Editing Peter Minuit (section)

==Biography==
===Early life===
Peter Minuit was born in [[Wesel]], Germany between 1580 and 1585<ref name="GoodJames">{{cite journal | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/23323599 | jstor=23323599 | title=A Calvinistic Founder of America: Peter Minuit | last1=Good | first1=James I. | journal=Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society (1901-1930) | date=1923 | volume=11 | issue=7 | pages=260–267 }}</ref><ref name=wesel>{{ cite web| title=Peter Minuit| url=https://www.wesel.de/en/city-portrait/peter-minuit/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201081411/http://www.wesel.de/en/city-portrait/peter-minuit/ | website=Wesel.de| archive-date=2017-12-01}}</ref> into a [[Calvinist]] family<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23323599 | jstor=23323599 | title=A Calvinistic Founder of America: Peter Minuit | last1=Good | first1=James I. | journal=Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society (1901-1930) | date=1923 | volume=11 | issue=7 | pages=260–267 }}</ref> that had moved from the city of [[Tournai]] (presently part of [[Wallonia]], Belgium) in the [[Southern Netherlands]] controlled by Spain, in order to avoid Spanish Catholic authorities, who were not favorably disposed toward [[Protestants]].<ref name=nni/> His surname means "midnight" in French.<ref name=footprints>{{cite book|last1=Nevius|first1=James|last2=Nevius|first2=Michelle|title=Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers|location=Guilford, Conn.|publisher=Lyons Press|date=2014|isbn=9780762796366|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_nhBBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA13}}</ref>

His father, Johann Minuit, died in 1609 and Peter took over management of the household and his father's business. Peter had a good reputation in Wesel, attested by the fact that he was several times appointed a guardian. He also assisted the poor during the Spanish occupation of 1614–1619.<ref name=wesel/>

Minuit married Gertrude Raedts from [[Kleve|Cleve]] on August 20, 1613. Gertrude was from a wealthy family and she probably helped Peter Minuit establish himself as a broker. A will drawn up in 1615 in the Dutch city of [[Utrecht]], mentions "Peter Minnewit" as a diamond cutter.<ref name=nni/> Whether he traded in other items is unknown. He spelled his own surname as ''Minuit'', but the spelling ''Minnewit'' shows the pronunciation.<ref name="hg">{{cite book |author=Historisch Genootschap |title=Bijdragen en mededeelingen van het Historisch Genootschap (gevestigt te Utrecht)., Deel 29|location=Amsterdam |publisher=Amsterdam, Johannes Muller|year=1877 |isbn= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B_wPAAAAYAAJ |access-date=February 2, 2024 |pages=41 }} [https://archive.org/details/bijdragenenmede04unkngoog/page/n75/mode/2up?q=Minnewit Alt URL]</ref> Thus in some old books ''Minnewit'' is used. 

By 1624, the city was in an economic decline and in 1625, he had left Wesel and like others, went to Holland. At first, Gertrude went to stay with her relatives in Cleve.<ref name=wesel/>

===As director of New Netherland===
{{refimprove section|date=May 2017}}
[[File:Verkoopakte Manhattan.jpg|thumb|1626 letter in Dutch by Pieter Schaghen stating the purchase of Manhattan for 60 guilders]]
[[File:The Purchase of Manhattan Island.png|thumb|1909 drawing of ''The Purchase of Manhattan Island'' with Minuit presiding]]

Minuit joined the [[Dutch West India Company]], probably in the mid-1620s, and was sent with his family to New Netherland in 1625 to search for tradable goods other than the animal pelts that then were the major product coming from New Netherland. He returned in the same year, and in 1626 was appointed the new director of New Netherland, taking over from [[Willem Verhulst]]. He sailed to North America and arrived in the colony on May 4, 1626.<ref name=wesel/> 

Minuit is credited with purchasing the island of [[Manhattan]] from Native Americans in exchange for traded goods valued at 60 [[Dutch gulden|guilders]].  The figure of 60 guilders comes from a letter by a representative of the Dutch States-General and member of the board of the Dutch West India Company, Pieter Janszoon Schagen, to the States-General in November 1626.<ref>[http://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/history-and-heritage/more-historical-fun/dutch-treats/peter-schagen-letter/ Peter Schaghen Letter with transcription. New Netherland Institute (1626-11-07). Retrieved on February 16, 2015.]</ref> In 1844, New York historian [[John Romeyn Brodhead]] converted the figure of Fl 60 (or 60 guilders) to [[United States dollar|US$]]24.<ref name="NeviusNevius2009">{{cite book|last1=Nevius|first1=Michelle|last2=Nevius|first2=James|title=Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O8K5OCC4CMwC&pg=PA9|date=2009|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-4165-8997-6|page=9}}</ref>  By 2006 sixty guilders in 1626 was worth approximately $1,000 in current dollars, according to the Institute for Social History of Amsterdam.<ref>The International Institute for Social History, Amsterdam [http://www.iisg.nl/hpw/calculate.php calculates] its value as 60 guilders (1626) = [[Euro|€]]678.91 (2006), equal to about $1,000 in 2006.</ref>

