{"id":343,"date":"2009-03-04T10:55:22","date_gmt":"2009-03-04T17:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/?p=343"},"modified":"2010-03-21T04:22:13","modified_gmt":"2010-03-21T11:22:13","slug":"pearls-and-pequots-an-ethnohistorical-document","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/?p=343","title":{"rendered":"PEARLS AND PEQUOTS: An Ethnohistorical Document"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal<\/w:View> <w:Zoom>0<\/w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning \/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas \/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false<\/w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false<\/w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false<\/w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables \/> <w:SnapToGridInCell \/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct \/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules \/> <w:DontGrowAutofit \/> <\/w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4<\/w:BrowserLevel> <\/w:WordDocument> <\/xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState=\"false\" LatentStyleCount=\"156\"> <\/w:LatentStyles> <\/xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><span class=\"mceItemObject\"   classid=\"clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D\" id=ieooui><\/span>\n<mce:style><!  st1\\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } --><\/p>\n<p><!--[endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]>\n<mce:style><!   \/* Style Definitions *\/  table.MsoNormalTable \t{mso-style-name:\"Table Normal\"; \tmso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; \tmso-tstyle-colband-size:0; \tmso-style-noshow:yes; \tmso-style-parent:\"\"; \tmso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; \tmso-para-margin:0in; \tmso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; \tmso-pagination:widow-orphan; \tfont-size:10.0pt; \tfont-family:\"Times New Roman\"; \tmso-ansi-language:#0400; \tmso-fareast-language:#0400; \tmso-bidi-language:#0400;} --><\/p>\n<p><!--[endif]--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">PEARLS AND PEQUOTS: Of How Native American Indians Ended Up in Bermuda At About the Same Time Shakespeare was Producing <em>The Tempest<\/em> At Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Globe Theatre.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">By Marc Frucht<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">University<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> Of Connecticut<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">, <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Anthropology 3027<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Safely in harbor \/ Is the King\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ship; in the deep nook where once \/ Thou call\u00e2\u20ac\u2122dst me up at midnight to fetch dew \/ From the still-vexed Bermoothes, there she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hid \/ The mariners all under hatches stowed \/ Who, with a charm joined to their suff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122red labor.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"><span> <\/span><span> <\/span>(The Tempest i.2.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">On Feb 14, 2002 St. David&#8217;s Islanders announced plans for their first ever Reconnection &#8211; Native American Indian festival on their island off the coast of Bermuda.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">This event would not only celebrate \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the Island&#8217;s rich and unique ancestry,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but it just might\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve redirected a part of world history. These islanders are descendents of enslaved, indentured and impressed people from 17<sup>th<\/sup> Century southern New England and they formed a committee that organized what quickly <em>took on a life of its own<\/em> in a sense, with annual gatherings in both Ledyard, Connecticut, St. David\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Island; and now it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even set off cross cultural communications between the two of them which is only now filling a historical void many centuries old. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><a href=\"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/deerislandfuturesite.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-347\" title=\"deerislandfuturesite\" src=\"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/deerislandfuturesite-300x265.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"265\" srcset=\"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/deerislandfuturesite-300x265.jpg 300w, http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/deerislandfuturesite.jpg 1764w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-left: -0.5in;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">In 1976 anthropologist Ethel Boissevain visited the Mashantucket Pequots on their reservation before a research trip she was taking to Bermuda hoping to find out with more certainty what did happen to Mohegan, Pequot and Wampanoag people sold into slavery in 1637. <span> <\/span>The Pequots she met with were very enthusiastic about her research and gave her a message to pass on to their relatives on the island if she met them: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Invite them to come back and join us here.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Hauptman 79)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Boissevain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interviews and published work had been instrumental in setting in motion what has now become not just annual festivals but family gatherings complete with new religious traditions. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think what they were looking for was never completely lost,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Paula Peters shortly after that first ceremony, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153it was just wearing different regalia.