Source: Dutch New York
This segment from Dutch New York describes the extensive fur trade which took place in New Netherland between the Native Americans and the Dutch during the 17th century. At the height of the beaver trade in 1657, over 38,000 beaver pelts were shipped to the Netherlands, where they were used to make hats. This video also details the process by which the director of New Netherland colony, Peter Minuet, went about purchasing Manhattan Island from the Indians. It was a unique acquisition as it was a business transaction, not a violent takeover.
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From its inception in 1624, the New Netherland colony was established not to provide a sanctuary from religious or political persecution, but as a business, owned and operated by the Dutch West India Company. While settler groups were often comprised of families, many of the New Netherland settlers were single men who were either tradesmen or farmers. As the Dutch West India Company was designed to turn a profit, settlers were eager to come to the colony to earn money. Skilled people such as doctors and craftsmen were paid to settle in New Netherland. The company underwrote the expense of building the forts, stores, storerooms and offices of the colony and regularly sent provisions to the settlers. Everyone living and working in New Netherland was considered a company employee, and during the early years the company’s main source of revenue was the beaver fur trade.
Beaver fur and other animal pelts were supplied to the settlers by the native people of the region, which included the Mohawks, Iroquois and the Mahicans. The configuration of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers allowed the pelts to be easily transported downstream to Fort Orange from an area near present-day Schenectady. In order to obtain these beaver, otter, moose, and marten skins, the Dutch used various articles of trade. These included brandy, rum, tobacco, peas, biscuits, flour, brass kettles, weapons and hunting tools. In terms of quantity, duffels cloth was a very popular item offered by the Dutch for trade with the Indians. Duffels cloth is a thick, heavy wool fabric, traditionally tan or green in color, usually used for hooded coats or blankets. The Iroquois and Algonquian found this material suitable for protection from the rain. As a result of the introduction of these European trade goods, the nature of the environment in which the Indians had lived for hundreds of years was forever changed.
The fur trade introduced a new idea of territoriality among the Indians in the Hudson Valley. This sense of having a rightful claim to land had not existed prior to the introduction of fur trading. As beaver pelts became scarce, Indians expanded their hunting territory, which soon led to competition over trapping areas. This conflict escalated in 1624 when the Mohawk opened a trade war which later became known as the Mohawk-Mahican War.
At the time, the Dutch were not happy with the Mohawk, who were interfering with their trade with the Indians living in the St. Lawrence Valley. As a result, the Dutch backed the Mahican during the conflict with the Mohawk. This support proved to be dangerous to the settlers at Fort Orange. Following the death of the fort's commander in 1626, the new director of New Netherland, Peter Minuit, decided to purchase Manhattan Island from the Manhattes, a Wappinger tribe related to the Mahican, for an amount equivalent to twenty-four dollars. Minuit wanted to relocate all the families from Ft. Orange, as well as the Connecticut and Delaware regions, believing they would be safer on Manhattan Island.
BARRY LEWIS: I’m standing here, on the Mohawk River, a few miles northwest of Albany, in back of me, the spectacular Cohoes Falls. Back in the 17th Century, the Mohawk River was the main highway through this part of the state, for the local American Indians, mostly Mohawks, to bring beaver pelts down through the valley to Fort Orange, to trade them with the Dutch, for the goods the Indians needed.
Those pelts are going to be the basis for the future great fortunes of both New York City and New York State.
Dr. CHARLES GEHRING: The original resource, the exploitable resource, in New Netherland, was furs. The Dutch are astride the unique geographical configuration of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers. And the amount of furs that can come from the West seems to be unlimited.
LEWIS: The one problem, those beautiful falls in back of me, it prevented the Indians from taking the river all the way into Albany. About 18 miles West of the City, they had to leave the river, around where Schenectady is today, and literally take those pelts on their back and trek the last 18 miles into Albany,
GEHRING: Nothing annoyed the Indians more than getting to a trading post and finding out after hauling all of these heavy packs of furs that there was nothing there for them to trade for. As long as they could keep the trading post well stocked with goods that the Indians wanted, the Indians would continue to bring the furs to them.
LEWIS: Between 1626 and ’32, over 50,000 beaver pelts were sent back from here to the Netherlands. By 1657, at the height of the beaver trade, over 38,000 pelts were shipped abroad. Why did the Europeans need all these pelts? For fashion.
Back in the Netherlands, the beaver pelts were processed into a beautiful felt-like material, and then turned into exquisite broad-brimmed hats.
The fur trade around Fort Orange, comes to a sudden halt when the Dutch back the wrong side in a war between the Mohegan and Mohawk Indians. Peter Minuit is now the director of New Netherland Colony, he thinks the situation is too dangerous, and he recalls all these newly settled pioneers back to the more defensible New Amsterdam, at the southern tip of Manhattan.
It’s 1626 and the plans for Ft. Amsterdam, here in New Amsterdam are well underway. That fort is going to defend us against our European enemies, specifically the Spanish. There is one more item to accomplish to set this colony up on the right foot. Manhattan has to be purchased from the Indians.
The key word there is purchased. Other European powers would have conquered Manhattan, probably enslaving the Indians, and even killing them. That’s not how the Dutch did things.
So Peter Minuet purchased Manhattan Island from the Indians for 60 guilders. Now the Indians didn’t have a concept of purchasing land. To them, that agreement was probably more of a lease, a rental, plus a treaty between two peoples.
As for that famous $24.00 price tag, that was set back in the 19th Century, when the document of the sale was unearthed, needless to say, with inflation by now, the sum would be much more, but the price of Manhattan is beside the point.
What is the point, is that what became New York, began as a business deal and not a bloody conquest. That was the difference between the Dutch and the other Europeans.
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