New York History

Reading Comprehension Table of Contents

The Peacemaker ...... 1 Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and the Hendrik Hudson ...... 5 Constitution ...... 164 Trading at Manhattan ...... 8 Benjamin Lattimore, 1761–1838 ...... 166 The Dutch West India Company ...... 10 Life in New York City...... 169 Albany, New York ...... 12 Aaron Burr and the Democrats ...... 172 Peter Minuit and the Patroons ...... 15 The Election of 1800 ...... 177 Territorial Disputes, 1632–1637 ...... 18 Burr-Hamilton Duel ...... 179 Wilhelm Kieft, 1637–1639 ...... 21 Robert Fulton ...... 181 Indian Wars...... 25 DeWitt Clinton ...... 184 Peter Stuyvesant...... 28 The Mohawk & Hudson Rail Road ...... 187 New Amsterdam’s Population ...... 31 Early History of African in New Amsterdam’s Buildings ...... 34 Buffalo, New York ...... 189 New Amsterdam Life ...... 36 Nineteenth-Century Albany, New York...... 191 Fort Neck, Long Island...... 39 Clipper Ships...... 193 Peter Stuyvesant’s Rule ...... 40 Riots...... 195 Fall of New Amsterdam ...... 43 Immigration ...... 197 England Takes Over, 1664 ...... 46 The Invention of the Telegraph ...... 199 The Dutch Win New York Back ...... 49 Martin Van Buren...... 203 The British Rule under Sir Harriet Powell’s Escape from Slavery...... 206 Edmund Andros ...... 52 Elizabeth Cady Stanton ...... 210 A Charter of Liberties and Privileges ...... 55 Why a Women’s Rights Convention? ...... 212 Governments Overthrown ...... 57 Susan B. Anthony ...... 214 Frontenac ...... 59 The Rescue of Jerry ...... 216 Jacob Leisler ...... 63 Wealthy Men of New York, 1855 ...... 220 Pirates ...... 68 Harriet Tubman ...... 221 Earl of Bellomont and Captain Kidd...... 71 Millard Fillmore ...... 223 Lord Cornbury, 1702–1708...... 75 Cornelius Vanderbilt...... 225 Slave Revolt ...... 78 William H. Seward ...... 230 John Peter Zenger, 1735...... 82 from : New York City, 1741 ...... 84 Forgotten Feminist ...... 234 After the 1741 Fires ...... 86 New York Central Railroad ...... 241 Stamp Act Riots ...... 94 The West Shore Railroad ...... 245 Lake Champlain Battle ...... 102 The Tammany Society ...... 249 Battle of Brooklyn Heights ...... 105 Samuel Tilden ...... 253 Captain Nathan Hale ...... 108 Roscoe Conkling ...... 255 The Fall of Most of Manhattan ...... 113 Chester A. Arthur ...... 257 The Fall of Fort Washington ...... 116 Grover Cleveland ...... 259 The Fall of Fort Ticonderoga ...... 119 Theodore Roosevelt...... 262 Battle of Bennington ...... 122 The General Slocum Disaster ...... 266 Growing Tensions in ...... 125 The Fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Choosing Sides ...... 130 Company ...... 273 Preparations for the Battle of Oriskany ...... 136 David Sarnoff ...... 279 The Battle of Oriskany...... 139 Alfred E. Smith ...... 283 The Effects of the Battle of Oriskany ...... 144 Walker and La Guardia ...... 284 Victory at Saratoga...... 150 Franklin D. Roosevelt...... 286 West Point Defenses ...... 154 Eleanor Roosevelt ...... 288 The Treason of Benedict Arnold...... 157 Ralph Bunche ...... 290 Occupation of New York ...... 161 Hillary Rodham Clinton...... 295 Answer Key ...... 298 THE PEACEMAKER

Onondaga Lake is in central New York. Over a thousand years ago on those shores, democracy was born. The Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and the had been warring against each other. There was great bloodshed. The five nations had forgotten their ways. Their actions saddened the Creator. The Creator sent a messenger to the people. He wanted the five nations to live in peace.

The messenger is known as “the Peacemaker.” The Peacemaker carried powerful words of peace to the five nations. The Peacemaker traveled in a stone canoe. He did that to show to these troubled people that his words are true. In order for the Creator’s message to spread, the Peacemaker sought out the most evil people of the five nations. The Peacemaker named the most evil people as leaders. The most evil person of all was an Onondaga named “Tadadaho.” Tadadaho was said to be so evil that his body was twisted and snakes grew from his head.