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Bermuda<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">&#8216;s famous Gombey Dancers, as it turns out, bear a striking resemblance to <em>Fancy Dancers <\/em>at modern day Pow Wows and adult <em>Kachinas <\/em><em><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">in contemporary Hopi ceremonies. Some will carry tomahawks, bows and arrows and wear peacock feathers in their hats. The rhythms and beats were easily recognizable by the Mystic River drumgroup who was visting in Bermuda and helping host in Ledyard months later. <\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Two circles were formed, one with our New England family in an outer circle and one with the St. David&#8217;s Islanders in an inner circle. After a moving and emotional ceremony, with Mystic  River (a drum group from the Mashantucket Pequot reservation) drumming a soothing welcome song, we joined in one big circle. We were [smudged] with smoke from white sage, given Wampanoag-grown tobacco to add to the ashes, and we approached the fire one by one. In doing so, we called on the spirits of the ancestors to join us and to bless us. We were not alone in Dark Bottom that day. Silence was heavy in our ears. It felt as if nature had stopped breathing. No one could speak for a long period of time, and gentle weeping could be heard around the entire circle. Our ancestors were truly there with us. (Leiker)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">The edge of the horizon could be seen from Dark Bottom, and as we glanced toward the ocean, all of us seemed to share the same feeling in our hearts &#8212; that our ancestors had crossed that ocean, having been taken away from their families in shackles as slaves, leaving behind what was left after a bitter, no-single-cause, no-simple-answer Pequot War and King Philip War, leaving their homes, charred bodies, their customs, their ancestral lands, smoldering villages, misunderstandings, personal ambitions and cultural differences &#8212; all of which contributed to the conflict in the 1600s of those unnecessary wars. The voices of our ancestors were weeping in our ears. After 375 years we were together in person and in spirit for the first time. The moments turned into minutes before anyone could speak or move away from the circle of life. (Leiker)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Can they reconstitute a tribe like powdered milk &#8211; just add water and stir?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Peters asks. Not in the sense that they may join the rolls of North American tribes. Those links appear to be lost forever. But certainly they can incorporate the new with existing culture to enhance their already rich community. As displaced Indians, they can establish themselves as a band, develop rules of organization and a mission that defines and preserves their unique identity. (Peters)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Five generations from the slavery that oppressed Native Americans in Bermuda for nearly 200 years before emancipation, many St. David\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Islanders live well and free and could have let the legends of Wampanoag royal families fade into obscurity. They could have allowed the assimilation process to do its work and meld them into the world population like so many millions of others. But they knew they were different, and different for a reason. (Peters)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><a href=\"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/annawontshirt.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-601\" title=\"annawontshirt\" src=\"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/annawontshirt-209x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"209\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/annawontshirt-209x300.jpg 209w, http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/annawontshirt.jpg 460w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 209px) 100vw, 209px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">They were related to British Colonial America; and not just because they live and work almost exactly half way between Virginia and Spain either. They are directly descended from people forcefully relocated from places like Mystic, Connecticut and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Think back almost 400 years to a time prior to King Philip\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s war. Bermuda \u00e2\u20ac\u0153was uninhabited,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d according to Jean Foggo Simon, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153when it was discovered in 1609 due to a shipwreck of the &#8220;Sea Venture&#8221; commanded by British Admiral Sir George Somers.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">The Admiral,<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-left: 0.5in;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">was on his way to the colony of Virginia with settlers and supplies.<span> <\/span>Sir George Somers was caught in a hurricane and separated from the other 8 ships, wrecking on Bermuda&#8217;s reefs. There were birds, an abundance of turtles and wild pigs found on the island.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-left: 0.5in;\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-left: 0.5in;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CTwCTRpbL2c\" target=\"_blank\">[VIDEO] &#8211; Annawon describes, &#8220;We have found those people sent to Bermuda.&#8221;\u00c2\u00a0 http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CTwCTRpbL2c<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-left: 0.5in;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-left: 0.5in;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">The shipwreck led to British colonization in 1612.<span> <\/span>When the British<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-left: 0.5in;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">captured Native Americans during their period of attempted colonization up and down the coast of America, some were shipped to Bermuda as slaves. These captives were taunted with insults and name-calling because of their differences in language, customs, food and skin color. (Foggo)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Many New England Indians were disappeared in the early 1600s and there weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t many specifics as to where they would end up to live out their days. Some accounts simply say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Caribbean Islands\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but many people living at St. David\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Island have known for many generations that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re related somehow to Indians in New England. Some believed it was upstate New York because the slave masters often referred to their ancestors as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcMohawk.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">For more than half the next century slaves were being shipped from what is now Southern New England to places as far away as Bermuda, England, and Australia on a fairly regular basis. These captures, impressments and enslavements continued right on past the timeframe known today as King Philip\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s war. