New York City was originally named New Amsterdam by the Dutch settlers of the Dutch West India Company who established a fur trading company here in 1625.  The British renamed New Amsterdam in 1664 calling it New York (meaning "place at the water") in honor of the Duke of York (the brother of Kings Charles II).

 

The name, Manhattan came from Manna-hata – Indian for “hilly islands.” (Historians have found the word "Manhattan" spelled in almost 50 different ways.) The Lenapes, Raritan, Hackensack, Tappan, Rechgawawanche, Wiechquaesgeck, and Siwanoy tribes were the American Indian inhabitants of the island.  The isle of Manhattan was purchased by Peter Minuit, Director General of the Dutch West India Company, for beads and trinkets worth approximately 24 dollars.  The tale of the Indians selling Manhattan for a mere $24 is perhaps at best a half-truth.  Some historians believe that the Indians thought that they were only selling fishing and hunting rights to these new European visitors.  Other historians believe that the land the Indians were selling did not really belong to them (so then the question becomes who truly got fooled or taken in this deal?).  Most of the Indian tribes did not live in Manhattan but came to the island to fish and hunt.


The first Dutch settlers in 1623 were French-speaking Protestants, the Walloons, who came to the New World to escape religious persecution.  Once they settled here the Dutch West India Company would provide them with clothing and supplies at a low cost for the first two years.  In return, the Walloons agreed to stay for six years.  They first lived on Nut Island -- named for its nut trees -- which is now Governors Island and which offered more protection than the vast wilderness of Manhattan.  The move to Manhattan came a few years later when the Dutch established a trading post there.

 

Early New Amsterdam was just the southern (downtown) tip of the Manhattan.  By the year 1783, the city’s boundaries ran from Battery Park to the area which is now City Hall.  The island was a vast forest consisting of oak, maple, cedar, pine, walnut, and chestnut  trees and blackberry, raspberry and strawberry bushes.  A natural marsh separated downtown New Amsterdam from the rich farmlands of Greenwich Village, two miles north where tobacco was grown. 

 

Greenwich Village was considered “the country” and became a refuge for many New Yorkers during a yellow fever epidemic in 1822.  As late as 1871 many New Yorkers laughed at Cornelius Vanderbilt when he decided to build a railroad terminal (Grand Central) uptown -- as far north as 42nd Street.  But the City continued to expand further north and Grand Central Terminal became one of the busiest terminals in the world.


New York City owes much to black slaves who help build a large part of the early City.  The first black man to come to Manhattan is thought to have been the explorer Jan Rodrigues, a mulatto from San Domingo, who came on a Dutch ship in 1613 with Captain Adriaen Block.  Slaves were first brought from Africa in 1625.  Slave labor and trade would play an important role in the development of New York City and the eastern coast of the entire country.  In 1657 Peter Stuyvesant, the Director General of the West India Company in New Amsterdam, requested Dutch carpenters from Holland, but was told that they were too expensive and that such work could be performed cheaper by Negro slaves.  Black slaves would build much of New Amsterdam including a fort, docks, and many important public works projects and city buildings such as the first City Hall, the city prison and hospital, the first churches, and Fraunces Tavern (where George Washington said goodbye to his troops at the end of the Revolutionary War).  Slaves would also serve in the Continental Army and fight beside white soldiers in an integrated army (the only American conflict until the Korean War when whites and blacks fought alongside each other -- African-American units were segregated during the World Wars). 

 

Before the Revolutionary War, there were more slaves in New York than in any other American city except for Charleston, South Carolina.  Forty percent of New York City's households owned slaves.  Slaves were traded at a slave market operating on Wall Street beginning in 1711 and a cage, whipping post and stocks were built for discipling slaves at the old City Hall (Wall and Broad Streets).  Slaves were also sold at wharves along Manhattan's waterfront and sometimes at local taverns.

 

Fort Amsterdam was built just south of Bowling Green where the U.S. Custom House (now the Museum of American Indians) stands today.   The Fort contained the Governor's House, a jail, a stone church, officers' quarters and barracks.  Wind-driven windmills (said to frighten the Indians) and windmills driven by horses were erected near the Fort.  The area that is now City Hall Park was known as the Commons and in 1777 a British barracks, an armory and a prison for the American soldiers of the Continental Army were located there.  In addition to the Native Americans living in the City, local residents also included soldiers, sailors, trappers, slaves and artisans. 
 

 

Tobacco and corn were two crops that were grown and sold in the city and country and important to the economy.  Tobacco leaves and stalks of corn can be found on the marble engravings of early city buildings as well as acorn and pineapple (symbolizing hospitality) motifs.

