Kieft's War
Encyclopedia
Kieft's War, also known as the Wappinger War, was a conflict (1643–1645) between settlers of the nascent colony of New Netherland
and the native Lenape
population in what would later become the New York metropolitan area
of the United States
. It is named for Director of New Netherland
Willem Kieft
, who had ordered an attack without approval of his advisory council and against the wishes of the colonists. Dutch soldiers attacked Lenape camps and massacre
d the native inhabitants, which encouraged unification among the regional Algonquian
tribes against the Dutch, and precipitated waves of attacks on both sides. This was one of the earliest conflicts between Native Americans and European settlers. Displeased with Kieft, the Dutch West India Company recalled him and he died while returning to the Netherlands. Peter Stuyvesant
succeeded him in New Netherland. Because of the continuing threat by the Algonquians, numerous Dutch settlers returned to the Netherlands, and growth of the colony slowed.
, Willem Kieft arrived in New Netherland in April 1638. Without obvious experience or qualifications for the job, Kieft may have been appointed through family political connections. The year before, the English colonies Massachusetts Bay
, Providence Plantation, and Windsor, Connecticut
, allied with the Mohegan
and Narragansett
nations, had annihilated the Dutch-allied Pequot Nation. (see: Pequot War
and Mystic Massacre
) The Pequot defeat eased the way for an English takeover of the northern reaches of New Netherland, along what is now called the Connecticut River
. Two weeks before Kieft's arrival, Peter Minuit
, a former director-general of New Netherland
, established a rogue Swedish settlement (New Sweden
) in the poorly developed southern reaches of the colony, along what is now called the Delaware Valley
.
Along the Hudson
, New Netherland had begun to flourish; the West India Company's ran the settlement chiefly for trading, with the director-general exercising unchecked corporate fiat backed by soldiers. New Amsterdam
and the other settlements of the Hudson Valley had developed beyond company towns into a growing colony. In 1640, the company finally surrendered its trade monopoly on the colony and declared New Netherlands a free-trade zone. Suddenly Kieft was governor of a booming economy.
The directors of the Dutch West India Company were unhappy. Largely due to their mismanagement, the New Netherlands project had never been profitable. The company's efforts elsewhere, by contrast, had paid handsome returns. The directors were anxious to reduce administrative costs, chief among which was providing for defense of the colonies. Within this category were land "purchase" agreements with the Native American nations who historically inhabited the lands. (These were payments for recognition of common rights to use of the land, in return for friendly relations and mutual defense.)
Kieft's first plan to reduce costs was to solicit tribute
payments from the tribes living in the region. Long-time colonists warned him against this course, but he pursued it, to outright rejection by the local sachem
s, or chief
s. Determined to force deference, Kieft seized on the pretext of pigs stolen from the farm of David de Vries to send soldiers to raid a Raritan village on Staten Island
, killing several. When the band retaliated by burning down de Vries' farmhouse and killing four of his employees, Kieft "put a price on their heads". He offered bounty payment to rival Native American tribes for the heads of Raritan. (Later, settlers determined that de Vries' pigs had been stolen by other Dutch colonists.)
In August 1641, Claes Swits, an elderly Swiss immigrant, was killed by a Weckquaesgeek of his long acquaintance. Swits ran a popular public house, frequented by Europeans and Native Americans in what is today Turtle Bay, Manhattan
. The murder was said to be a matter of the native's paying a "blood debt" for the murder of his uncle. He had been the sole survivor of an ambush of Weckquaesgeek traders by Europeans 15 years before. Kieft was determined to use the event as a pretext for a war of extermination against the tribe.
Another incident raising tensions occurred at Achter Kol along the banks of the Hackensack River
. Settlers to the new factorij, after having plied local
Hackensack with alcohol, engaged in a small but fatal conflict over the loss of a missing coat, and the foreman was killed by the Hackensack.
, the first popularly elected body in the New Netherlands colony, to advise him on retaliation. But, the council rejected Kieft's proposal to massacre the Weckquaesgeek village if they refused to produce the murderer. The colonists had lived in peace with the Native Americans for nearly two decades, becoming friends, business partners, employees, employers, drinking buddies, and bed partners. The Council was alarmed about the consequences of Kieft's proposed crusade.
