundred soldiers, appeared in the harbor in August, 1664. Stuyvesant could muster only about 150 men; the fort at the Battery was in disrepair, and there was little ammunition and powder. Scott, moreover, was gathering an army on Long Island to march on the Dutch capital. Having no choice but to surrender, Stuyvesant did not make a stand. The terms of the capitulation, signed on September 8, 1664, left everything as it was in New Netherland; about the only visible change was the hoisting of the English flag.

Stuyvesant’s New Amsterdam in 1664 had achieved a high degree of prosperity. The population had increased to ten thousand. The Second Anglo-Dutch War ended with the Treaty of Breda (1667), which confirmed English possession of New Amsterdam, which they renamed New York. Stuyvesant, somewhat a recluse, retired to his farm to look after his orchards, cornfields, and livestock, with the aid of several dozen slaves. From 1665 to 1668, Stuyvesant visited the Netherlands to answer charges placed by the West India Company, which sought to make him the scapegoat for the loss of New Netherland. Stuyvesant ably defended himself, but the company remained convinced of his guilt. The States-General, however, more concerned with the war that was going on, took little note of the charges against him.

Stuyvesant died in February, 1672, at his “Great Bouwerie” and was buried in a vault beneath the chapel which he had built near his house. The chapel was replaced by Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in 1799. Located at Tenth Street and Second Avenue in New York City, it is the oldest church of continuous worship in the city.

Significance

Stuyvesant brought order and discipline to New Netherland. While faulted for being headstrong, arbitrary, and contemptuous of local democracy, he demonstrated executive ability, military prowess, and foresight in leading the colony to stability and prosperity. With very little bloodshed, Stuyvesant established a lasting peace with the Indians. He conquered New Sweden. Perhaps Stuyvesant’s greatest contribution was in furthering intercolonial relations and comity. A man of undisputed personal integrity and a devout member of the Dutch Reformed Church, Stuyvesant served as a deacon and chairman of the consistory. Stuyvesant put the public interest first; he was intolerant of religious and political dissenters because he believed that they tended to subvert authority. Stuyvesant’s administration helped to strengthen Dutch identity and solidarity within New Netherland, which in turn left a lasting cultural imprint on English society in New York.

Bibliography

Gehring, Charles T., ed. and trans. Correspondence, 1654-1658. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2002. Gehring, a history professor and linguist, has spent 30 years translating thousands of documents from the New Netherland colony from Dutch to English. This book contains translations of Stuyvesant’s correspondence.

Jameson, J. Franklin, ed. Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1909. Provides a miscellany of journals, tracts, notes, and correspondence relating to the whole history of New Netherland. The “Remonstrance of New Netherland,” which indicted Stuyvesant’s administration, by disaffected leaders of the colony, is included.

Kessler, Henry H., and Eugene Rachlis. Peter Stuyvesant and His New York. New York: Random House, 1959. Solid and well-rounded biography, with emphasis on the human side of Stuyvesant. Clarifies several disputed points of Stuyvesant’s life, such as his birth date.

O’Callaghan, Edmund B. History of New Netherland: Or, New York Under the Dutch. 2 vols. New York: D. Appleton, 1846-1848. Reprint. Spartanburg, S.C.: Reprint Company, 1966. Exhaustive, detailed narrative of New Netherland. While old, the scholarship still stands up. The work remains a classic and is valuable particularly as a reference. Original documents are reproduced in the appendices.

O’Callaghan, Edmund B., and Berthold Fernow, eds. Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York. 15 vols. Albany, N.Y.: Weed, Parsons, Printers, 1853-1857. The documents were collected from archives in England, France, and Holland, as well as the United States. Volumes pertaining particularly to Stuyvesant’s administration: 1-3 and 12-15 (contains correspondence between Stuyvesant and the Amsterdam Chamber of the West India Company).

Raesly, Ellis L. Portrait of New Netherland. New York: Columbia University Press, 1945. Reprint. Port Washington, N.Y.: Ira J. Friedman, 1965. Emphasizes the social history of New Netherland. Good accounts of Stuyvesant’s dealings with various individuals. Full discussion on Indian problems and Stuyvesant’s treatment of religious dissenters.

Shorto, Russell. The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America. New York: Doubleday, 2004. Shorto recounts the history of New Netherland and the island’s capital, Manhattan, providing information on Stuyvesant and other historical figures. He argues that Dutch Manhattan, where men and women of different races and religions lived together in relative harmony, gave origin to America’s eventual belief in tolerance and diversity.

Tuckerman, Bayard. Peter Stuyvesant. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1893. This volume in the “Makers of America” series is the best general survey of the life of Stuyvesant and his accomplishments.

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. A thorough history, written for the general reader. Detailed coverage of Stuyvesant’s Indian and intercolonial relations.

Zwierlein, Frederick J. Religion in New Netherland, 1623-1664. New York: Da Capo Press, 1971. Discusses Stuyvesant’s persecution of Lutherans, Jews, and Quakers, and the relationship of the Dutch with the Jesuit missions and the Puritans. Evaluates religious life as a whole in Stuyvesant’s New Netherland.

Related Articles in Great Events from History: The Seventeenth Century

October, 1651-May, 1652: Navigation Act Leads to Anglo-Dutch Wars; March 4, 1665-July 31, 1667: Second Anglo-Dutch War.