The Manhattan “Purchase” Swindle
“Purchase of Manhattan Island 1626 — colored engraving, 19th Century”
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Costello plan of New Amsterdam in 1626 — officially entitled “Afbeeldinge van de Stadt Amsterdam in Nieuw Neederlandt”
(The key to the Castello plan lists every single house and the 1500 inhabitants that formed the first community in the Dutch colony).
“New York before New York” is a must-see exhibit in the New York’s Historical Society Museum, on the 400-year anniversary of the foundation of New Amsterdam, the later New York.
In this exhibit we realize that the so-called Manhattan purchase was nothing but a swindle based on misrepresentation and cross-cultural misunderstanding as (1) the very concept of land “ownership” did not exist among Native Americans — land was an all-embracing, sacred, god-given communal resource whose exclusive use, not ownership, could only be granted on certain time-limited terms ; (2) even if this outlandish concept of “ownership” were accepted, the land was already “owned ” by the Spanish from a previous fraudulent transaction; and (3) the price of 60 guilders was a preposterously low, amounting to something in the order of 30 cents per acre.
While the original document of this “purchase” no longer exists, it is explicitly referenced by the Schagen Letter, prominently shown in this exhibit.
Remarkable is a 2024 declaration by today’s leadership of the remaining Lenape tribes in Delaware, also shown here, and probably spurred by the events surrounding the anniversary. In this declaration the Lenape nation distances itself from the agreement referenced in the Schagen letter, with a language that summarized the hurt and injustice and the rape and plunder of the land by the invading whites.
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This entry was posted in Blog and tagged Castello Plan, colony, Delaware, Dutch, fraud, Lenape, Manhattan, Native Americans, New York Historical Society, Schagen letter. Bookmark the permalink.
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