The Native Americans were far more numerous than the Europeans and could easily take reprisals against their lives and property. As importantly, the Native Americans supplied the furs and pelts that were the economic lifeblood and the raison d'etre of the colony. With David de Vries as its President, the council sought to dissuade Kieft from war. They began to advise him on other matters, using the new Council to carry the interests of colonists to the corporate rulers. They called for establishing a permanent representative body to manage local affairs (as was traditional by then in the Netherlands). Kieft responded by dissolving the council and issuing a decree forbidding them to meet or assemble.
Kieft sent a punitive expedition to attack the fugitive Indian's village, but the militia got lost. He accepted the peace offerings of Weckquaesgeek elders. On February 23, 1643, two weeks after dismissing the Council, Kieft launched an attack on camps of refugee Weckquaesgeek and Tappan
. Expansionist Mahican
and Mohawk
in the North (armed with guns traded by the French and English) had driven them south the year before, where they sought protection from the Dutch. Kieft refused aid despite the company's previous guarantees to the tribes to provide it. The refugees made camp at Communipaw
(in today's Jersey City) and Corlaers Hook (lower Manhattan). In the initial strike, since called the Pavonia Massacre, 129 Dutch soldiers descended on the camps and killed 120 Native Americans, including women and children. Having opposed the attack, de Vries described the events in his journal:
Historians differ on whether Kieft had directed the massacre or a more contained raid. All sources agree that he rewarded the soldiers for their deeds. The attacks united the Algonquian peoples
in the surrounding areas against the Dutch to an extent not previously seen.
In the fall of 1643, a force of 1,500 natives invaded New Netherland, where they killed many, including Anne Hutchinson
, the notable dissident preacher. They destroyed villages and farms, the work of two decades of settlement. In retaliation that winter, Dutch forces killed 500 Weckquaesgeek. As New Amsterdam became crowded with destitute refugees, the colonists resisted Kieft's rule.
They flouted paying new taxes he ordered, and many people began to leave by ship. Kieft hired the military commander Underhill
, who recruited militia on Long Island to go against the Natives there and in Connecticut. His forces killed more than 1,000 Natives. After their private letters requesting intervention by the directors of the Dutch West India Company and the Republic
produced no result, the colonists banded together to formally petition for the removal of Kieft.
For the next two years, the united tribes harassed settlers all across New Netherland. The sparse colonial forces were helpless to stop the attacks, but the natives were too spread out to mount more effective strikes. The two sides finally agreed to a truce when the last of the eleven united tribes joined in August of 1645.
near Swansea
, Wales before he reached home. The company named Petrus Stuyvesant as his successor, and he managed New Netherland until it was ceded to the English.
In proportion to the colonial population at the time, Kieft's War had a high rate of fatalities: the militia and mercenary soldiers killed hundreds of natives. In 1642 New Amsterdam had a population of only about 800, estimated to be half Dutch. A relative peace lasted until the 1650s. Growing competition for resources contributed to the Esopus Wars
.
New Netherland
New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...
and the native Lenape
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
population in what would later become the New York metropolitan area
New York metropolitan area
The New York metropolitan area, also known as Greater New York, or the Tri-State area, is the region that composes of New York City and the surrounding region...
of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is named for Director of New Netherland
Director-General of New Netherland
This is a list of Directors, appointed by the Dutch West India Company, of the 17th century Dutch province of New Netherland in North America...
Willem Kieft
Willem Kieft
Willem Kieft was a Dutch merchant and director-general of New Netherland , from 1638 until 1647. He formed the council of twelve men, the first representative body in New Netherland, but ignored its advice...
, who had ordered an attack without approval of his advisory council and against the wishes of the colonists. Dutch soldiers attacked Lenape camps and massacre
Massacre
A massacre is an event with a heavy death toll.Massacre may also refer to:-Entertainment:*Massacre , a DC Comics villain*Massacre , a 1932 drama film starring Richard Barthelmess*Massacre, a 1956 Western starring Dane Clark...
d the native inhabitants, which encouraged unification among the regional Algonquian
Algonquian peoples
The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds. Today hundreds of thousands of individuals identify with various Algonquian peoples...
tribes against the Dutch, and precipitated waves of attacks on both sides. This was one of the earliest conflicts between Native Americans and European settlers. Displeased with Kieft, the Dutch West India Company recalled him and he died while returning to the Netherlands. Peter Stuyvesant
Peter Stuyvesant
Peter Stuyvesant , served as the last Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664, after which it was renamed New York...
succeeded him in New Netherland. Because of the continuing threat by the Algonquians, numerous Dutch settlers returned to the Netherlands, and growth of the colony slowed.
