ALL ABOUT NEW YORK
History
English rule
Main articles: Province of New York and History of New York City (1665–1783)
The Fall of New Amsterdam by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, part of the Conquest of New Netherland
Fort George and New York with British Navy ships of the line c. 1731
In 1664, unable to summon any significant resistance, Stuyvesant surrendered New Amsterdam to English troops, led by Colonel Richard Nicolls, without bloodshed.[55][56] The terms of the surrender permitted Dutch residents to remain in the colony and allowed for religious freedom.[57]
In 1667, during negotiations leading to the Treaty of Breda after the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the victorious Dutch decided to keep the nascent plantation colony of what is now Suriname on the northern South American coast, which they had gained from the English;[58] and in return, the English kept New Amsterdam. The fledgling settlement was promptly renamed "New York" after the Duke of York (the future King James II and VII).[59] After the founding, the duke gave part of the colony to proprietors George Carteret and John Berkeley. Fort Orange, 150 miles (240 km) north on the Hudson River, was renamed Albany after James's Scottish title.[60]
On August 24, 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, Anthony Colve of the Dutch navy seized New York from the English at the behest of Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest and rechristened it "New Orange" after William III, the Prince of Orange.[61] The Dutch soon returned the island to England under the Treaty of Westminster of November 1674.[62][63]
Several intertribal wars among the Native Americans and some epidemics brought on by contact with the Europeans caused sizeable population losses for the Lenape between the years 1660 and 1670.[64] By 1700, the Lenape population had diminished to 200.[65] New York experienced several yellow fever epidemics in the 18th century, losing ten percent of its population in 1702 alone.[66][67]
In the early 18th century, New York grew in importance as a trading port while as a part of the colony of New York.[68] It became a center of slavery, with 42% of households enslaving Africans by 1730.[69] Most cases were that of domestic slavery; others were hired out to work at labor. Slavery became integrally tied to New York's economy through the labor of slaves throughout the port, and the banking and shipping industries trading with the American South. During construction in Foley Square in the 1990s, the African Burying Ground was discovered; the cemetery included 10,000 to 20,000 of graves of colonial-era Africans, some enslaved and some free.[70]
The 1735 trial and acquittal in Manhattan of John Peter Zenger, who had been accused of seditious libel after criticizing colonial governor William Cosby, helped to establish freedom of the press in North America.[71] In 1754, Columbia University was founded under charter by King George II as King's College in Lower Manhattan.[72]
DRIVING DIRECTIONS
