Lenape Country before William Penn

The Lenape people controlled their territory, and they meaningfully shaped the society that developed in present-day Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey.

So argues the 2016 book Lenape Country Delaware Valley Society Before William Penn written by Lehigh University professor Jean R. Soderlund. A prevailing narrative is of a relatively weak and minor subgroup of the Alqonquian people but this book argues something more nuanced.

Other big themes: early Swedish settlers remained primarily trading partners with the Lenape, which contrasted with the Dutch and the English who over time seemed more interested in colonizing, though the English Quakers were on the whole far more peaceable than the Chesapeake, New Amsterdam and New England regions. The Lenape themselves shaped this reality.

This is a rich social-political history of the earliest recorded details of Lenape life. I strongly recommend buying a copy if you love history and the details of indigenous and European engagement. As is my custom, I share notes from my reading below for my future reference but please do pick up a copy.

Here are my notes

• In 1631, the Swaanendael massacre (present-day Lewes, Delaware) was the largest massacre perpetrated by the overwhelmingly peaceful Lenape people on a fledging Dutch colony — in part because the Lenape did not agree to the establishment of agriculture, as opposed to a trading port, as they viewed agriculture as a sign of permanent settlements like they likely knew took place in Virginia. It was an act of enforcement. This defining moment in history ran through much of the next 200 years of relations, and shaped how the Dutch kept only limited trading outposts in the area.
• Lenape lived near creeks that emptied into what is today called Delaware River. These dot the river even today, especially on the New Jersey side though many of those in Philadelphia have been buried, including what were later called Aramingo Creek, and later a canal; Frankford Creek, Wissinoming Creek and Pennypack Creek.
• In 1672, letters from Quaker George Fox’s time navigating Lenape lands gave the picture of a sparsely populated and peaceful people that Quaker’s could peacefully settle with. That’s where the story began of the “peaceful” Lenape. Little was understood as to why population had declined.
• From 1615 (when Dutch first sailed into Lenapewihittuck, the Lenape name for what is called Delaware River today) to 1681, when Penn settled his colony, the Lenape featured a collaborative relationship with the Dutch, Finns and (especially) Swedes. Lenape priority was primarily only trading. Lenape were already peaceful before William Penn’s “holy experiment”
• Despite epidemic disease, in 1681, the Lenape still outnumbered Europeans and dictated their movements at the outset of Penn’s colony.
• Lenape closely associated with Munsee, and both spoke Algonquian though distinct. By the mid and late 18th century, the two groups began to merge.
• In 1620s and 1630s Lenape maintained sovereignty after wars with Susquehannocks (despite perspectives from other historians), who were affiliated with the Iroquois-language but sided were closer to the Lenape. Though their battles pushed many Lenapes to east side of the river until a peace treaty by 1638. They were independent entirely until the 1730s when some joined the Iroquois (and were under Six Nations) as European pressure and population loss increased
• Most early written knowledge of the Lenape came from early Dutch traders who entered Leanpewittuck area in 1615. Lenape maintained egalitarian democratic towns led by a sachem with a council of elders and a simple version of democratic town approval. They often lived in small villages near streams that fed into the Delaware
• (Other book notes matrilineal
• In 1616 Dutch explorer Cornelis Hendricksen created the first known map of the area. Sauwanews Lenape were on the west Bank of the river near the Schuylkill. (Though historians doubt that term)
• Though population debates are frequent among historians, the most commonly estimates suggest that between 8k-12k Lenape and Munsees together in early 1600s — this is disputed as already disease already ravaging them. In 1600, Ives Goddard estimates 6,500 for Lenape alone though this author thinks it low. In 1634, another estimate puts it between 7,500-10k. Perhaps no more than 4K by 1650.
• Early Europeans criticized Lenape men for being lazy and only hunting and fishing and war while leaving agriculture to their women
• The Green Corn Festival was the Lenape’s primary harvest religious festival, and others maintain it
• Wampum was essentially a currency.
