In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant Dutch East India Company Director, arrived to become governor of New Amsterdam. His inventory of household goods included teapots, spoons, and cupboards.
Peter Stuyvesant was born in Holland in 1592. Stuyvesant served in the Dutch Army before being appointed director-general of New Netherland. Peter Stuyvesant became the last Dutch governor of its New Amsterdam colony.
In 1650, Peter Stuyvesant brought tea to the American colonists in New Amsterdam, later called New York. Soon the colonists were drinking more tea than all England.
Early records show the custom of taking tea by the burghers of New Amsterdam proved equal to that of their native Holland. The tea board, tea table, teapots, sugar bowl, silver spoons, and strainer were the pride of the Dutch household in the New World.
When the British took control of the town in 1664 and renamed it New York, tea continued to play the same important social role as it did in England.
Peter Stuyvesant and tea in United States
