Feb 25, 1643, Many first came to the White, European settlements
in the 1600s. Before it was New York the city on the Hudson River was known as
New Amsterdam and the territorial governor was a man named Willem Kieft.
Willem Kieft arrived in New Netherland in 1639 appointed
as Director of New Netherland, with a directive to increase profits from the
port at Pavonia. He was also to hold the territory from rival powers England,
France, and Sweden. As the representative of the Dutch West India Company, Kieft made a series of moves to stabilize New Amsterdam; he was allowed to
have all nations to trade in New Amsterdam and use the Hudson River in exchange
for an import/export tax, and encourage settlers to purchase their own land
within New Amsterdam instead of just leasing from the company. He also attempted
to exact tribute from the native Lenape with claims that the money
would buy them protection from rival groups.
Due to war between the Algonquin and Mohican people the Lenape
were also among the First Contact refugees and made camps on the western shore
of the Hudson. Relations between New Amsterdam and the Lenape were not great,
although there were economic dealings the natives had refused the protection
tax and suffered from European diseases and livestock encroachment onto their
land. occasional acts of savage killing
on both sides also increased tensions.
One night, hundreds of Lenape fleeing Mohican invaders
sought refuge in New Amsterdam. Kieft not only refused, but on February 25,
1643, he led a raiding party of 80 men into Pavonia, the old name for northern
New Jersey, and slaughtered over a hundred unarmed Lenape of all gender and
ages. This became known as the “Pavonia Massacre.”
It was reported to be brutal, a witness wrote to the 12-man
advisory council in New Amsterdam: “Infants were torn from their mother’s
breasts and hacked to pieces in the presence of their parents, and pieces
thrown into the fire and in the water”
David De Vries, a prominent citizen in New Amsterdam and a
political adversary of Governor Kieft recounted hearing the sounds of the
massacre from his hearth across the Hudson River in New Amsterdam; “I heard
a great shrieking, and I ran to the ramparts of the fort and looked over to
Pavonia. Saw nothing but firing, and the shrieks of the natives murdered in
their sleep.”
The Native Americans called this "The Slaughter of the
Innocents". This attack united the Algonquian peoples in the
surrounding areas, to an extent not seen before. On October 1, 1643, a force of
united "tribes" attacked the White homesteads at Pavonia, most of which
were burned to the ground. Many settlers were killed and those who survived
were ordered to the relative safety of New Amsterdam. Pavonia was evacuated. However,
the next generation of Algonquin and Iroquois would be devastated by smallpox
and were no longer a military threat by the 1664 British takeover.
The place known as Pavonia is now part of the Communipaw
neighborhood of Jersey City, New Jersey. Where the salt marsh led to the river
itself is now cut off from the water by the New Jersey Turnpike.
In many ways, the Pavonia Massacre was the beginning of the
First Nations genocide
Sources:
https://anothertownonthehudson.com/2015/06/05/the-pavonia-massacre/
Learn more about the #PAVONIA1643 project here https://www.publichistoryproject.org/remembering-pavonia/#pavonia1643
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