Chapter 2 Summary and Analysis

In 1664, Charles II granted his brother James control of North America from Maine to the Delaware, in return for forty prime beaver skins each year. The Dutch held much of this territory, but this gift was designed to bring this territory, particularly New Netherland, centered in Manhattan island, under English control. This would offset Dutch gains in the Pacific. The English had been warring with the Dutch in Africa, and had taken over Dutch slave ports and markets. They would let the Dutch have the Pacific, but they were going to control the Atlantic.

James set sail with four frigates and 2,000 troops in 1665. He demanded the island and presented terms that included freedom of religion, property rights, inheritance laws, and freedom and liberty for the people. Stuyvesant tore up this demand, but 93 leading citizens petitioned him to surrender. Brown poses the...