Pierre Midnight (Wesel, towards 1580 - 1638), was the first governor of the New-Country-Low.

The parents of Pierre Minuit, originating in Turned, had settled in the Rhineland to flee religious persecutions and had their son in the Duché of Clèves.

In 1626, it is made famous while buying the island of Manhattan to the Indians Manhattes , in exchange of small glassware and other trinkets, for the equivalent of 60 guilders (24 dollars).

Anxious to defend the interests of the colonists, it is distinguished in defense from the interests from the colonists like those from the Indians, under the terms of the principle that a harmonious integration of two cultures is better than the rejection of “less” civilized, bringing, generally, of the conflicts.

On the contrary, the Compagnie of the Western Indies is intolerant and despotic by imposing to the colonists New-Countries-Low low-German - language at the origin of Flemish and current Dutch -, like official language and the Protestantism reformed like confession.

Many family names are put at the sauce Dutchwoman, like Rapalje for Rapaille or Minnewit for Minuit. The use of the name of the Dutch city of origin as patronym is also current.

In order to guarantee a monopoly with the imports coming from Holland, the Company of the Western Indies prohibited to the colonists weaving of wool or the fabric, as well as the manufacture of cloth or any other fabric under penalty of being banished or punished like perjuries.

Pierre Minuit is recalled in Holland in 1632 following his benevolent and protective attitude with regard to the colonists, like with the covetousness and the intrigues of a director of the Company Dutchwoman of the Western Indies wanting to impose his nephew as a governor.