New Jersey: Colonial History, Industrialization & Crime

Long before the Garden State carried that nickname, before the skyline of Newark rose over the iron mills of Paterson, and before Bruce Springsteen ever sang about the Jersey Shore, the land we now call New Jersey belonged to the Lenni-Lenape. Known to European settlers as the Delaware Indians, the Lenape called themselves Lenni-Lenape, meaning “original people”, and their stewardship of the region stretches back more than 10,000 years. Their story is inseparable from New Jersey’s colonial past, the American Revolution, and the rise of industrial America. It is also a story of dispossession: in 1758, the New Jersey Assembly created the Brotherton reservation in Burlington County, widely regarded as the first “Indian reservation” in what would become the United States, and within two generations even that land was gone.

The Lenni-Lenape: Original People of the Delaware Valley

Archaeological and oral-historical evidence indicates that Lenape peoples lived in the Delaware River watershed, which spans present-day New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, and Delaware, for millennia before European contact. When the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed along the Atlantic coast in 1524, becoming the first known European to explore the region, he encountered the western edge of a world the Lenape had shaped for countless generations.

Lenape life was organized around seasonal rhythms. Along the Jersey Shore and the river mouths, communities harvested clams and shellfish, whose quahog shells would later be crafted into the purple and white beads known as wampum, a material of deep ceremonial and diplomatic significance among Eastern Woodlands peoples. Inland, families hunted deer and other game in the forests depending on the season. Women cultivated the Three Sisters, the interplanted trio of corn, beans, and squash, alongside crops such as sweet potatoes. This agricultural and ecological knowledge, refined over thousands of years, was part of a broader Indigenous tradition of land cultivation and ecosystem stewardship practiced across Native North America.

Colonial Encroachment and the Erosion of Lenape Homelands

The colonial era began in earnest when Henry Hudson explored the Newark Bay in 1609 for the Dutch East India Company. Small trading outposts soon emerged near present-day Hoboken and Jersey City, and settlers from the Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland formed the first permanent European settlement at Bergen. In 1664, the English seized control of New Netherland, and the Duke of York granted the province between the Hudson and Delaware rivers to two proprietors: Sir George Carteret in the east and Lord John Berkeley in the west. New Jersey would share a royal governor with New York until 1738, when Lewis Morris became its first dedicated royal governor.

For the Lenape, this period brought devastating change. Land was purchased, pressured, and in some cases taken through fraudulent means, the most notorious example being the so-called Walking Purchase of 1737, in which Pennsylvania officials exploited ambiguous deed language to claim vast Lenape territory west of the Delaware. Displaced communities found their hunting grounds shrinking year by year, and epidemic disease, trade dependency, and missionization further strained traditional lifeways.

Brotherton: The First Indian Reservation

In a remarkable and complicated act of colonial policy, the New Jersey Assembly in 1758 established a permanent settlement for the Delaware Indians in Burlington County. The community, called Brotherton, was the first and only reservation ever created within New Jersey and is widely considered the first “Indian reservation” in what became the United States. In exchange for relinquishing rights to their remaining ancestral lands across the colony, Lenape families at Brotherton were permitted to continue hunting and fishing on the reserve. Colonially framed as protection, the arrangement in practice confined a once-wide-ranging people to roughly 3,000 acres.

Brodheadtown in South Jersey became part of Brotherton’s community life, but the reservation’s future was short-lived. By 1801, the remaining members, then numbering approximately 85 people, petitioned the Assembly to sell the reservation and distribute the proceeds. With that sale, the last recognized Lenape landholding in New Jersey disappeared. Many Brotherton families traveled north to join relatives at New Stockbridge, New York, while others eventually connected with Delaware and Mohican communities that later resettled in Wisconsin; still others integrated into local communities in South Jersey, leaving descendants who carry Lenape ancestry in the region to this day.

Lenape Land and the Crossroads of the Revolution

The American Revolution transformed New Jersey into the war’s most contested ground. Because of its position between the patriot strongholds of Philadelphia and the British garrison of New York, more battles were fought in New Jersey than in any other state, earning it the title “Crossroads of the Revolution.” Iron mills in areas such as West Milford, Wharton, and Kinnelon produced ammunition and armaments for the Continental Army.

