the new netherlands

Since the issue of patents by the States General in 1614, New Netherland had been a private, commercial venture. This changed in 1624, when New Netherland became a province of the Dutch Republic and the northern border was lowered to 42 degrees north in acknowledgment of the inevitable intrusion of the English north of Cape Cod (see John Smith's 1616 map as self-anointed Admiral of New England). According to the Law of Nations, a claim on a territory required not only discovery and charting, but also settlement. In May 1624 the Dutch completed their claim by landing 30 Dutch families on Noten Eylant, modern Governors Island.Within six years, the nations were again at war, and in August of 1673 the Dutch recaptured New Netherland with a fleet of 21 ships, then the largest one seen in North America.New Netherland settlers did not come to America because of religious or political persecution, nor were they destitute. They came with the hope of making money. The majority were single males, primarily tradesmen or farmers.Another important element in the New Netherland province that differed from the British colonies was demographics. It has been estimated that probably one half of the population was not Dutch. The size of the province has been estimated at between 2,000 to 3,500 in 1655 growing to a total of about 9,000 by 1664. A significant number of the inhabitants were Germans, Swedes and Finns that emigrated in the period after 1639; a number that was increased by 300 to 500 with the capture of New Sweden on September 24, 1655.

Peter Minuit

Peter Minuit isn't very well known, but I did my paper on him and here are some interesting facts :

1. He got into an argument with the secretary of the Dutch West India company, and was thrown out of New Netherland.
2. Later, someone reccomended him as a good person to start a colony somewhere else (along the Delaware river) in the New World, and he went.
3. Minuit died tragicly when a hurricane hit a boat he was on and he drowned.

From what I have read, Peter Minuit had kind of a sad life, but he was always respectful to Indians (he always bought land from them instead of just 'claiming' it) and he was important in the first few years of the colonies New Amsterdam and New Sweden because he did a good job of being in charge.

William Penn

I found out about william penn that he always had the heart that cried out for liberty since he was a young boy. He got into trouble often for speaking up in his schools when he was young and therefore had to move schools sometimes. He was never afraid to speak on what he believed in. This got him into trouble sometimes but at least it came in handy later on.
Another thing i found out was that all these great heroes of that century really did not have an easy life. I'm not talking about the persectution. That of course was hard but I'm talking about personal things in their life. William Penn was alone a lot as a boy, and did not see his father often. That probably was really hard for him. And also even when his wife died and other things, those things didn't shake him. he firmly believed in confidence. WIlliam also had two strokes before he died. If i was him, i would wonder why that happened. As a firm quaker believer, he could've wondered why these things happened if he was serving his nation and speaking out for liberty. Those thoughts probably came to his kids too.
So basically, these guys really gave up a lot for what they wanted their nation to be like in the future. and that we should use the things God has given us from the very beginning and use them.

John WInthrop

When researching I for our one page paper that was due Monday I did my paper about John Winthrop and I found that John had four wives. they all died he didn't divorce any of them they died then he got remarried then she died and so on. I thought that was pretty interesting..

Rhode Island- Roger Williams

Rhode Island has a pretty interesting reason for being founded. Roger Williams was one of the very first people to speak out against the Puritans beliefs. He was a pastor who was similar to a Puritan in belief but he disagreed with him on 3 main points. 1. He believed that church and state should be seperate. 2. Williams belived that the Indians owned all of the land in the colonies and that the colonists had no right to stay unless they paid the indians for the land. 3. And lastly he strongly disagreed with the Puritans beliefs that the church could be "purified." Thus after some hard work and much perseverance Rhode Island was founded, and Rhode Island was founded mostly on the seperation of church and state.

quakers

i think the quakers are really interesting people! they have done so much! they were some of the hardest working back then...they did everything to provide for there family and "tribe".they always worked in the field to pick corn and other things. there religious life was funny, they thought one thing and would do another..over all they were good people though.

Charlestown

I know that we're not going to learn about the civil war for a few months, but I found a cool link to this website about a fort in Charlestown, South Carolina. Since Charlestown was the first settlement in South Carolina, I thought it might be interesting to know what it was like in the Civil War. They say that the fort was where the Civil War started.

http://www.nps.gov/fosu/

Fort Sumpter is a really cool fort, and if you ever go to Charlestown, you should take a tour of it.