Editing Brooklyn (section)

===Colonial era===
====New Netherland====
The [[Dutch Republic|Dutch]] were the first Europeans to settle Long Island's western edge, which was then largely inhabited by the [[Lenape]], an Algonquian-speaking [[Native Americans in the United States|American Indian]] tribe often referred to in European documents by a variation of the place name "[[Canarsie]]". Bands were associated with place names, but the colonists thought their names represented different tribes. The ''Breuckelen'' settlement was named after [[Breukelen]] in the [[Netherlands]]; it was part of [[New Netherland]]. The [[Dutch West India Company]] lost little time in chartering the six original parishes (listed here by their later English town names):<ref>[http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Town/Bushwick/index.html ''Brooklyn Daily Eagle''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140629011359/http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Town/Bushwick/index.html |date=June 29, 2014 }}, "Map of six townships"</ref>
*[[Gravesend, Brooklyn|Gravesend]]: in 1645, settled under Dutch patent by English followers of [[Anabaptist]] [[Deborah Moody]], named for [['s-Gravenzande]], Netherlands, or [[Gravesend]], England;
*[[Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn|Brooklyn Heights]]: chartered as ''Breuckelen'' in 1646, after the town now spelled [[Breukelen]], Netherlands. Breuckelen was along Fulton Street (now Fulton Mall) between Hoyt Street and Smith Street (according to H. Stiles and P. Ross). Brooklyn Heights, or Clover Hill, is where the village of Brooklyn was founded in 1816;
*[[Flatlands, Brooklyn|Flatlands]]: chartered as ''Nieuw [[Amersfoort]]'' in 1647;
*[[Flatbush, Brooklyn|Flatbush]]: chartered as ''[[Midwood, Brooklyn|Midwout]]'' in 1652;
*[[New Utrecht, Brooklyn|''Nieuw Utrecht'']] in 1652, named after the city of [[Utrecht (city)|Utrecht]], Netherlands; and
*[[Bushwick, Brooklyn|Bushwick]]: chartered as ''Boswijck'' in 1661.[[File: Dining table in Brooklyn, c. 1664 IMG 3837.JPG|thumb|upright=1.15|A dining table from the Dutch village of Brooklyn, {{circa|1664}}, in [[The Brooklyn Museum]]]]

The colony's capital of [[New Amsterdam]], across the East River, obtained its charter in 1653. The neighborhood of [[Marine Park, Brooklyn|Marine Park]] was home to North America's first [[tide mill]]. It was built by the Dutch, and the foundation can be seen today. But the area was not formally settled as a town. Many incidents and documents relating to this period are in [[Gabriel Furman]]'s 1824 compilation.<ref>[http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience/30/ ''Notes Geographical and Historical, relating to the Town of Brooklyn, in Kings County on Long-Island''].</ref>

====Province of New York====
[[File:BrooklynMap1766.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|Village of Brooklyn and environs, 1766]]
Present-day Brooklyn left Dutch hands after the English [[conquest of New Netherland]] in 1664, which sparked the [[Second Anglo-Dutch War]]. New Netherland was taken in a naval action, and the English renamed the new capture for their naval commander, [[James II of England|James, Duke of York]], brother of the then monarch [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]] and future king himself as [[James II of England|King James II]]. Brooklyn became a part of the West Riding of [[York Shire (Province of New York)|York Shire]] in the [[Province of New York]], one of the [[Middle Colonies]] in [[British America|England's North American colonies]].

On November 1, 1683, ''Kings County'' was partitioned from the West Riding of York Shire, containing the six old Dutch towns on southwestern Long Island,<ref>N.Y. Col. Laws, ch4/1:122</ref> as one of the [[Province of New York#Counties|"original twelve counties"]]. This tract of land was recognized as a political entity for the first time, and the municipal groundwork was laid for a later expansive idea of a Brooklyn identity.

Lacking the [[patroon]] and tenant farmer system established along the [[Hudson Valley|Hudson River Valley]], this [[agricultural]] county unusually came to have one of the highest percentages of [[Slavery in the colonial United States|slaves]] among the population in the [[Thirteen Colonies|"Original Thirteen Colonies"]] along the [[Atlantic Ocean]] eastern coast of [[North America]].<ref>{{cite news | date=December 29, 1891 | title=Slavery Here. Right in Brooklyn and Out on Long Island | work=[[Brooklyn Daily Eagle]] | page=2 | url=https://bklyn.newspapers.com/article/brooklyn-eagle-slavery-in-brooklyn/2329036/ | access-date=October 18, 2017}}</ref>

====Revolutionary War====
{{Further|Battle of Long Island|New York and New Jersey campaign}}
[[File:Battle-of-Long-Island-Map-sml.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|The American Revolution's [[Battle of Long Island]] was fought across Kings County.]]
On August 27, 1776, the [[Battle of Long Island]] (also known as the 'Battle of Brooklyn') was fought, the first major engagement fought in the [[American Revolutionary War]] after [[United States Declaration of Independence|independence was declared]], and the largest of the entire conflict. [[British Army during the American Revolutionary War|British troops]] forced the [[Continental Army]] under [[George Washington]] off the heights near the modern sites of [[Green-Wood Cemetery]], [[Prospect Park (Brooklyn)|Prospect Park]], and [[Grand Army Plaza]].<ref name="McCullough, David 2005">[[David McCullough|McCullough, David]]. ''[[1776 (book)|1776]]''. Simon & Schuster. 2005. {{ISBN|978-0-7432-2671-4}}</ref>

Washington, viewing particularly fierce fighting at the [[Gowanus Canal|Gowanus Creek]] and [[Old Stone House (Brooklyn)|Old Stone House]] from atop a hill near the west end of present-day [[Atlantic Avenue (Brooklyn)|Atlantic Avenue]], was reported to have emotionally exclaimed: "What brave men I must this day lose!".<ref name="McCullough, David 2005"/>

The [[Fortification|fortified]] American positions at [[Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn|Brooklyn Heights]] consequently became untenable and were evacuated a few days later, leaving the British in control of [[New York Harbor]]. While Washington's defeat on the battlefield cast early doubts on his ability as the commander, the [[tactical withdrawal]] of all his troops and supplies across the [[East River]] in a single night is now seen by historians as one of his most brilliant triumphs.<ref name="McCullough, David 2005"/>

The British controlled the surrounding region for the duration of the war, as New York City was soon occupied and became their military and political base of operations in British-held North America for the remainder of the conflict. The [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriot]] residents largely fled or changed their political sentiments, and afterward the British generally enjoyed a dominant [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]] sentiment from the residents in Kings County who did not evacuate, though the region was also the center of the fledgling—and largely successful—[[Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War|Patriot intelligence network]], headed by Washington himself.

The British set up a system of [[Prisoners of war in the American Revolutionary War|prison ships]] off the coast of Brooklyn in [[Wallabout Bay]]. More American prisoners of war died on these prison ships than were [[killed in action]] on all the battlefield engagements of the war combined. One result of the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]] in 1783 was the [[Evacuation Day (New York)|evacuation of the British from New York City]], which was celebrated by New Yorkers into the 20th century.