The Peacemaker’s message spread. It changed all of the people. was one of the people who had accepted the good words of the Creator. He decided to help the Peacemaker. Tadadaho was determined to stop this message and its messengers. Tadadaho killed Hiawatha’s daughters. Griefstricken, Hiawatha was no longer able to spread the Creator’s words.

While grieving, Hiawatha found words that would help console others who had lost loved ones. He devised a method to remember these words. He strung purple and white freshwater clamshells together on strings. Hence, the first “” was made.

Once Hiawatha’s mind was clear, he and the Peacemaker were able to confront Tadadaho again. This time they had the support of forty-nine other leaders from all of the five nations.

The leaders combed the snakes from Tadadaho’s hair. He accepted Creator’s message. Tadadaho became the fiftieth chief. The chiefs symbolized this union of peace by uprooting a great white pine tree. They threw their weapons of war into the hole left by the uprooted tree. Then they replanted the tree.

The five tribes were called the “Haudenosaunee,” or “People of the Longhouse.” The Peacemaker placed an eagle on top of the great white pine tree. It was to warn the People of the Longhouse of any dangers to this great peace. Wampum belts were made to record the event.

The Peacemaker then set in place a method for leaders to be chosen. He selected women to be the leaders of their clans. The leader will be called “Clan Mother.” The Clan Mother will then select their spokesman and leader for their clan called a “Chief.” When either leader passes away, the clan then selects another to sit in that leader’s place. This process has continued at Onondaga for countless centuries.

1 The Chiefs and Clan Mothers at Onondaga still sit and meet today in the Longhouse. The names and titles of the men and women that the Peacemaker set in place are still used to identify leaders. At Onondaga, Tadadaho and the other Onondaga chiefs still sit and discuss and make decisions for the benefit of the . Onondaga and the other Indian nations have a unique position with the United States of America.

The Onondagas and the Haudenosaunee made agreements with other Native Nations, the Dutch, English, and the French long before the formation of the thirteen colonies into the United States. Then when the United States was first formed, President George Washington made an agreement of peace and friendship as nation to nation. A wampum belt was made. From that day in the late eighteenth century, the Onondaga Chiefs, Clan Mothers, and people have maintained this relationship of an equal and separate nation from the United States.

1. The Peacemaker was a messenger sent to a. the Creator. b. Tadadaho. c. Hiawatha. d. the Five Nations.

2. The ally of the Peacemaker was a. an Onondaga. b. Tadadaho. c. Hiawatha. d. Haudenosaunee.

3. The inventor of wampum was a. an Onondaga. b. Tadadaho. c. Hiawatha. d. Haudenosaunee.

4. The symbol of Tadadaho’s evil was a. a great white pine tree. b. snakes in his hair. c. an eagle. d. the Longhouse.

2 5. After the fifty chiefs had made peace among themselves they made peace with a. the Haudenosaunee. b. the People of the Longhouse. c. the Clan Mother. d. other native tribes, the Dutch, English and French.

6. Late in the 18th century, the Five Nations made a treaty with a. the United States. b. the People of the Longhouse. c. the Clan Mother. d. other native tribes, the Dutch, English and French.

7. Many Native American tribes are considered independent nations within the United States. What problems and opportunities do you think this may create?

3 4 HENDRIK HUDSON

Early in September 1609, the ship, Half-Moon, restlessly skirted the American coast. It was searching for a strait or other water route leading to India. It came to the mouth of a great river, flowing silently out from the heart of the unknown continent.

The Half-Moon was a small, clumsy, high-pooped yacht. It was manned by a score of Dutch and English sea-dogs. An English adventurer then in Dutch pay commanded it. He was known to his employers as Hendrik Hudson. He, his craft, and his crew were all typical of the age. It was an age of adventure-loving explorers. They were eager to sail under any flag that promised glory and profit, no matter what the cost in hardship and danger. It was also an age of hardy seamen. The hardiest and bravest came from England and from the Netherlands.

Hudson, on coming to the river to which his name was afterward given, did not at first know that it was a river at all. He believed and hoped that it was some great arm of the sea. He was sure that in fact it was the Northwest Passage to India, which so many brave men had died vainly in trying to discover. For a week he lay in the lower bay. Then for a day he shifted his anchorage into what is now New York harbor.

