At the age of 20, but several years later he was expelled from the school after he seduced the daughter of his landlord. He was then sent to Amsterdam by his father, where Stuyvesant – now using the Latinized version of his first name, "Petrus", to indicate that he had university schooling – joined the
Dutch West India Company (GWC). In 1630, the company assigned him to be their commercial agent on a small island just off of
Brazil,
Fernando de Noronha, and then five years later transferred him to the nearby Brazilian state of
Pernambuco. In 1638, he was moved again, this time to the colony of
Curaçao, the main Dutch naval base in the
West Indies, where, just four years later, aged 30, he became the acting governor of that colony, as well as
Aruba and
Bonaire, The West India Company saw the loss of Stuyvesant's leg as a "Roman" sacrifice, while Stuyvesant himself saw the fact that he did not die from his injury as a sign that God was saving him to do great things. A year later, in May 1645, he was selected by the company to replace
Willem Kieft as Director-General of the
New Netherland colony, including
New Amsterdam, the site of present-day
New York City.
New Netherland Stuyvesant had to wait for his appointment to be confirmed by the
Dutch States-General. During that time he married Judith Bayard, who was the daughter of a
Huguenot minister and hailed from
Breda. Together, they left Amsterdam in December 1646 and, after stopping at Curaçao, arrived in
New Amsterdam by May 1647. Kieft's incompetence had left the colony in terrible condition. Only a small number of villages remained after the brutal wars launched by his administration, and many of their inhabitants had given up and returned to Europe, leaving only 250 to 300 men able to carry arms. Kieft himself had obtained a fortune of over 4,000
guilders without explanation and spent much of it to feed his growing
alcoholism. In September 1647 he appointed the
Nine Men, an advisory council composed of representatives of the colonists, to help rebuild relationships with them, temper his rule with their guidance, and restore New Netherland to the kind of well-run place that the Dutch preferred. In an effort to remedy the neglect on the town, previously under Kieft's administration, Stuyvesant took measures to improve the appearance and safety of the town, with numerous regulations to achieve this end that were routinely issued by his office. Building codes were established for houses and other structures, including fences in an effort to control the widespread problem of wandering livestock about the town. As the housing and other structures in New Amsterdam were built almost entirely from wood and stood very close together the possibility of a spreading fire was very great. As governor, Stuyvensant forbade the construction of wooden chimneys, and imposed a tax of a beaver skin, or its trade equivalent, on every householder to finance the cost of two hundred and fifty leather fire buckets and hooks and ladders, which he had sent from Holland. He also established a system of fire wardens and a volunteer fire watch that patrolled the streets to keep an eye on any fire, or potential fire, from nine o'clock in the evening until the morning drum-beat. As such Stuyvesant became the organizer and head of the first volunteer firemen in America
External threats The colony of New Netherland had severe external problems. The population was too small and contentious, and the Company provided little military support. The most serious was the economic rivalry with England regarding trade. Secondarily there were small scale military conflicts with neighboring Indian tribes, involving fights between mobile bands on the one hand, and scattered small Dutch outposts on the other. With a large area and limited population, defense was a major challenge. Stuyvesant's greatest success came in dealing with the
Delaware River colony of
New Sweden, which he
invaded and annexed in 1655. Relations with the English
Connecticut Colony were strained, with disputes over ownership of land in the Connecticut valley, and in eastern Long island. The treaty of Hartford of 1650 was advantageous to the English, as Stuyvesant gave up claims to the Connecticut Valley while gaining only a small portion of Long island. In any case, Connecticut settlers ignored the treaty and steadily poured into the Hudson Valley, where they agitated against Stuyvesant. In 1664, England sent an expeditionary force to capture New Netherland. The colony's settlers refused to fight, forcing Stuyvesant to surrender and demonstrating the dilemma of domestic dissatisfaction, small size, and overwhelming external pressures with inadequate military support from the Company that was fixated on profits.