• In the period 1626-1636 Susquehannocks tried to take over Lenape country and the Dutch trade relationship
• September 1609: Henry Hudson enter Sandy Hook for initial contact. Later accounts shared second-hand memories from natives spoke of confusion and rumor about where these ships came from
• 1615: Dutch first entered Lenape territory, traded with Lenape and Susquehannocks
• 1614-1618 New Netherland company held Dutch monopoly for North American trace
• Mattinicum Island settlers and Lenapes developed a trade jargon or creole that became a standard trade language for later New Sweden. A much simplified Unami, lacking plural endings and grammar. Matinicum island people moved to Manhattan and brought that language
• (I have not been able to identify where is Mattinicum Island, though this document associates it with the Rankokes Creek or presently translitereated at the Rancocas Creek in South Jersey’s Pinelands in Burlington County)
• In 1626, the Dutch established Fort Nassau at what is today called Litter Timber Creek on the east bank of Lenapewihttuck in present day Brooklawn, across from present day South Philadelphia
• “The war between the Lenapes and the Susquehannocks was part of a larger struggle in North America for control of Atlantic fur trade”
• Later allies but initially foes, the Susquehannocks were Iroquois people (in contrast to Lenape speaking an Algonquian language) numbering around 8k in the early 1600s
• Researcher Peter Lindestrom has shown Dutch Mariners attempted to manufacture wampun (beads crafted from shells that were used as a kind of currency and jewelry); it was rejected as counterfeit by the Lenape
• In 1626, Dutch West India Company allowed private investors to buy plantation land directly from native Lenape in an effort to compete with encroaching English and French interests. (This year, Lenape began an outright way with Susquehannocks)
• In summer 1631 the Swanenendal massacre part of Lenape and Dutch trade tensions (revenge killing for the murder of a sachem by other Lenape who did so out of mistranslation/miscommunication at the behest of Dutch who had conflict with the sachem; 32 Dutch men were murdered (at least two boys survived); this was beyond a normal “mourning war,” and proved an enduring historical moment for generations to come
• In December 1632, a new Dutch ship arrived and they knew Lenape were nearby because they hunted by setting small fires to trap game; that included sweet sassafras. The ship’s captain wrote the land is “smelt before it is seen”
• In summer 1634, English captain Thomas Young’s interpreter struggled to translate a Susquehannock trader: thought he said to meet in 10 days but it was 10 weeks (43). This was one of many small misunderstandings
• Lenape and Dutch stopped cycle of violence unlike elsewhere in the early colonies (notably Chesapeake and New England)
• Might Swanenendal have been motivated by Dutch rape of Lenape women? Likely there was sexual encounters as Lenape has more open sexual relations in community
• Lenape surely knew of the Anglo-Powhatan Wars taking place in more violent Virginia. Those lessons of Jamestown was that domestic livestock was an “agent of empire” as they roamed territory (cattle and hogs) and signaled larger settlements. That’s why Swanendel massacre was out of Lenape character but fit them resisting agricultural expansion. Trade was OK, agriculture was not.
• 1638: Lord Baltimore was granted Maryland and expelled an English trader from Kent Island who was popular with the Susquehannocks. In turn, the natives turned North to Dutch and formed a pact with Lenape to settle their decade long war. The Dutch, despite even the Swanende massacre, prioritized profit via fur trade over all else, including revenge, so their trade with natives remained relatively peaceful. In contrast to Maryland and Virginia and Manhattan where mixed commerce developed, which meant constant warring with natives who did not want formal establishments, but rather preferred simple trade outposts
• The Lenape thought they were renting out shops on their Main Street (the Delaware River); the Europeans thought they were buying the whole town
• Another early Philadelphia-area European establishment was at Wicaco, establish by Swedish settlers in 1624, in what is roughly today Southwark, defined by the Old Swedes Church on Delaware Avenue. (Nearby development plans have failed; Weccacoe Playground keeps a translation of the name).
