Peter Stuyvesant | |
|---|---|
_Stuyvesant_portrait_c1660.jpg) Painting attributed toHendrick Couturierc. 1660 | |
| Director-General of New Netherland | |
| In office 1647–1665 | |
| Preceded by | Willem Kieft |
| Succeeded by | Richard Nicolls(asGovernor of New York) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1610 |
| Died | August 1672(1672-08-00) (aged 61–62) |
| Resting place | St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery |
| Spouse | |
| Relations | SeeStuyvesant family |
| Children | Balthasar Lazarus Stuyvesant Nicolaes Willem Stuyvesant |
| Parent(s) | Balthazar Jansz Stuyvesant Margaretha van Hardenstein |
| Signature |  |
| New Netherland series |
|---|
| Exploration |
| Fortifications: |
| Settlements: |
| The Patroon System |
|
| People of New Netherland |
| Flushing Remonstrance |
 |
Peter Stuyvesant[note 1] (c. 1610 – August 1672)[1][2] was a Dutch colonial administrator who served as thedirector-general of New Netherland from 1647 to 1664, when the colony was provisionally ceded to theKingdom of England.[3] He was a major figure in thehistory of New York City and his name has been given to various landmarks and points of interest throughout the city (e.g.Stuyvesant High School,Stuyvesant Town,Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood, etc.).
Stuyvesant's accomplishments as director-general ofNew Netherland included a great expansion for the settlement ofNew Amsterdam beyond the southern tip ofManhattan. Among the projects built by Stuyvesant's administration were the protective wall onWall Street, the canal that becameBroad Street, andBroadway. Stuyvesant, himself a member of theDutch Reformed Church, opposedreligious pluralism and came into conflict withLutherans,Jews,Roman Catholics, andQuakers as they attempted to build places of worship in the city and practice their faiths.
Peter Stuyvesant was born around 1610[1][4][note 2] inPeperga orScherpenzeel,Friesland,[10][4] in theNetherlands, to Balthasar Stuyvesant, aReformed Calvinist minister,[10] and Margaretha Hardenstein. He grew up in Peperga, Scherpenzeel, andBerlikum. There is previously an erroneous report that Stuyvesant was born in Scherpenzeel in 1592 or 1602. However, his father (Balthazar Stuyvesant) only became a pastor in the Frisian Scherpenzeel between 1612 and 1619 and was previously in Peperga, so Peperga is the likely birthplace of Peter.
At the age of 20,[10] Stuyvesant went to theUniversity of Franeker, where he studied languages and philosophy,[11] but several years later he was expelled from the school after he seduced the daughter of his landlord.[12] He was then sent to Amsterdam by his father, where Stuyvesant – now using the Latinized version of his first name, "Petrus", to indicate that he had university schooling – joined theDutch West India Company (GWC). In 1630, the company assigned him to be their commercial agent on a small island just off ofBrazil,Fernando de Noronha, and then five years later transferred him to the nearby Brazilian state ofPernambuco. In 1638, he was moved again, this time to the colony ofCuraçao, the main Dutch naval base in theWest Indies, where, just four years later, aged 30, he became the acting governor of that colony, as well asAruba andBonaire,[10] a position he held until 1644.
In April 1644, he coordinated and led anattack on the island ofSaint Martin, which the Spanish had taken from the Dutch. Stuyvesant thought they had few men. When Stuyvesant raised the Dutch flag, the Spanish fired. Stuyvesant was injured in the leg, which required amputation, and the battle was lost.
Stuyvesant returned to the Netherlands for convalescence, where his right leg was replaced with awooden peg. Stuyvesant was given the nicknames "Peg Leg Pete" and "Old Silver Nails" because he used a wooden stick studded with silver nails as aprosthesis.[13] The West India Company saw the loss of Stuyvesant's leg as a "Roman" sacrifice, while Stuyvesant himself saw the fact that he did not die from his injury as a sign that God was saving him to do great things.[14] A year later, in May 1645, he was selected by the company to replaceWillem Kieft as Director-General of theNew Netherland colony, includingNew Amsterdam, the site of present-dayNew York City.
