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In response to their demands for self-government, he and the council in 1647 appointed an advisory board of nine, and in 1653 there was established the first municipal government for the city of New Amsterdam, modeled after the cities of Holland.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Stuyvesant became involved in a dispute with Theophilus Eaton, the governor of English New Haven Colony, over the border of the two colonies.
Who was Peter Stuyvesant and why was he famous? Peter Stuyvesant (1592-1672) was the Dutch colonist who became the last Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664, after which it was renamed New York.
Protests by the residents finally won them an independent city government in 1653. Stuyvesant’s severe inflexibility made him unpopular among his associates. When war broke out between the Dutch and the British, the people of New Amsterdam were ready to welcome British rule.
- Legacy
- Early life and education
- Early career
- Governance
- Activities
- Later life
- Assessment
- Bibliography
The last and most efficient of Dutch proconsuls in the European struggle for control of North America, Peter Stuyvesant is remembered as the stubborn, somewhat choleric governor of the Dutch West India Company's base on the mainland. A zealous Calvinist, he brought a relatively effective government to the colony, absorbed the nearby rival Swedish s...
Born at Scherpenzeel, Friesland, Stuyvesant was the son of a Calvinist Dutch Reformed minister. He attended school in Friesland, where he heard much about New Netherland and about Holland's war with Spain. He became a student at the University of Franeker but was apparently expelled, for reasons unknown, about 1629.
Patriotic, and desiring adventure, Stuyvesant entered the service of the Dutch West India Companyfirst as a clerk and then, in 1635, as a supercargo to Brazil. By 1638 he had become chief commercial officer for Curaçao; in 1643 he returned there as governor. The following year he led an unsuccessful attack against the Portuguese colony of St. Marti...
Though harsh and dictatorial, Stuyvesant introduced a number of needed reforms, particularly directed toward improving New Amsterdam's living conditions. He appointed fire wardens and ordered chimney inspections, instituted a weekly market and annual cattle fair, required bakers to use standard weights, somewhat controlled traffic and sanitation, r...
One of Stuyvesant's first official acts was to organize a naval expedition against the Spaniards operating within the limits of the West India Company's charter. A force sent against Ft. Christina in 1655 conquered Sweden's province on the Delaware River and absorbed the settlements into New Netherland. Peace was made with marauding Native American...
The governor's salary plus allowances (approximately $1, 600, all told) enabled Stuyvesant to purchase a bouwerie, or farm, of 300 acres north of the city wall and a town lot for a house with gardens beside the fort. He lived comfortably in these, and his two sons were both born in New Amsterdam. In 1664, while England and Holland were still at pea...
Henry Kessler and Eugene Rachlis, Peter Stuyvesant and His New York (1959), is the most scholarly and readable study of Stuyvesant. Informative is John Franklin Jameson, Narratives of New Netherland (1909; new ed. 1952). Bayard Tuckerman, Peter Stuyvesant (1893), although outdated, is valuable. Hendrick Willem Van Loon, Life and Times of Pieter Stu...
Picard, Hymen Willem Johannes, Peter Stuyvesant, builder of New York, Cape Town: Hollandsch Afrikaansche Uitgevers Maatschappij, 1975.
Peter Stuyvesant was the last Dutch director-general of the New Netherland colony, serving from 1647 until its surrender to the English in 1664. His leadership marked a critical period in the development of Dutch colonial settlements, characterized by attempts to strengthen the economy and enforce order, but also faced challenges from diverse ...
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In 1828, the population surpassed 7,000 and Louisville became Kentucky's first city. John Bucklin was elected the first Mayor. The nearby towns of Shippingport and Portland remained independent of Louisville for the time being.
