Kieft's War

Background

The Dutch West India Company appointed Kieft as director despite his apparent lack of experience or qualifications, possibly through family political connections. He arrived in New Netherland in April 1638.

The Pequot War (1636–1638) had seen English colonies and their Indian allies defeat the Dutch-allied Pequot, easing English expansion into northern New Netherland along the Connecticut River. Peter Minuit, the previous director-general, left two weeks before Kieft arrived to establish New Sweden in the Delaware Valley. The colony had grown beyond a company town, and in 1640 the Company ended its trade monopoly, making New Netherland a free-trade zone under Kieft's governorship.

Skirmishing

Kieft first sought to reduce costs by demanding tribute from local tribes, despite warnings from long-time colonists. Tribal chiefs refused. After pigs were stolen from David Pietersz. de Vries's farm, Kieft sent soldiers to raid a Raritan village on Staten Island, killing several people. Colonists later learned that other colonists had stolen the pigs.

In August 1641, a Weckquaesgeek Indian killed Claes Swits, an elderly Dutch immigrant who ran a public house in Turtle Bay, Manhattan. Another incident at Achter Kol on the Hackensack River involved a conflict over a missing coat after drinking at a trading post, resulting in the foreman's death. Colonists resisted Kieft's war initiatives, so he used the Swits murder to build support, creating the Council of Twelve Men—the first popularly elected body in New Netherland.

The council, alarmed at the prospect of war after nearly two decades of peace, rejected his proposal to massacre the Weckquaesgeek village if the murderer was not produced. The council instead advised Kieft on other matters and called for a permanent representative body; Kieft dissolved the council and forbade them to meet.

Pavonia Massacre

On the night of February 25, 1643, New Netherland colonists raided Lenape camps at Pavonia and murdered 120 people, among them women and children. De Vries recorded that soldiers hacked infants apart and drowned families.

That same night, a similar assault at Corlears Hook killed about 40 more. Whether Governor Kieft intended a massacre or a smaller raid is debated, but he did reward the soldiers. These attacks unified the surrounding Algonquian peoples against the Dutch.

Two years of war

The Dutch began arming the Mohawk as allies in 1643. In late 1643, 1,500 Indians invaded New Netherland, killing many, including Anne Hutchinson, and destroying two decades of settlement. Dutch forces killed 500 Weckquaesgeek that winter in retaliation. New Amsterdam filled with destitute refugees, and colonists resisted Kieft's rule, refusing new taxes and leaving by ship.

Kieft hired Captain John Underhill, who raised militia on Long Island and in Connecticut, killing over 1,000 Indians, including 500–700 in the Pound Ridge Massacre. Colonists petitioned the Dutch West India Company and the Dutch Republic for Kieft's removal, writing of their misery among 'thousands of wild and barbarian people.' For two years, united tribes harassed settlers, but colonial forces were too sparse to stop them, and the Indians too spread out for effective strikes. A truce was agreed in August 1645 when the last of the 69 united tribes joined.

Did You Know?

• Kieft died in a shipwreck near Swansea, Wales, while returning to the Netherlands in 1647.