First English Settlements in New England

English and Native Relationships Prior to Plymouth Landing,

Apr 2, 2009

Prior to the establish of English colonies at Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, the Natives of New England had suffered massive population losses from epidemics.

Prior to the arrival of the first European settlements in New England, epidemics of yellow fever, diphtheria, influenza, smallpox, and others wiped out entire villages and 50 to 90 percent of the population.[1] The devastation and depopulation was so great that the Narragansett Tribe, which was largely unaffected by the epidemic because they did not trade with the French, the source of the sicknesses, was able to gain an advantage over those tribes which were within the path of the epidemic’s destruction. Some tribes such as the Patuxets were entirely wiped out with the few remaining survivors incorporating themselves into neighboring tribes. The Narragansetts benefited somewhat from this influx of survivors but most went to the neighboring tribes, the Wampanoegs and the Massachusetts which also suffered terrible loses. The great depopulation between Cape Code and Massachusetts Bay created a political vacuum which the Narragansetts and other tribes attempted to fill.[2]

Intertribal Relationships

Intertribal relations were based on a system of dominant tribes forcing smaller tribes to pay tribute for protection. This tribute was paid in the form of wampum, corn, or any thing of value. By the time the Pilgrims landed at Patuxet the Narragansetts had developed tributary relations with most of the tribes in the area including the Wampanoags. The chief Sachem of the Wampanoag Tribe, Massasoit, agreed to an alliance with Plymouth primarily to release his tribe from the humiliating tributary relationship that the Narragansetts had forced him into.[3]

First Perception of English by Native Americans

Thus, it was in following tribal custom that the Sachems of the Narragansetts, Canonicus and his nephew Miantonomo, perceived the Plymouth colony as a threat.[4] They responded to this perceived threat by sending “a messenger unto them with a bundle of arrows tried about a great snakeskin.”[5] Squanto interpreted this message for the English and suggested that they respond by sending the snakeskin back to Canonicus filled with powder and shot.[6] In refusing to receive the messenger from Plymouth, Canonicus acknowledged the presence and the power of the English at Plymouth and agreed to release the Wampanoags to their new protectors. In the mouths that followed Squanto assisted the English in negotiating treaties of alliance with several other smaller tribes in the Cape Cod to Massachusetts Bay area which further weakened the Narragansett tributary system.[7] Naturally this created hostility between the Sachems of the Narragansett Tribe and the Plymouth colony. The Narragansetts had always enforced their tributary system through diplomacy and a show of strength and not by armed conflict, so this hostility did not degenerate into violence at this time.

Roger Williams and his Relationship with the Indians

The Sachems of the Narragansetts refused to trade with Plymouth throughout the 1620s because of this hostility and because the Narragansetts dominated trade with the Dutch who offered superior goods and better terms. Beginning in 1632 or 1633, Roger Williams began active trade with the Narragansett Tribe. His approach to trade was different than any of the other Englishmen in that he respected the rights of the natives and dealt with them on a reciprocal level of mutual trust and benefit. In particular he established bonds of friendship with Massasoit, Canonicus and Miatonomo. “Williams was known among the Wampanoags and Narragansetts as a ‘public speaker’ at Plymouth and Salem ‘and was therefore with them held as a Sachem’”[8] in 1682, Williams gave testimony of his relationship with Canonicus as one of son to father: “The heart of Canonicus (was stirred up) to love me as his son to his last gasp, by which means I had not only Miantonomo and all the lowest sachems my friends, but Ousamaquin (Massasoit) also, who because of my great friendship with him at Plymouth, and the authority of Canonicus, consented freely… (to) all the lands I procured of Canonicus…and in effect whatsoever I desired of him; and I never denied him or Miantonomo whatsoever they desired of me as to goods or gifts or use of by boats.”[9]

For fifty years Roger William’s relationship with the three great native leaders mentioned above, as well as those who came to power later, was instrumental in keeping the peace and in reducing tension. When war did occasionally break out it was do to no fault on the part of Williams and always it was Williams who plead for mercy for the defeated.

[1] James Axtell, The European and the Indian: Essays in the Ethnohistory of Colonial North America, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981)

[2] Neal Salisbury, “Squanto, Last of the Patuxets” from David Sweat and Gary Nash, eds., Struggle in Colonial America, (Berkley, University of California at Berkley Press, 1981), 236

[4] Sydney James, Colonial Rhode Island, A History, (New York: Da Capo Press, 1975), 5-6.

[5] William Bradford, Of PlymouthPlantation, 1620-1647, Samuel Elliot Morison, ed., (new York, 1932), 96; see also Salisbury, “Squanto”, 241.

[6] Bradford, Of PlymouthPlantation, 96. On the role of Squanto in Pilgrim diplomacy see: Leonard A. Adolf, “Squanto’s Role in Pilgrim Diplomacy, Ethnohistory, 11 (1964) 247.

[7] Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, 89-98, See also Salisbury, “Squanto” 241.

[8] Samuel Hugh Brockunier, The Irrepressible Democrat Roger Williams, (New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1940), 87. Quoting Williams, The Complete Writings, 1: 316, 406.

The copyright of the article First English Settlements in New England in Native American History is owned by Dale Raugust. Permission to republish First English Settlements in New England in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.