University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Master's Theses and Capstones Student Scholarship Spring 2018 "A DAINGEROUS LIBERTY": MOHAWK-DUTCH RELATIONS AND THE COLONIAL GUNPOWDER TRADE, 1534-1665 Shaun Sayres University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/thesis Recommended Citation Sayres, Shaun, ""A DAINGEROUS LIBERTY": MOHAWK-DUTCH RELATIONS AND THE COLONIAL GUNPOWDER TRADE, 1534-1665" (2018). Master's Theses and Capstones. 1174. https://scholars.unh.edu/thesis/1174 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses and Capstones by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “A DAINGEROUS LIBERTY”: MOHAWK-DUTCH RELATIONS AND THE COLONIAL GUNPOWDER TRADE, 1534-1665 BY SHAUN SAYRES BA, State University of New York - New Paltz, 2015 THESIS Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in History May, 2018 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2018 Shaun Sayres This thesis has been examined and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History by: Thesis Director, Cynthia Van Zandt, Associate Professor of History Eliga H. Gould, Professor of History Willem Klooster, Professor of History, Clark University On 5/4/2018 Original approval signatures are on file with the University of New Hampshire Graduate School. DEDICATION For my father and Sarah, the past and future. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS No work of history is the product of one person alone and this project is no different. I am grateful to the many people and institutions that have made this work possible. No person has shared a greater responsibility in the development of this thesis than Cynthia Van Zandt. Her invaluable edits, comments, and encouragements have improved this thesis beyond what I ever could have hoped. In addition, the comments and insights of Wim Klooster and Eliga Gould improved this work immensely. Few are fortunate enough to have such high-caliber historians on one committee. Their insight and breadth of knowledge is indescribable and I could not have asked for better. Any mistakes that follow are my own. I have had the benefit to work with some of the best people in the profession that deserve recognition here. First, I would not be the historian I am today without the initial guidance of L. H. Roper as my undergraduate advisor. Additionally, I would like to thank the faculty of the University of New Hampshire–including Jeff Bolster, Jessica Lepler, Nicoletta Gullace, Jan Golinski, and Kurk Dorsey–for always striving for excellence and setting the bar high for their students as well as the exceedingly helpful administrative staff, Laura Simard and Lara Demarest. For their comments and pieces of wisdom, many thanks are due to: Jaap Jacobs, David J. Silverman, Jon Parmenter, Evan Haefeli, Dennis Maika, David Voorhees, Susanah Shaw Romney, Charly Gehring, and Dean Snow. In addition to UNH’s prestigious faculty, this project is equally the product from having worked alongside the best group of scholars a graduate student could ask for. What happens in Horton 428 stays in Horton 428, but I could not have produced this work without the invaluable v help of Sarah McDonald, Eric Trautman-Mosher, Lila Teeters, Aaron Chin, Jared “Dagger” Granato, Becca “Becky” Davis, Jordan Coulombe, Mike Varuolo, Susanah Deily-Swearingen, Mike Anderson, Ben Schaeffer, Lottie Richard, Malcolm Gent, Rachel Kline, Chris Reardon, and Amanda Demmer. Thank you all for the insurmountable amount of time-wasting shenanigans in supplement to your collectively endless wisdom, support, and kindness. Thanks for the memories. For better or worse, this scholastic journey is not over, and I owe my family my deepest gratitude for following along the entire way. Finally, I would like to thank my cat, Ash, for her relentless efforts to edit my work to the limits by which a cat possibly could, while making sure no work is ever accomplished at home. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………………………iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………………….....v ABBREVIATIONS.………………………………………………………………………….......ix ABSTRACT……...……………………………………………………………………………...xii CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………...1 I. THE MOHAWKS’ OLD WORLD: THE BEGINNINGS OF THE MOHAWK-DUTCH PARTNERSHIP, 1534-1639…………………………………………...…………………...…...15 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………....15 The Sixteenth Century…………………………………………………………………...16 The Governor Called Jacques…………………………………………………………....25 The Mohawk-Mohican War…………………………………………………………….. 