A Homage to July 4th and American Independence

A Homage to July 4th and American Independence

Throughout the many years of research for my book, The Love of Money, I was constantly struck by historically documented tales of the tenacity and ingenuity of the European settlers who colonized the East Coast of America and how that spirit to survive and flourish in a hostile New World imbued their descendants with a steely determination to rid themselves of foreign tyranny and injustice.

In Philadelphia on January 10th, 1776, a fellow countryman of mine published an anonymous pamphlet. It was tantamount to a treasonable act at the time as it called for Americans to rise up against the oppression of the British King George and his punitive laws and taxations. Its working title had been Plain Truth, but its published name was Common Sense and it was written by Englishman, Thomas Paine. It achieved extraordinary sales reaching most of America's then 2.5 million colonists. Paine maintained his anonymity until March 30th, 1776. He donated all his royalties from Common Sense to George Washington's Continental Army.
The sentiments and passion in the pamphlet captured the hearts and imaginations of a newly cohesive people and inspired the Thirteen Colonies to declare their position and fight for independence in the Summer of 1776.

On July 4th, 1776, the Continental Congress approved Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. This day was described by John Adams as 'the most memorable epoch in the history of America.'
Adams also stated that this first day of debate of this Declaration 'will be forever celebrated in America.' 'It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty,' he wrote. 'It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illumination, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore.'
His prediction could not have been more accurate.

John Hancock, President of the Congress, declared after scrawling his signature rather boldly across the document, 'There, I guess King George will be able to read that.'

Ben Franklin reflected, with a shot of humour, that, 'Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.'

On September 9th, 1776, the nation's name changed from the United Congress to the United States.

I would like to pay my respects to the bravery and courage of those Founding Fathers.

Native American Wars in New Jersey

The area of North America that now encompasses New Jersey, Manhattan, New York State, Long Island, Coney Island, Staten Island, parts of Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Rhode Island was collectively known in the early part of the 17th century as New Netherland. It was an enormous chunk of land and was under the control of a single company, the Dutch West India Company. The New World settlement of New Netherland was run as a business and enterprises there had to be profitable. The post of Director-General would be recognised today as the CEO of a major global corporation. His governance was reinforced by an army of soldiers.

New Netherland, though, was not particularly profitable. Defence of the colonies was costly and non-effective and so land 'purchase' agreements were entered into with the local natives.There would be common use of lands, friendly relations and mutual protection. In 1639, Governor Kieft decided that, as the Dutch had 'bought' the land from the natives, extracting 'tribute' from the natives was an excellent fund-raiser and, ignoring long-term settlers' advice, he imposed his plan. Tribal leaders rejected it outright and this set Kieft on a headlong clash with local tribes.

Seizing on a rumour of natives stealing pigs from Dutch farmer David de Vries, Kieft ordered soldiers to raid a Raritan village on Staten Island. When the natives responded by burning down De Vries' farmhouse and killing four farm hands, Kieft offered a bounty payment of ten fathoms of wampum to rival tribes for each head of a Raritan native. It was later learned that the hogs had, in fact, been stolen by other Dutch settlers!

In 1641, Claes Swits, a Dutch colonist and owner of a popular public house in Deutel (Turtle) Bay, Manhattan, was beheaded by one of his customers, a 27 year-old Wappinger native, in revenge for the death of his uncle by white colonists. This incident reinforced Kieft's determination to wage war against the natives of New Netherland in order to subjugate the tribes and to levy tribute.

In 1643, natives from the Wappinger Confederacy were fleeing attacks by the Mahican and had sought out protection from the Dutch at Fort Amsterdam. The refugees set up camps at Communipaw (Jersey City) and Corlaer's Hook (Lower Manhattan). They had no idea that there was a price on their heads. Kieft responded by sending 129 soldiers to kill the natives as they slept. One hundred and twenty innocent natives, including women and children, were murdered. This savage event has become known as the Pavonia Massacre.

In retaliation for this atrocity, a force of 1,500 natives invaded the New Netherlands territory destroying homesteads, villages and settlements that had been two decades in the making. Among the dead was Anne Hutchinson, a notable dissident preacher, who had been cast out from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, for her anti-Puritan views. It is also unclear as to whether Jonas Bronck, after whom the Bronx is named was a fatal casualty of this uprising. A few months later, Dutch troops responded by killing 500 Weckquaesgeek.

