At a time when most European women could not independently sign a business contract, a Dutch immigrant built a fortune in the New World that would make even the wealthiest merchants envious. The story of Margaret Hardenbroeck unveils the remarkable opportunities Dutch law afforded women, and how one shift in power erased the life’s work of the most enterprising woman in colonial America.
Youth in the Colony
Margaret was born around 1630 in the Rhine Valley in the Netherlands, to Adolph Hardenbruka, a German immigrant. Details of her early life remain a mystery, but one thing is certain: she received an education, a rarity for women in 17th-century Europe.
The Netherlands was the only country on the continent granting girls access to basic education, with the Reformed Church actively promoting gender equality.
The Dutch carried these liberal values across the Atlantic, fostering an environment in New Amsterdam that encouraged female entrepreneurship. When twenty-two-year-old Margaret arrived in 1659, she did not come as a wife or servant, but as an independent professional. She served as a factor for her affluent cousin, Wolter Valck, managing his business interests overseas.
A factor’s job involved selling goods on behalf of a principal for commission. Margaret could act both in her own name and her cousin’s, granting her notable operational freedom. Yet it soon became clear she had ambitions far beyond representing someone else’s interests.
The Growth of a Trade Empire
Margaret began her own business trading small items: pins, cooking oils, and vinegar exchanged for valuable fur. These humble beginnings preluded her real success, which arrived with her marriage to Peter de Vries, a wealthy merchant from New Amsterdam.
Crucially, marriage did not end her independent commercial career; under Dutch usus law, married women could retain their legal identity and conduct business in their own name.
When Peter died just two years later in 1661, Margaret inherited not only his fortune but also a fleet of merchant ships. Rather than sell the assets and live off her inheritance, the widow expanded the enterprise to unprecedented levels. She organized the transport of furs to Holland, from where ships returned with goods to sell in the colonies.
Her property stretched from Albany in the north down to Barbados in the Caribbean. She owned lots in Manhattan and Bergen as well as several ships, including the New Netherland Indian, Beaver, Pearl, and Morning Star. Women like her became known as she-merchants, and Margaret was the wealthiest of them all in the colony.
Marriage and the Prenuptial Agreement
Marrying Frederick Philipse, who had arrived in New Amsterdam as the governor Peter Stuyvesant’s carpenter and amassed his own fortune, might have meant losing control over the wealth she had built. But Margaret showed extraordinary foresight and legal savvy. Before marrying, she signed a prenuptial agreement to guarantee that her daughter from her first marriage would inherit the entire estate of Peter de Vries.
The contract also protected Margaret’s right to a portion of the couple’s joint assets and anything she earned by her own work. Frederick—who eventually became the first Lord of Philipse Manor—understood his partner’s business value and respected her financial independence. Together, they established one of colonial America’s most powerful trading unions while raising five children.
This mix of ambition, intelligence, and favorable legal circumstances enabled Margaret to achieve success unimaginable for women elsewhere at the time. She stood as living proof that, with equal opportunities, women could rival men in the most demanding spheres of economic activity.
The End of Independence
The year 1664 brought a disaster even such an experienced merchant could not foresee. The English seized New Amsterdam, renamed it New York, and imposed new laws. English regulations did not recognize the legal independence women had enjoyed—a foundation of Margaret’s career for over two decades.
In an instant, the seasoned businesswoman lost the ability to buy goods and serve as a legal agent on her own. All the profits from her thriving businesses became, by law, the property of her husband. It was not a case of bankruptcy or failed deals, but the arbitrary decision of colonial authorities undoing a lifetime’s achievement with a stroke of the pen.
Margaret Hardenbroeck died around 1691, leaving behind the legend of colonial America’s most powerful she-merchant.
Margot Cleverly
Margot's journey into women's history began with a box of forgotten letters in a Cambridge archive – suffragettes whose voices had been silenced for over a century. Since then, she's been on a mission to uncover the stories history overlooked.
What she writes about: Queens who ruled from the shadows. Scientists whose male colleagues took credit. Revolutionaries who risked everything. But also ordinary women – those who survived wars, raised families through upheaval, and shaped their communities in ways no one bothered to record.
Margot turns historical figures into real people. She writes with warmth and detail, making centuries-old stories feel surprisingly relevant. Rigorous research meets accessible storytelling – no dusty academic jargon, just compelling narratives backed by solid facts.
When she's not writing, you'll find her in regional archives, collecting oral histories, or visiting sites connected to the women she writes about.