33 Disease and Uncertainty………………………………………………………………....46 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….58 II. GUNPOWDER DIPLOMACY: TRADE AND SECURITY IN NEW NETHERLAND AND RENSSELAERSWIJCK, 1639-1659…………………………………………………………....61 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………...61 vii Rensselaerswijck………………………………………………………………………...65 Security………………………………………………………………………………….69 Trade…………………………………………………………………………………….78 Appeasement…………………………………………………………………………….87 Retaliation……………………………………………………………………………….91 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...100 III. THE RECKONING: THE COLLAPSE OF THE MOHAWK-DUTCH PARTNERSHIP, 1659-1665……………………………………………………………………………………....104 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………..104 Trouble in Paradise……………………………………………………………………..110 Iroquoia in Recoil……………………………………………………………………....125 The Fall………………………………………………………………………………....131 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...145 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………....149 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………………....157 viii ABBREVIATIONS CJVR A. J. F. van Laer, ed. Correspondence of Jeremias van Rensselaer, 1651-1674. Albany: University of the State of New York, 1932. DHM De Halve Maen. Journal of the Holland Society of New York. DHNY Edmund B. O’Callaghan, The Documentary History of the State of New York, 4 volumes (Albany: Charles Van Benthuysen, 1851). DRCHNY E. B. O’Callaghan, Berthold Fernow, and John R. Brodhead, eds. Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York. 15 volumes. Albany: Weed, Parsons, and Co., 1853-1887. DRNN A. J. F. van Laer, ed. Documents Relating to New Netherland, 1624-1626. San Marino: The Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, 1924. ERAR J. Pearson and A. J. F. van Laer, eds. Early Records of the City and County of Albany, and Colony of Rensselaerswijck, 1656-1657. 4 volumes, 2-4 revised by A. J. F. van Laer.. Albany, 1869. FOCM A. J. F. van Laer, Minutes of the Court of Fort Orange and Beverwijck, 1652-1660. 2 Volumes. Albany: University of the State of New York, 1920-1923. HNAI William C. Sturtevant, et. al. eds. Handbook of the North American Indians. 20 volumes. Washington D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1978-. JR Reuben G. Thwaites, ed. The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Travels and ix Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 1610-1791. 73 volumes. Cleveland: Burrows Brothers, 1896-1901. LIR Lawrence H. Leder, ed. The Livingston Indian Records, 1666-1723. Gettysburg: Pennsylvania Historical Association, 1956. MHSC Massachusetts Historical Society Collections. MCARS A. J. F. van Laer, ed. Minutes of the Court of Albany, Rensselaerswijck, and Schenectady, 1668-1685. 3 volumes. Albany: University of the State of New York, 1926-1932. MCR A. J. F. van Laer, ed. Minutes of the Court of Rensselaerswijck, 1648-1652. Albany: University of the State of New York, 1926-1932. MPCP Samuel Hazard, ed. Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania. 16 volumes. Harrisburg: Theo. Fenn, 1838-1853. NNC Charles T. Gehring, ed. New Netherland Documents Series: Correspondence, 1646-1664. Volumes XI - XV. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2000. NNCM Charles T. Gehring, ed. New Netherland Documents Series: Council Minutes, 1638-1665. Volumes IV-X. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2000-. NNCP Charles T. Gehring, ed. New Netherland Documents Series: Curaçao Papers, 1640-1665. Volume XVII. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2000. NNDP Charles T, Gehring, ed. New Netherland Document Series: Delaware Papers x (Dutch Period): A Collection of Documents Pertaining to the Regulation of Affairs on the South River of New Netherlands, 1648–1664. Volumes XVIII-XIX. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2000. NNFOR Charles T. Gehring, ed. New Netherland Documents Series: Fort Orange Records, 1656-1660. Volume XVI (Parts 2 and 3). Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2000. NNLO Edmund B. O’Callaghan, ed. Laws and Ordinances of New Netherland, 1638-1674 (Albany: Weed, Parsons, and Co., 1868). NNN J. Franklin Jameson, ed. Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664. 1909. Reprint, New York: Barnes and Noble, 1959. NNO Charles T. Gehring, ed. New Netherland Documents Series: Ordinances, 1647-1658. Volume XVI (Part 1). Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2000. NNRPS Charles T. Gehring, ed. New Netherland Documents Series: Register of the Provincial Secretary, 1638-1660. Volumes I-III. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2000. NYHS New York Historical Society PA Samuel Hazard et. al., eds. Pennsylvania Archives. 9 series, 138 volumes. Philadelphia and Harrisburg: Joseph Severns, 1852-1949. PP Carl Bridenbaugh, ed. The Pynchon Papers. 2 volumes. Colonial Society of Massachusetts Publications Nos. 60-61. Boston, 1982-1985.