Background
Appointed director by the Dutch West India CompanyDutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...
, Willem Kieft arrived in New Netherland in April 1638. Without obvious experience or qualifications for the job, Kieft may have been appointed through family political connections. The year before, the English colonies Massachusetts Bay
Massachusetts Bay
The Massachusetts Bay, also called Mass Bay, is one of the largest bays of the Atlantic Ocean which forms the distinctive shape of the coastline of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Its waters extend 65 miles into the Atlantic Ocean. Massachusetts Bay includes the Boston Harbor, Dorchester Bay,...
, Providence Plantation, and Windsor, Connecticut
Windsor, Connecticut
Windsor is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, and was the first English settlement in the state. It lies on the northern border of Connecticut's capital, Hartford. The population was estimated at 28,778 in 2005....
, allied with the Mohegan
Mohegan
The Mohegan tribe is an Algonquian-speaking tribe that lives in the eastern upper Thames River valley of Connecticut. Mohegan translates to "People of the Wolf". At the time of European contact, the Mohegan and Pequot were one people, historically living in the lower Connecticut region...
and Narragansett
Narragansett
Narragansett may refer to:*Narragansett , a Pennsylvania Railroad train*Narragansett , an Amtrak train*Narragansett **Narragansett land claim*Narragansett, Rhode Island, a town*Narragansett Bay*Narragansett...
nations, had annihilated the Dutch-allied Pequot Nation. (see: Pequot War
Pequot War
The Pequot War was an armed conflict between 1634–1638 between the Pequot tribe against an alliance of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies who were aided by their Native American allies . Hundreds were killed; hundreds more were captured and sold into slavery to the West Indies. ...
and Mystic Massacre
Mystic Massacre
The Mystic massacre took place on May 26, 1637, during the Pequot War, when English settlers under Captain John Mason, and Narragansett and Mohegan allies set fire to a fortified Pequot village near the Mystic River...
) The Pequot defeat eased the way for an English takeover of the northern reaches of New Netherland, along what is now called the Connecticut River
Connecticut River
The Connecticut River is the largest and longest river in New England, and also an American Heritage River. It flows roughly south, starting from the Fourth Connecticut Lake in New Hampshire. After flowing through the remaining Connecticut Lakes and Lake Francis, it defines the border between the...
. Two weeks before Kieft's arrival, Peter Minuit
Peter Minuit
Peter Minuit, Pieter Minuit, Pierre Minuit or Peter Minnewit was a Walloon from Wesel, in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, then part of the Duchy of Cleves. He was the Director-General of the Dutch colony of New Netherland from 1626 until 1633, and he founded the Swedish colony of...
, a former director-general of New Netherland
New Netherland
New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...
, established a rogue Swedish settlement (New Sweden
New Sweden
New Sweden was a Swedish colony along the Delaware River on the Mid-Atlantic coast of North America from 1638 to 1655. Fort Christina, now in Wilmington, Delaware, was the first settlement. New Sweden included parts of the present-day American states of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania....
) in the poorly developed southern reaches of the colony, along what is now called the Delaware Valley
Delaware Valley
The Delaware Valley is a term used to refer to the valley where the Delaware River flows, along with the surrounding communities. This includes the metropolitan area centered on the city of Philadelphia. Such educational institutions as Delaware Valley Regional High School in Alexandria Township...
.
Along the Hudson
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
, New Netherland had begun to flourish; the West India Company's ran the settlement chiefly for trading, with the director-general exercising unchecked corporate fiat backed by soldiers. New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam was a 17th-century Dutch colonial settlement that served as the capital of New Netherland. It later became New York City....
and the other settlements of the Hudson Valley had developed beyond company towns into a growing colony. In 1640, the company finally surrendered its trade monopoly on the colony and declared New Netherlands a free-trade zone. Suddenly Kieft was governor of a booming economy.
The directors of the Dutch West India Company were unhappy. Largely due to their mismanagement, the New Netherlands project had never been profitable. The company's efforts elsewhere, by contrast, had paid handsome returns. The directors were anxious to reduce administrative costs, chief among which was providing for defense of the colonies. Within this category were land "purchase" agreements with the Native American nations who historically inhabited the lands. (These were payments for recognition of common rights to use of the land, in return for friendly relations and mutual defense.)
