Henry Hudson’s Legacy in Kingston, NY
By Ed Ford Kingston City Historian
Henry Hudson navigated the river searching for a trade route, not a place for the Dutch to colonize. Nonetheless, Kingston still bears the marks of early Dutch settlement. People began arriving from Holland in 1652, 39 years after Hudson departed. Perhaps they were lured by Hudson’s descriptions of beautiful scenery and lush countryside on each side of the river. The native people did not understand that these foreigners came with the intention of establishing settlements for themselves, their Dutch children, and all of their children’s descendants. That is one reason why the Indians were so lenient in exchanging land for trinkets. They made the deal never imagining the future of the Valley; instead of the Dutch leaving the area, it was the Indians who soon were forced to leave.
It was not the Dutch government that sent the people to settle. It was the Dutch merchants. They made two attempts at colonizing. The first was in New Jersey. It was quickly destroyed by Indians. The other was established by Johan van Rensselaer (1625 – 1663), Patroon of Rensselaerwyck. He owned the land. The people who worked it agreed to give him ten percent of what they grew. They were not allowed to settle anywhere else until, in 1652, they gained the right to live anywhere. That is when they moved to Kingston.
These Dutch came to farm. They were attracted to Kingston for the same reason the Indians chose this region. Proximity to the Esopus Creek made it perfect for growing crops. Frequent floods prevented trees from growing, creating a broad, fertile plain. The Dutch continued farming, but they completely transformed the farming practice on this continent by bringing plows and horses to pull them, as well as cows for milk and meat. While the Spanish were the first to introduce horses from South America in the 1500s, these animals died out. Cattle returned when the Dutch came to Kingston in 1652.
Other settlers were fur traders. Henry Hudson’s timid contact with the Natives quickly grew into a thriving fur industry. The Indians were eager to participate in the trade. Game was abundant along the river. Indeed, everything on this continent was conducive to animal life. Deer, mink, otter, and beaver populations were flourishing because of the abundance of water and plentiful food. The goods the Europeans offered in exchange were common to them, but wondrous discoveries to the Indians. Blankets and beads were enticing, but it was the introduction of metal tools that transformed native lifestyles that had, until then, relied upon stone implements. The Dutch brought metal hatchets, axes, saws, and hoes, introducing the Indians to extraordinary new advantages for farming, woodworking, and hunting. Until then, their acquaintance with metal was limited to iron arrow heads and pots.
The clash of cultures is apparent in the contrasting architecture traditions of the two groups. Indians lived in rounded domed shelters created by bending saplings, tying them together, and covering them with bark. A hole was left in the center of the hut so that when it was cold, the smoke from the fire could escape through the ceiling. They slept together in one small room on blankets. There was no furniture.
The settlers arrived with furniture and one even brought a collection of books. Their architecture consisted of simple, one- story wooden structures. These first structures were built along the creek, but they were not there long. In 1658, Peter Stuyvesant, the Colonial Dutch Director, traveled to Kingston from New Amsterdam to insist that living on the banks of creek was indefensible against the Indians. He commanded the settlers to move their houses to the bluff. Then he ordered his soldiers to build a 14–foot–high stockade for the Kingston settlers. Constructed out of trees tied together with rope, it was a formidable defense against Indians. An historical replica remains in Kingston’s Stockade area. This historic memory remains survive in Kingston’s stockade area. North Front Street is named for north front side of the stockade. Gradually, stone houses rose within the stockade. They were constructed with limestone that was often split into blocks. Each day the doors of the stockade would open to allow the cattle to graze in the lowlands adjacent to stockade. Each night they herded them back.
The Indians never succeeded in penetrating the fortress. They attacked the Dutch in 1659, surrounding the stockade for two weeks, shooting flaming arrows over the stockade walls. But long before the settlers ran out of provisions, the Indians gave up the fight. The next year, Peter Stuyvesant negotiated a treaty between the two groups. Each side voiced its grievances. The Indians complained that the white men did not treat them well; they gave the young men liquor, which was not good for them. The Dutch settlers protested that the Indians did not live as they lived; they were not civilized. The wampum belt that pledged peace between the groups still exists in Ulster County.
But the peace did not last long. In 1661, after some trouble with the Indians, Stuyvesant’s men captured 20 Indians and shipped them to Curacao in the Caribbean to work in the lead mines. They never returned. For a long while, the Indians did not retaliate. Peaceful coexistence seemed to return to the settlement. The Indians were even allowed to enter the stockade to trade. But they were plotting revenge. In 1663, at a signal, they suddenly attacked the settlers, killing 19 people, burning 12 houses, and capturing 30 settlers. For several months the Indians kept their captives moving to evade the soldiers who were in pursuit. In the end, the Indians were either killed or driven off. The captives were rescued unharmed.
The Quadricentennial of Hudson’s journey provides a valuable occasion to imagine the disruption of the lifestyles of the native populations. It must have been difficult for them to maintain belief in the great spirit that resides in the land and all of its creatures once guns were introduced in the early 1600s, and the six–inch oysters that had flourished disappeared, and the small groups who lived together in their own territories were forced to move south and west, and unknown illnesses beset them.
On the Quadricentennial of Hudson’s journey we might try to imagine the native populations’ struggle to retain their traditional belief in the great spirit that resides in the land and all of its creatures.
