| New Netherland series | |
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| Exploration | |
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| The Patroon System |
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| Directors of New Netherland: Cornelius Jacobsen Mey (1620-25) |
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| People of New Netherland New Netherlander |
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| Flushing Remonstrance |
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The Peach Tree War, also known as the "Peach War," is the name given to a large scale attack on the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam and surrounding settlements by the Susquehannock Nation and allied Native American tribes on September 15, 1655.
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Background
In March 1638 colonists led by Peter Minuit and sailing for the Swedish crown landed in what is today Wilmington, Delaware proclaiming the west bank of the Delaware River to be "New Sweden." The area had previously been claimed by both the English and the Dutch but, in part because of their inability to come to terms with the dominant power in the area, the Susquehannock Nation, neither had managed more than marginal occupation. As the founding (but dismissed) director-general of the Dutch West India Company's New Netherland colony, Minuit was familiar with the terrain and with Native American customs and quickly "purchased" the land (really, the right to settle) from the Susquehannock. At the time, the Susquehannock, who had always been mistrustful of the Dutch due to their close alliance with the Susquehonnock's rivals The Iroquois Confederation, had lost their English trading partner when the new colony of Maryland had forced out William Claiborne trading network centered on Kent Island. The Susquehannock quickly became New Sweden's main customers for European and imported goods and the colony's main suppliers of furs and pelts. In the process New Sweden became a protectorate and tributory of the Susquehonnock nation, which was perhaps the leading power on the Eastern seaboard at the time.
The English and the Dutch both rejected Sweden's right to their colony, but the Dutch had greater reason for concern since they had already discovered that the Delaware River ran north to a latitude above their New Amsterdam colony.[1] When Sweden opened the Second Northern War in the Baltic by attacking the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Dutch moved to take advantage of the moment and sent an armed squadron of ships to seize New Sweden. A few weeks later, the Susquehannock retaliated with "The Peach War" assault on New Amsterdam and environs.
The Attack
The Susquehannock's dominant political and military position among the Native American Nations of the area allowed it to assemble an army of warriors from multiple allied and neighboring tribes. An army of six hundred warriors landed in New Amsterdam itself, wreaking havoc through the narrow streets of the town which was mostly undefended as the bulk of the garrison was in New Sweden. Homesteds at Pavonia (Jersey City), on Staten Island, throughout Manhattan and on the mainland above were raided and burned, forcing settlers there to abandon their farms.[2] One hundred fifty hostages were taken and held at Paulus Hook (Jersey City) and ransomed a few weeks later by New Netherlands director-general Peter Stuyvesant who had led the assault on New Sweden but had hurried back to his capital on news of the attack. When later ransomed most of the hostages moved to New Amsterdam and the settlements on the west shore of the river were de-populated.[3]
Impact and Aftermath
Ironically, the Susquehannock's retaliation may not have been understood as such by the New Amsterdam colony at the time, (although the records show that the Swedes of the Zuydt Rivier (Delaware Bay) did). A popular myth grew up that the attack was motivated by the murder of a young Munsee woman who was killed by a Dutch settler for stealing a peach from his tree, an incident that had raised inter-cultural tensions shortly before the attack. After ransoming the hostages at Paulus Hook, Stuyvesant re-purchased the right to settle the area between the what is now the Hudson and Hackensack rivers from the Native Americans and established the fortified hamlet of Bergen.[4]
One of the farms known to have been raided and burned was that of democratic reformer and champion of local self-rule Adriaen van der Donck (at the sight of present day Van Cortland Park in Bronx, NY). Records show Van der Donck to have been alive in August and dead by the following January and indicate that there was some sort of inquiry into the sacking of his home in the raids. As a consequence, it has been speculated that he may have died in, or as a consequence of the "war," although there is no definitive record of his manner of death. If so, this would be ironic both because Van der Donck was a respectful pioneer in Native American ethnography and linguistics and because he was the political nemesis of director-general Stuyvesant (who led the capture of New Sweden in the first place).
Sources
- Russell Shorto (2004). The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America. Random House. ISBN 1-4000-7867-9.
- Cynthia J. Van Zandt (2008). Brothers Among Nations: The Pursuit of Intercultural Alliances in Early America 1580-1660. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195181247.
References
- ^ author=Russell Shorto|title=The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America|year=2004|publisher=Random House|isbn=1-4000-7867-9
- ^ E.M Ruttenber, Indian Tribes of Hudson's River to 1700, 3rd ed., ISBN0-910746-98-2, (Hope Farm Press, 2001)
- ^ "Peach Tree War". New Jersey City University. http://www.njcu.edu/Programs/jchistory/Pages/P_Pages/Peach_Tree_War_1655.htm.
- ^ http://www.njcu.edu/programs/jchistory/Pages/B_Pages/Bergen_Township.htm, accessed 11/20/09
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