Only one period document mentions anything about the purchase of Manhattan. This letter states that the island was purchased from the Indians for 60 guilders worth of trade goods, which would consist of things like axes, iron kettles, and wool clothing. No reason beads couldn’t have been included, but nothing tells us exactly what the mix was. Indians were notoriously shrewd traders and would not have been fooled by worthless trinkets.
The original letter is in the archives of the Netherlands. It was written by a merchant, Pieter Schagen, to the directors of the West India Company (owners of New Netherlands) and is dated 5 November 1626. He mentions that the settlers “have bought the island of Manhattes from the savages for a value of 60 guilders.” That’s it. It doesn’t say who purchased the island or from whom they purchased it, although it was probably the local Lenape tribe.
A little more is known of the purchase of Staten Island. That sale was also made for 60 guilders worth of goods, and for this, the Indians took fabric, axes, hoes, awls, kettles, Jews’ harps, and beads.
Historians often point out that North American Indians had a concept of land ownership different from that of the Europeans. The Indians regarded land, like air and water, as something you could use but not own or sell. It has been suggested that the Indians may have thought they were sharing, not selling.
Here is the letter, followed by a transcript in English:
Recep.7 November 1626 High and Mighty Lords, Yesterday the ship the Arms of Amsterdam arrived here. It sailed from New Netherland out of the River Mauritius on the 23d of September. They report that our people are in good spirit and live in peace. The women also have borne some children there. They have purchased the Island Manhattes from the savages for the value of 60 guilders. It is 11.000 morgens in size [about 22.000 acres]. They had all their grain sowed by the middle of May, and reaped by the middle of August They sent samples of these summer grains: wheat, rye, barleey, oats, buckwheat, canary seed, beans and flax. The cargo of the aforesaid ship is: 7264 Beaver skins 178 ½ Otter skins 675 Otter skins 48 Mink skins 36 Lynx skins 33 Minks 34 Weasel skins Many oak timbers and nut wood. Herewith, High and Mighty Lords, be commended to the mercy of the Almighty, Your High and Mightinesses’ obedient P. Schagen
That’s a classic and a perfect example of the process. Something perfectly reasonable gets reduced for effect, then taken out of context, enters the public imagination and is taken for fact.
Very interesting! I wonder how much value 60 guilders had in today’s dollars. That would be a difficult calculation.
“The Indians regarded land, like air and water, as something you could use but not own or sell. It has been suggested that the Indians may have thought they were sharing, not selling.”
Honestly, to me it sounds more like fraud. Taking goods for something they didn’t own, like selling the Brooklyn Bridge.
I too was wondering about the value of guilders! Great point about selling something that you don’t own in the first place – never thought about it that way.
Amazing number of beaver skins!
I wondered about guilders too, but shied away from attempting any sort of estimate. After all, it is next to impossible to figure the value of 19th-century dollars in today’s money–how on earth would I find out what a guilder was worth in the 17th century and compare that to dollars in the 21st century? If anyone can wrestle this question, I’d love to know how, and what the approximate value was.
My mom — something of a devoted amateur historian — has always told me the Indians didn’t consider Manhattan a valuable piece of land anyway due to its being difficult to access and not being considered inhabitable for various geographic reasons. In other words, they thought they were screwing over the settlers by selling them a worthless property for anything at all.
Since the Indians didn’t record their thoughts, no one really knows their perspective, but your mother’s theory sounds very possible.
Regarding the worth of a guilder, Gulden in Dutch. At that time, a Dutch sailor earned about 10 Gulden per month. A beaver pelt was worth 8-9 Gulden. A Dutch ancester of mine, Abraham Pieterzen (van Deursen) complained in a letter of the 10 Gulden annual tax levied to help pay for maintaining the protective wall that ran the width of the island (Wall Street today). So 60 guilders was not much.
How interesting! I had wondered what the approximate value of a guilder was in those years. Thanks for the information.