Good and Bad Reputations

Few leaders of Dutch colonial ventures in the Atlantic World have a reputation worse than that of Willem Kieft, Director of New Netherland from 1638 to his departure from the colony in 1647. Reassessing Kieft’s reputation requires placing him firmly in his Dutch and Amsterdam background. Tracing his family networks, two of Kieft’s Dutch colonial role models (one from the Dutch East Indies, the other from Dutch Brazil) emerge: Laurens Reael and Johannes van Walbeeck. Interpreting his conduct in New Netherland in the light of these role models and of prevalent notions of social hierarchy and precepts of leadership in the Dutch Republic leads to a revised and more nuanced view of Kieft’s conduct as Director of New Netherland.