The Raritan refers to two groups of Lenape people who lived around the lower Raritan River and the Raritan Bay, in what is now northeastern New Jersey, in the 16th century.
Willem Kieft was a Dutch merchant and the Director of New Netherland from 1638 to 1647.
Abraham Pietersen van Deursen, aka Abraham Pietersen van Deusen, was an immigrant from Holland who settled in New Amsterdam and become one of the Council of 12 that was the first representative democracy in the Dutch colony. The Van Deursen, Van Deusen, Van Duser, Van Duzer, Van Duzor, Van Duzee, and Van Dusen families of the United States and Canada are all descended from Abraham Pietersen van Deusen, a miller and a native originating from Haarlem in the Netherlands.
The Peach War, sometimes called the Peach Tree War, was a one-day occupation of New Amsterdam on September 15, 1655, by several hundred Munsee, followed by raids on Staten Island and Pavonia. 40 colonists were killed and over 100, mostly women and children, were taken captive.
The Eight Men was a group of eight residents chosen by the people of New Netherland in 1643 to advise its Director-General, Willem Kieft, on his governance of the colony. An early form of representational democracy in colonial North America, it replaced the similarly selected Twelve Men and was followed by the Nine Men.
Kieft's War (1643–1645), also known as the Wappinger War, was a conflict between the colonial province of New Netherland and the Wappinger and Lenape Indians in what is now New York and New Jersey. It is named for Director-General of New Netherland Willem Kieft, who had ordered an attack without the approval of his advisory council and against the wishes of the colonists. Dutch colonists attacked Lenape camps and massacred the 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 settlers and Indians in the region. The Dutch West India Company was displeased with Kieft and recalled him, but he died in a shipwreck while returning to the Netherlands; Peter Stuyvesant succeeded him in New Netherland. Numerous Dutch settlers returned to the Netherlands because of the continuing threat from the Algonquians, and growth slowed in the colony.
The Wecquaesgeek were a Munsee-speaking band of Wappinger people who once lived along the east bank of the Hudson River in the southwest of today's Westchester County, New York, and down into the Bronx.
Pavonia was the first European settlement on the west bank of the North River that was part of the seventeenth-century province of New Netherland in what would become the present Hudson County, New Jersey.
David Pieterszoon de Vries was a Dutch navigator from Hoorn.
Vriessendael was a patroonship on the west bank of the Hudson River in New Netherland, the seventeenth century North American colonial province of the Dutch Empire. The homestead or plantation was located on a tract of about 500 acres (2.0 km2) about an hour's walk north of Communipaw at today's Edgewater. It has also been known as Tappan, which referred to the wider region of the New Jersey Palisades, rising above the river on both sides of the New York/New Jersey state line, and to the indigenous people who lived there and were part of wider group known as Lenape. It was established in 1640 by David Pietersen de Vries, a Dutch sea captain, explorer, and trader who had also established settlements at the Zwaanendael Colony and on Staten Island. The name can roughly be translated as De Vries' Valley. De Vries also owned flatlands along the Hackensack River, in the area named by the Dutch settlers Achter Col. Parts of Vriessendael were destroyed in 1643 in reprisal for the slaughter of Tappan and Wecquaesgeek Native Americans who had taken refuge at Pavonia and Corlears Hook. The patroon's relatively good relations with the Lenape prevented the murder of the plantation's residents, who were able to seek sanctuary in the main house, and later flee to New Amsterdam. The incident was one of the first of many to take place during Kieft's War, a series of often bloody conflicts with bands of Lenape, who had united in face of attacks ordered by the Director of New Netherland.
Cornelis van Tienhoven was an official of New Amsterdam from 1638 to 1656, and one of the more prominent people in New Netherland. He served in the administrations of three governors: Wouter van Twiller, Willem Kieft, and Peter Stuyvesant. As provincial secretary and schout-fiscal, he was deeply involved in the administrative, legal, and financial activities of New Amsterdam. He was widely disliked, and contemporary descriptions of his character and behavior are unflattering.
Hackensack was the exonym given by the Dutch colonists to a band of the Lenape, or Lenni-Lenape, a Native American tribe. The name is a Dutch derivation of the Lenape word for what is now the region of northeastern New Jersey along the Hudson and Hackensack rivers. While the Lenape people occupied much of the mid-Atlantic area, Europeans referred to small groups of native people by the names associated with the places where they lived.
Cornelis Melyn was an early Dutch settler in New Netherland and Patroon of Staten Island. He was the chairman of the council of eight men, which was a part of early steps toward representative democracy in the Dutch colony.
Jan Evertsz Bout, was an early and prominent Dutch settler in the 17th century colonial province of New Netherland.
The Nine Men was a council of citizens elected by the residents of New Netherland to advise its Director-General Peter Stuyvesant on the governance of the colony. It replaced the previous body, the Eight Men, which itself had superseded the Twelve Men. Members of this early form of representational democracy in North America were elected in 1647, 1649, 1650 and 1652. On July 26, 1649, eleven current and former members of the board signed the Petition of the Commonality of New Netherland, which requested that the Estates-General take action to encourage economic freedom and force local government like that in the Netherlands, removing the colony from the control of the Dutch West India Company. It became the basis for the municipal government when the city of New Amsterdam received its charter in 1653.
Jochem Pietersen Kuyter was an early colonist to New Netherland, and one of the first settlers of what would become Harlem on the island of Manhattan. He became an influential member of the community and served on the citizen boards known as the Twelve Men, the Eight Men and the Nine Men.
Maryn Adriansen was an early settler to New Netherland. Originally emigrating under an Indenture agreement he later became a prominent member of society. His conflict with the governor led to accusations and, eventually, acquittal. He owned property in New Amsterdam and a large plantation at Awiehaken.
Abraham Isaacsen Verplanck (1606–1690), also known as Abraham Isaacse Ver Planck, was an early and prominent settler in New Netherlands. A land developer and speculator, he was the progenitor of an extensive Verplanck family in the United States. Immigrating circa 1633, he received a land grant at Paulus Hook in 1638.
The Manatus Map is a 1639 pictorial map of the New York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary at the time the area was part of the colony of New Netherland. Entitled Manatvs gelegen op de Noort Rivier it shows the geographic features of the region, as well as New Amsterdam and other New Netherland settlements. The map was drafted when Willem Kieft was Director of New Netherland.
The Massacre at Corlears Hook of February 25, 1643 was a colonial massacre of forty Wecquaesgeek of all ages and genders on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, perpetrated by a force led by Maryn Adriansen, acting under Willem Kieft, the Director of New Netherland.
