Peter Stuyvesant

Peter Stuyvesant (born c. 1592, Scherpenzeel, Friesland, Netherlands—died February 1672, near New York, New York [U.S.]) was a Dutch colonial governor who tried to resist the English seizure of New York. Stuyvesant was the son of a Calvinist minister. He began his career in the Dutch West India Company about 1632, and in 1643 he became director in the company’s colonies of Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire. During an expedition against the Portuguese island of Saint...