Nina Postupack, County Clerk

Agreement to Build the Stockade, 1658

Translation:

We the undersigned inhabitants of the Esopus, from time to time having felt and experienced, through very sad examples and experiences, and to the injury of all of us, the treacherous and unbearable impudence of the savage and barbarous natives, and how vain it is to trust their promises, and [seeing] the danger and risk is in living separated and at such distances from each other among such a treacherous and malignant nation (upon the proposition and promise of the Director General Mr. Pieter Stuyvesant to provide us with or a garrison , and if need be to assist us with more troops) have resolved and deemed it necessary for the greater security of our wives and children, directly after subscribing to the present, to immediately demolish in the best possible manner our separate dwellings, and to congregate on the spot designated by the Lord General, to surround the said spot with each others and with the assistance sent by the Ld. Dir. Gen. with palisades of a sufficient height, in order, with the blessing of the only good God, to be the better able to protect ourselves and our property against the hostile assaults of the savages. Binding ourselves with God's help, and under the invocation of His divine blessing, to use all honorable means and to right away, without the least delay, take up the work, and the finish it as soon as possible under penalty of a fine of thousand guilders to be paid into the treasury of the community by those who, either by word or action, should oppose the work. For greater security of which have personally subscribed to this in the presence of the Right Honorable the Lord Dr. General and Mr. Govert Loockermansen-schepen of the City of Amsterdam in New Netherland this 31st day of May, 1658. Jacob Jansen, Stel or Stol, Thomas Chambers, Cornelis Barense Slecht, the mark X of Willem Jansen by himself, the mark - of Pieter Dercksen by himself, Jan Jansen, Jan Broersen his mark, Derck Hendricksen his mark, Jan Lootman. Below signed Lord Petrus Stuyvesant and Goovert Loockermans. The above copy made by the order of the Commissaries, has been found to agree with the original. (signed) Roelof Swarthoudt, Schout

Drafted by Peter Stuyvesant, this agreement required settlers to destroy their separate dwellings, re-build them in a concentrated area, and surround it with a "palisades" or log wall. Stuyvesant selected an area now known as the Historic Stockade.

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