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one battle raging at about the same time Natick Nipmuc people were being rounded up and forcefully moved to Deer Island. (Oral histories show that they too feared any number of them might also be moved onto other ships headed for Bermuda.) (Eliot 22)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Many of the Pequots not in the fort during the conflagration were captured, killed in skirmishes, or executed in the months that followed. Others were enslaved, assigned to the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153protection\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of colonists or to Indian leaders \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Uncas, the Mohegan; Miantonomo, the Narragansett; or Ninigret, the Eastern Niantic \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or sold into slavery and sent to Bermuda and the West Indies. (Hauptman 76)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Native American slaves arriving in Bermuda as cargo were listed simply as &#8220;Indian man&#8221; or &#8220;Indian woman,&#8221; along with the dollar amount they would be sold for, and they were originally called Mohawks as a generic term. But there is no current evidence that any Mohawks were enslaved on the islands. Did \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mohawk\u00e2\u20ac\u009d just mean Indian? How did that happen? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Definition 3 of the Oxford English dictionary says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Used by mistake for Amuck I. Obs.1772-84 Cook\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Voy. (1790) I. 288 Most of our readers have heard of the Mohawks, and these [the Indians of Batavia] are the people who are so denominated, from a corruption of the word amock.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (OED Mohawk)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Unfortunately earlier origins of this word would be anybody\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s guess. Madge Hunt who has lived on St David\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Island all of her life, says, &#8220;I can remember as a child they would say, &#8216;There goes that little Mohawk from St. David&#8217;s.'&#8221; (Peters)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Author William S. Zuill interviewed a Bermudian who has worked with the St. David\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Islanders \u00e2\u20ac\u0153in their area,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and it was suggested \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the idea of Mohawk origin may be the result of a joking relationship which came about in the 1940\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s.<span> <\/span>(Boissevain 6)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">The first Indian traveling to Bermuda may have been indentured or employed although his or her living conditions were not described in much detail. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Ever since the first Indian landed in Bermuda in 1616 to dive for pearls a number of Pequots and Mohicans were brought into the colony. They were introduced in sufficient quantities to significantly alter the appearances of many Negroes [sic.] through interbreeding, many of today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Bermudians possessing facial features which provide strong evidence of the Indian influence three hundred years ago. (Smith 23)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Not only does this show the greed and avarice involved during the Colonial era of British Imperialism, but also illuminates the deliberation employed in constructing concepts of nationality and race rather than ethnicity while further performing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153husbandry\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on other human beings as if they were so much livestock. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">The following list shows generally (and somewhat specifically when possible) just who these Colonial Native Americans were who got shipped to St. David\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Island as slaves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"><span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">1640<span> <\/span>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A number\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of Pequots and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mohicans\u00e2\u20ac\u009d arrived.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">1645<span> <\/span>Captain Wm. Jackson, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the victorious general\u00e2\u20ac\u009d brought \u00e2\u20ac\u0153many Indians and Negroes captured from the Spanish. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">circa<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">1642<span> <\/span>Captain B. Preston brought 30-40 Indians &#8220;who were born free and taken by deceipt&#8221; There is no indication of their place of origin. Judging by the date these may have been Pequot refugees rounded up after the massacre in Mystic, Connecticut in 1637.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">after <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">1650<span> <\/span>About 80 &#8220;Pequot Massachusetts Bay Indians\u00e2\u20ac\u009d were sent to Bermuda and purchased by Captain Whit of St. David&#8217;s Island.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">1676<span> <\/span>After King Philip&#8217;s death &#8220;most of the rest were shipped off for slaves to Bermuda and other parts&#8221; This shipment probably included the widow and young son of King Philip. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Undated<span> <\/span>&#8212; A family in their canoe off the New England coast were picked up by a slave ship and taken to Bermuda and sold as slaves. Their tribal origin is unknown. (Boissevain 106) <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Here Ethel Boissevain says she assumes Mahican was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the tribe reported as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcMohicans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 arriving in 1640. She also assumes \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mohegan was not the tribe since the Mohegans supported the English in colonial wars.