New Amsterdam to New York: How the Dutch Lost Manhattan | History for Sleep with Rain Sounds

Sleepless History: Sleep Documentaries · Oct 18, 2026 · 1h 45m · transcript

Before it was New York, it was a muddy Dutch trading post with a crumbling fort, a canal, a windmill, and pigs wandering the streets.

Tonight, drift off to the full history of New Amsterdam, from Henry Hudson’s 1609 voyage up the river that bears his name to the quiet surrender of 1664, when English warships anchored in the harbor and the town became New York. Hear the real story behind the famous sixty-guilder purchase of Manhattan. Learn how a beaver-fur company town became one of the most diverse places in the colonial world. Follow the disastrous wars of Director Willem Kieft and the…