Lenape Country: Delaware Valley Society Before William Penn

265 Pages·2014·47.66 MB·English

by  Jean R. Soderlund

Lenape Country
EARLY AMERICAN STUDIES
Serieseditors:
DanielK.Richter,KathleenM.Brown,
MaxCavitch,andDavidWaldstreicher
Exploringneglectedaspectsofourcolonial,revolutionary,andearlynational
historyandculture,EarlyAmericanStudiesreinterpretsfamiliarthemes
andeventsinfreshways.Interdisciplinaryincharacter,andwithaspecial
emphasisontheperiodfromabout1600to1850,theseriesispublishedin
partnershipwiththeMcNeilCenterforEarlyAmericanStudies.
Acompletelistofbooksintheseries
isavailablefromthepublisher.
LENAPE COUNTRY
Delaware Valley Society Before William Penn
JEAN R. SODERLUND
university of pennsylvania press
philadelphia
Copyright(cid:2)2015UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
Allrightsreserved.
Exceptforbriefquotationsusedforpurposesofrevieworscholarlycitation,
noneofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyformbyanymeans
withoutwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher.
Publishedby
UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
Philadelphia,Pennsylvania19104-4112
www.upenn.edu/pennpress
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
onacid-freepaper
2 468 10 9 7 5 3 1
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Soderlund,JeanR.,1947–
Lenapecountry:DelawareValleysocietybeforeWilliamPenn/JeanR.
Soderlund.—1sted.
p.cm.—(EarlyAmericanstudies)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-8122-4647-6(hardcover:alk.paper)
1.DelawareRiverValley(N.Y.-Del.andN.J.)—History—17thcentury.2.Delaware
Indians—DelawareRiverValley(N.Y.-Del.andN.J.)—History—17thcentury.
3.DelawareRiverValley(N.Y.-Del.andN.J.)—Ethnicrelations—History—17th
century.4.DelawareIndians—DelawareRiverValley(N.Y.-Del.andN.J.)—
Governmentrelations—History—17thcentury.5.DelawareRiverValley(N.Y.-Del.
andN.J.)—Socialconditions—17thcentury.6.IndiansofNorthAmerica—History—
Colonialperiod,ca.1600-1775.I.Title.II.Series:EarlyAmericanstudies.
F157.D4S682015
974.9—dc23
2014007128
For Rudy

contents
NoteontheText ix
Introduction 1
Chapter1.AFreePeople,SubjecttoNoOne 12
Chapter2.ControllingtheLandthroughMassacreandWar,1626–38 35
Chapter3.ManagingaTenuousPeace,1638–54 55
Chapter4.AlliesagainsttheDutch,1654–64 86
Chapter5.AlliesagainsttheEnglish,1664–73 112
Chapter6.ProtectingSovereigntyamidWars,1673–80 132
Chapter7.NegotiatingPenn’sColony,1681–1715 149
Chapter8.StrategiesofSurvivalandRevenge 177
Conclusion 196
NoteonMethodology 205
Notes 207
Index 243
Acknowledgments 251

note on the text
TheEnglish andSwedescontinuedtousetheJuliancalendar intheseven-
teenthcentury,whiletheDutchhadadoptedthenewerGregoriancalendar.
Thecalendarsweredifferentbytendays,andtheJulianNewYearbeganin
March, so that, for example, an English document dated January 3, 1667,
would be January 13, 1668, under the Gregorian calendar. While account-
ingforthesedifferencesinanalyzingevidence,Ihavekepttheoriginaldates
whencitingdocuments.
WhenIquotefromEnglish-languagesourcesthatwerewrittenpriorto
the nineteenth century, for better understanding I have modernized spell-
ing and capitalization (but without altering the names of people and
places);changeduseofthethorn(forexample,‘‘ye’’)totheintendedword
‘‘the’’; lowered superscript letters to the line; expanded abbreviations; and
changed punctuation only when necessary for clarity. When I quote from
translationsofDutchandSwedishdocuments,Ihavenotalteredthetext.