The Esopus Mutiny
After the capitulation of New Amsterdam and its dependencies to the Duke of York, in 1664, some English troops were sent to garrison Esopus. They were under command of Capt. Broadhead, an armgant, ill-tempered, overbearing officer, whom the Dutch soon came to hate with all the fervor of their natures. There was a constant collision between the English military authorities and the Dutch civil magistrates. The inhabitants drew up a formal complaint against the garrison, and among the charges were the following
Capt. Broadhead, an armgant, ill-tempered, overbearing officer, whom the Dutch soon came to hate with all the fervor of their natures. There was a constant collision between the English military authorities and the Dutch civil magistrates. The inhabitants drew up a formal complaint against the garrison, and among the charges were the following Cornelius Barentsen Sleight is beaten in his own house by soldier George Porter, and was after this by other soldiers forced to prison, and by some soldiers at his imprisonment used very hard.
George Porter, and was after this by other soldiers forced to prison, and by some soldiers at his imprisonment used very hard. Capt. Broadhead hath beaten Tierck Clausen and without any reason brought to prison.
Tierck Clausen and without any reason brought to prison. Capt. Broadhead, coming to the house of Louis Du Bois, took an anker of brandy and threw it upon the ground because Du Bois refused him brandy without payment, and did likewise force the said Du Bois to give him brandy. [Broadhead afterwards said in extenuation of the act that the anker was not broken, and no brandy spilled.]
Louis Du Bois, took an anker of brandy and threw it upon the ground because Du Bois refused him brandy without payment, and did likewise force the said Du Bois to give him brandy. [Broadhead afterwards said in extenuation of the act that the anker was not broken, and no brandy spilled.] And the said Du Bois' wife coming to Broadhead's house for money, he drove her out of the house with a knife.
The soldier George Porter coming in the barn of Peter Hillebrants, and finding there Dierck Hendricks, took his sword and thrust it through Dierek's breeches.
Dierck Hendricks, took his sword and thrust it through Dierek's breeches. Two soldiers coming to Miller's to steal his hens, and Miller in defending his hens, was by the soldiers beaten in his own house.
Besides all this we are threatened by Capt. Broadhead and his soldiers that they will burn down all this town and all they that are therein-'Therefore we do most humbly supplicate that you will be pleased to remonstrate and make known unto the Governor the sad condition we are in, from whom we hope to have redress.”
In answer to the above “standings,” Captain Broadhead replies that he will keep Cornelius Sleight in apprehension “as longe as he thinks good,” and that in case the inhabitants will “flitch” him by force, that he would wait upon them.
The soldiers in their own behalf say they went to the burgher's [Sleight's] house by Broadhead `a command, when they found the burgher with his piece cocked, and his hanger [sword] drawn and laid upon his arm; they disarmed him by force and brought him prisoner to the guard. But at their first arrival at the afore-said house they “found Capt. Broadhead with his cravat torn and thrown away, and his face scratched and very much abused.” [It would appear that Sleight and the English Captain had been indulging in a little scrimmage, in which the latter had got the worst of it].
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