Kieft's first plan to reduce costs was to solicit tribute
Tribute
A tribute is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states, which could be called suzerains, exacted tribute from areas they had conquered or threatened to conquer...
payments from the tribes living in the region. Long-time colonists warned him against this course, but he pursued it, to outright rejection by the local sachem
Sachem
A sachem[p] or sagamore is a paramount chief among the Algonquians or other northeast American tribes. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms from different Eastern Algonquian languages...
s, or chief
Tribal chief
A tribal chief is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribal societies with social stratification under a single leader emerged in the Neolithic period out of earlier tribal structures with little stratification, and they remained prevalent throughout the Iron Age.In the case of ...
s. Determined to force deference, Kieft seized on the pretext of pigs stolen from the farm of David de Vries to send soldiers to raid a Raritan village on Staten Island
Staten Island
Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...
, killing several. When the band retaliated by burning down de Vries' farmhouse and killing four of his employees, Kieft "put a price on their heads". He offered bounty payment to rival Native American tribes for the heads of Raritan. (Later, settlers determined that de Vries' pigs had been stolen by other Dutch colonists.)
In August 1641, Claes Swits, an elderly Swiss immigrant, was killed by a Weckquaesgeek of his long acquaintance. Swits ran a popular public house, frequented by Europeans and Native Americans in what is today Turtle Bay, Manhattan
Turtle Bay, Manhattan
Turtle Bay is a neighborhood in New York City, on the east side of Midtown Manhattan. It extends between 41st and 54th Streets, and eastward from Lexington Avenue to the East River, across from Roosevelt Island...
. The murder was said to be a matter of the native's paying a "blood debt" for the murder of his uncle. He had been the sole survivor of an ambush of Weckquaesgeek traders by Europeans 15 years before. Kieft was determined to use the event as a pretext for a war of extermination against the tribe.
Another incident raising tensions occurred at Achter Kol along the banks of the Hackensack River
Hackensack River
The Hackensack River is a river, approximately 45 miles long, in the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of New York Harbor. The watershed of the river includes part of the suburban area outside New York City just west of the lower Hudson River,...
. Settlers to the new factorij, after having plied local
Hackensack with alcohol, engaged in a small but fatal conflict over the loss of a missing coat, and the foreman was killed by the Hackensack.
War
As the colonists resisted Kieft's Indian initiatives, he tried to use the Swits incident to build popular support for war. He created the Council of Twelve MenCouncil of twelve men
The Council of Twelve Men was a group of 12 men chosen on 29 August 1641 by the residents of New Amsterdam to advise the Director of New Netherland, Willem Kieft, on relations with the Native Americans due to the murder of Claes Swits. Although the council was not permanent, it was the first...
, the first popularly elected body in the New Netherlands colony, to advise him on retaliation. But, the council rejected Kieft's proposal to massacre the Weckquaesgeek village if they refused to produce the murderer. The colonists had lived in peace with the Native Americans for nearly two decades, becoming friends, business partners, employees, employers, drinking buddies, and bed partners. The Council was alarmed about the consequences of Kieft's proposed crusade.
The Native Americans were far more numerous than the Europeans and could easily take reprisals against their lives and property. As importantly, the Native Americans supplied the furs and pelts that were the economic lifeblood and the raison d'etre of the colony. With David de Vries as its President, the council sought to dissuade Kieft from war. They began to advise him on other matters, using the new Council to carry the interests of colonists to the corporate rulers. They called for establishing a permanent representative body to manage local affairs (as was traditional by then in the Netherlands). Kieft responded by dissolving the council and issuing a decree forbidding them to meet or assemble.
Kieft sent a punitive expedition to attack the fugitive Indian's village, but the militia got lost. He accepted the peace offerings of Weckquaesgeek elders. On February 23, 1643, two weeks after dismissing the Council, Kieft launched an attack on camps of refugee Weckquaesgeek and Tappan
Tappan
Tappan appliances was founded by W.J. Tappan as the Ohio Valley Foundry Company in Bellaire, Ohio in 1881 selling cast-iron stoves door-to-door. The company relocated to Mansfield, Ohio in 1889 and was renamed the Eclipse Stove Company before being renamed the Tappan Stove Company.Tappan claims...
. Expansionist Mahican
Mahican
The Mahican are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe, originally settling in the Hudson River Valley . After 1680, many moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. During the early 1820s and 1830s, most of the Mahican descendants migrated westward to northeastern Wisconsin...
and Mohawk
Mohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
in the North (armed with guns traded by the French and English) had driven them south the year before, where they sought protection from the Dutch. Kieft refused aid despite the company's previous guarantees to the tribes to provide it. The refugees made camp at Communipaw
Communipaw
Communipaw is a section of Jersey City, New Jersey west of Liberty State Park and east of Bergen Hill, and site of one the earliest European settlements in North America. It gives its name to the historic avenue which runs from its eastern end near LSP Station through the neighborhoods of...