• New Sweden was more diverse than other earlier colonies (Philadelphia has always been diverse). Many Europeans and Lenape language integration: six Dutchmen, four Swedes, one German, one Finn and Antony Niger/Swartz in 1644
• In May 1642, New Netherland council in Manhattan was determined to expel an early English settlement developing at Wicaco, which they viewed as intercepting the trade in fur they were using nearby Fort Nassau; they captured English and brought them to Manhattan
• The Dutch, who kept Swedes informed, didn’t bother with another small English colony called Varkens Kill, now Finns Point in Salem County, NJ, because it was less about trade and more about growing tobacco
• In 1697: Reverend Bjork wrote that the native Lenape “and ours are as one people” because they lived more harmoniously than with the English. There was likely intermingling between Lenape women and Swedish men but not included in official records. (Some unmarried Swedish men are assumed to have intermarried with Lenape)
• 1638-1655, just five colonists are documented to have been murdered by Lenape and and no Lenape by colonists. Even assuming a small number of undocumented cases too this is far more peaceful than New England, new Netherland and the Chesapeake showing a joint effort for peace in /around New Sweden
• Still Gov Johan Björnsson Printz in 1644 wrote in a famous letter wrote that he wanted several hundred soldiers to be sent and stay here unto they “broke all their necks” of the Lenape and took the better farming land. He never got his wish (71)
• In September 1646 Lenape sachem Ackehorn (son of Mattahorn) and other Lenape sachem “sold” a “deed” to the Dutch land at Wicaco and Swedes protested viewing this as their territory. Dutch had been distracted northward by Kieft’s War and Raritans previously but were turning south river to try to access fur trade. Swedes and Printz were losing Lenape interest because they did not receive many ships to offer much to trade. Previously Lenape had preferred Swedes (which includes Finns) whom they viewed as more culturally similar and focused on trade, not colonialism like the English and increasingly Dutch.
• Fort Beverseede was the name of a construction by the Dutch at confluence of Schuylkill and Delaware, though exact location is somewhat lost to history. It created a wedge in September 1646 between Swedes with a bigger footprint in Lenape country and the Dutch who primarily just traded. The Lenape tried to honor a 1633 deed with the Dutch trader Arent Corsz (Hogenacker?) about ‘the district of country called Armenveruis [Armewamese] near Schuylkill.”
• In September 1648 the Swedes built a property in front of Beverseede to further block river trade
• Lenape involved both Swedish and Dutch though because they found competition made trading more lucrative
• Alexander (Sander) Boyer was Dutch quartermaster and translator (I am tracking early translators)
• By June 1651, Peter Stuyvesant had enough “misunderstandings” between his representativeis and the natives; he marched 120 soldiers overland from Manhattan to Fort Nassau where they were met by 11 ships with additional men and dismantled the fort. They moved their focus to Fort Casimir, which would intercept shps sailing to Fort Christina and access to Minquas Path. This moved Dutch trade focus from Schuylkill to Tamecongh (New Castle Delaware), weakening Swedish trade
• On July 9 1651, at Fort Nassau, the Dutch met with Lenape sachem to honor Dutch West India Company commitment to purchase land from natives. Among the Sachems there was Peminacka who claimed Tamecongh territory as his
• Many overlapping deeds because there was a major translation issue: Lenape understood deeds to only count if they were given gifts (like renting) and actually used the land for determined reasons (mostly trade, not agriculture or hunting)
• In June 1654 a meeting between new Swedish government official Johan Risingh marked difference in Lenape relations with Swedes, following replacement of soldier leader Johan Printz
• Lenape sachem Mattahorn from at least 1624 until Tamecongh in 1651 was the most prominent Lenape sachem negotiator and was known for reminding the Europeans that they were only there with their permission
• By 1654 he wasn’t there (nor his son Ackehorn)
• In 1654 meeting, Several Lenape groups were present, including from Passaynk, and they invited Swedes to build a fort near their main living there. Naaman from Chiepissing was “war chief” leading the diplomacy