Kieft's War against the natives flew against all the advice from his Council of Twelve Men and, when the war eventually came to an end with a truce and peace treaty in 1645, Kieft was recalled to the Provinces of Holland to answer for his actions. He died in a shipwreck en route in 1647.

His successor was Pieter Stuyvesant.

For a novel set during 17th century New Amsterdam/New York featuring piracy, natives, slavery, murder, trading and treachery:

Read my novel Manhattan Legacy available on Lulu.com 

Read reviews of Manhattan Legacy on Amazon

You can buy Manhattan Legacy in various ebook formats on Smashwords

A Mother's Power

The responsibility that comes with becoming a mother is both frightening and exciting. I understand now that the reality of either loving your child or rejecting your child has far-reaching effects on them - it can mean the difference between them leading a happy, fulfilled life or one that is lived in constant self-denigration and unhappiness.

It is magical being a mother, but it was not something that was immediately obvious to me when I first became pregnant, nor throughout my pregnancy, nor during a scary, Cesarean-necessary birth. 

My mother had told me when I was about five that she hadn't wanted me, didn't want me. I had ruined her whole life as she could no longer get a divorce from my father- at that time marriage was inviolate! So I grew up knowing that my mother disliked and resented me: there were no kisses, no cuddles nor any show of care or love.

When I got married and became pregnant a year later, I had no notion of what being a mother meant, so I approached the whole thing in a cold, calculating frame of mind. I read everything there was to know about pregnancy - I had been a researcher with the Sunday Times Newspaper and so knew how to ferret out information. I was a well informed amateur which, it turned out, was quite useful when things went horribly wrong during the delivery. I had a pretty good idea about what the medical team were doing.

Returning home with my new baby, in considerable discomfort from my operation, I still had no particular bonds with my child. That is until a foolish midwife said something about my son and then I was a She-Devil from Hell! From deep within me came emotions I didn't think I was capable of producing- a burning, physical rage swept over my entire body, firing me to a height of anger I'd never felt before. At that same split second, I felt the most chest-swelling love for my little boy that still exists today, several decades later, and it is exactly the same with his younger brother. 

Being a mother had opened up an unknown sentient dimension in me that, in turn, opened up love, empathy and an awareness of real life. Prior to this, I had enjoyed a life of fabulous jobs, holidays and a social life to die for - I wasn't shallow, just ignorant of a finer state of humanity.

I love my two sons and I am so grateful that I got to experience something that my poor, misguided mother couldn't - mother love.

Native American New Jersey

Before I address the story of how the English managed to take New Netherlands from the Dutch and claim sovereignty in America, I'd first like to mention the other nation that lived on these lands before any Europeans settled.

I mean, of course, Native Americans. My first knowledge of such a people came when I watched a sixties TV programme called the Lone Ranger. Being English I believed that 'Indians' came from the subcontinent of India in the East. This image of an American native was one that was reinforced by subsequent films in the 'Cowboy and Indian' genre which depicted the natives as barbaric heathens intent on massacring the white man. I know understand a little more about this conflict.

Firstly, the Dutch. A hardy seafaring nation who had raised lands and great cities by draining below-sea level countryside, a creative and innovative people responsible for many great works of art, architecture and who encouraged philosophical literature. They had a business-like mentality that saw commerce and trading as a priority and with this came the acquisitive nature of the Dutch.When explorers searching for the elusive Northwest Passage to the riches of the Orient accidentally discovered the Americas it provided an irresistible trading opportunity for Dutch merchants.

When the first colonists and Governors of the West India Company made tentative inroads into the wilds of the eastern seaboard of America and attempted to settle, they encountered failure of crops, famine, Ice Age temperatures and fatal illnesses. It was the natives who helped to ease some of their misfortunes.

Secondly, Native Americans. The story of how the Dutchman, Peter Minuit, bought Manhattan for $24 is well known and is a tale of modern day incredulity. But when we come to understand that the indigenous population had no idea of land 'ownership', then we begin to see why conflict was inevitable. Trade agreements, familial and societal structures were misconstrued and misunderstood by both sides and the lack of a common language further frustrated the situation.

