The Peach Tree War, also known as the Peach War, was a large-scale attack on September 15, 1655 by the Susquehannock Indians and allied tribes on several New Netherland settlements along the Hudson River in New York. The attack was motivated by the Dutch reconquest of New Sweden, a close trading partner and protectorate of the Susquehannocks. It was a decisive victory for the Indians, and many outlying Dutch settlements were forced to temporarily garrison in Fort Amsterdam. Some of these settlements were completely abandoned, such as the Staten Island colony, while others were soon repopulated and equipped with better defenses. Director-General Peter Stuyvesant repurchased the rights from the Indians to settle the west bank of the Hudson.
Background
In March 1638, Swedish colonists led by Peter Minuit landed in Wilmington, Delaware and established New Sweden on the west bank of the Delaware River. The area had previously been claimed by both the English and the Dutch, but neither had managed more than marginal occupation. Minuit had been a director of the Dutch West India Company's New Netherland colony, and he was familiar with the terrain and local custom. He purchased the right to settle the land from the Susquehannocks. The Indians were distrustful of the Dutch because of their close alliance with the Iroquois Confederation, who were enemies of the Susquehannocks. They had lost their English trading partner when the new colony of Maryland had forced out William Claiborne's trading network centered on Kent Island. The Susquehannocks quickly became New Sweden's main supplier of furs and pelts and customers for European manufactured goods. In the process, New Sweden became a protectorate and tributary of the Susquehannock tribe. The English and Dutch both rejected Sweden's right to their colony, but the Dutch had greater reason for concern since they had already discovered that the Delaware River began above the 42nd parallel north. In 1651, the Dutch attempted to consolidate power by combining forces previously stationed at Fort Beversreede and Fort Nassau. They relocated Fort Beversreede downstream of the Swedish Fort Christina, naming it Fort Casimir. Johan Risingh was commissary and councilor to New Sweden's governor Johan Printz, and he attempted to expel the Dutch from the Delaware Valley in 1654. Fort Casimir was assaulted, surrendered, and renamed Fort Trefaldighet, leaving Swedes in complete possession of their colony. On June 21, 1654, the Indians met with the Swedes to reaffirm their agreements. A squadron of ships under the direction of Peter Stuyvesant seized New Sweden between September 11–15, 1655.
The attack
The Susquehannocks had gained dominance over the Lenape Indians, and this allowed them to assemble an army of warriors from multiple allied and neighboring groups. Six hundred warriors landed in New Amsterdam, wreaking havoc through the narrow streets of the town which was mostly undefended, as the bulk of the garrison was in New Sweden. They later crossed the Hudson and attacked Pavonia. They took 150 hostages and held them at Paulus Hook. They also attacked farms at Harlem, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Stuyvesant had led the assault on New Sweden, but he hurried back to his capital on news of the attack. The ransomed settlers took temporary refuge in New Amsterdam, and the settlements on the west shore of the river were depopulated.
Impact and aftermath
The Swedes of the Zuydt Rivier were aware that the Susquehannock's attack was in retaliation for the Dutch conquest of New Sweden, but the New Netherland colonists believed that it was because of the murder of a young Wappinger woman named Tachiniki whom a Dutch settler had allegedly killed for stealing a peach, an incident which had raised tensions shortly before the assault and which provided the name for the war. Stuyvesant repurchased from the Indians the right to settle the area between the Hudson and Hackensack rivers. He established the fortified hamlet of Bergen and required blockhouses to be established there and at other outlying towns. The colony of Cornelis Melyn was abandoned on Staten Island.
