Minuit, << MIHN yoo iht, >> Peter (1580-1638), was a Dutch colonial governor who bought Manhattan Island from the Lenape people in 1626. According to legend, he paid with trinkets costing 60 Dutch guilders, or about $24 (see Manhattan Island). This purchase legalized the occupation of the island by the Dutch West India Company. Minuit made New Amsterdam, a settlement on the southern half of Manhattan Island, the center of the company’s activities. Minuit supervised the building of Fort Amsterdam by company employees. The fort was designed primarily to protect the Hudson River mouth, a vital highway for the fur trade. New Amsterdam became an important trade center under the Dutch. The English later renamed the colony New York.
The Dutch West India Company recalled Minuit in 1631 for granting too many privileges to the patroons (wealthy landowners). Later, the Swedish government asked him to lead its first expedition to America, and he returned to America in 1638. He built Fort Christina, named after the queen of Sweden, at what is now Wilmington, Delaware. In June 1638, shortly after the establishment of the fort, he drowned at sea during a hurricane.
Minuit was born in Wesel, Germany, but moved to the Netherlands as a young man. In 1626, he became the governor and director-general of New Netherland, the Dutch colony in North America.
