Part 7

=52. Peter Stuyvesant.= This sturdy son of Holland was born at a time when his country was fighting hard against Spain for independence. His father was a minister, who, it may be supposed, brought up young Peter after the strict manner common to Dutch boys.

Peter early began to study Latin. He was vain of his knowledge, and later took pride in showing it off to the settlers of New Amsterdam.

[Sidenote: =Becomes a soldier=]

When he left school young Peter joined the army. He found plenty of hard work; but he performed his duties as a soldier more quickly and better than some of his comrades, and before many years was given command over a Dutch colony in the West Indies.

[Sidenote: =Goes to New Netherland=]

In an attack on a Portuguese fort Stuyvesant lost a leg and had to return to Holland. As soon as he was well the Dutch West India Company sent him to New Netherland (1647) to save that colony from the Indians.

[Sidenote: =What Stuyvesant said to the settlers=]

The arrival of Stuyvesant, with his little army and fleet of four vessels, brought great joy to the discouraged settlers and fur traders. He said to the people: "I shall reign over you as a father over his children." But he ruled the colony far more like a king than a father. He was not only commander in chief of the army, but was also lawmaker, judge, and governor, all in one.

[Sidenote: =Strict order in New Amsterdam=]

The new laws made by Stuyvesant showed that he intended to keep order in the colony. He forbade Sabbath-breaking, drunkenness, the sale of drink to the Indians or to any one else after the nine o'clock bell had rung. He ordered the owners of all vacant lots in New Amsterdam to improve them, and tried to fix the location of all new buildings. He taxed traders, whether they shipped goods to Europe or brought goods into New Netherland.

Stuyvesant did, indeed, restore order to the colony, but he stirred up the people until they demanded a voice in the government. He finally agreed that they might select nine of their wisest men to advise with him. They were called the council. He had no idea of following anybody's advice unless it agreed with his own notions, but the people had gained something.

[Sidenote: =Stuyvesant and his neighbors=]

At the same time Stuyvesant was just as busy with his neighbors' affairs. He quarreled with the English in New England, as well as with the patroons in his own colony.

Stuyvesant claimed all the region now included in New Jersey, a large part of that in the states of New York, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, and also a part of the territory of New England.

[Sidenote: =Government by the people demanded=]

The colony grew in numbers. New towns sprang up along the Hudson and on Long Island. But the increase in the number of the towns only made the call for a government by the people still louder.

For several years the dispute between the people and the governor went on until, one day in 1664, news came that a fleet of English war vessels was in sight. Although England and Holland were at peace, the English king had given New Netherland to his brother, the Duke of York, and the English fleet had come to take it for the duke.

Governor Stuyvesant was resolved to defend the colony to the last. But he was surprised to find that his people were not willing to fight for a governor who had given them so little share in governing themselves.

[Sidenote: =What Stuyvesant learned after it was too late=]

[Sidenote: =Brave to the last=]

The commander of the fleet sent a letter to Stuyvesant offering very favorable terms of surrender. The council wanted the governor to surrender, but he grew angry, tore the letter to pieces, and declared he would never give up. The council put the pieces of the letter together and read it to the people. The minister of his own church begged the governor not to fight, and leading citizens, and mothers with their children, pleaded with Stuyvesant to surrender. Now what could the brave old Dutchman do? He could not fight a whole fleet alone. He turned sadly away, saying, "I would rather go to my grave than to surrender the city."

[Sidenote: =New Netherland becomes New York=]

=53. The Dutch Surrender to the English.= The English took possession, and the colony of New Netherland became the colony of New York, and at the same time the town of New Amsterdam became the town of New York. Fort Orange became Albany. English governors came to rule instead of Dutch governors. A few years later a Dutch fleet recaptured the colony; but, by a treaty at the close of the war, Holland returned it to England. When William and Mary came to the throne of England (1689) they gave New York a representative assembly.

[Sidenote: =Dutch ideas and customs remain=]

Although Dutch rule was gone forever, the Dutch people and Dutch ideas and customs remained. They were given no cause to regret the change. Peter Stuyvesant himself had become so attached to the colony that he came back from Holland and spent his last years on his great farm, or bowery, as the Dutch called it.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF NEW NETHERLAND

=54. Life in New Netherland.= The Dutch colonists brought with them the quaint and simple ways of their old home in Holland--the land of dikes and windmills. Even long years after the colony had passed into the hands of the English, many places in New York remained Dutch in customs and appearance.

[Sidenote: =The colonists built houses like those in Holland=]

New Amsterdam looked for all the world like a city back in Holland. The houses were built solidly. They stood close to the street and had high, steep roofs with gable ends that were like series of steps. On the front of each house large iron numerals told the year in which it was built. On the roof were curious weathervanes.