 

It's fascinating to envision what New York City looked like in its early days.  Imagine a city with unpaved and/or cobblestone streets full of horses, carriages and stagecoaches and without modern conveniences.  Stone Street, originally named Brewer Street for the breweries that lined it, became the first paved city street in 1657 or 1658 and by 1661 all of the main roads in the City were cobblestone.  Horse-drawn omnibuses were introduced in 1832, electric streetcars in 1900.  Carts, steamboats, railroads, elevated railways, trolleys, clipper ships, ferries, automobiles, taxis and subways (the first line opened in 1904) are some of the many modes of transportation used in the city over the years.  Beginning in the year 1679 residents were required to have candles lit (mounted in a lamp or lantern) at every 7th house) "when there is no moon."  These street lanterns were  replaced by whale oil lamps and then later by gas lamps (on cast-iron posts introduced in 1825).  One visitor in 1825 described a gaslight in the shape of a harp and Broadway was lined with gas lights.  Electric lamps were introduced in 1879.  Even in 1913, there were many gas lamps still on the streets.   

 

The Dutch built one-story wood houses with two rooms.  Later houses and buildings were built of Dutch red-brick (photo above).  The custom of high stoops (used in Amsterdam to keep water out) was retained here and many houses had a stoop with a steep flight of steps leading to a front door with a large brass knocker (usually shaped like a dog or lion's head).  In warmer weather the stoops also became a place for family gatherings.  Front doors had both upper and lower halves which allowed the home's occupants to open the upper part of the door to chat with neighbors or by-passers.  The closed lower part of the door kept children inside and livestock out of the houses.  Many houses had both flower and vegetable gardens.  At first roofs were made of straw but eventually tile roofs were built in order to prevent fires from breaking out from flying chimney sparks.  New Amsterdam had a small fire department equipped with large leather water buckets and ladders.  A fire warden/watchman was stationed atop City Hall.  Policemen and night watchmen patrolled the streets with rattles -- shaking the rattles to signal thieves that they were approaching and also calling out the hour of the day.  All kinds of livestock roamed the streets including pigs that were allowed because they would eat street garbage.  A typical street might be lined with wooden-framed houses, shops of various kinds, boarding houses, and, of course, the highly popular taverns.  There were also oyster saloons, beer saloons, ladies of the night and pickpockets, dance halls with fiddlers who would play a tune for a small fee.  P.T. Barnum's popular American Museum with its exhibits of oddities, freaks and deformed animals was near City Hall at Broadway and Ann Streets.

 

Ron Chernow, author of a biography of Alexander Hamilton, notes that the area next to Trinity Church and King's College (founded in 1754 and which later became Columbia University) was a famous red-light district where as many as 500 ladies of the night walked the streets each evening.  It was known as the "Holy Ground." 


The original Pearl Street was at the river and so named because it was made of mother-of-pearl shells left there by the tides.  The area along Pearl Street and the Hudson River became known as the Strand due to the large number of shops located there.  In 1653 a 2,340 foot wall of oak posts with sharp tips was constructed between the East River and the North (Hudson) River at what is now Wall Street.  The wall was designed to protect New York City from an anticipated military attack by the British.  On August 26, 1664, the British moved a fleet of ships into New York Harbor and captured the City without firing one single shot (the Dutch were hugely outnumbered), but the wall stood until 1699.  Maiden Lane was named for the Dutch maidens who washed their laundry in the stream there.  The Bowery was named for its "bouweries" or the 12 farms (six on each side of the street) there. 

 

In 1642 a city tavern, Stadts Herbergh -- five stories tall -- was built in downtown Manhattan.  This popular tavern  was designated as the city's first City Hall (Stadt Huys) in 1653 by Governor Peter Stuyvesant.  A weather vane and cupola with a bell were added to the structure, at Pearl Street and Coenties Alley where the local government, the Council of Legislators, met.  Courts, a school, a firehouse and a jail were also located there.  Imagine  New  York Harbor as a thriving port brimming with ships and the silhouettes of their masts and sails.

 

Evidence has been found that Native Americans lived in uptown Manhattan in the Inwood Hill Park area in the 17th and 18th centuries.  Prehistoric roots which include caves, valleys and ridges left by shifting glaciers have been found there.

 

An excellent description of life in early New Amsterdam is presented in the first chapters of THE EPIC OF NEW YORK CITY by Edward Robb Ellis.  Other wonderful details of daily life in the City of that period are found in THE WOMEN OF THE HOUSE by Jean Zimmerman.