Peter Stuyvesant

Peter Stuyvesant , c.1610-1672, Dutch director-general of New Netherland. He served as governor of Curaçao and lost a leg in an expedition against St. Martin before succeeding Willem Kieft in New Netherland. On his arrival (1647) in New Amsterdam (later New York City), he immediately informed the colonists of his autocratic intentions. He set up a board of nine men to advise him but dissolved it (1651) when they asked for redress of their grievances in a remonstrance to the Dutch government. As a result of this petition, however, Holland granted (1653) municipal government to New Amsterdam. Nevertheless, Stuyvesant continued his harsh rule and was intolerant of religious dissenters, especially Quakers. While he lost territory to Connecticut (1650), he expanded the colony by conquering New Sweden (1655). Overwhelmed by a surprise English attack, Stuyvesant surrendered New Netherland to England in 1664. He spent the rest of his life on his Manhattan farm and was buried there under his chapel, now the site of a church, St. Mark's-in-the-Bouwerie.

Bibliography: See E. L. Raesly, Portrait of New Netherland (1945, repr. 1965); H. H. Kessler and E. Rachlis, Peter Stuyvesant and His New York (1959).

Stuyvesant, Peter ˈstīvəsənt (1610?–72) colonial founder. Stuyvesant was born in the Netherlands and worked for the Dutch West India Company as director general in Curaçao. He led Dutch troops in attacks on Spanish possessions in the Caribbean and lost his right leg in an attack on the Spanish fort on St. Martin. He returned to the Netherlands to recuperate and then was sent back to the New World, where he added the governorship of New Netherland to his responsibilities. He arrived there in 1647. Stuyvesant provided strong, if authoritarian, leadership for the poorly managed colony, defeated Swedish colonists who attempted to take over Dutch territory in the Delaware region, and negotiated a satisfactory border agreement with New England to the north. He also struggled to maintain peaceful relations with area Indian tribes, although he did not always succeed. In August 1664 he was forced to surrender the poorly defended colony to an English fleet.