• Translator Gregorius van Dijk deescalated a dispute about diseases that was ravaging Lenape again in June 1654. Lenape thought they brought evil spirits. There was a heated exchange but van Dijik backed down “I am in this matter not so wise.” And they gave additional gifts, another way this region remained more peaceable (84)
• Both sides knew disease had come on ship Ornen (100 deaths of 350 men, and others after arrival )
• In 1664, at least 4,000 Lenape and about 400 Swedes, Finns and Dutch lived along Lenapewihittuck (Delaware River) (86)
• Armegard Printz, daughter of Johan Printz, remained and at 29 she attempted to lure away top workers from Sweden to her father’s estate
• Risingh over time found he needed to “buy friendship” with the Lenape
• In early 1650, many Swedish lived in what was called Kingsessing very near to Passyunk the largest Lenape settlement. This close proximity was very different than in Maryland and elsewhere in the colonies (92)
• In 1655, Dutch conquered new Sweden but the Lenape honored their 1654 treaty by warning the Lenape and attacking Manhattan forcing Stuyvesant and men to withdraw from new Sweden sooner
• Until the English beat Dutch in 1664, various Lenape tribes battled Dutch, including the Munsees in the Peach War
• In March 1656, the ship Mercuius lands with Swedes and Finish goods and people; they left in November before news of Dutch takeover reached their shores. At Fort Casmir (which Dutch now controlled at present day New Castle ), they denied entry not wanting more goods to further help Swedish Lenape relations (when Dutch wanted to contact Lenape they had to go thru the Swedish) (98) but Lenape and existing Swedes boarded the ship and demanded they disembark and trade. Thus the smaller Dutch force was overruled in the “Mercuius affair”
• Jacob Svensson in particular was a translator and leader who kept Swedish in good relations with Lenape. (99)
• New Amsterdam leader Stuyvesant meanwhile also balancing Espos War and battles with Raritans and others all around Manhattan
• The 1660s began another round of Lenape decline, especially in Passyunk, once Philadelphia-area’s densest Lenape settlement
• By 1664, Armewamese who were at least 1,200 in 1654 where “significantly reduced”; by 1671 many relocated to the East bank of Lenalewihittuck. Still more numerous than other Europeans and controlled their territory through alliances with Swedish, Susquehannocks and Munsees (106)
• More western Iroquois (Seneca, Cayuga, etc) tried to disrupt this to access fur trade
• Unseen forces: disease and furtrade from Canada dramatically changed existing alliances and dispute among indigenous Peoples
• Smallpox epidemic 1660-1663, from Susquehannocks in October 1661 who were also battling Seneca Iroquois, to February 1663 in Lenapewhittuck to June of that year
• Lenape had mostly avoided the battles between Susequehannocks (who Lenape made peace with in 1636 and were closely aligned with by 1661) and broader Iroquois, associated with being more aggressive and violent than Lenape
• But Lenape were targeted by Iroquois as a Susquehannock ally. In October 1661, William Beeckman reports that Seneca’s killed 12 “River Indians”. Winter of 1661-1662, Lenape avoided their typical hunt in Lehigh and Susquehanna valleys to avoid Iroquois
• In May 1663, 100 Lenape joined Susquehannocks to defend a fortification against 800 Iroquois
• The Swedish nation was a concept of Swedes and Finns and Lenapes that persisted even under Dutch control. It was a diverse community
• 1654 to 1664, the Lenape had relative peace; In fall 1664, English began invading
• October 1654 Robert Carr Lee English invasion of new Amsterdam ; Lenape and Swedish nation resisted (113)
• Due to pressures and dwindling numbers, the Armarese Lenape left Passyunk to Europeans and consolidated on east bank in West New Jersey where more Lenape were and farther from Iroquois
• In 1671, 858 Europeans lived along Leanpewhitituck, the Swedish nation remained diverse where Finns, Germans, Scots, intermarried with Lenape, from ”Matinicum Island near the falls” (which may refer to present-day Trenton but I have not consistently found confirmation of this) to Cape Henlopen, the Delaware tip across from Cape May
• Peter Cock’s son Lars Cock had most northerly presence of Europeans on West Bank of Delaware River of 600 acres at Shackamaxon (117). From another source: Shackamaxon “is assumed to be derived from Schachamesink – “Place of Eels” or Sakimaucheen “Place where the Chiefs are Made.”
