Native American Life in Massachusetts
Archaeological evidence indicates that Native Americans lived in present-day Massachusetts for 8000 years prior to European contact. [4] Wampanoag confederacy tribes populated much of southern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, including Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, along with the 34 Boston Harbor Islands. [17]
These 34 islands were occupied seasonally, and served as locations for families to gather food, farm crops, and fish. [11] From the evidence they left in garbage pits, a large part of a Wampanoag's diet in the warm island months was encompassed by deer meat, soft shelled clams, and the large variety of fish that inhabited the estuary’s water. The islands also harbor proof that significant tool creation and social and ceremonial events occurred on many of the islands over a span of many thousand years. [4] For summer island-dwelling natives, winter brought the short emigration to the main land, where extended family groups hunted to survive. [10] [13] [17] [20]
These 34 islands were occupied seasonally, and served as locations for families to gather food, farm crops, and fish. [11] From the evidence they left in garbage pits, a large part of a Wampanoag's diet in the warm island months was encompassed by deer meat, soft shelled clams, and the large variety of fish that inhabited the estuary’s water. The islands also harbor proof that significant tool creation and social and ceremonial events occurred on many of the islands over a span of many thousand years. [4] For summer island-dwelling natives, winter brought the short emigration to the main land, where extended family groups hunted to survive. [10] [13] [17] [20]
Puritan Contact with Native Tribes and King Philip's War
Separatists from the Church of England, living in Holland and fearing a war to come between Spain and Holland, as well as seeking freedom to practice Puritanism, were transported in 1620 to the New World aboard the Mayflower. Conditions were cramped – two boats were initially set to transport the pilgrims, but one sprung an unfixable leak 300 miles from shore, forcing twice as many people onto the Mayflower – and the journey took over two months. The ship was unable to land where intended, and ended up much farther north, at Plymouth Rock. The weary travelers would have to weather the harsh New England winter, woefully under-prepared. Early Native American hospitality by the leader of the Wampanoags - Massasoit - and Tisquantum, saved the pilgrims' colony, many of whom still died of starvation in this new world. Native American and Puritan relations were peaceful initially, under Massasoit. Boston was established as the "city on a hill" in 1630. [3]
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Between 1660 and 1689 the Restoration of the English monarchy allowed the country to exercise more power over the colonies, and in 1662, 1663, 1670 and 1673, England passed the Navigation Acts in order to gain control of the economy in New England. [17]
Metacom, also called King Philip, son of Massasoit and the new leader of the Wampanoag tribes, was coerced in 1671 to sign a peace treaty requiring all Native Americans to relinquish their guns. This was humiliating. Then, in 1675, colonists tried and hanged three non-Christian Native Americans for murdering a “Praying Indian.” Metacom viewed this as a breach of Native American sovereignty. Individual attacks in response to these events became an organized movement, with the colonists and natives evenly matched in number, at roughly 3500 men each. [2] [9] [13] [14] [17]
Five months into the war, hundreds of Native Americans were relocated to Deer Island, one of the 34 Boston Harbor Islands. Deer Island served as a barren concentration camp for the 500 displaced men, women and children, many of whom starved. [9] [12] [14] |
Metacom was killed in hiding by a bounty-hunting expedition of Christian Natives led by two Puritans in 1676. His corpse was beheaded, drawn and quartered, and hung from the trees; his head remained displayed on a pike outside Plymouth Colony for twenty years. This largely ended the war in Southern New England, but the war officially ended in 1678 with the signing of the Treaty of Casco Bay. Many of the few remaining living Native Americans were sold into slavery after the war. Families were often separated, and Metacom's own wife and young son were shipped to Bermuda. [1] [9] [17]
The victory and glory perceived in King Philip's War piqued the English Crown's interest in the American Puritan colonies. |
The End of Puritan Exclusivity
Though Puritans were by no means the only Europeans in the New World at the 1620 landing at Plymouth Rock, they maintained a monopoly of religious beliefs in New England for nearly forty years, exiling dissidents within their own factions, the most famous of whom include Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams. [3] [5]
Largely ignored by England prior to the 1670s, the colonist's strength and success against the Native Americans during King Philip's War garnered attention the continent's attention, and England revoked the Massachusetts Bay Charter in 1684, which subjected Massachusetts to English Law, including the 1689 Act of Toleration, extending voting rights beyond the Puritans to include all male property owners. [5] In addition, the Act allowed the Crown to appoint a governor. The Anglican Church was set up in the new world in 1686. Many Quakers and Baptists soon after relocated to Beacon Hill. [3]
Largely ignored by England prior to the 1670s, the colonist's strength and success against the Native Americans during King Philip's War garnered attention the continent's attention, and England revoked the Massachusetts Bay Charter in 1684, which subjected Massachusetts to English Law, including the 1689 Act of Toleration, extending voting rights beyond the Puritans to include all male property owners. [5] In addition, the Act allowed the Crown to appoint a governor. The Anglican Church was set up in the new world in 1686. Many Quakers and Baptists soon after relocated to Beacon Hill. [3]
Boston in the 18th Century
Boston grew to become a cosmopolitan center of trade, political sentiment and religion through the Act of Toleration, and remained the most highly populated city in the colonies until the middle of the 18th century, when New York and Philadelphia’s populations surpassed the then stagnant population of Boston. [12]
Poor hygiene and sanitation were among the major drawbacks to living in 18th century Boston, along with congested, narrow, livestock-occupied streets. Fuel (wood) was expensive, and poverty came with overcrowding.
