*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of Henry Hudson's expedition around Manhattan and relations with the Lenape
natives *Includes accounts of trade and warfare between the Europeans and natives around New Amsterdam *Includes online
resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents Manhattan has long been part of a
bustling community, even before it formed the back of New York City. Centuries before New York City became a shining
city of steel that enthralled millions of immigrants, Lenni-Lenape Indians, an Algonquin-speaking tribe whose name means
“the People,” lived in what would become New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. They had lived there for at least 1,500
years and were mainly hunters and gatherers who would use well-worn paths that would one day bear the names of Flatbush
Avenue, King’s Highway, and Broadway. The first known European ings of the island and its inhabitants were made
by the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524 and by the black Portuguese explorer Estaban Gomez in 1526. After
the Englishman Henry Hudson, under the aegis of the Dutch East India Company, sailed by Manhattan in 1609, he returned
home with good news and bad news. Like the other explorers before him, he hadn’t been able to find a water route to the
Orient. He had, however, returned with s (confiscated by the British) and beaver pelts. With that, it became clear
that the region around the bay that would take Hudson’s name was a very promising new territory for trade and
settlement, which would become a serious of contention between the Dutch and the British for the rest of the
century. 1626 was also the year that the famous “purchase” of Manhattan took place, a transaction for which no record
has survived. Peter Minuit, the Director-General of New Amsterdam, paid out sixty guilders’ worth of trade goods like
cloth, kettles, tools, and wampum—an a that’s come down in history as being worth $24. While that sounds perversely
low today, accountant types like to speculate with this a, if the Lenni-Lenapes had invested it at a 10% interest
rate over the centuries, it would today be worth $117 quadrillion—enough to buy present-day Manhattan many, many times
over. Many such purchases took place, but because Native Americans and Europeans had very different concepts of what it
meant to “own” or “sell” land, misunderstandings—and violence—would frequently break out on both sides. Minor (and often
unsubstantiated) thefts of property could ignite the colonists’ wrath, resulting in such bloody skirmishes as the Pig
War (1640) and the Peach Tree War (1655), named for the items allegedly stolen. When the West India Company, which
presided over Dutch trade in the Americas, was created in 1621, the little settlement at the tip of Manhattan began to
both grow and falter. When Willem Kieft arrived as director in 1638, it was already a sort of den of iniquity, full of
“mischief and perversity,” where residents were given over to smoking and drinking grog and . Under Kieft’s reign,
more land was acquired mostly through bloody, all-but-exterminating wars with the Native American population, whose
numbers also dwindled at the hands of European-borne diseases. Ultimately, of course, conflict between England and
the Netherlands across the Atlantic brought about changes that affected the New World and led to the English taking over
New Amsterdam and renaming it New York City. Indeed, Dutch possessions in North America only lasted about 50 years, but
by then, they had paved a path for New York to become a diverse financial center. New Amsterdam: The History of the
Dutch Settlement Before It Became New York City chronicles the origins of the settlement and profiles the indigenous
people who were there. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about New Amsterdam
like never before, in no time at all.