AN “INCONVENIENCE”

Yet a man shall never heare of such crimes amongst them of robberies, murthers, adulteries, &c. as among the English.

~ Roger Williams, Minister

Early English encounters with native inhabitants of the New World

As the Howlett, French and Eppes families sought to acquire land, build homes and raise families in newly founded towns and plantations, one concern above all others continued to gnaw at their sense of security. The land they coveted was inhabited by people who had lived there for thousands of years. The Native American "inconvenience" had plagued European explorers and settlers ever since their first forays onto this new continent.

It appears that the first encounters between the Native Americans locals and the English newcomers were relatively peaceful and friendly. Trade was brisk and there seemed to be much cultural knowledge on either side that might be shared. Entirely peaceful relations, however, were short lived. Much of the trouble lay in the arrogant view colonists held toward the indigenous people whose land they wanted to claim as their own.

Christopher Columbus called the native people he encountered "guileless and generous" with "acute intelligence." In spite of such back-handed praise, Columbus was quick to mention that profit could easily be made in the New World. He wrote back to Europe that “from here in the name of the Blessed Trinity we can send all the slaves that can be sold.”

As more ships appeared on the Massachusetts shoreline, the native population began to perceive the newcomers as a potential threat. When Bartholomew Gosnold arrived on the scene in Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard in 1602, friendly trading between the English and the Wampanoag of the area was quickly established. But when Gosnold and his men built a small fort on the island of Cuttyhunk, the Wampanoag attacked the fort. It was early days and, in this rare instance, the English capitulated and abandoned the settlement.

Further expeditions up and down the Atlantic coast of America led to continued hostile actions by the English which further eroded the trust of the indigenous people. Between 1605 and 1614, 37 native men were kidnapped by English sailors along the Massachusetts coast. 27 of these were sold into slavery. Some were taken back to England and "paraded around as a curiosity." In Virginia, early conflict was followed by relative peace by 1614. This harmony was effectively eroded two years later with Governor Yeardley's order to seize corn from the Chickahominy people for the colonists own use.

According to Richard Tetek in Relations between English Settlers and Indians in 17th Century New England, "eventually all reported Anglo-Indian encounters between 1602 and 1619 ended up in violent incidents with casualties on both sides." The English had earned a reputation as dangerous and arbitrary people among the Native inhabitants of New England. This did not bode well for future relations.

That subjugation was the intent of those who came to colonize the New World is implied in the seals of the two main colonies that existed in early America.

Nostrae Virginia (our Virginia)

Understandably wary when the English arrived in Colonial Virginia in 1607, Powhatan’s people reacted with a mixture of hostility and kindness. They attacked first, only to be repelled by the superior weapons of the English. Their next tact was to offer friendship and food to the starving colonists. Thus, uneasy relations began between the native people of Virginia and the newcomers.

Initially the colonists needed and accepted help from the native people in order to survive. Instead of gratitude, however, the Powhatan received little more than disdain. John Smith summed up the colony's true feelings when he wrote that the Indians might "now most justly be compelled to servitude and drudgery...whereby even the meanest of the Plantation may imploy themselves more entirely in their Arts and Occupations...whilest Savages performe their inferiour workes..."

The objective of the southern colonists is explicitly depicted on the original seal of Virginia. On this seal, a Native American chief kneels before his benefactor, the king of England, who graciously accepts his offering. This depiction makes exceedingly clear the Virginia colonist’s idea that, as they were the superior beings, Virginia belonged to them and the indigenous people living there should be subjugated to their will.

“Come Over and Help Us”

School children are taught at a very young age about the friendship between Indians and Pilgrims and we celebrate Thanksgiving to commemorate that friendship. But the truth is that relations between the colonists and the indigenous people already living in early Massachusetts were frayed from the very beginning. The main purpose of the massive emigration from England to the New World that took place in the 1620's and 30's, though clothed under the desire for religious freedom in the North, was the acquisition of land.

By the time the early colonists landed in Massachusetts, there were over 30,000 Native Americans living there belonging to a variety of tribes. As in Virginia, these indigenous people were of the Algonquian language group. Unlike Virginia, they lived in small bands and had no supreme chief.

The Puritans believed they had a holy right to the land they planned to occupy. Even before sailing the America, John Winthrop wrote in his journal:

"As for the Natives in New England, they inclose noe Land, neither have any settled habytation...soe have noe other but a Naturall Right to these Countries. Soe as if we leave them sufficient for their use, we may lawfully take the rest, there being more then enough for them & us."

The problem for the Puritans was how to wrest the land away and still look like the good guys. The answer lay, of course, in a subjective vision of what God intended. The Puritans came to believe that it was their “holy mission” to convert and civilize the Native Americans and thereby save their immortal souls. That idea is exemplified in the original seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The picture shows a Native American with a ribbon streaming from his neck which says “COME OVER AND HELP US.”

Native Americans in New England were given two choices. Convert and be bathed in our benevolence or keep to your heathen ways and face the wrath of God. God's wrath, naturally, to be inflicted by His chosen people, the Puritan colonists.

We all know the story. As we wend our way though the years, as our ancestors move ever westward into new frontiers, the same story plays itself over and over again. Even though we know the ending, it bears retelling and remembering as one of the saddest chapters in our nation's history.