Background
Peter Minuit was born in Wesel, Germany about 1580.
Peter Minuit was born in Wesel, Germany about 1580.
Minuit established himself as a church deacon and a diamond cutter.
He joined the Dutch West Indian Company (WIC), which formed in 1621 to regulate colonization and trade with overseas outposts.
In 1625, Minuit made the voyage to New Netherland, a Dutch colony that stretched from modern-day Delaware into Connecticut. Then under the command of colony director Willem Verhulst, Minuit was assigned to explore the upper reaches of the North and South Rivers (the Hudson and the Delaware), and establish trade relations with indigenous tribes.
He returned to Holland that year, but with Verhulst ousted from his position, Minuit arrived in New Netherland again in May 1626 and settled in as the colony's third director. One of his first tasks was to "buy" Manhattan from its inhabitants, and sometime shortly after his arrival, he reputedly traded 60 guilders worth of beads, cloth and ornaments to the Lenape Indians for what he believed to be the rights to ownership of the island.
Described as a large man of coarse manners, Minuit proved skilled at trading with Hudson and Delaware Valley tribes. During his tenure as governor, he exported more than 50, 000 valuable fur pelts, worth more than 400, 000 guilders. However, the settlement's focus on the fur trade at the expense of farming limited its growth, and by 1628 there were still only 270 colonial residents of Manhattan.
As a result, the WIC in 1629 established its patroon system, granting large tracts of property to any Dutchman who brought 50 workers to live in the colony. Although the system was developed for the purpose of cultivating the land, many patroons took advantage of loopholes to smuggle fur pelts and tobacco, and Minuit was accused of helping his favorites. After colony minister Jonas Michaelius wrote to the company about the director's various misdeeds, Minuit was ordered to return to Holland in 1631.
Upon stopping in England, Minuit was detained under the charge of illegally trading in English territory. The Dutch government eventually arranged for his safe passage home, at which point he was officially stripped of his title as governor of New Netherland and replaced by Sebastiaen Jansen Krol.
Minuit resumed his business dealings in Europe, but he remained enamored with the opportunities that lay across the Atlantic. Teaming up with Samuel Blommaert, a WIC director and patroon, he successfully convinced the Swedish government to establish a colony in the Delaware region.
Given command of two ships, Minuit reached the Delaware Bay in March 1638 and began construction of Fort Christina at the site of modern-day Wilmington. Set to return to Sweden later that year, he detoured to Saint Christopher in the West Indies to acquire tobacco, but died at sea when a hurricane decimated the area.
Largely remembered for his purchase of Manhattan, Minuit's contributions are commemorated throughout the island. A stone marker in Inwood Hill Park indicates the alleged spot of his famed transaction, while children in East Harlem frequent a school and playground named after the former colony director. In addition, Peter Minuit Plaza is located outside the Staten Island Ferry Terminal at the southern tip of Manhattan, the point from which the early Dutch settlement developed into a thriving metropolis.
Peter Minuit married Gertrude Raedts on August 20, 1613.
