From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Treaty of Hartford
Treaty of Hartford
The term Treaty of Hartford applies to three historic would the English crown, which rejected all Dutch claims
agreements negotiated at Hartford, Connecticut. The in North America as illegitimate. In America, however,
1638 treaty divided the spoils of the Pequot War. The the agreement held straight through the English con-
1650 treaty defined a border between the Dutch Nieuw quest of New Netherland in 1664. Indeed, the border to-
Amsterdam and English settlers in Connecticut. In the day between Connecticut and New York, and between
1786 treaty New York and Massachusetts reached an Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island, are, with
agreement on their claims of the western land. some minor adjustments, those negotiated in 1650.
1638 treaty 1786 treaty
The Pequot War of 1636 and 1637 saw the virtual elimi- The colonial charters for New York and Massachusetts
nation of the Pequot Indians. The victors met to decide both described their boundaries as extending westward
on the division of the fruits of victory. While the treaty to the Pacific Ocean, but used distances from coastal
settled the Pequot War, the Pequots were not a party to rivers as their baselines, and thus both could claim the
it. The Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Connecticut Riv- same land. The area in dispute included all of western
er Colony, the Mohegan and Narragansett tribes were. New York State west of, approximately, Seneca Lake, ex-
Surviving prisoners were divided between the tribes; 40 tending all the way to the Niagara River and Lake Erie,
percent each and the remaining 20 percent awarded to and from the shore of Lake Ontario to the Pennsylvania
tribes on Long Island who had supported the Narra- border. New York and Massachusetts agreed to divide the
gansett. The Pequot lands went to the Connecticut River rights in question. The states agreed that all of the land
towns. The other major feature of this treaty was to out- in question, about 6 million acres (24,000 km²), would be
law the Pequot language and name. Any survivors would recognized as part of New York State. Massachusetts, in
be referred to in the future as Mohegans or Narragansett. return, obtained the right of preemption, that is, the title
No Pequot town or settlement would be allowed. This to all of the land (except for a narrow strip along the Ni-
treaty was signed on September 21, 1638. agara River, the title to which was recognized to belong
to New York), giving it the exclusive right to extinguish
1650 treaty by purchase the possessory rights of the Indian tribes.
The compact also provided that Massachusetts could sell
In 1650, Peter Stuyvesant came to Hartford to negotiate or assign its preemptive rights, and in 1788 it sold its
a border with Edward Hopkins. The Dutch colony of New rights to the entire six million acres (24,000 km²) to Oliv-
Netherland was feeling increased pressure from the ris- er Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham for $1,000,000, payable
ing number of English colonists. Stuyvesant traded Con- in specie or in certain Massachusetts securities then trad-
necticut land claims (the New Netherland claim encom- ing at about 20 cents on the dollar, the money used to
passed the full length of the Connecticut River and as far repay some of the state’s debt from the Revolutionary
east as Narragansett Bay) in order to get a clear bound- War. See also: Phelps and Gorham Purchase, Holland Land
ary on Long Island. They agreed on a line 50 Dutch miles Company, The Holland Purchase, The Morris Reserve and
west of the mouth of the Connecticut River. On Long Is- The Pulteney Association. Similar western boundary is-
land, a line would be drawn south from the westernmost sues involving these and other states were resolved by
point of Oyster Bay, through modern Nassau County. In the Northwest Ordinance passed by the Congress of the
practice, the treaty simply reflected changed facts on the Confederation in July 1787.
ground. Settlement of the Dutch colony had clustered
around the Hudson River with only isolated trading posts
on the Connecticut (including Fort Hoop which would be-
Further reading
come Hartford, Connecticut) asserting their claims fur- • Alden Vaughan’; New England Frontier: Puritans and
ther east. The exploding population of New England, and Indians 1620-1675; 1980, W.W. Norton & Company,
the splintering impulses of its religious-based colonies, ISBN 0-393-00950-5. (1995 Reprint, University of
had led to significant English settlement in the Connecti- Oklahoma Press, ISBN 0-8061-2718-X) contains a
cut River Valley, along the coast of Long Island Sound copy of the 1638 Treaty.
and on Eastern Long Island. Back in Europe, the Dutch
West India Company refused to approve the treaty, nor
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Treaty of Hartford
References External links
• Indische Compagnie - India Company
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Categories:
• First Nations culture
• Pre-state history of Connecticut
• Treaties of the United States
• Native American culture
• History of the Thirteen Colonies
• New Netherland
• 1786 treaties
• 1650 treaties
• 1638 treaties
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