“Why Shall Wee Have Peace to Bee Made Slaves”: Indian Surrenderers During and After King Philip’s War

In the paper

“New England Indian captives not only knew where they might be sent, but they often stated it outright: Barbados.”

In the paper

“English-allied native leaders worked hard to influence the treatment of surrenderers, helping them to escape to New York, harboring runaways, and in other ways trying to keep natives out of English households.”

In the paper

“generally the thousands of surrenderers received far worse treatment than they expected, facing execution, overseas enslavement, local limited-term enslavement, and forced relocation.”

In the paper

“Each colony had differing policies for surrendering natives”

In the paper

“Quannapaquait reported that “he understood by the cheefe men & old men [that] they were inclinable to have peace again with the English, but the young men [who are their principal soldiers] say we wil have no peace wee are all or most of us alive yet & the English have kild very few of us last summer why shall wee have peace to bee made slaves, & either be kild or sent away to sea to Barbadoes &c.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [2] Bodge, 1891

In the paper

“In February 1677, a native man named Scinnae requested of the Connecticut Council to have his wife and three children returned to him. His wish was partially granted, in that he was reunited with his wife and two of his children. His third child, having previously been placed in the household of Nathaniel Butlar, was forced to fulfill his term there as a servant.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [51]

In the paper

“Pabweegannuck later alleged that Uncas was involved.68”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [68]

In the paper

“Local officials knew Uncas was to blame, even though he was always suspiciously absent when things transpired.64”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [64]

In the paper

“Foreshadowing later fugitive slave laws, Allyn argued that runaway slaves needed to be returned across colony lines or else “one Colony will be a Sanctuary to the discontented Servants of Another Colony.””

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [43] Wyllys, 1924

In the paper

“Starting on October 30, 1675, the Massachusetts government began sending groups of Christian Indians to Deer Island, and eventually, Long Island, both in the Boston Harbor.”

In the paper

“Consequently, surrenderers found themselves entirely at the mercy of local magistrates, who often forced them into limited-term slavery.”

In the paper

“This included sixty-five “of the enemie, fighting men, besides their retennue of old men, women and children,” likely well over 250 natives total.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [62]

In the paper

“Connecticut set land aside, too, and one of the larger resettlement towns there was at Shetucket, a few miles north of Norwich, along the river in Wabaquasset country.57”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [57]

In the paper

“In every New England colony, natives known to be in active rebellion against the English were sold into slavery in one form or another.”

In the paper

“these “surrenderers” often found themselves subjected to similar treatment as enemy Indians, ranging from being sent out of the country, resettled to new, designated areas, forced to serve in English homes as slaves and servants, and having their children forcibly placed as servants in English households.”

In the paper

“In mid-August 1675, Josiah Winslow and the Plymouth Council of War discussed what to do with 112 natives, at least eight of which were women and children left behind by Philip’s retreating army who subsequently surrendered to Plymouth. These surrenderers were sold into slavery along with the others, having been judged either “actors” or “complyers” in the war.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [26] Newell, 2003, The Changing Nature of Slavery in New England, 1670–1720

In the paper

“Perhaps understandably, the young girl chafed at this arrangement and became unmanageable for Catapezet.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [76]

In the paper

“In late August or early September 1675, 57 Indians went to Sandwich on Cape Cod “in a submissive way” but were judged to be guilty of conspiracy in the rebellion and were “condemned unto perpetuall servitude.””

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [27] Newell, 2009, Indian Slavery in Colonial New England

In the paper

“Pabweegannuck, a lesser Mohegan sachem, was given responsibility for ninety Indian surrenderers and then temporarily disappeared with them—apparently helping them move west, either into western Connecticut or into New York.67”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [67]

In the paper

“Nonetheless, the Reverend James Fitch of Norwich, Connecticut, like many others, learned this the hard way when the surrenderers and enslaved natives on his estate ran away northward, across colony lines, where they found refuge amongst the Christianized natives at the praying town of Natick, Massachusetts.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [42] Warren, 2016

In the paper

“Uncas himself was reported to keep several Indian slaves and use them hard.”

In the paper

“On June 9, 1676, the colony of Massachusetts decreed that enemy Indians who would surrender themselves would receive leniency. The only exceptions were notable leaders or known killers, who likely would be executed or shipped overseas as slaves.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [16] Hallett, 2005

In the paper

“English magistrates repeatedly complained that surrenderers who had been taken in by Uncas simply vanished into thin air, or that he turned a blind eye while surrenderers raided cattle from local colonists.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [64]

In the paper

“Determined to subvert English practices of Indian slavery, Uncas continually encouraged natives to run away from their masters and then sheltered runaway Indians servants and slaves at Mohegan.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [66]

In the paper

“Pabweegannuck was briefly sent to prison for his actions; Uncas remained untouched.69”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [69]

In the paper

“Similarly, the Fairfield Indians were compensated for their losses in the war with an Indian girl captive—perhaps even one of their own.71”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [71]

In the paper

“Plymouth passed laws requiring all male Indian captives to be sold out of the country; another law prohibited any Indian males over the age of 14 from residing in the colony.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [45]

In the paper

“When some enemy Indians attacked the praying town of Hassanamesit in Connecticut, they warned the Hassanamesit Indians: if “you go to the English again, they will either force you all to some Island as the Natick Indians are, where you will be in danger to be starved with cold and hunger, and most probably in the end be all sent out of the country for slaves.””

