Kieft's War - War

War

As the colonists resisted Kieft's Indian initiatives, he tried to use the Swits incident to build popular support for war. He created the Council of Twelve Men, the first popularly elected body in the New Netherlands colony, to advise him on retaliation. But, the council rejected Kieft's proposal to massacre the Weckquaesgeek village if they refused to produce the murderer. The colonists had lived in peace with the Native Americans for nearly two decades, becoming friends, business partners, employees, employers, drinking buddies, and bed partners. The Council was alarmed about the consequences of Kieft's proposed crusade.

The Native Americans were far more numerous than the Europeans and could easily take reprisals against their lives and property. As importantly, the Native Americans supplied the furs and pelts that were the economic lifeblood and the raison d'etre of the colony. With David de Vries as its President, the council sought to dissuade Kieft from war. They began to advise him on other matters, using the new Council to carry the interests of colonists to the corporate rulers. They called for establishing a permanent representative body to manage local affairs (as was traditional by then in the Netherlands). Kieft responded by dissolving the council and issuing a decree forbidding them to meet or assemble.

Kieft sent a punitive expedition to attack the fugitive Indian's village, but the militia got lost. He accepted the peace offerings of Weckquaesgeek elders. On February 23, 1643, two weeks after dismissing the Council, Kieft launched an attack on camps of refugee Weckquaesgeek and Tappan. Expansionist Mahican and Mohawk in the North (armed with guns traded by the French and English) had driven them south the year before, where they sought protection from the Dutch. Kieft refused aid despite the company's previous guarantees to the tribes to provide it. The refugees made camp at Communipaw (in today's Jersey City) and Corlaers Hook (lower Manhattan). In the initial strike, since called the Pavonia Massacre, 129 Dutch soldiers descended on the camps and killed 120 Native Americans, including women and children. Having opposed the attack, de Vries described the events in his journal:

Historians differ on whether Kieft had directed the massacre or a more contained raid. All sources agree that he rewarded the soldiers for their deeds. The attacks united the Algonquian peoples in the surrounding areas against the Dutch to an extent not previously seen.

In the fall of 1643, a force of 1,500 natives invaded New Netherland, where they killed many, including Anne Hutchinson, the notable dissident preacher. They destroyed villages and farms, the work of two decades of settlement. In retaliation that winter, Dutch forces killed 500 Weckquaesgeek. As New Amsterdam became crowded with destitute refugees, the colonists resisted Kieft's rule.

They flouted paying new taxes he ordered, and many people began to leave by ship. Kieft hired the military commander Underhill, who recruited militia on Long Island to go against the Natives there and in Connecticut. His forces killed more than 1,000 Natives. After their private letters requesting intervention by the directors of the Dutch West India Company and the Republic produced no result, the colonists banded together to formally petition for the removal of Kieft.

We sit here among thousands of wild and barbarian people, in whom neither consolation nor mercy can be found; we left our dear fatherland, and if God the Lord were not our comfort we would perish in our misery.

— Excerpt from the petition

For the next two years, the united tribes harassed settlers all across New Netherland. The sparse colonial forces were helpless to stop the attacks, but the natives were too spread out to mount more effective strikes. The two sides finally agreed to a truce when the last of the eleven united tribes joined in August 1645.