Stuyvesant had to wait for his appointment to be confirmed by theDutch States-General. During that time he married Judith Bayard, who was the daughter of aHuguenot minister and hailed fromBreda. Together, they left Amsterdam in December 1646 and, after stopping at Curaçao, arrived inNew Amsterdam by May 1647.
Kieft's incompetence had left the colony in terrible condition. Only a small number of villages remained after the brutal wars launched by his administration, and many of their inhabitants had given up and returned to Europe, leaving only 250 to 300 men able to carry arms. Kieft himself had obtained a fortune of over 4,000guilders without explanation and spent much of it to feed his growingalcoholism.[14]
Certain that righting New Netherland was the work which God had saved him for, Stuyvesant told its remaining people "I shall govern you as a father his children," and began the task of rebuilding the physical and moral state of the colony.[15]
In September 1647 he appointed theNine Men, an advisory council composed of representatives of the colonists,[16] to help rebuild relationships with them, temper his rule with their guidance, and restore New Netherland to the kind of well-run place that the Dutch preferred.[15]
In 1648 a conflict began between him and Brant Aertzsz van Slechtenhorst, the commissary of thepatroonshipRensselaerwijck, which surroundedFort Orange (present-day Albany). Stuyvesant claimed he had power over Rensselaerwijck, despite special privileges granted toKiliaen van Rensselaer in thepatroonship regulations of 1629. When Van Slechtenhorst refused, Stuyvesant sent a group of soldiers to enforce his orders. The controversy that followed resulted in the founding of the new settlement,Beverwijck.[17]
In an effort to remedy the neglect on the town, previously under Kieft's administration, Stuyvesant took measures to improve the appearance and safety of the town, with numerous regulations to achieve this end that were routinely issued by his office. Building codes were established for houses and other structures, including fences in an effort to control the widespread problem of wandering livestock about the town. As the housing and other structures in New Amsterdam were built almost entirely from wood and stood very close together the possibility of a spreading fire was very great. As governor, Stuyvensant forbid the construction of wooden chimneys, and imposed a tax of a beaver skin, or its trade equivalent, on every householder to finance the cost of two hundred and fifty leather fire buckets and hooks and ladders, which he had sent from Holland. He also established a system of fire wardens and a volunteer fire watch that patrolled the streets to keep an eye on any fire, or potential fire, from nine o'clock in the evening until the morning drum-beat. As such Stuyvesant became the organizer and head of the first volunteer firemen in America[18][19]
The colony of New Netherland had severe external problems. The population was too small and contentious, and the Company provided little military support. The most serious was the economic rivalry with England regarding trade. Secondarily there were small scale military conflicts with neighboring Indian tribes, involving fights between mobile bands on the one hand, and scattered small Dutch outposts on the other. With a large area and limited population, defense was a major challenge. Stuyvesant's greatest success came in dealing with theDelaware River colony ofNew Sweden, which heinvaded and annexed in 1655. Relations with the EnglishConnecticut Colony were strained, with disputes over ownership of land in the Connecticut valley, and in eastern Long island. The treaty of Hartford of 1650 was advantageous to the English, as Stuyvesant gave up claims to the Connecticut Valley while gaining only a small portion of Long island. In any case, Connecticut settlers ignored the treaty and steadily poured into the Hudson Valley, where they agitated against Stuyvesant. In 1664, England sent an expeditionary force to capture New Netherland. The colony's settlers refused to fight, forcing Stuyvesant to surrender and demonstrating the dilemma of domestic dissatisfaction, small size, and overwhelming external pressures with inadequate military support from the Company that was fixated on profits.[20]
_1654.jpg)
Stuyvesant became involved in a dispute withTheophilus Eaton, the governor of EnglishNew Haven Colony, over the border of the two colonies. In September 1650, a meeting of the commissioners on boundaries took place inHartford, Connecticut, called theTreaty of Hartford, to settle the border between New Amsterdam and the English colonies to the north and east. The border was arranged to the dissatisfaction of the Nine Men, who declared that "the governor had ceded away enough territory to found fifty colonies each fifty miles square." Stuyvesant then threatened to dissolve the council. A new plan of municipal government was arranged in the Netherlands, and the name "New Amsterdam" was officially declared on 2 February 1653. Stuyvesant made a speech for the occasion, saying that his authority would remain undiminished.[21]
Stuyvesant was then ordered to the Netherlands, but the order was soon revoked under pressure from the States of Holland and the city of Amsterdam. Stuyvesant prepared against an attack by ordering the citizens to dig a ditch from the North River to theEast River and to erect a fortification.