• In 1669, Lass Cock (Swedish) married Martha Ashman, daughter of Robert and Catherine Ashman of Long Island who had moved to Passyunk
• English enacted far stricter land and deed rights which reshuffled ownership and divided some of Swedes and Finns, resulting in the Long Swede Revolt
• Sept 23 1670, a group of 10 English representatives from Delaware go to West New Jersey to find a harvest festival of 11 sachems to meet and negotiate
• Lenape couldn’t win a war against the English so they frequently killed one or two, followed mourning war and occasionally Lenapes were brought to justice, but after the 1650, the Swedes were never killed, they were allies
• In summer 1673 the Dutch briefly took back English territory
• In Fall 1674, James Sandelands case: a jury trial about a murder of Lenape man Peeques (137)
• English ban on selling liquor to Lenape was also supported by some Lenape, both for health reasons and because some leaders appreciated controlling this coveted luxury
• Governor Carteret forbade distillation alcohol from grain or corn in 1674
• Bacon Rebellion in part started by Susquehannocks, who in September 1657 came under siege by Maryland and Virginia militia and retaliated in Virginia backcountry. Summer of 1675, King Phillips War included various Indian tribes pitted against each other
• Why didn’t Munsees and Lenape join forces to destroy English government in New York and New Castle to push the Europeans out of their country as King Phillips troops tried New England? The historian Francis Jennings gave significant credit to Edmund Androes for meeting with Darius Muncie in Lenape groups, as he did in the Lenape region in May and September 1675. This was meaningful diplomacy and translation (140)
• Also mighty Susquehannocks were no longer a strong partner as they had declined, and Andros offered lots of trade goods, as he treated Lenape as business partners
• Andros, Risingh and Peter Stuyvesant said to have had success by treating Lenape as business partners
• In March 1677, the Lenape, Iroquois and Susquehannocks met at Shackamaxon to discuss where the Susquehannocks would live, as their dwindled numbers wanted to combine. Lenape wanted them to stay in their region, the Iroquois wanted them to move toward Albany. In the end they splintered into both answers (141)
• In mid 1670s, Lenape remained in control between New York and Maryland, unlike New England and Chesapeake
• Lenapes with diverse Swedish nation gave this region freedom of religion, personal freedom, opposition to centralized authority and focus on economic gain (141) that defined Philadelphia long after
• John Fenwick in 1675 begins the English Quaker invasion, including William Penn being involved in mediating a land dispute and first familiarizing himself with the area (142)
• West New Jersey commissioners used Israel Helm, Peter Rambo, Lasse Cock as interpreters to buy land for new Quaker settlers
• The Shield ship in 1678 brought another small pox wave for Lenape. Divisions within their communities: younger men wanted to conduct mourning war; sachems brokered peace noting the weakened state. They knew by then it had come for generations
• Sachems wanted to control distribution of rum and liquors
• Charles II March 4 1681 charter to William Penn west of Lenapewihittuck marked an administration turnover as some quitrents were owed to Duke of York or so claimed (147)
• Unlike his predecessor Francis Lovelace, Edmund Andros was more successful for English diplomacy with the Lenape (and Swedish nation) by meeting with sachems and colonists in person rather than through intermediaries; using negotiations rather than war and accepting gifts over murder. He appeared to focus on keeping Lenape out of a pan-Indian development coming from New England and Chesapeake from King Phillips War and Bacon’s Rebellion. After avoiding that threat, he later focused on expanding revenue on the West Bank, which was resisted by Lenape and Swedish.
• As of 1680, Lenape still outnumbered Europeans and preserved their sovereignty. That changed in the ensuing five years, as 8,000 colonists arrived on West Bank of lenapewhitituck. Many but not all English quakers; craftsmen and some wealthy merchants who started large estates
• The Swedish nation and Lenape withstood pressure from Stuyvesant, Lovelace and Andros, and so they hoped to do the same from William Penn (148)
• In August 1681, the “old settlers” (Swedish nation and other disparate Europeans) formed a militia to meet Penn’s cousin Deputy governor William Markham to show their force
• His original deed ended 12 miles north of New Castle but in August 1682, William Penn purchased from James Duke of York the remainder of West Bank of Delaware. West New Jersey remained largely Lenape territory as did what is today central Bucks County up north to Poconos, which Lenape fiercely protected.
