PETER STUYVESANT (1612-1672)

When the Dutch began the colony of New Amsterdam it was made for the purpose of creating a profit. Soon, the colony was in chaos. Peter came in and began to set a strict order despite the fact that he had an actual peg-leg after losing his leg in a naval battle. He banned drinking on Sundays, knife-fighting in public, and sexual relations with Native Americans. His system of rules worked. By the time this portrait was created in 1660 New Amsterdam was an attractive, bustling, and profitable colony. The English took notice and gained control of the colony renaming in New York in 1664. Peter retired to his bouwerie (Dutch for farm) in Greenwich Village soon after.

QUESTION:

Many of the Dutch influences can still be sees/heard today in New York City. What streets or locations have to do with Stuyvesant or New Amsterdam?

JOHN SMITH (1580-1631)

Among the first English colonists to the New World, John Smith was the only trained soldier with military experience. Initially he arrived to the shores of Virginia in chains for his attempt at inciting a mutiny. He is credited with helping the Jamestown colonists survive through the first winter and establishing relations with the Native Powhatans. In the end, Jamestown grew and began to attack and kill the native settlements after discovering tobacco and a need for farmland. His relationship with Pocahontas is the subject of many historical ideas of romance and adventure.

QUESTION:

How do you think that Smith and Pocahontas communicated with each other? Why would she still be with Smith even though she knew that he was in charge of killing people from her tribe?

POCAHONTAS (1595-1617)

Daughter of the chief of the Powhatan tribe, Pocahontas was among the first Native Americans to encounter the “immigrants” from England in what is now Virginia. She was believed to have saved John Smith’s life from a tribal execution. She attempted to lay good relations between the colonists and her people, aiding Jamestown during the “Starving Time” by providing much needed food. She later adopted a European lifestyle, married John Rolfe and visited England where this portrait was commissioned in 1616. She died several months later from smallpox at 22.

QUESTION:

Why do you think that Pocahontas is always depicted in her Native clothes and not in European fashion as in this painting? What may have been here feelings about wearing these clothes and being in England?