About the fireplace the family gathered in the evening. The burgher would tell jovial stories to the children as he smoked his long pipe. The good wife, resting from her day's work, found some needlework to busy her fingers.

The Dutch wives were famous housekeepers and prided themselves on their spotless homes. They scoured and scrubbed from morning to night. But they also knew how to make doughnuts and crullers and to cook good dishes that made their husbands round and good-natured and their children rosy and plump.

[Sidenote: =The Dutch liked merrymaking=]

The Dutch liked merrymaking and good times far better than did their Puritan neighbors. The big brass knocker on the door--shaped generally like the head of some animal--was kept busy in the afternoon by people coming to drink tea or coffee. A great copper kettle, hung in the fireplace, furnished enough to drink for every one, and sweet cookies were always on hand. They celebrated many holidays. At Christmas we still look for old Santa Claus, whom the Dutch first brought to this country.

In Holland the burghers had been good farmers and shrewd merchants. When they came to this country they continued to make their living chiefly in these two ways. On Long Island and along the Hudson River were fine farms with well-kept fields and large gardens. The merchants mostly lived at New Amsterdam, which soon became a busy seaport. Here many sailing vessels lay at anchor and exchanged their cargoes for the products of the Dutch farms and of the Indian trade. From the small beginnings made by these Dutch merchants has grown the largest city of the western world.

WILLIAM PENN, THE QUAKER, WHO FOUNDED THE CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE

=55. William Penn.= One day Thomas Loe, a Quaker preacher, ventured into the old university town of Oxford. He talked with the students and explained to them the beliefs of the Quakers. He declared that all men were equal, and he refused to recognize rank or title. He taught men to live and worship in simplicity.

[Sidenote: =William Penn converted=]

A few students believed his teachings and resolved to become members of the hated sect of Quakers. Among them was William Penn, the son of a great naval officer, Admiral Penn. What a buzzing there was in that old college town when the news spread that William Penn, the fine scholar, the skilled oarsman, the all-round athlete, had become a Quaker!

[Sidenote: =Why Penn was expelled from college=]

Some of his comrades would not believe it. But when they saw him put off the cap and gown of his college, which some of the greatest men in English history had worn with pride, and put on the plain garb of the Quakers, they gave up! The college officers were also convinced when Penn and other Quakers tore off the gowns of fellow students. The authorities promptly expelled these young and over-enthusiastic Friends.

[Sidenote: =What Penn's family and friends thought=]

What more disgraceful thing could happen to the family of Admiral Penn? To have a son expelled from Oxford was bad enough, but to have him become a Quaker was a disgrace not to be borne--so thought his family. The stern old admiral promptly drove him from home. But William resolutely refused to give up his Quaker views, and the admiral decided to try the plan of sending him to Paris, where life was as un-Quaker-like as it could be.

William Penn himself looked little like a Quaker. He was then eighteen years old, fine looking, with large eyes and long, dark, curly hair reaching to his shoulders.

[Sidenote: =Penn in Paris=]

Young Penn, however, did not entirely waste his time in the gay life of Paris. He attended school and traveled in Italy. At the end of two years he came back.

[Sidenote: =Returns more of a Quaker than ever=]

It was not long before the admiral again saw Quaker signs in his son and hastened him off to Ireland to cure him entirely. But who should be preaching in Ireland but Thomas Loe. William went to hear his old preacher, and this time became a Quaker forever. No suffering was great enough to cause him ever to waver again, although fines were heaped on him and at four different times he was thrown into foul jails to be the companion of criminals.

[Sidenote: =Penn refuses to lift his hat=]

Penn's family now felt the disgrace very keenly, but his father promised to forgive him if he would take off his hat to the king, to the king's brother, and to his father. One day, the story goes, King Charles, the merry monarch, met William Penn and others. All hats were promptly removed except the king's and Penn's. Presently the king, too, removed his hat. Whereupon, Penn said: "Friend Charles, why dost thou remove thy hat?" The king replied: "Because, wherever I am, it is customary for but one to remain covered."

Penn's father would not permit such conduct toward his royal friends. He therefore drove his son from his home a second time.

[Sidenote: =William Penn makes a noble choice=]

But Penn's mother finally made peace between the father and the son before the admiral died. William Penn, then but twenty-six years old, came into possession of a fortune. Once more he stood "where the roads parted." He could now be a great man and play the part of a fine English gentleman who would always be welcome at court, or he could remain a Quaker.

[Sidenote: =Turns to America=]

We do not know that he even thought of forsaking his Quaker comrades. On the contrary, he resolved to devote his fortune and his life to giving them relief. Like Winthrop for the Puritans and Baltimore for the Catholics, Penn thought of America for his persecuted Friends. With other Quaker leaders, he became an owner of West Jersey, part of New Jersey.