• Markham went about establishing relationships with the Swedish nation and Lenapes, updating the Upland Court and a leadership structure (including a council with both new Quakers and old settlers like Swedes Sven Svensson of Wicaco and Andrea Bengtsson of Moyamessing) and contacted Lord Baltimore to establish joint boundary, all in the year from fall 1681 to fall 1682, when William Penn himself arrived.
• The Courts appeared more moderate than elsewhere in the early colonies, focused on relative harmony. The Quakers continued the use of peace bonds, they didn’t invent them. Overall Quakers fit into an existing culture in the region, rather than creating it as is commonly assumed (152)
• From 1676-1681, Mans Petersson Stake was a drunk who shows up in court records a bunch for fights and threats (152) still he managed to get a patronage job as overseeer of highways in 1682 (153)
• On March 13, 1677, Richard Duckett, servant of Lasse Cock, was charged with fornication with a “mulatto” woman Swart (Black) Anna. In the court case in June 1677, Duckett admitted to impregnating her. He was charged with “not to frequent her,” but there was no known charge for her. Three months later he successfully petitioned for 100 acres on east of Schuyllkill
• The Swedish over time migrated to to northwest part of Philadelphia and later farther away as English culture dominated: Swedish women Margaret Matsson and Gertrude Hendricksson charged with witchcraft in 1684, as a rallying cry for Swedish to want to withdraw from English culture (158)
• Swedish participation in courts declined rapidly after Bucks County Swede Dirick Johnsson was sentenced to death by court for an alleged murder in spring 1692. He was one of only two death sentences in Quaker colony before 1718
• “The Swedes play in important role in developing interest group politics in early Pennsylvania, opposing the authority of Quakers within a government sufficiently open to permit free exchange.” They viewed Quakers favorably but lost local self governance so began to look abroad to Swedish national identity (160)
• In 1709, Swedes battled back with Lenape and Church of England to push back against James Logan action
• Penn found more resistance than he expected. He was accused of treason after the Glorious Revolution deposed his patron James the sScond, formally the Duke of York, and he lost the Pennsylvania charter from 1692 to 1694. Penn was only in Pennsylvania briefly in 1682 to 1684 and 1699 to 1701 (161)
• Even the governors appointed by William and Mary during the period William Penn had his charter revoked found Pennsylvania is factionalized populous “nearly impossible to govern” (161)
• The Swedes in 1711 lobbied Queen Anne to argue that the Quakers refusal to affirm to god their right to hold public office should preclude them from any leadership. Swedes and other old settlers argued that they had made the Lenape more “obedient” and generally made the wilderness possible for Quakers (166) Anglicans were majority in England but minority like Swedes in Quaker Pennsylvania
• The “old settlers” knew many languages (they spoke in the native language to the Lenape and Susquehannocks) but the English only knew their own (167)
• Just as the Armewamese, Mantes, Cohanseys and others became known collectively as “the Delawares to the English,” so too people of Swedish, Finnish, Dutch, German and even English backgrounds were called “the Swedes”
• The Lenape are even harder hit and continued to depart towns and combine communities.