Living a nomadic life, natives revered the seasons of nature, following migratory routes of the animals they hunted for food and clothing, establishing temporary camps to grow their crops and then after the harvest move on to fresh fields to save the soil from overuse. Their love and worship of all things in nature is underscored by their naming of places and rivers that still exist today: Schenectady "beyond the pines"; Poughkeepsie "reed-covered lodge by the little-water place"; Hackensack "stony ground"; Hoboken "land of tobacco pipe"; Manhattan "island of many hills"; Amagansett, "the fishing place"; Connecticut "at the long, tidal river".

It's little wonder that relations between two such differing cultures sank into bloody, relentless war.

In my next blog - the wars:  Pavonia Massacre in 1643, Kieft's War 1643-45, and the Peach Tree War in 1655.


For an historical thriller about pre-New York Manhattan:

Read my novel Manhattan Legacy available on Lulu.com 

Read reviews of Manhattan Legacy on Amazon

You can buy Manhattan Legacy in various ebook formats on Smashwords

New Jersey - the invasion continues

New Jersey - the invasion continues

Early in the game, the Dutch recognised the huge potential that lay in the New World: an endless source of luxurious furs; vital timber supplies at a time when Europe needed wood for fighting wars, shipbuilding, and housing; and a key geographical position for the route to the fabulous Orient and its riches.

Although the Dutch were not a 'colonising' nation like the English, the Spanish and the French, they nevertheless saw the advantage in having a 'presence' in the Americas. To those ends the Dutch West India Company settled their 'employees' in strategic areas around the eastern coastline so as to command the best vantage points. With the island of Manhattan under their flag, they gained a deep, natural harbour in New York Bay, the East and Hudson Rivers afforded ease of transport to the innermost reaches of the surrounding wilderness, as well as being the means by which the natives brought along and sold their perfectly trapped pelts, Pavonia (New Jersey) forests supported all manner of wildlife, soil was rich enough to grow crops and the indigenous natives had been mainly supportive.

For a while the Dutch sat happily enough in New Netherland, the vast expanse of territory stretching from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod, with their Company hauling in profits hand over fist. But this wasn't to last. Their grip on the southern area of their territory was compromised by the destruction of Zwaanendael, a patroonship belonging to Samuel Blommaert and Samuel Godijn by local natives in 1631. Apart from Fort Nassau and its small colony, settlement along the Zuyd (Delaware) River was limited, therefore when Peter Minuit - the man who had been instrumental in purchasing Manhattan Island for the Dutch and was later fired by them- obtained a commission from the Swedish Queen to sail to America. Minuit knew of the Dutch achilles heel and captained his ship, Kalmar Nyckel, accompanied by the Fogel Grip, up the Zuyd River to a spot on the Minquas Kill tributary. He established the colony of Fort Christina, named for the Swedish sovereign, on the southern banks of Godyn's Bay (Delaware Bay), named for Samuel Godijn of Zwaanendael.

For the next 17 years the Dutch and the Swedish were at each other's throats, vying for land and its rich commodities. Pieter Stuyvesant would eventually end up taking the Fort and claim the surrounding territory for the Dutch in 1655.

Before leaving to settle in the Americas, the prospective Swedish colonists had had the presence of mind to commandeer Finnish woodsmen to accompany them to the New World. In addition to the farming methods the Finns employed to enrich their soil for crops - cutting down forest and burning the timber for nutrients, they had a unique method of cabin-building, which prevails to this day as the iconic American log-cabin.

Next time the English make their move ...

New Jersey is born!

How does a huge area of land in Eastern America come to be named after a tiny island off the coast of England and France? Here begins the history...

In the 17th century, the Dutch West India Company found that it needed patrons to invest in their ventures in the New World. To those ends it introduced Patroonships, a form of plantation ownership, where wealthy men in Amsterdam in Holland were encouraged to take on areas of wilderness in New Netherland with the proviso that they would send at least fifty colonists to settle there.

