Attractions
IWalked New York City’s History – Purchase of Manhattan
The infamous tale of the purchase of Manhattan was negotiated by a man named Peter Minuit. Minuit was a large man from Germany who was appointed the third director-general of the Dutch colony, New Netherland, in 1625. He arrived in this area to assume his new position on May 4, 1626 and just twenty days later had negotiated a trade with the local Lenape Indians to purchase the island of Manhattan for sixty guilders. Immediately upon procuring the island, Minuit set off to establish a local government and erect Fort Amsterdam. The Fort was built as a precaution to protect the colonists versus potential attack versus the Lenape Indians, although it is said that Minuit had managed to establish a good working relationship with them. Minuit subsequently began to formally establish the lands surrounding the fort by dividing the space into farmlands which were known as “bouweries.” The location of these farms is still immortalized via the nearby road known as The Bowery which formerly passed through their adjoining farms.
Now, in reference to the sixty guilder price paid for acquisition of Manhattan, this figure was obtained via a letter discovered in 1821 and written to a member of the Dutch India Company. This letter was discovered in The Hague in Amsterdam whilst looking for additional cabinet space. In the letter which is dated November 1626, it states “They have bought the island Manhattes from the wild men for the value of sixty guilders.”
The current equivalent value of sixty guilders has been translated on numerous occasions. The Institute for Social History of Amsterdam equated the sum to approximately $1,000 USD as of 2006. Perhaps the best known translation though was one of the first attempts done by an American historian named John Brodhead. While working as part of a research grant to research and translate European historical accounts of New York history in 1846, Brodhead calculated the sum of sixty guilders to be approximately $24. While this deal is often analyzed and criticized by some as to its apparent one-sided affair, history does not suggest that any animosity transpired from this transaction from either side.
Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Minuit#Purchase_of_Manhattan
Address: Battery Park, New York City, NY
Cost: Free.
IWalked Audio Tours To See This Site: New York City’s Lower Manhattan. (Purchase/download the MP3 tour here. iPhone application tour is available here. Please note, all NYC tours are now available as in-app purchases upon download of our FREE NYC Lite application, which includes a free 1.5 hour tour of a portion of the Upper West Side.)