• In 1694, Germantown founder Francis Daniel reported that so many Lenape died in the decade he was there that only a quarter survived (168)
• “The Swedish ministers Rudman and Björk noted in 1697 that the Lenape‘s were “now very scarce “in the Philadelphia area and though at Passsyunk “there were formally many thousands, but now there are none. God has exterminated them through contagious diseases war among themselves etc.” (168)
• In July 1694, eight Lenape sachems and two Susquehannocks in a meeting with Markham, Cohansey leader Mehocksett said the Lenape unity “because we drink one water,” the lenapewihittuck
• The Iroquois wanted the Lenape to join them In a fight against French but Lenape felt weak and culturaly peaceable. The Iroquois taunted them “you Delaware Indians do nothing but stay at home and boil your pots and are like women while we Onondages and Senekaes go abroad and fight against the enemy.” (168)
• In October 1681, William Penn wrote a letter that he “desired to enjoy his new colony with your love and consent, that we may always live together as neighbors and friends.” And he spent substantial sum of at least 1200 pounds for lands along Delaware, Schuylkill and Susquehanna (169)

• Details of the legendary Treaty at Shackamaxon between Penn and Lenape sachems have been lost but it is an oral history, and the Benjamin West painting popularized this myth. The dress and dynamics likely inaccurate
• There were annual meetings and Penn did appear to have a first meeting we just don’t know details
• Lasse Cock and other Swedes convinced Markham to continue desires if the Naaman’s treaty with governor Rsingh in 1654: pledges to wsrn the other of attack, consult regularly  and avoid disputes getting out of hand
• In 1684, William Penn argued to Colonel General Talbot of Maryland who is representing the Lord Baltimore that “Indians have a native right to hunt, fish and foul in all places in or not to be hindered from it by the English.” (171)
• Lenape sachem Nanacussy signed July 1683 deed for the land between Schuylkill and Pennypack creeks
• Thomas Holme warned Penn that the Falls sachem Tammany was threatening to burn down settlements because he didn’t view Penn ownership as legitimate
• Penn, who was heavily indebted and paid top dollar among governors for his land, grew frustrated with lack of Lenape compliance with English law: living among Lenape with “love and consent”
• It remained more peaceful in the Philadelphia area than in New England or Chesapeake but among the disputes Penn didn’t resolve was land above the falls near present day Trenton. That setup the infamous 1737 Walking Purchase fraud by Penn’s heirs and Logan
• By late 17th century deerskin leather was popular in England giving the Lenape a direct market (rather than beaver fur middle men)
• Lenape initially moved toward Brandywine and upper Schuylkill but by 1730s most moved toward Susquehanna River and beyond (177) Some remained in New Jersey including the Pine Barrens
• The Munsees snd Lenape essentially merged in response to population decline and went under name Delaware Indians in the 1700s
• 1727 murder trial and execution of the sachem Weequehela of Central and Jerzee marked a significant rupture between the New Jersey government and the Delaware Indians, both Munsees and Lenape. During the Seven Years War, the Delawares used this instance of state violence against their leader as a reason for the attacks in the Pennsylvania back country and in north western New Jersey.” (182) the sachem was a well integrated one, had a plantation with enslaved Africans in Cranbury in Middlesex County. He was hanged at Perth Amboy on June 30, 1727 (Cranbury was later site of a Lenape-Christian mission led by Brainerd)
• Shawnees lived at Delaware water gap
• Sasoonan sachem spoke before Philadelphia council on June 5, 1728, challenging the legitimacy of Christians settling at all on their lands
• The Walking purchase began on Sept 19, 1737
• Many disaffected Lenape were part of 7 Years War later
• Sussex County, NJ was raided during seven years war ; Lenape were required to have an identification card and red ribbon to show allegiance
• Teedyuscung was King of Delawares at 1758 Crossswicks conf, may have had a white father
• The number of Jersey Delawares declined after 1758; Brotherton reservation never thrived
• In January 1706 the Pennsylvania assembly passed a lot of prevent importation of enslaved Indians because the purchase of natives “from Carolina or other places has been observed to give the Indians of this province some umbrage for suspicion and dissatisfaction.” (197)
• In the 1719 Book of Discipline, Philadelphia Quakers outlawed slave importation though there was no penalty; British repealed an earlier 1712 slave importation law. (Other Quakers were early abolitionists, like Benjamin Lay, a contemporary of Benjamin Franklin)
• Weequehala was only known Lenape to hold slaves; otherwise slaves thought Indians were communities to run away and join  (198)
• After Quakers founded Burlington, the Lenape sachem wanted to squash rumors of war. “We are minded to live in peace” “we are willing to have a broad path for you and us to walk in, and if an Indian is asleep in his path the English men shall pass him by and do him no harm; and if an English man is asleep in the path the Indian shall pass him by and say he is an Englishman he is asleep let him alone he loves to sleep.”  (199)
• Lenape country remained peaceful during Pequot War in New England; Kiefts War in Manhattan area and Angkor-Powhatan in Chesapeake
• Lenape culture was distinct from others including the warlike Iroquois and many southern nations like Cherokee and Choctaws and creeks who had slaves from war before Europeans arrived and then entered the actively European slave trade. “Slavery in Indian country” is a book that makes the argument that these are related (southern slavery culture)