One of the best locations was snapped up in 1630 by Michael Pauw, who named his Patroonship, 'Pavonia', after his own Latinised surname. It was located along the west bank shores of the Noorte (Hudson) and Hackensack Rivers and sat opposite Manhattan Island.

Unfortunately, this Patroonship was a dismal failure and Pauw swiftly sold it back to the West India Company. The Company set about resettling Pavonia and in 1633, commissioned the building of a homestead for one of its superintendents, Jan Evertsz Bout. The spit of land on which the house was built was known as Jan de Lacher's Hoeck or Jan, the Laughter's Point after his jocular nature. His homestead was the beginnings of present-day Communipaw, named after the Lenape gamunkpeauke, meaning the 'landing place on the other side of the river'. Bergen was a factorij or trading post for this colony. Plantations, worked by enslaved Africans, spread out across the lowlands between the shoreline and the hills.

A second bouwerie (home farm) was established in 1634, for Bout's replacement, Cornelis Hendriksen Van Voorst, at Ahasimus, the Lenape for 'Crow's Marsh.' Voorst's descendants would play a prominent role in the development of Jersey City.

Dutchman Abraham Isaac Planck was given a land grant for Paulus Hook on May 1, 1638. A small farmstead was set up at Kewan Punt. In Hobuk (Hoboken), the leasehold of Aert Van Putten saw the founding of North America's first brewery.

Further small settlements were established throughout Pavonia, securing a foothold on the west bank of the Noorte River and giving the West India Company strategic control over the trading posts for settlers and natives who dealt in valuable beaver pelts.

As the Swedish and the English move in, can the Dutch survive? Read what happens next time.

Read my novel Manhattan Legacy available on Lulu.com 

Read reviews of Manhattan Legacy on Amazon

You can buy Manhattan Legacy in various ebook formats on Smashwords

How was New York City born?

Positioned neatly in the confluence between two rivers; the Hudson River and the East River, Manhattan Island was a natural location for explorers to land and for traders to set up trading posts.

The first settlers to arrive in the wake of explorers, Henry Hudson and Adriaen Block, were the Dutch. They settled in 1623 on Nut Island (now Governor's Island) until, needing more pasture and water for themselves and their cattle, they moved onto Lower Manhattan in 1625.

The West India Company laid down an organised and efficient set of instructions for the care and protection of the land and people of its new colony.  Unfortunately, the first provisional Governor of the new colony was Willem Verhulst, a troublesome man, who misappropriated funds and caused strife with the local natives, who had been very supportive to the new settlers. The colonists demanded his removal from office and the post of Director General was then given to Peter Minuit.

In early 1626, news arrived in New Amsterdam that Dutch settlers at Fort Orange (Albany) had been massacred by hostile Mohawk natives. Minuit was a man of practical vision and immediately saw that the geographic location of New Amsterdam had many advantages. It was on the tip of an island, surrounded by water, with far-reaching views across the Bay - here was a great place for a defensive fort. The settlement's deep harbour was connected to Upper Bay and then to the Atlantic and was perfect for large trading vessels making the journey to and from Europe. There were flatlands for farming, freshwater streams and the sea for fish, forests full of wildlife; beaver, wolves, deer, black bear, mountain lions and game and it was a place where fur-trapping natives came from far and wide to trade.

Fur traders were in their element. In Europe, the fashion for high crowned hats created a lucrative market for beaver skins. The pelt which lay beneath the top layer of their fur was used in making felt, a must-have for the status conscious in all walks of life from Puritans to nobility.

In 1626, Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan from the local natives, the Lenni Lenape, for 60 Dutch Guilders or $24. Of course, the natives had no idea of land-ownership. Property deals to them meant giving permission for those lands to be used by the newcomers in exchange for knives, blankets, kettles and other useful implements. They also looked to the Europeans as military allies against their own enemies.

So, why does the Seal of New York City have the date of 1625 and bear the name of New York when it was still Dutch at that time and called New Amsterdam?

More next time...

For a novel set in early 17th century Manhattan about trade, murder, betrayal, piracy and slavery:

Read my novel Manhattan Legacy available on Lulu.com 

Read reviews of Manhattan Legacy on Amazon

You can buy Manhattan Legacy in various ebook formats on Smashwords