New+Jersey

The first people to live in New Jersey were the Lenni Lenape. They were American Indians who had been living there for thousands of years. They lived near the river European settlers called the Delaware. They made homes called wigwams. The Lenni Lenape lived off the land and in the winter, they built villages in the forest. In the summer, they lived near the Atlantic Ocean.

Dutch traders were the first Europeans to settle in what became New Jersey. In 1623, they began the New Amsterdam Colony, which covered parts of present-day New York amd New Jersey so they could trade with American Indians for animal furs. In 1623, Swedish settlers came to build a fur-trading colony and named their colony New Sweden. New Sweden covered parts of what is now New Jersey and Delaware. The Swedish and Dutch colonies fought over the land and in 1655, the Dutch took over New Sweden.

In 1664, England took over New Amsterdam. King Charles II gave the area to his brother James, Duke of York, who named it New Jersey after the Island of Jersey, near England. Then he gave it to Sir George Carteret and John Lord Berkeley. A group of Quakers bought Berkeley's half and in 1676, Carteret and the Quakers split the colony into East and West Jersey. New Jersey allowed freedom of religion.

The first New Jersey settlers built log homes. Mud or grass filled spaces between the logs. The roofs were covered with thin wooden shingles. Window openings were covered in oiled paper. In East Jersey, settlers lived in towns. In 1661, New Jersey's first town, Bergen was formed in East Jersey. There were few towns in West Jersey. Quakers built their homes on farmland and their farms were spread out from each other. East Jersey and West Jersey were joined as the royal colony of New Jersey in 1702, but their ways of life remained different.

The first colonists in New Jersey farmed to survive. They grew oats, wheat and corn and raised cows, sheep, and chicken, which provided milk, wool, meat, and eggs. They also made their own clothes. Men used deerskin to make leather coats and pants. Women made cloth from wool or plants. In early New Jersey, struggles were common. People paid the Dutch or Swedish government or American Indians for land. Many colonists wouldn't pay the English.

Factories were opened. In 1642, in Hoboken, America's first brewery was built by Aert T. van Putten. Around 1670, near Shrewsbury, Ironworks was opened. The Campbell family built a wampum factory which made wampum beads by machine in 1760. Wampum belts were used as money by American Indians and settlers. Indians made wampum beads. They were made from seashells and strung into belts. Workers were needed for factories and farms, so indentured servants were used at first. An indentured servant was someone who agrees to work for another person for a certain length of time in exchange for travel expenses, food, and housing. In 1700, people had slaves instead. Ships brought them from Africa and they had to work all their lives and they didn't get money.