[Sidenote: =The king pays an old debt=]

[Sidenote: =Penn's Woods=]

=56. The Founding of Pennsylvania.= King Charles II owed Penn's father about eighty thousand dollars. William Penn asked him to pay it in American land. Charles was only too glad to grant this request of the son of his old sea captain. The land he gave to Penn is the present great state of Pennsylvania. Penn wanted the colony called Sylvania, meaning woodland, but the king declared it should be called Pennsylvania in memory of Admiral Penn.

By means of letters and pamphlets Penn sent word to the Quakers throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland. He told them of Quaker homes across the sea, where jails would not trouble them.

There was great rejoicing among them over Penn's "Holy Experiment," as his plan was called.

[Sidenote: =Penn invited all persecuted people=]

Penn even visited Europe, especially the country along the Rhine, and told the persecuted and oppressed about the new colony where every sort of Christian was to find a hearty welcome, and where no one was to be punished for religion's sake.

Hundreds of settlers hastened to the new colony. When Penn reached Newcastle on the Delaware in the fall of 1682 he met a hearty welcome from scores of happy people who were already enjoying their long-wished-for religious freedom.

One of Penn's first acts was to call a meeting of the colonists to talk over their government. This pleased the people greatly, for although the land was Penn's he not only gave them land for their houses and farms, but he also gave them the right to choose their own rulers and to make their own laws.

[Sidenote: =The founding of Philadelphia=]

Penn next turned his attention to founding the great Quaker city to which he gave the name Philadelphia, signifying brotherly love--a name truly expressing Penn's feeling toward other men. He marked off the streets right in the midst of a great forest, and called them Walnut, Mulberry, Chestnut, and so on, after the trees that grew there. Some of the streets in Philadelphia are still so named.

[Sidenote: =Some settlers lived in caves=]

But the settlers came faster than houses could be built, and some families had to live in caves dug in the banks along the river. Philadelphia grew faster than the other colonial towns, and soon led them all.

[Sidenote: =Penn visits the Indians=]

William Penn won the love and the respect of the Indians of Pennsylvania. He visited them in their own towns and ate with them. He even took part in their athletic games and outran them all. Like Roger Williams, he believed that the Indians should be paid for their lands. Accordingly, he made them rich gifts and entered into solemn treaties with the chiefs.

[Sidenote: =Kind treatment produced kind treatment=]

At a treaty under a great elm tree on the banks of the Delaware, Penn said to the Indians: "We are the same as if one man's body were divided into two parts: We are all one flesh and one blood." In return the Indians said: "We will live in love with William Penn and his children as long as the moon and the sun shall endure." If the Indians admired a white man they said: "He is like William Penn."

[Sidenote: =The coming of the "Pennsylvania Dutch"=]

The news of the establishment of free government and free religious worship brought crowds of settlers from Germany. Hundreds of German families in the valleys of the Rhine and the Neckar escaped to "Penn's Woods," and there their children's children are to be found to-day under the name of the "Pennsylvania Dutch." Without boasting, William Penn could say that no other one man, at his own expense, had planted so great a colony in the wilds of America as he had. Few nobler men ever lived than William Penn. He died July 30, 1718.

QUAKER WAYS IN OLD PENNSYLVANIA

[Sidenote: =Believed in simple things=]

=57. How Quakers Differed from other Colonists.= The people who formed Penn's colony were unlike those of any of the other settlements. They did not wear gorgeous clothes and jewelry like the Virginia cavaliers. The men carried no swords or pistols. They were not stern like the Puritans. Games and social pleasures were not to be seen among them as in Dutch New Netherland.

[Sidenote: =Quakers called themselves the Society of Friends=]

These people wore clothes of the plainest cut, made from dull gray or brown cloth. They were gentle and soft-spoken, and did not fight or quarrel among themselves. People who did not understand or like them called them Quakers, because some of them were so carried away at religious meetings that they fell to quaking. They themselves took the name of the Society of Friends. And Friends is a much better name, for they were friends to every man.

[Sidenote: =All religions welcomed by the Friends=]

The customs of the Quakers grew out of their religious views. Above all, they believed that every one should be free to do as his own conscience taught him. Their religious meetings were as simple as their own lives. They did not think it necessary to have ministers or priests. The men sat in one part of the church, the women in another. All was silence until some Friend felt called to speak. Some days no one spoke, and then they all sat in silence until the meeting was over. As a rule, not even a hymn was sung.

[Sidenote: =Opposed war and slavery=]

The Quakers have always believed that war is unnecessary and wrong, and only a few of them have ever carried arms. Because Friends speak only the truth, they do not take an oath. In the courts of law their simple word is as good as an oath. They have always been quick to help the poor and oppressed. The Quakers were the first to oppose slavery, and they did much to end it both in this country and in the English colonies. It is strange that these kind, gentle people should ever have been so cruelly persecuted.

