3.3/Middle Colonies

DUTCH BASIS FOR NEW NETHERLAND/NEW YORK

• People from the Netherlands formed the 1st of the Middle Colonies

• They based their claim on Dutch exploration by the English sea captain Henry Hudson

• Hudson had traveled along much of the East Coast searching for the Northwest Passage to Asia

• In 1609, Hudson sailed up the river that bears his name—the Hudson River

• His voyage on the Hudson gave the Dutch a claim to the land along its banks

•In 1621 the Dutch took advantage of their claim

•The govt granted a charter to a joint stock company called the Dutch West India Company

•This charter allowed the company to trade and build settlements in the Americas

•Five years later, a company official named Peter Minuit did what?

•Purchased Manhattan Island from the Indians

GEOGRAPHY•Manhattan is today the central part of NYC

and lies at the mouth of the Hudson•Here Minuit built a settlement called New

Amsterdam•Further up the Hudson, where Albany is

today, the company built Ft. Orange•The land on both sides of the river from Ft.

Orange to New Amsterdam formed the colony of New Netherland

•New Amsterdam was chosen as the capital

FUN AT FT. ORANGE•At Ft. Orange the Dutch made friends

with the Iroquois and traded with them•The Iroquois brought valuable furs to the

fort•In exchange for the furs, the Indians were

given gunpowder, beads, and other small items

ENTICING MORE SETTLERS•The Dutch West India Company wanted farmers

as well as fur traders in New Netherland•Thus the company offered a huge grant of land

free to anyone who would bring 50 settlers to farm the land

•Those who took advantage of this offer and built large estates were called patroons

•Colonists who could not afford to buy large estates got smaller amounts of land that they could farm by themselves

THOU SHALT NOT COVET•New Netherland stood at the heart of

England’s American colonies•It lay between New England to the north

and the other English colonies further south

•New Netherland itself was a rich prize•New Amsterdam had one of the finest

harbors on the coast of North America

MINE, MINE, MINE•In 1664, English King

Charles II decided to take over Dutch lands in North America

•1st he gave New Netherland to his brother the Duke of York

•Then he sent a fleet of warships to force the colony’s governor, Peter Stuyvesant (AKA “Old Silver Nails”), to surrender

STUYVESANT RESPONDS• Angered at the sight of British warships in the

harbor, Stuyvesant vowed to fight• The Dutch govt had sent no warships to defend the

colony• Even though the colony allowed religious freedom

and encouraged Puritans, French Huguenots, and Jews to come, the people of New Amsterdam did not strongly support the Dutch West India Company

• Stuyvesant turned over the colony to its new owner, the Duke of York, practically without firing a shot

• Both the town and the colony were renamed New York

NEW JERSEY•The Duke of York did not keep all the land

taken from the Dutch•He gave the land east and west of the

Delaware River to a pair of English nobles, Sir George Carteret and Lord John Berkeley

•They dubbed their land New Jersey

PENNSYLVANIA QUAKERS•The story of PA began at Oxford

Univ. in England•There, the 16 year old William

Penn attended a meeting that changed his life

•AT the meeting, everyone sat for long periods without saying a word

•Then a man who called himself a friend began to speak

•He talked of an inner light and the need to live at peace with all people

MORE THAN JUST A LAME TV SHOW•William was deeply moved•He learned that these

people were members of a group called the Society of Friends

•Because the founder had urged the friends to tremble, or quake at the word of God, people often called them Quakers

•William Penn Sr. established PA in 1681

Another City Upon a Hill?• The Duke of York gave up a large

part of his estate in 1682 when he paid off a debt to William Penn Jr.

• Years before, the Duke of York had borrowed money from Senior

• The capital city was Philadelphia (City of Brotherly Love) and it was laid out with a checkerboard pattern

• Penn thought this was the chance to establish an ideal society

KEY PA IDEAS•Religious freedom•Equality for women•Govt help for poor people•pacifism

BORING DELAWARE•In 1704 Penn granted PA’s three lower

counties their own assembly•They later broke away to form Delaware