Fascinating little aside from John Heckwelder’s 18th century account of the Munsee-Lenape migration through the western plains and across the Mississippi River.

Check out my recent presentation from Boston, “The Tangled Relationship Between New York and the Dutch Caribbean, 1600-1700,” History Camp® historycamp.org/william-matt...

Wampum exchange here in NY occurred when Dutch ships traded manufactured goods to coastal Atlantic Native communities and received the coveted beads.

40% of the American garrison that served at Fort Ticonderoga the Revolution was Munsee or African.

I’m listening to historian Maeve Kane, and I’m floored that along with the rise and crash of the fur trade, there was an entire Munsee whaling industry. Most of this centered on the right whale, which was completely wiped out locally by the start of the 18th century.

Dr. Elisabeth Pauling Funk writes that New Amsterdam Houses would have contained very similar dating (Both Gregorian & Hebrew), marking the year of their construction. These examples are from Willemstad, Curaçao.

Check out my recent presentation from Boston, “The Tangled Relationship Between New York and the Dutch Caribbean, 1600-1700,” History Camp® historycamp.org/william-matt...

From Philipse Manor Hall: Don't miss this! Tonight, Tuesday, November 4, 2025, it's the Beaver Moon! Indigenous people named this super moon after the season when beavers built their winter lodges.

When I traveled through Curaçao, there were Native Caribe neighborhoods identified by caricatures of Plains Indians plastered on their entry ways.

Enjoy my video on the Munsee-Lenape site of Wicker’s Creek, located in Dobbs Ferry, NY. youtu.be/aQ2NIrg0IqA

Dutch Slavery varied drastically depending on the geographic location, this isn’t to be confused with the actual daily “state” of being held in bondage. The Hudson Valley was quite different from Northern Brazil, Berbice or Curaçao.

I was honored to recently help host Russell Shorto at the Manor and sit down with him for dinner, so enjoy my review of his latest work. friendsofphilipsemanorhall.org/russell-shor...

Some wonderful artist renditions of what the Philipse Manor property would have looked like in 1750 and then in the post-Revolutionary period, when it was up for sale after the family fled for their loyalists views. The “lower mill” in Yonkers was intended as a homestead and “vault.”

Margot Steurbaut gave a fascinating presentation @NewNetherland Conference on the material culture of New Netherland, with a specific focus on how stained glass window sponsorship demonstrated a unique social ladder within Dutch colonial society.

I love the idea of Vermeer and Rembrandt being representative of a light and dark version of New Netherland. The use of illumination shades helps to balance the dour Burgher or haughty Schout,

Pretty awesome AI image of Frederick Philipse lighting a signal fire to Captain Kidd on the Hudson, I paired it with some of my actual photos of the spot. Captain Kidd is going to get himself in trouble by attacking an Armenian owned ship,

Dirk Mouw’s Presentation of the Dutch Reformed Church hosted by @NewNetherland : The first Dutch Reformed Church in New Netherland was founded in 1628. The Dutch Reformed Church records in New Paltz was kept in French for a period as well, this was due to Huguenot presence.

Interesting the role that Pennsylvania plays in the “Transition Century” I’m focused on here in the Hudson Valley. From 1664-1681, Dutch merchants in New York could still reliably sail up the Delaware and Schuykill rivers to trade for furs deep within the interior.

I find it fascinating that we see major anglicizing of Dutch names by the 1660s, still with many using the original Dutch initials to mark their identity throughout life. This was an intentional aspect of the founding of the Philipse Dynasty, Hoddenbruch to Hardenbroeck,

George Washington was connected to the last generation of the Philipse Family via the Battle of The Wilderness. Mary Philipse Husband Roger Morris was Braddock’s Aide-de-camp and her brother-in-law Beverly Robinson also fought alongside the future American General.

I was recently reading about the Maroons in the Caribbean and found their history and strategies fascinating. Their battlefield tactics were particularly innovative, utilizing multiple drummers and conch shell trumpeters to disorient European forces in the dense jungle.

One of the main stipulations of any agreement between the British Jamaican authorities and the Maroon communities was the construction of roads through the mountainous interior and the continued maintenance of those routes by the Maroons.

The 1760 Jamaican Stamp Tax served as a model for the 1765 Act in the mainland colonies. A significant reason the British Caribbean colonies did not join the revolt was the substantial threat of slave uprisings, such as Tacky's Revolt, which nearly devastated Jamaica in 1762-1763.

Eastchester, New York, was built upon land granted from Puritan sympathizer Thomas Pell. The land they were granted was to be centered around the old Hutchison family homestead. One of the earliest founding documents of English New York is the 1665 Eastchester Covenant,

Dr. Nicole Maskiell argues that it was the Dutch Merchant class that drove the expansion of slavery within the intertwined familial Patroon networks of the Hudson Valley.