In 1653, a convention of two deputies from each village in New Netherland demanded reforms, and Stuyvesant commanded that assembly to disperse, saying: "We derive our authority from God and the company, not from a few ignorant subjects."
In 1654, Stuyvesant signed a deed for an allotment of land 10,000 square feet (930 m2) that corresponds to the modern-dayFinancial District of lower Manhattan.[22] It was co-signed by land grantee and secretary of the New Netherland Council Cornelis van Ruijven (alternative spelling Ruyven).[22] The lot was given and granted to van Ruijven.[22] The deed conveys a tract of land on Manhattan island in the Sheep Pasture.[22] It was bounded by present-dayBroad Street toWilliam Street, andBeaver Street toExchange Place.[22]
In the summer of 1655, he sailed down to theDelaware River with a fleet of seven vessels and about 300 men andtook possession of the colony of New Sweden, which was renamed "New Amstel." In his absence,Pavonia andStaten Island were attacked by Native Americans on 15 September 1655 in what became known as thePeach War.[23]
c. 1657 Stuyvesant built an executive mansion out of stone that was later renamedWhitehall by the English.[24] In 1660, Stuyvesant was quoted as saying that "Nothing is of greater importance than the early instruction of youth." In 1661, New Amsterdam had one grammar school, two free elementary schools, and had licensed 28 schoolmasters.
As director-general of New Netherland, Stuyvesant greatly increased the colony's involvement withslavery.[25] During the late 1640s, authorities in the neighboring English colonies of Connecticut andMaryland encouraged New Netherland slaves to escape there, refusing to return them. In 1650, Stuyvesant threatened to offer freedom toMaryland slaves unless the colony stopped sheltering runaways from New Netherland.[26] In 1657, the GWC's directors wrote to Stuyvesant, telling him that they were not going to be able to send him all the tradesmen that he requested and that he would have to useslaves as well.[27] Although it is commonly thought that Stuyvesant was New Netherland's largest slaveholder, he only owned two slaves, purchasing them as part of the farm he bought from the GWC in 1651.[28]
_Castello_Plan_1660.jpg)
Stuyvesant did not tolerate full religious freedom in the colony, and was strongly committed to the supremacy of theDutch Reformed Church. In 1657 he refused Lutherans the right to organize a church. When he also issued an ordinance forbidding them from worshiping in their own homes, the directors of the GWC, three of whom were Lutherans, told him to rescind the order and allow private gatherings of Lutherans.[29] The Company position was that more tolerance led to more trade and benefited everyone.[30]
Freedom of religion was further tested when Stuyvesant refused to allow thepermanent settlement of Jewish refugees fromDutch Brazil in New Amsterdam (without passports), and join the handful of existing Jewish traders (with passports from Amsterdam). Stuyvesant attempted to have Jews leave the colony "in a friendly way". As he wrote to the Amsterdam Chamber of the GWC in 1654, he hoped that "the deceitful race, — such hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of Christ, — be not allowed to further infect and trouble this new colony."[31] He referred to Jews as a "deceitful race" and "usurers", and was concerned that "Jewish settlers should not be granted the same liberties enjoyed by Jews in Holland, lest members of other persecuted minority groups, such as Roman Catholics, be attracted to the colony."[32]
Stuyvesant's decision was again rescinded after pressure from the directors of the company. As a result, Jewish immigrants were allowed to stay in the colony as long as their community was self-supporting. However, Stuyvesant would not allow them to build a synagogue, forcing them to worship instead in a private house.[33]
In 1657, theQuakers, who were newly arrived in the colony, drew his attention. He ordered the public torture of Robert Hodgson,[34] a 23-year-old Quaker convert who had become an influential preacher.[35] Stuyvesant then made an ordinance, punishable by fine and imprisonment, against anyone found guilty of harboring Quakers.[36] That action led to a protest from the citizens ofFlushing, which came to be known as theFlushing Remonstrance, considered by some historians to be a precursor to theUnited States Constitution's provision onfreedom of religion in theBill of Rights.[37][38]
_Museum_of_NYC.jpg)
In 1664,King Charles II of England ceded to his brother, the Duke of York, laterKing James II, a large tract of land that included all ofNew Netherland. This came at a period of considerable conflict between England and the Netherlands in theAnglo-Dutch Wars. Four English ships bearing 450 men, commanded byRichard Nicolls, seized the Dutch colony. On 30 August 1664, George Cartwright sent the governor a letter demanding surrender. He promised "life, estate, and liberty to all who would submit to the king's authority."
