Download Lenape Country: Delaware Valley Society Before William Penn AudioBook Free
In 1631, when the Dutch attempted to build up plantation agriculture in the Delaware Valley, the Lenape Indians ruined the colony of Swanendael and killed its residents. The natives and Dutch quickly negotiated peace, avoiding an extended war through diplomacy and trade. The Lenapes conserved their political sovereignty for the next 50 years as Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, and British colonists settled the Delaware Valley. The European outposts didn't approach the scale and strength of these in Virginia, New Britain, and New Netherland. Even after a large number of Quakers found its way to West NJ and Pa in the overdue 1670s and '80s, the spot successfully avoided war for another 75 years. Lenape Country is a sweeping narrative background of the multiethnic culture of the Delaware Valley in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Attracting on a variety of sources, creator Jean R. Soderlund demonstrates that the hallmarks of Delaware Valley culture - commitment to personal liberty, religious liberty, peaceful image resolution of issue, and opposition to hierarchical government - started out in the Delaware Valley, not with Quaker ideals or the authority of William Penn but with the Lenape Indians, whose culture enjoyed an integral role in shaping Delaware Valley culture.