The turning point came in December 1776. After the British seized New Jersey and forced General George Washington’s battered troops across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania, the British assumed no army would attempt a winter crossing. On the night of December 25, Washington proved them wrong. The surprise victories at Trenton and Princeton routed the Hessian forces at Trenton, captured roughly 900 prisoners, and revived the patriot cause. The battles were fought on land the Lenape had ceded barely a generation earlier, a quiet reminder that the fight for American independence unfolded atop the involuntary cession of Indigenous homelands. New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on December 18, 1787, and the first state to sign the Bill of Rights.

Industrialization and the Lenape Diaspora

Nineteenth-century industrialization drew a hard line across the state. Northern cities such as Paterson, Trenton, Camden, Elizabeth, Jersey City, and Newark filled with factories producing textiles, silk, iron, steel, and clay products, and by 1850 the state’s population approached half a million. Railroads opened South Jersey’s shore towns and ports, and resorts like Atlantic City, home of the world’s first boardwalk built in 1870, flourished. None of this growth included the Lenape, whose remaining families had been dispersed decades earlier. By the early twentieth century, New Jersey celebrated invention, prosperity, and the music of Springsteen’s future hometown, while the state’s Indigenous narrative was largely written out of public memory despite the continued presence of Lenape-descended communities.

Historical Context & Key Cultural Takeaways

• Depth of occupation: The Lenni-Lenape inhabited the New Jersey region for more than 10,000 years before European contact, building economies around shellfish harvesting, seasonal hunting, and Three Sisters agriculture.
• Brotherton’s significance: Established in Burlington County in 1758, Brotherton is widely recognized as the first reservation in the future United States, an early template for federal Indian policy that would culminate in the reservation system of the nineteenth century.
• Loss of homeland: The 1801 sale of Brotherton, with proceeds divided among roughly 85 surviving members, ended formal Lenape landholding in New Jersey and scattered families to New Stockbridge, New York, and eventually westward.
• Revolutionary irony: The pivotal battles of Trenton and Princeton were fought on Lenape cessions secured only decades earlier, embedding Indigenous dispossession within the geography of American independence.
• Continuing legacy: Lenape heritage is not extinct history; descendants of the Delaware people remain in New Jersey and in federally recognized communities such as the Delaware Nation and Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma and the Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Wisconsin.

Frequently Asked Questions About New Jersey’s Native American History

Who were the original inhabitants of New Jersey?

The Lenni-Lenape, meaning “original people,” were the region’s Indigenous inhabitants for over 10,000 years. European settlers called them the Delaware Indians because they were first extensively encountered near the Delaware River, whose name derived from Lord De La Warr, an English colonial official.

What was the Brotherton reservation, and why is it important?

Established by the New Jersey Assembly in 1758 in Burlington County, Brotherton was the first and only reservation in New Jersey and is widely considered the first Indian reservation in the United States. It provided a permanent home where Lenape could hunt and fish in exchange for surrendering claims to their remaining New Jersey lands.

What happened to the Lenape after 1801?

After selling Brotherton in 1801, the approximately 85 remaining reservation members joined relatives at New Stockbridge, New York, and later affiliated with Munsee and Mohican communities that ultimately relocated to Wisconsin. Other families integrated into South Jersey communities, while Lenape descendants today are also enrolled in federally recognized tribes in Oklahoma and Wisconsin.

How did the Lenni-Lenape live before European contact?

They practiced seasonal subsistence: harvesting clams along the coast, hunting in the interior woodlands, and farming corn, beans, squash, and sweet potatoes. Their shell bead traditions connect to the broader Eastern Woodlands craft of wampum, used ceremonially and diplomatically.

Are there Lenape people in New Jersey today?

Yes. While the state recognizes certain Lenape-descended organizations, no New Jersey-based Lenape group holds federal recognition. The federally recognized Delaware Nations are based in Oklahoma and at the Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Wisconsin.

Conclusion: Remembering the Original People of the Garden State

New Jersey’s familiar landmarks, from the Trenton battlefields to the diners, boardwalks, and mills, all rest on the ancestral homelands of the Lenni-Lenape. The story of Brotherton, the nation’s first reservation, remembers both a colonial attempt at containment and a people’s endurance far beyond it. Honoring Lenape history means acknowledging the 10,000-year Indigenous foundation of the Garden State and supporting the cultural preservation efforts of Delaware communities today.