A little more complicated than Peter Minuit's $24 worth of wampum

On this day in 1643, the governor of New Netherlands took a tough-on-Indians approach and murdered hundreds of Munsee Indians in a midnight raid on settlements in Jersey City and Manhattan. The gruesome assault united the Indians in the region and demoralized the Dutch colonists. The five years of resulting war included brutal reprisals and counter raids. The Munsee were essentially annihilated. The war left the dutch colony weak and poor. The English easily conquered the colony, renaming it New York.