On 6 September 1664, Stuyvesant sentJohannes de Decker, a lawyer for the West India Company, and five others to sign the Articles of Capitulation.[39] Nicolls was declared governor, and the city was renamedNew York. Stuyvesant obtained civil rights and freedom of religion in the Articles of Capitulation.[40] The Dutch settlers mainly belonged to the Dutch Reformed church, a Calvinist denomination, holding to theThree Forms of Unity (Belgic Confession, Heidelberg Catechism, Canons of Dordt). The English were Anglicans, holding to the39 Articles, a Protestant confession, with bishops.
In 1645, Stuyvesant married Judith Bayard (c. 1610–1687) of theBayard family. Her brother, Samuel Bayard, was the husband of Stuyvesant's sister, Anna Stuyvesant. Petrus and Judith had two sons together:[41]
In 1665, Stuyvesant went to the Netherlands to report on his term as governor. On his return to the colony, he spent the remainder of his life outside the city on his 62-acre (25 ha) farm,Stuyvesant Farm, also known as the Great Bouwerie, beyond which stretched the woods and swamps of the village ofNieuw Haarlem. He died in August 1672 and his body was entombed in the east wall ofSt. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, which sits on the site of Stuyvesant's family chapel.[42]
A pear tree that he reputedly brought from the Netherlands in 1647 remained at the corner of Thirteenth Street and Third Avenue until 1867 when it was destroyed by a storm,[43] bearing fruit almost to the last. The house on the Great Bouwerie was destroyed by fire in 1778.[44]
The last acknowledged descendant of Peter Stuyvesant to bear his surname was Augustus van Horne Stuyvesant Jr., who died a bachelor in 1953 at the age of 83 in his mansion at 2 East 79th Street.Rutherfurd Stuyvesant, the 19th-century New York developer, and his descendants are also descended from Peter Stuyvesant; however, Rutherford Stuyvesant's name was changed from Stuyvesant Rutherford in 1863 to satisfy the terms of the 1847 will ofPeter Gerard Stuyvesant.[45][46][47]
His descendants include:
According to historian Eleanor Bruchey:
Stuyvesant and his family were large landowners in the northeastern portion of New Amsterdam, and the Stuyvesant name is currently associated with several places inManhattan's East Side, near present-dayGramercy Park: theStuyvesant Town housing complex; the site of the originalStuyvesant High School, still marked Stuyvesant on its front face, on East 15th Street near First Avenue;Stuyvesant Cove Park andStuyvesant Square, public parks in the area; theStuyvesant Apartments on East 18th Street; andStuyvesant Street, a thoroughfare in theEast Village. The new Stuyvesant High, a premier public high school, is on Chambers Street near the World Trade Center. His farm, called the "Bouwerij" – the seventeenth-century Dutch word for "farm"[60] – was the source for the name of the Manhattan street and surrounding neighborhood named "The Bowery". The contemporary neighborhood ofBedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn includes Stuyvesant Heights and retains its name. Also named after him are the hamlets ofStuyvesant andStuyvesant Falls inColumbia County, New York, where descendants of the early Dutch settlers still live and where theDutch Reformed Church remains an important part of the community, as well as shopping centers, yacht clubs and other buildings and facilities throughout the area where the Dutch colony once was.
ThePeter Stuyvesant Monument byJ. Massey Rhind situated atBergen Square inJersey City was dedicated in 1915 to mark the 250th anniversary of the Dutch settlement there.[61][62][63]
The World War IILiberty ShipSS Peter Stuyvesant was named in his honor.
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Dr. Stuyvesant Fish Morris, who I retired in 1913 after practicing medicine here for more than forty years, died yesterday at his residence, ...
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| Preceded by | Director-General of New Netherland 1647–1664 | Succeeded by |
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