Pound Ridge massacre facts for kids
The Pound Ridge massacre was a major event in Kieft's War. It took place in March 1644 in what is now Pound Ridge, New York. Dutch colonial soldiers from New Netherland attacked a winter camp of the Wappinger Confederacy. The colonial force was led by Captain John Underhill.
This battle was one of the largest clashes during the early colonial era in North America. Between 500 and 700 Native Americans lost their lives during the nighttime attack. The settlement was completely destroyed. Following this event, several Native American leaders, known as sachems, met with colonial leaders to bring an end to the fighting.
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Background of Kieft's War
During the early seventeenth century, Dutch traders and European settlers lived alongside long-established Native American nations in North America. Tensions grew over land, trade rules, and taxes.
The Dutch Colony of New Netherland
The Dutch West India Company managed the colony of New Netherland. Its main trading hub was New Amsterdam, located at the southern tip of modern Manhattan. The Dutch came primarily to buy animal pelts and exchange goods.
In 1639, a governor named Willem Kieft took charge of the colony. Kieft demanded that neighboring Native American communities pay taxes to the Dutch. These payments had to be made in corn, animal furs, or wampum, which were traditional shell beads used in trade and diplomacy. Local tribes refused because they were independent nations and did not view Kieft as their ruler.
Early Clashes and Broken Alliances
In 1640, tensions turned into open fighting. Disagreements over trade led to skirmishes involving the Raritan people near Staten Island. Governor Kieft offered rewards of wampum to any group that opposed the Raritan. This encouraged alliances among different native groups, including communities on western Long Island.
Kieft also made alliances with the Tankiteke, a group belonging to the Wappinger Confederacy. Their leader was a sachem named Pachum. They lived across parts of present-day Westchester County, New York and Fairfield County, Connecticut.
Disagreements soon spread to other tribes. Colonists clashed with the Wecquaesgeek, who lived north of Manhattan. At the same time, Dutch traders came into conflict with the Hackensack tribe across the river in modern New Jersey.
Raids and Expanding Conflict
In February 1643, Mohawk fighters armed with trade muskets traveled south from the region around Fort Orange. They forced many Wecquaesgeek people to seek shelter near Dutch settlements.
On February 25, 1643, Governor Kieft ordered surprise raids on these refugee camps. Dutch forces struck at Corlear's Hook on Manhattan and at Pavonia in New Jersey. Between 80 and 120 Native Americans were killed in these attacks.
These violent actions shocked Native American nations across the region. Former Dutch allies, including Pachum of the Tankiteke, decided to oppose the colony. The Wappinger began attacking Dutch transport boats on the Hudson River, including near Poughkeepsie, New York.
Other native groups joined the resistance. Colonists had to abandon farms in Westchester and New Jersey. Along Long Island Sound, near present-day New Rochelle, a group called the Siwanoy attacked colonial homesteads. Among the settlers who lost their lives was Anne Hutchinson, a well-known thinker who had moved there from New England.
Captain Underhill and Colonial Defenses
Faced with widespread conflict, Governor Kieft decided to hire experienced military commanders from neighboring English colonies.
Hiring an Experienced Commander
The Dutch government asked the New Haven Colony for military help. New Haven did not send an army, but they supplied food and provisions. Governor Kieft then recruited Captain John Underhill. Underhill was an English officer living in Stamford, Connecticut.
Underhill was an experienced soldier who had fought in the Pequot War in 1637. During that conflict, he was one of the commanders at the Mystic massacre. In that battle, colonial forces surrounded and burned a fortified Pequot village, causing hundreds of deaths.
Raids Across the Region
Governor Kieft gave Underhill command of colonial troops to launch attacks on local native villages. In late 1643, Underhill led 120 men toward Greenwich, Connecticut. Greenwich was settled by English colonists who had accepted Dutch rule in return for military protection.
Using information from local scouts, Underhill's force attacked a native camp near Stamford. Shortly afterward, his troops marched into Wecquaesgeek lands in Westchester, burning two villages and destroying stored food meant for the winter.