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [54]

In the paper

“Such was the case with Awashonks, the female sachem of the Sakonnet Indians, who offered to support the English with two major conditions: that people from her community would have their lives spared (men, women, and children) and, importantly, that they would not be sent out of the country as slaves.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [13] Fisher, 2014, ‘Dangerous Designes’: The 1676 Barbados Act to Prohibit New England Indian Slave Importation, William and Mary Quarterly source

In the paper

“Correspondence, shipping records, court cases, town records, and even contemporary official histories of the war (such as William Hubbard’s) all point to the same thing: Indians were enslaved en masse and either distributed locally or sent overseas to a variety of destinations.”

In the paper

“Bermuda’s law, passed in August 1675, was the earliest and most broad-ranging.83”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [83]

In the paper

“Feeble attempts were made to reduce the trafficking in Indian children following the war; in 1678, Plymouth colony passed a law forbidding residents from purchasing Indian children captured during the war.90”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [90]

In the paper

“With so many natives taken during the war and sent out of the country as slaves or sentenced to limited-term enslavement in English households, the General Assembly could do little more than offer paltry financial and material remunerations for his loss: two coats, two pairs of stockings, two pairs of shoes, a white shirt, and two shillings to get him home again, with the empty promise of trying”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [86]

In the paper

“Pratt strongly urged the latter—that the “said Children ought to not be Slaves at their masters pleasure.””

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [94]

In the paper

“But New England merchants also found other destinations for their human wares, in Cadiz, the Azores, and Tangier, among other locations.”

In the paper

“The question was this: should the children of enslaved Indian women from King Philip’s War also be considered as slaves (which, according to Pratt, was the common practice of the Spanish)? Or should these children of King Philip’s War slaves instead be “deemed free at ye age of thirty years or Some other certain age”?”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [94]

In the paper

“Local officials grumbled about this sale, in part because they saw the young Indian girl as “being ye Englishes right,” but neither the seller, Catapezet, nor the buyer, Ruth, agreed, since the Indian girl herself had done no wrong in the war.76”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [76]

In the paper

“In May 1721—a full forty-five years after the end of King Philip’s War—Peter Pratt petitioned the Connecticut General Assembly with a problem.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [94]

In the paper

“Somehow, Wenepoykin received his freedom—some sources suggest it was John Eliot’s doing—and returned to Natick, Massachusetts, where he died in the early 1680s.87”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [87]

In the paper

“Wenepoykin joined forces against the English during King Philip’s War, was captured in 1675, sent to Barbados, sold as a slave, and labored against his will there for six or seven years.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [87]

In the paper

“In 1680, the colony of Plymouth responded to a questionnaire from the Board of Trade and Plantation regarding a variety of topics.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [89]

In the paper

“Threats of enslavement influenced the involvement of native individuals and groups, driving some into deeper “rebellion” and others to surrender.”

In the paper

“Despite having fought on the side of the English, Uncas seemed determined post-war to keep Indians out of English households and—even more importantly—off of English merchant ships that threatened to take them to the Caribbean.”

In the paper

“But Indian men and women who surrendered expected to be treated fairly; they often were not.”

In the paper

“Historians have known for a long time that one element of King Philip’s War was a drastic increase in Indian enslavement.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [4] Bouton, 1867

In the paper

“But in other cases, it seems that natives had few qualms keeping other Indians as servants and even—rarely—serving as slave-trading middlemen.”

In the paper

“The listing of requested persons demonstrated the seeming charitableness of such requests: several fragmented family units, an elderly Indian woman, and a sickly Indian man.”

In the paper

“Third, selling natives abroad was often an easier—and less risky—solution than selling them locally. This was especially true given the understandable propensity for Indian men, women, and children to simply run away following local sale and enslavement.”

In the paper

“In fact, as large-scale Indian slavery was reaching its peak in New England, it was only starting in the Carolinas.”

In the paper

“Other natives who were shipped to Atlantic destinations mostly disappeared into a wider slave market and labor force.”

In the paper

“Despite the rich scholarship on King Philip’s War, historians are only beginning to adequately recognize the full trauma and long-term effects that this and many other wars represented for Native nations—psychologically, spiritually, materially, politically, and socially.”

In the paper

“In the rarest of cases, some Indians survived warfare, being captured, sold into slavery, shipped to the Caribbean, working as slaves on plantations in the Caribbean, miraculously making it back to New England again.”

In the paper

“As Indian slavery remained a reality long after King Philip’s War was over, Barbados and other Caribbean islands remained a feared destination for New England natives for decades after the war.”

In the paper

“Dozens upon dozens of cases of family separation undoubtedly went unresolved in the wake of the war.”

In the paper

“Pratt’s proposed compromise—limited-term enslavement—simply replicated the enslavement practices after King Philip’s War in the next generation of Indian children, thereby ensuring a steady source of labor supply under the guise of “indentured servitude.”94”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [94]

In the paper

“At the center of this monumental disruption were enslavement and the threat of enslavement, especially for those surrenderers who turned themselves in precisely to avoid slavery and death.”