Outside of Rembrandt, Pieter de Hooch is without a doubt the greatest influence on Vermeer’s works. “Interior with a Young Couple,” 1662-65 “The Visit,” 1657 “A Couple Playing Cards, with a Serving Woman,” 1666-67

From Philipse Manor Hall: When the colony of New Netherland was officially established in 1624, slavery was technically illegal in the Netherlands. But with local Indigenous groups decimated by disease and Europeans unwilling to do the hardest work,

Curaçao produced half of the total value of all Dutch Atlantic holdings, from 1675-1750. Much of this is linked to the island’s enormous role in the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade,

The Danish Virgin Islands contained significant populations of Dutch merchants by the end of the 17th century. More than half the population of Saint Thomas was Dutch by 1691, they transformed Charlotte Amalie into a regional miniature version of Curaçao’s Freeport status.

Dr. Maskiell provided an amazing presentation on how African women could both enter the New Netherland record and be erased from it as well. She tells of a harrowing story of a young black woman whose name was in the Dutch baptismal records and she was assigned as a domestic slave.

It’s clear me that the Munsee-Lenape did not build fortifications at this site, its main purpose was to serve as a proto-industrial processing location for deer and oysters.

Digging into the local legends surrounding Wickers Creek has now verged into the familiar, I just received an email from FOWCAS group Historian and he was recounting a man who had apparently stumbled upon “native remains,”

Westchester County Archives have the Sisters of Mercy Cemetery located at the intersection of Hudson and Landing Drive, which I marked with a pin. Could the undeveloped land to the northwest of that location be the possible site, given that the plot was relocated?

Moravian Delaware Chief Jim Tobias had stated his people were buried at The Wickers Creek based on oral history, I’m excited to possibly uncover some real lost history here.

Manack provides a description of how Wampum or Sewan was made, “ The Indians divided their beads into two general classes, the “wompam,” derived from “wompi” or “white,” and “sukauhock,” a compound

An account of the 1642 expedition against the Munsee-Lenape band of Weckquaskeek Natives. The “Kil Armepperahin” refers to the Sprain Brook River and the expedition seems to have marched northwest across it toward the Wicker’s Creek settlement, but halted the attack.

The Munsee-Lenape story of the creation of the Hudson River’s tides: “Here they told of the legend of the a giant who lay across the river and dammed the water. The Munsee people had forgotten to properly pay homage to this giant and he rose in anger,

The Munsee were thought to contain no more than 15,000 total members, operating in smaller semi-nomadic bands, than the larger Iroquois polity or their Algonquin cousins. The Iroquois claimed sovereignty over them during discussion with Europeans,

If you are looking for some more in-depth information on Native participation in the Revolutionary War, I’d highly recommend these four books. The first two cover Iroquois League developments and the last two focus on the Stockbridge-Munsee.

The reason why I always used Cooper’s work was because my students could glimpse the beginnings of the American identity in literature. “The hardy colonist, and the trained European who fought at his side,” the reframing of the past has already begun and you can see the elevation of the “colonist.”

I do support the initiative to present positive black historical narratives outside of slavery, but my area of study is 1600-1815, so I’ve tried to include some works the cover the incredible syncretic culture that developed despite this system.

The Iroquois Edge of The Woods Ceremony as outlined by Dr. Jon Parmenter: 1.Approach (“March of the Clear-Minded”) -The clear-minded party (those bringing condolence or without grief) march toward the forest edge after internal counsel. -Symbolizes transition from wilderness toward community.

A must-have for any New Netherland or Gilded Age historian alike. It’s this rediscovery of an era’s collection that links a nineteenth-century female social titan to another rare female member of the Guild of Saint Luke, the exclusive crafters of Delftware.

Oh damn Alan Mikhail is writing on book on New Netherland and bringing his Turkish expertise to illuminate an early founding couple of New York.

The Coetus vs Conferentie schism within the Dutch Reformed Church in colonial British America played a significant role in shaping the loyalties of congregation members from northern New Jersey during the American Revolution.

Believed to have been pulled from the wreckage that once was the home of a promising disciple of Rembrandt, The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius is the last surviving piece of a unique life so tragically snuffed out.

Fascinating stuff from the Journal of a Scottish immigrant Alexander Coventry to America just as the American Revolution was ending. By the 1790s, he was in upstate New York and working as a doctor.

This is wild because the letter not only proves the enslaved were entrusted with delicate diplomatic missions, but also highlights the continued maintenance of the “Two Row Wampum Covenant Chain.”

From the Schuyler Historic Mansion in Albany: We're back with some more personal details about some of the people enslaved by the Schyulers. This one comes to us via a 1775 letter written by Dr. Samuel Stringer, doctor to and friend of the Schuylers.