Peter Minuit

Peter Minuit (1580–1638), born in Wesel, Duchy of Cleves (present-day Germany), was the Director General of the Dutch colony of New Netherland from 1626 until 1633. He is most famous for the purchase of the island of Manhattan from the Native Americans (Algonkins), on May 24, 1626. However, it is little noted that Minuit purchased the island not from its owners, but from a tribe in the present-day Bronx, who had no claim on the island.

Related Topics:
1580 - 1638 - Wesel - Duchy of Cleves - Germany - Director General - New Netherland - 1626 - 1633 - Manhattan - Native Americans - May 24 - Bronx

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Peter Minuit's Walloon family was one of many Protestants families who escaped the Spanish government of the Netherlands and found refuge in the Dutch Netherlands and Protestant parts of the Holy Roman Empire. Peter himself was born in a time of great upheavals and struggles by Protestants against Catholics, which culminated in the Thirty Years' War and finally led to an exhausted Peace of Westphalia a century later.

Related Topics:
Walloon - Netherlands - Protestant - Holy Roman Empire - Catholic - Thirty Years' War - Peace of Westphalia

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Minuit was appointed the third director general of New Netherland by the Dutch West India Company in December 1625 and arrived in the colony on May 4, 1626. On May 24 of the same year he is credited with the purchase of the island from the natives -- perhaps from a Metoac tribe known as the Canarsee -- in exchange for trade goods valued at 60 guilders. This figure is known from a letter by Peter Schagen to the board of the Dutch West India Company: a traditional conversion to US$ 24 using 19th century exchange rates is not particularly meaningful. The trade goods are sometimes identified as beads and trinkets, but that may also have been an embellishment by 19th century writers. A contemporary purchase of rights in Staten Island, New York to which Minuit was also party involved duffel cloth, iron kettles and axe heads, hoes, wampum, drilling awls, "Jew's Harps," and "diverse other wares". If the island was purchased from the Canarsees, they would have been living on Long Island and maybe passing through on a hunting trip. In early 1632, Minuit was dismissed from his post and recalled to Europe. He was succeeded as director general by Wouter van Twiller.

Related Topics:
Dutch West India Company - 1625 - May 4 - 1626 - May 24 - Canarsee - Guilder - Peter Schagen - US$ - Staten Island, New York - Wampum - Jew's Harp - Long Island - 1632 - Wouter van Twiller

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1637 Minuit made arrangements with Samuel Blommaert and the Swedish government to create the first Swedish(-Finnish) colony in the New World. Located on the lower Delaware River at what is now Wilmington, Delaware, within the territory earlier claimed by the Dutch, it was called New Sweden, with the Swedes (and Finns) landing there in the spring of 1638.

Related Topics:
1637 - Samuel Blommaert - Swedish - Delaware River - Wilmington, Delaware - New Sweden - 1638

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Minuit finished Fort Christiana that year, then departed to return to Stockholm, Sweden for a second load of colonists, and made a side trip to The Caribbean to pick up a shipment of Tobacco for resale in Europe to make the voyage profitable. Minuit died while on this voyage during a hurricane at St. Christopher in the Caribbean.

Related Topics:
Stockholm, Sweden - Hurricane - St. Christopher - Caribbean

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The official duties of the governorship were carried out by the Finnish Lieutenant (raised to the rank of Captain) Mauno Kling, until the next governor was chosen and brought in from the mainland Sweden, two years later.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~