[Sidenote: =The colony prospered=]

While the Quakers were strongly religious, they also took good heed of the things of this world. At first they cleared and planted farms in the fertile Schuylkill and Delaware valleys. Soon groups of them took up townships of five thousand acres each and built villages at their centers. The swift streams which tumbled down the mountain slopes they used to turn mills. In these they ground flour, sawed lumber, made paper, and wove woolen cloth.

The rich land and good climate of Pennsylvania and its liberal government attracted many people from outside. After a short time the Quakers were outnumbered by the other settlers, and to-day the Quakers are but a handful in that great state.

JAMES OGLETHORPE, THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA AS A HOME FOR ENGLISH DEBTORS, AS A PLACE FOR PERSECUTED PROTESTANTS, AND AS A BARRIER AGAINST THE SPANIARDS

[Sidenote: =Oglethorpe a soldier=]

=58. A Friend of the Unfortunate.= James Oglethorpe was an Englishman. At an early age he went to Oxford to study, but he was drawn away from college by the clash of arms. Oglethorpe was a soldier for many years. Later he became a member of Parliament.

[Sidenote: =English jails and jailers=]

A friend of Oglethorpe's died in a debtor's prison, which aroused his sympathies for the poor. He examined English jails, and found them so dirty and dark and damp that strong-bodied men, to say nothing of women and children, soon sickened and died in them. Besides, he found that the jailers were often bad men, who whipped the prisoners on their bare backs and stole their food.

The prison was a poor place for a man in debt, anyway. How could a man pay his debts while he was shut up in prison?

[Sidenote: =King George II grants a charter=]

Oglethorpe, like many other noble men before him, thought of America as a place of refuge for the unfortunate. King George II gave him a charter for the land between the Savannah and the Altamaha, and made his heart glad by declaring that all Protestants should be tolerated there.

[Sidenote: =A select body of emigrants=]

When the debtors heard the news that Oglethorpe was to plant a colony for them there was great excitement among them. But he carefully selected his settlers, so that no lazy man might be found among them. Arms and tools with which to work on the farms were given to the settlers.

[Sidenote: =At Charleston=]

When the time came, thirty families were ready to sail. Oglethorpe carried them direct to Charleston, South Carolina. When they landed, in 1733, the people of Charleston were only too glad to have a colony south of them as a "buffer" against the Spaniards who occupied Florida, and who had already attacked South Carolina.

[Sidenote: =Savannah laid out=]

Therefore, the people of Charleston, to give the new colony a good start, presented the settlers with one hundred head of cattle, a drove of hogs, and fifteen or twenty barrels of rice. Rejoicing in their new supplies, the colony sailed to the Savannah River, and not far from its mouth, on a beautiful bluff, Oglethorpe marked out the streets of the new city. The settlers went to work with a will, cutting down trees and making them into cabins. They soon had comfortable homes, although very different from what they had known in England.

[Sidenote: =Italians=]

Soon other colonists came to Savannah. Among these was a company of Italians who had come to raise the silkworm and to manufacture silk.

[Sidenote: =German Protestants=]

In the next year after Oglethorpe planted the settlement a band of sturdy German Protestants arrived. These settlers built their homes to the north of Savannah, and called the colony "Ebenezer," which means "the Lord hath helped us." Between these two settlements a band of pious Moravian immigrants founded a colony. Then followed the settlement of Augusta, far up the Savannah River and well out among the Indians, which served as a sort of outpost.

[Sidenote: =Highlanders=]

To these were added a colony on the Altamaha River. This colony was settled by a company of brave Highlanders from Scotland.

[Sidenote: =The Wesleys come=]

In the meantime, Oglethorpe had gone to England, but he soon returned with more than two hundred English and German immigrants, who came to Georgia to better their condition. With these immigrants came John and Charles Wesley, who were soon to awake all England with a revival of religion.

[Sidenote: =Oglethorpe foresees war=]

While in England Oglethorpe was made a colonel. He saw that trouble with Spain must soon come. From the beginning of the settlement of Georgia Oglethorpe had been careful to treat the Indians well. He had made treaties with them and had paid them for their lands. He now went to visit the Creek and the Cherokee Indians.

[Sidenote: =Frederica fortified=]

On an island at the mouth of the Altamaha Oglethorpe planted a town to serve as an outpost against the Spaniards. He fortified it, and made it very strong. This town was called Frederica.

In 1742 a Spanish fleet of fifty-one vessels and five thousand men attacked Frederica. Oglethorpe beat them off, and thereafter Georgia was left in peace. He went back to England and became a general. Oglethorpe lived to a good old age. He died in 1785.

INDUSTRIES, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS OF THE SOUTHERN PLANTERS

[Sidenote: =Farms near the sea=]