(in today's Jersey City) and Corlaers Hook (lower Manhattan). In the initial strike, since called the Pavonia Massacre, 129 Dutch soldiers descended on the camps and killed 120 Native Americans, including women and children. Having opposed the attack, de Vries described the events in his journal:
Historians differ on whether Kieft had directed the massacre or a more contained raid. All sources agree that he rewarded the soldiers for their deeds. The attacks united the Algonquian peoples
Algonquian peoples
The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds. Today hundreds of thousands of individuals identify with various Algonquian peoples...
in the surrounding areas against the Dutch to an extent not previously seen.
In the fall of 1643, a force of 1,500 natives invaded New Netherland, where they killed many, including Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson was one of the most prominent women in colonial America, noted for her strong religious convictions, and for her stand against the staunch religious orthodoxy of 17th century Massachusetts...
, the notable dissident preacher. They destroyed villages and farms, the work of two decades of settlement. In retaliation that winter, Dutch forces killed 500 Weckquaesgeek. As New Amsterdam became crowded with destitute refugees, the colonists resisted Kieft's rule.
They flouted paying new taxes he ordered, and many people began to leave by ship. Kieft hired the military commander Underhill
Underhill
-Places:*Underhill, Dorset, England*Underhill School, Barnet, England*Underhill Stadium, Barnet, England, the home ground of Barnet F.C.*Underhill, Vermont, United States*Underhill, Wisconsin, a town, United States*Underhill , Wisconsin...
, who recruited militia on Long Island to go against the Natives there and in Connecticut. His forces killed more than 1,000 Natives. After their private letters requesting intervention by the directors of the Dutch West India Company and the Republic
Dutch Republic
The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...
produced no result, the colonists banded together to formally petition for the removal of Kieft.
For the next two years, the united tribes harassed settlers all across New Netherland. The sparse colonial forces were helpless to stop the attacks, but the natives were too spread out to mount more effective strikes. The two sides finally agreed to a truce when the last of the eleven united tribes joined in August of 1645.
Outcome
The native attacks caused many Dutch settlers to return to Europe. The Dutch West India Company's confidence in its ability to control its territory in the New World was shaken. Recalled in 1647 to the Netherlands to answer for his conduct, Kieft died in a shipwreckShipwreck
A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....
near Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
, Wales before he reached home. The company named Petrus Stuyvesant as his successor, and he managed New Netherland until it was ceded to the English.
In proportion to the colonial population at the time, Kieft's War had a high rate of fatalities: the militia and mercenary soldiers killed hundreds of natives. In 1642 New Amsterdam had a population of only about 800, estimated to be half Dutch. A relative peace lasted until the 1650s. Growing competition for resources contributed to the Esopus Wars
Esopus Wars
The Esopus Wars were two localized conflicts between Dutch settlers and the Esopus tribe of Lenape Indians during the latter half of the 17th century in what is now Ulster County, New York. Like many other wars during the colonial period, at bottom they were the result of competition between...
.
See also
- Council of twelve menCouncil of twelve menThe Council of Twelve Men was a group of 12 men chosen on 29 August 1641 by the residents of New Amsterdam to advise the Director of New Netherland, Willem Kieft, on relations with the Native Americans due to the murder of Claes Swits. Although the council was not permanent, it was the first...
- Pequot WarPequot WarThe Pequot War was an armed conflict between 1634–1638 between the Pequot tribe against an alliance of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies who were aided by their Native American allies . Hundreds were killed; hundreds more were captured and sold into slavery to the West Indies. ...
- Peach Tree WarPeach Tree WarThe Peach Tree War, also known as the "Peach War," is the name given to a large scale attack on the New Netherland colony of Pavonia, across from New Amsterdam, and surrounding settlements along the North River by the Susquehannock Nation and allied Native Americans on September 15,...
- Esopus WarsEsopus WarsThe Esopus Wars were two localized conflicts between Dutch settlers and the Esopus tribe of Lenape Indians during the latter half of the 17th century in what is now Ulster County, New York. Like many other wars during the colonial period, at bottom they were the result of competition between...
- List of conflicts in the United States