According to researchers at the National Library of the Netherlands,{{Citation needed|date=October 2015}} "The original inhabitants of the area were unfamiliar with the European notions and definitions of ownership rights. For the Indians, water, air and land could not be traded. Such exchanges would also be difficult in practical terms because many groups migrated between their summer and winter quarters. It can be concluded that both parties probably went home with totally different interpretations of the sales agreement."

A contemporary purchase of rights in nearby [[Staten Island, New York|Staten Island]], to which Minuit also was party, involved duffel cloth, iron [[kettle]]s, [[axe]] heads, [[hoe (tool)|hoe]]s, [[wampum]], drilling [[bradawl|awls]], "[[Jew's harp]]s", and "diverse other wares". "If similar trade goods were involved in the Manhattan arrangement", Burrows and Wallace surmise, "then the Dutch were engaged in high-end [[technology transfer]], handing over equipment of enormous usefulness in tasks ranging from clearing land to drilling [[wampum]]."<ref name=":0">[[Edwin G. Burrows]] and [[Mike Wallace (historian)|Mike Wallace]], ''[[Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898]]'', (1999: xivff)</ref>

Minuit conducted politics in a measure of democracy in the colony during his time in New Netherland. He was highest judge in the colony, but in both civil and criminal affairs he was assisted by a council of five colonists. This advisory body would advise the director and jointly with him would develop, administer, and adjudicate a body of laws to help govern the colony. In addition there was a schout-fiscal, half-sheriff, half-attorney-general, and the customs officer.<ref name=nni>[http://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/history-and-heritage/dutch_americans/peter-minuit/ "Peter Minuit", New Netherlands Institute]</ref> During Minuit's administration, several mills were built, trade grew exponentially, and the population grew to almost 300.{{Citation needed|date=October 2015}}

In 1632, the Dutch West India Company (WIC) suspended Minuit from his post for reasons that are unclear, but probably for (perhaps unintentionally) abetting the landowning [[patroons]] who were engaging in illegal fur trade and otherwise enriching themselves against the interests and orders of the West India Company.<ref>[http://www.biography.com/people/peter-minuit-9409851 Peter Minuit Biography – Facts, Birthday, Life Story]. Biography.com (October 27, 1940). Retrieved on July 23, 2013.</ref><ref>[http://www.historyofholland.com/peter-minuit.html Peter Minuit]. Historyofholland.com. Retrieved on July 23, 2013.</ref> He arrived back in Europe in August 1632 to explain his actions, but was dismissed<ref name=wesel /> and was succeeded as director by [[Wouter van Twiller]]. It is possible that Minuit had become the victim of the internal disputes over the rights that the board of directors had given to the patroons.{{cn|date=January 2018}}

===Establishing the New Sweden colony===
[[File:Samuel Blommaert (1583-1651).jpg|thumb|Samuel Blommaert (1583-1651)]]

After having lived in [[Emmerich am Rhein|Emmerich]] ([[Duchy of Cleves]]) for several years, Minuit made arrangements with [[Samuel Blommaert]] and the [[Sweden|Swedish]] government in 1637 to create the first Swedish colony in the [[New World]]. Located on the lower [[Delaware River]] within territory earlier claimed by the Dutch, it was called [[New Sweden]]. Minuit and his company arrived on the ''[[Fogel Grip]]'' and ''[[Kalmar Nyckel]]'' at [[Swedes' Landing]], which is present-day [[Wilmington, Delaware]], on 29 March, 1638. Minuit left the colony on 20 May, 1638 and sailed to the Caribbean island of [[Saint Kitts|St. Christopher]], where he arrived on 15 June to barter salt, a ship's cargo of wine and [[liquor]] for tobacco to make the voyage profitable.<ref>Kernkamp, G.W. (1908) Brieven van Samuel Blommaert aan den Zweedschen Rijkskanselier Axel Oxenstierna 1635–1641, p. 158. In: Bijdragen & Mededeelingen van het Historisch Genootschap, nr. 29.</ref><ref>Ashmead, Henry Graham  ''History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania''   (Chapter II, Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co. 1884)</ref><ref>Weslager, C. A. ''A Man and his Ship: Peter Minuit and the Kalmar Nyckel'' (Wilmington, Delaware: Kalmar Nickel Foundation. 1989</ref>