The Massacre at Corlears Hook of February 25, 1643 was a colonial massacre of forty

Wecquaesgeek The Wecquaesgeek (also Manhattoe and Manhattan) were a Munsee-speaking band of Wappinger people who once lived along the east bank of the Hudson River in the southwest of today's Westchester County, New York,Their presence on the east bank of th ...

of all ages and genders on the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally ...

of Manhattan, perpetrated by a force led by Maryn Adriansen, acting under

Willem Kieft Willem Kieft (September 1597 – September 27, 1647) was a Dutch merchant and the Director of New Netherland (of which New Amsterdam was the capital) from 1638 to 1647. Life and career Willem Kieft was appointed to the rank of director b ...

, the Director of New Netherland. Kieft sought to take advantage of Wappinger who had been driven south by the Mohawks and Mahicans and taken refuge at their old settlement of ''Rechtauck'' on

Corlears Hook The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal Street (Manhattan), Canal to Houston Stre ...

, fleeing to lands controlled by their erstwhile Dutch allies. Launched on the same night as the larger

Pavonia Massacre Pavonia was the first European settlement on the west bank of the North River (Hudson River) that was part of the seventeenth-century province of New Netherland in what would become the present Hudson County, New Jersey. Hudson and the Hackens ...

in modern

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark, New Jersey, Newark.

, the pair of unprovoked attacks instigated the two years'

Kieft's War Kieft's War (1643–1645), also known as the Wappinger War, was a conflict between the colonial province of New Netherland and the Wappinger and Lenape Indians in what is now New York and New Jersey. It is named for Director-General of New Nethe ...

. An account comes from

David Pietersz. de Vries David Pieterszoon de Vries ( – 13 September 1655) was a Dutch navigator from Hoorn.Joris van der MeeKoopman in de West; De indianen en de Nieuw Nederlanders in het journaal van David Pietersz. De Vries, 2001 (Dutch) Biography In 1617, De ...

, the chairman of Kieft's council on Native relations, which had been created amid conflict 1½ years earlier. Kieft had dissolved the Twelve Men just two weeks before the attacks, due to opposition to his war policy by De Vries and others. He described the events as follows:

References

{{coord, 40.711, -73.982, type:event_globe:earth_region:US-NY, display=title 1643 in the Dutch Empire 1643 in North America Kieft's War Lower East Side Massacres of Native Americans Wappinger Massacres in 1643