Expansion of the colony Stuyvesant became involved in a dispute with
Theophilus Eaton, the governor of English
New Haven Colony, over the border of the two colonies. In September 1650, a meeting of the commissioners on boundaries took place in
Hartford, Connecticut, called the
Treaty of Hartford, to settle the border between New Amsterdam and the English colonies to the north and east. The border was arranged to the dissatisfaction of the Nine Men, who declared that "the governor had ceded away enough territory to found fifty colonies each fifty miles square." Stuyvesant then threatened to dissolve the council. A new plan of municipal government was arranged in the Netherlands, and the name "New Amsterdam" was officially declared on 2 February 1653. Stuyvesant made a speech for the occasion, saying that his authority would remain undiminished. Stuyvesant was then ordered to the Netherlands, but the order was soon revoked under pressure from the States of Holland and the city of Amsterdam. Stuyvesant prepared against an attack by ordering the citizens to dig a ditch from the North River to the
East River and to erect a fortification. In 1653, a convention of two deputies from each village in New Netherland demanded reforms, and Stuyvesant commanded that assembly to disperse, saying: "We derive our authority from God and the company, not from a few ignorant subjects." In 1654, Stuyvesant signed a deed for an allotment of land that corresponds to the modern-day
Financial District of lower Manhattan. In the summer of 1655, he sailed down to the
Delaware River with a fleet of seven vessels and about 300 men and
took possession of the colony of New Sweden, which was renamed "New Amstel." In his absence,
Pavonia and
Staten Island were attacked by Native Americans on 15 September 1655 in what became known as the
Peach War. Stuyvesant built an executive mansion out of stone that was later renamed
Whitehall by the English. In 1660, Stuyvesant was quoted as saying that "Nothing is of greater importance than the early instruction of youth." In 1661, New Amsterdam had one grammar school, two free elementary schools, and had licensed 28 schoolmasters. As director-general of New Netherland, Stuyvesant greatly increased the colony's involvement with
slavery. During the late 1640s, authorities in the neighboring English colonies of Connecticut and
Maryland encouraged New Netherland slaves to escape there, refusing to return them. In 1650, Stuyvesant threatened to offer freedom to
Maryland slaves unless the colony stopped sheltering runaways from New Netherland. In 1657, the GWC's directors wrote to Stuyvesant, telling him that they were not going to be able to send him all the tradesmen that he requested and that he would have to use
slaves as well. Although it is commonly thought that Stuyvesant was New Netherland's largest slaveholder, he only owned two slaves, purchasing them as part of the farm he bought from the GWC in 1651. of 1660 is the only Dutch-era map of the settlement on Manhattan
Religious freedom Stuyvesant did not tolerate full religious freedom in the colony, and was strongly committed to the supremacy of the
Dutch Reformed Church. In 1657 he refused Lutherans the right to organize a church. When he also issued an ordinance forbidding them from worshiping in their own homes, the directors of the GWC, three of whom were Lutherans, told him to rescind the order and allow private gatherings of Lutherans. The Company position was that more tolerance led to more trade and benefited everyone. Freedom of religion was further tested when Stuyvesant refused to allow the
permanent settlement of Jewish refugees from
Dutch Brazil in New Amsterdam (without passports), and join the handful of existing Jewish traders (with passports from Amsterdam). Stuyvesant attempted to have Jews leave the colony "in a friendly way". As he wrote to the Amsterdam Chamber of the GWC in 1654, he hoped that "the deceitful race, — such hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of Christ, — be not allowed to further infect and trouble this new colony." He referred to Jews as a "deceitful race" and "usurers", and was concerned that "Jewish settlers should not be granted the same liberties enjoyed by Jews in Holland, lest members of other persecuted minority groups, such as Roman Catholics, be attracted to the colony." Stuyvesant's decision was again rescinded after pressure from the directors of the company. As a result, Jewish immigrants were allowed to stay in the colony as long as their community was self-supporting. However, Stuyvesant would not allow them to build a synagogue, forcing them to worship instead in a private house. In 1657, the
Quakers, who were newly arrived in the colony, drew his attention. He ordered the public torture of Robert Hodgson, a 23-year-old Quaker convert who had become an influential preacher. Stuyvesant then made an ordinance, punishable by fine and imprisonment, against anyone found guilty of harboring Quakers. That action led to a protest from the citizens of
Flushing, which came to be known as the
Flushing Remonstrance, considered by some historians to be a precursor to the
United States Constitution's provision on
freedom of religion in the
Bill of Rights.
Capitulation In 1664,
King Charles II of England ceded to his brother, the Duke of York, later
King James II, a large tract of land that included all of
New Netherland. This came at a period of considerable conflict between England and the Netherlands in the
Anglo-Dutch Wars. Four English ships bearing 450 men, commanded by
Richard Nicolls, seized the Dutch colony. On 30 August 1664, George Cartwright sent the governor a letter demanding surrender. He promised "life, estate, and liberty to all who would submit to the king's authority." On 6 September 1664, Stuyvesant sent
Johannes de Decker, a lawyer for the West India Company, and five others to sign the Articles of Capitulation. Nicolls was declared governor, and the city was renamed
New York. Stuyvesant obtained civil rights and freedom of religion in the Articles of Capitulation. The Dutch settlers mainly belonged to the Dutch Reformed church, a Calvinist denomination, holding to the
Three Forms of Unity (Belgic Confession, Heidelberg Catechism, Canons of Dordt). The English were Anglicans, holding to the
39 Articles, a Protestant confession, with bishops. ==Personal life==