On the other hand, Boston’s government used town halls to mediate and address citizens’ concerns, and thereby enabled autonomy and encouraged sovereignty within the city. The political atmosphere of growing hostility towards the heavy hand of the English government would enable the Revolutionary War.
Poor hygiene and sanitation were among the major drawbacks to living in 18th century Boston, along with congested, narrow, livestock-occupied streets. Fuel (wood) was expensive, and poverty came with overcrowding.
On the other hand, Boston’s government used town halls to mediate and address citizens’ concerns, and thereby enabled autonomy and encouraged sovereignty within the city. The political atmosphere of growing hostility towards the heavy hand of the English government would enable the Revolutionary War.
The Sons of Liberty participated in the Boston Tea Party in 1773. Among their ranks were Samuel and John Adams, Benedict Arnold, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, and Paul Revere. These familiar names are often first thought of as Founding Fathers, but to fuel the revolution that was about to take place, the Sons of Liberty worked to rile the large lower class to action against the choking hand of the English crown. Extreme violence and mayhem was embarked upon in order to cause change in Boston. Collectors were tarred and feathered – a practice that caused painful burns on the victim, and one stamp official, Andrew Oliver, was burned in effigy, followed by the burning of his office. He resigned, along with many other stamp officials. This is just one example of fear used in America to incite the change and will of a faction of the population. [4]
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Many of America’s Founding Fathers are now thought by academic philosophers to have been Deists, and some even Atheists, rather than Christians, although like many of today’s politicians, a façade was created to ensure sweeping popularity and personal safety. [7]
Among the most philosophically Deist were Jefferson and Thomas Paine. To the Christian and conservative end of the spectrum of Deism were John Adams and George Washington. The more liberal and perhaps atheistic views were held by Ben Franklin and James Monroe. Samuel Adams, and Patrick Henry remained practicing Christians, as did many of the families - and especially the wives - of Deist Founding Fathers. [7] "Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man."
- Thomas Paine |
Phillis Wheatley (b. 1753) was sold into slavery as a young girl. She was then educated by the Wheatleys in the colonies, and wrote extensively as an adult. She is one of many examples of slavery in New England during the 18th century, though very few slaves were allowed such educational opportunities. Slavery was abolished in Massachusetts in 1783, and Phillis died the next year at thirty-one years old. [8]
An excerpt from her poetry: 'Some view the sable race with scornful eye-- Their color is a diabolic dye; But know, ye Christians, Negroes black as Cain May be refined, and join the angelic train.' |
Irish Immigration of the 19th Century
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In 1847, the first year of a mass upheaval from Ireland because of the Potato Famine, Boston was swamped with the immigration of 37,000 Irish Catholics. The Irish settled in what became entirely Irish-American neighborhoods along the waterfront, in low-income housing, taking unskilled labor positions when available. Living conditions for Irish immigrants were often deplorable, and lacked fresh air, adequate space, sunshine, or water. Often, large, single-family homes were divided into individual rooms, one room per family. Many dozens of Irish were crammed into the squalid rooms for unreasonable rates. Competition for paid labor positions was intense, and riots erupted from the stress of rapid overcrowding, poverty, and starvation. Death rates for all Irish in Boston were much higher than any other nationality’s death rates in Boston or those of Irishmen in other cities. [15] Despite these dismal statistics, the large influx of Roman Catholic Irish in the 19th century has lead to a 21st century Boston with a significant Catholic population. [16] [19]
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What does the Harbor mean for Boston's Cultural History?
The Boston Harbor has always been a prime point of access through which new people, goods, and ideas can find footholds in America. This is what differentiates a place like Boston from a place like Kennecott, Alaska. [1] Boston keeps relevant through an influx of new and renewable ideas and resources, as well as keeping remarkably revolutionary in spirit. From Puritan settlers seeking freedom and space from the Anglican Church to Irish emigrants searching for a better livelihood, the Harbor's history shows the vastly important role Boston had in shaping American culture. The tradition of higher learning spread from Europe, as well as Christianity, guns and horses, and a whole host of European goods. Biological, material, and ideological goods traveled between Europe and the New World. Tomatoes, potatoes, corn, beans, cranberry, raspberry, turkey, and diseases such as syphilis were sent back to Europe. The Irish Potato Famine of 1847 resulting from an over-dependence on potato crops and a particularly nasty potato blight was an impossibility without the 1600's export of New World goods. Unintended consequences ricochet all over history, though not all are as terrible as The Potato Famine. Horses sent from Europe were a technological leap for Native Americans, who could spend far less time traveling and hunting on horseback. Boston's harbor was the inlet and outlet for the enormous revolution that took place over the course of a few hundred years. Between 1620 and 1920, Europeans and Native Americans made permanent contact in Massachusetts, the United States was formed, Boston grew exponentially, Irish began mass-emigrating to the U.S., and a technological and industrial revolution began. The Boston Harbor truly is a place of Revolutions and beginnings.