Dutch colonization of the Americas In 1624, the first colonists, mostly Walloons and their slaves-bound servants, arrived to New Netherland by the shipload, landing at Governors Island and initially dispensed to Fort Orange, Fort Wilhelmus and Kievets Hoek. In 1626, Director of the WIC Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan from the Lenape natives and started construction of Fort Amsterdam, which grew to become the main port and capital, New Amsterdam. The colony expanded to outlying areas at Pavonia, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Long Island. On the Connecticut River, Fort Huys de Goede Hoop was completed in 1633 at present day Hartford. By 1636, the
Indian Hannah that Hannah was "the only person of that description [Lenape] left" in the area was made shortly before her death, when her neighbors committed her into the local poorhouse. It opened up land for acquisition Hannah Freeman had legal claim to without breaking with William Penn's promise "that the lands belonged to her people until the last one had abandoned them." A road is named after her ("Indian Hannah Road") in Newlin Township, Pennsylvania, and there are two memorial markers for her in Chester County, near Embreeville, Pennsylvania. Hannah Freeman also preserved a bean traditionally grown by her Lenape people