His boats explored the surrounding shoreline. They found many Indian villages. The neighborhood seemed well-peopled. The Indians flocked to see the white strangers. They eagerly traded their tobacco for the knives and beads of the Europeans. Of course, occasions of quarrel were certain to arise between the rough, brutal sailors and the suspicious Indians. Once a boat’s crew was attacked by two canoes, laden with warriors. A sailor was killed by an arrow that pierced his throat. Yet, on the whole, their relations were friendly. Trading and bartering went on unchecked.

Hudson soon found that he was at the mouth of a river, not a strait. He spent three weeks exploring it, sailing up as far as he could, near the present site of Albany. He found many small Indian tribes scattered along the banks. He usually kept on good terms with them. He presented their chiefs with trinkets of various kinds. He also treated them for the first time to a taste of “fire-water.”

In return, Hudson was well received when he visited the bark wigwams. His hosts held feasts for him. The dishes included not only wild fowl, but also fat dogs, killed by the squaws, and skinned, with mussel shells. The Indians had made some progress in the art of agriculture. They brought to the ship quantities of corn, beans, and pumpkins from the great heaps drying beside their villages. Their fields, yielding so freely even to their poor tillage, bore witness to the fertility of the soil.

Hudson had to be constantly on his guard against his newfound friends. Once he was attacked by a party of hostile warriors whom he beat off, killing several of their number. However, what far outweighed such danger in the greedy eyes of the trade-loving adventurers was the fact that they saw in the possession of the Indians great stores of rich furs. The merchants of Europe prized furs as they did silks, spices, ivory, and precious metals.

5 Early in October, Hudson set out on his homeward voyage to Holland. There the news of his discovery excited much interest among the daring merchants, especially among those whose minds were bent on the fur trade. Several of the latter sent small ships across to the newly-found bay and river, both to barter with the Indians and to explore and report further about the country.

1. Hudson was searching for a. the Hudson River. b. a Northwest Passage to India. c. a sea route to the Netherlands. d. New York harbor.

2. According to the passage, which of the following activities did Hudson and his men do with the Native Americans they met on their journey? a. played sports b. went fishing and hunting c. shared a feast d. explored the land and sea

3. Which of the following was not an item traded between Hudson’s men and the Native Americans? a. tobacco b. knives c. beads d. canoes

4. Among the items possessed by the Native Americans, what did the Europeans want the most? a. furs b. silks c. foodstuffs d. “fire-water”

6 5. What did Hudson discover? What did Hudson’s discovery lead to?

7 TRADING AT MANHATTAN

The most noted of the sea captains who followed the Hudson was Adrian Block. While at anchor off Manhattan Island, he lost his vessel by fire. He at once set about building another. Being a man of great resource and resolution, he succeeded. Creating everything himself, and working in the heart of the primeval forest, Adrian Block built and launched a forty-five-foot yacht. This primitive pioneer vessel was the first ever launched in our waters. She was the first to sail on Long Island Sound.

The first trading and exploring ships did well. Merchants saw that great profits could be made from the Manhattan fur-trade. Accordingly, they determined to establish permanent posts at the head of the river and at its mouth. The main fort was near the mouth of the Mohawk. It was called Fort Orange. The site is now the city of Albany.

They also built a few cabins at the south end of Manhattan Island. There they left half a dozen of their employees. Hendrik Christiansen was headman over both posts. The great commercial city of New York thus had its origin in a cluster of traders’ huts.

A Native American soon killed Christiansen. For two or three years, his fellow traders lived on Manhattan Island. They hunted, fished, and idled. Sometimes they killed their own game. Sometimes they got it by barter from the Native Americans, together with tobacco and corn. Now and then they quarreled with the surrounding Indians, but generally they kept on good terms with them. In exchange for rum and trinkets, they gathered innumerable bales of valuable furs. Most of it was beaver, which swarmed in all the streams. They also bought otter, sable, and the fisher. At long intervals, these furs were piled in the holds of the three or four small vessels. Their yearly or half-yearly arrival from Holland formed the chief relief to the monotony of the fur-traders’ existence.

1. Adrian Block is best described as a. lucky. b. dangerous. c. hardworking. d. greedy.

2. New York City started out as a. an Indian village near Albany. b. a small group of huts on Manhattan Island. c. a fort on the Mohawk River. d. a trading post in Brooklyn.

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