In February 1644, Underhill led troops to western Long Island. His force attacked two indigenous villages, killing 120 native people. Only one colonial soldier died in that operation, while three were wounded.
The Winter Campaign at Pound Ridge
Following his operations on Long Island, Captain Underhill returned to Stamford, Connecticut to gather intelligence about where other groups were sheltering for the winter.
The March Through the Snow
A native guide met Underhill in Stamford. The guide agreed to lead colonial troops to a large gathering of native families inland.
Three transport boats brought 130 soldiers across the water to Greenwich, Connecticut. Underhill led the force alongside a Dutch officer named Ensign Hendrick van Dyck. A heavy winter snowstorm struck the coast, forcing the soldiers to wait in Greenwich overnight.
The following morning, the soldiers marched inland into rugged, rocky hills. Deep snow made travel extremely difficult. Historical records note that some soldiers had to crawl through difficult terrain. By eight o'clock in the evening, the army had reached within one mile of the native settlement. After a short rest, they crossed two freezing rivers and surrounded the site.
The Gathering at Nanichiestawack
The settlement where the Native Americans were gathered was known as "Nanichiestawack," which translates to "Place of Safety." It sat in a protected valley surrounded by steep hills.
The community had gathered for an annual mid-winter ceremony and council. Many different groups were present to build alliances. These included members of the Siwanoy, Tankiteke, Raritan, Wecquaesgeek, and the Ramapo. They met to celebrate and share resources during the cold months.
The village consisted of three neat rows of long bark houses. Each row was around eighty paces long. Modern historians believe the village was located near the modern boundary of Bedford and Pound Ridge, New York, near the Pound Ridge Reservation where streams meet. Other researchers place the site near modern highway routes.
The Attack on the Village
The soldiers surrounded the village quietly under the light of a full moon. Around midnight, the colonial troops rushed forward to attack.
Dutch records state that the villagers were awake inside their homes when the assault began. In the opening moments of the fighting outside the houses, around 180 Native Americans were killed. One colonial soldier died and twelve were wounded.
The troops formed a tight ring around the settlement so nobody could escape into the surrounding woods. Native warriors defended their families from inside the houses, shooting arrows at the surrounding soldiers.
Destruction of the Settlement
To bring a quick end to the fighting, Captain Underhill ordered his soldiers to set fire to the wooden longhouses. The buildings caught fire rapidly in the winter winds.
Between 500 and 700 Native Americans died during the battle and the fire. Only eight people from the village managed to escape into the woods, and three of them were badly injured.
The colonial force suffered very few losses: one soldier died, and fifteen were wounded. The soldiers camped at the site for the remainder of the night. The next day, they marched back down the hills to Stamford. From there, they returned by boat to New Amsterdam, where colonial officials held a day of Thanksgiving.
Peace Treaties and the War's End
The heavy losses at Pound Ridge broke the military resistance of the native nations around New Amsterdam.
Early Peace Agreements
The Siwanoy and Tankiteke suffered massive losses at Pound Ridge. On April 6, 1644, four sachems from other regional groups met with Governor Kieft in Stamford to sign a temporary truce.
Soon afterward, leaders of the Matinecoc tribe on Long Island also signed a peace agreement. However, smaller clashes continued in the countryside for over another year because trust between both sides had been completely broken.
The Final Peace of 1645
In April 1645, sachems representing the Sintsink, Wecquaesgeek, Nochpeem, and Wappinger nations traveled to Fort Amsterdam to request a final end to the war.
On August 31, 1645, all groups met at Fort Amsterdam to sign a permanent peace treaty. The treaty officially ended Kieft's War, which had caused immense damage to both the native communities and the Dutch colony.
Changes in Dutch Leadership
The leaders of the Dutch West India Company in Europe were very unhappy with Governor Kieft. His aggressive policies had destroyed trade and ruined many colonial farms.
In 1645, the company selected Peter Stuyvesant to replace Kieft as the Director-General of New Netherland. Stuyvesant arrived in North America in 1647 to take over the colony. Kieft sailed for the Netherlands that same year to defend his actions, but his ship was wrecked in a storm and he died at sea.
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