▲ Dutch New Amsterdam in the late 1600s
At about the same time English colonists were establishing the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies, the Dutch founded New Netherland. New Amsterdam, the site of present-day Manhattan, was the Dutch capital. In the letter below, Peter Schaghen, an official of the Dutch West India Company, tells the directors of the purchase of Manhattan:
“High and Mighty Lords, Yesterday the ship the Arms of Amsterdam arrived here. It sailed from New Netherland … on the 23d of September. They report that our people are in good spirit and live in peace. The women also have borne some children there. They have purchased the Island Manhattes [Manhattan] from the Indians for the value of 60 guilders.”
—Peter Schaghen, 1626
Reading Skill: Identifying Main Ideas and Details As you read this section, prepare an outline like the one below.
Why It Matters During the early seventeenth century, the English developed two distinct clusters of settlements along the Atlantic coast: the Chesapeake to the south and New England to the north. Along the mid-Atlantic coast, the Dutch and Swedes established their own small colonies. Growing English power threatened the Dutch and the Swedes. Soon, England would control most of the Atlantic seaboard. Section Focus Question: What were the characteristics of the Middle Colonies?
Beginning in 1609, Dutch merchants sent ships across the Atlantic and up the Hudson River to trade for furs with the Indians. In 1614, they founded a permanent settlement at Fort Nassau (later called Fort Orange) on the upper river. To guard the mouth of the river, the Dutch built New Amsterdam at the tip of Manhattan Island in 1625. With the finest harbor on the Atlantic coast, New Amsterdam served as the colony’s largest town, major seaport, and government headquarters. Coming to trade or to farm, the Dutch—in contrast to the French, Spanish, and Puritan English—made virtually no missionary effort to convert the Indians.
The Dutch West India Company appointed the governor and an advisory council of leading colonists, but they did not permit an elected assembly. Although run