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I would point out however that it is possible for some of them (if not many) to have been <span> <\/span>impressed by the Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Navy just like they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d done to poor and middle class whites all over Long Island sound those years. If their work as seamen did not please their British captors at any time their punishments <em>could<\/em> include being dropped off on prison ships or slave ships if not thrown right overboard to their deaths. So some Mohegan people may even have been sold into slavery right alongside Pequot and Wampanoag people; or at least it should\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be completely ruled out just because of their political affiliations. England was not exactly consistent with whom they remained allies or enemies. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">If someone owned a St. David\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Island Pequot person he or she might keep enough social distance to simply dismiss <em>their <\/em>ethnic background as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mohawk;\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and that might happen even more often with a Mohegan family, since the two names sound so similar.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Mohican, Mohegan, a. and sb. Also Mohigon, Mohickon, Mohiccon, Mohigan, Moheecan; also in renderings of the native form, Muhhekaneew, Mahicanni, Mo-hee-con-neugh. [From the native name.]&#8230; B. 1. One of a warlike tribe of North American Indians of the Algonquin stock, formerly occupying the western part of Connecticut and Massachusetts. (OED Mohican)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Not every Indian who arrived in 17<sup>th<\/sup> Century Bermuda lived under slavery, including two Virginia women who came sometime between 1619 and 1622 to marry locally. But relations on the Islands were often quite tense among the various different ethnic groups. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">There were also \u00e2\u20ac\u0153abortive\u00e2\u20ac\u009d slave revolts on the Island throughout the 17<sup>th<\/sup> and 18<sup>th<\/sup> centuries; with some of the years of these listed as follows: 1629, 1656, 1673, 1730 and 1761. (Zuill 92-93)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Children of slaves could be born free under certain circumstances as early as the mid 17<sup>th<\/sup> Century and there were occasional emancipations of adults over the next century. The remaining people still enslaved on St. David\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Island were soon emancipated in 1834 under the authority of a law entitled &#8220;An Act for Extirpating all Free Negroes, Indians, Mallatoes such as have been Slaves.&#8221; In one account their Chief Justice said the following:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Your name is George Hammett, you came in the brig Enterprise, as a slave, and it is my duty, (understanding that you were kept on board that vessel against your will) to inform you that in this country you are free, &#8212; free as any white person. (Smith 288)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">One <em>could<\/em> assume that there would be many more differences than similarities between St. David\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Islanders and New England Indians. You would think contemporary American Mohegans, Pequots and Wampanoags have more knowledge of their tribal identity, through both oral and written histories. But keep in mind many contemporary New England Indians were also held back from their own history by what is commonly referred to as &#8220;The last Indian&#8221; or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153vanishing Indian\u00e2\u20ac\u009d syndrome. While Bermudas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153imported slaves were cut off abruptly and completely from their cultures,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Boissevain 112) New England Indians who weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t killed, impressed or shipped out to sea were being moved from reservation to ever smaller reservation; leaving any survivors to lose some of their own roots right there where they come from because of everything from generational forgetting to fighting off the misinformation of historically inaccurate epic feature films such as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Last Of The Mohicans\u00e2\u20ac\u009d based on harmfully fictitious books by authors James Fenimore Cooper.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Native American screen actors would work so hard at strategic storytelling techniques for instance, wearing Plains regalia and expression of Pan-Indianist philosophies such as using phrases like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hau Kola\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Lakota for Hello Friend) and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153treat the Earth as your Mother\u00e2\u20ac\u009d hoping more positive energy will thrive and take root; while at the same time each and every one of these actors were portrayed in the wider context of the movies\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 plots as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153unique symbol of all that is best and finest in the fast disappearing race.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Deloria 213) Those who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t die off or fully assimilate seem to vanish into some kind of obscurity through antiquity; similar to what Madge Hunt described with her quote \u00e2\u20ac\u0153&#8217;There goes that little Mohawk\u00e2\u20ac\u009d we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re forever stuck with Hollywood telling us, <em>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Look at that cute little Indian brave raising one hand with all his stoicism to say \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcHow!\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to any who pass him by.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Luther Standing Bear sums up these struggles fairly well too. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I determined that, if I could only get the right sort of people interested, I might be able to do more for my own race off the reservation than to remain there under the iron rule of the white agent.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He worked for the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch which was a traveling show much like the <em>Buffalo<\/em><em> Bill&#8217;s<\/em> Wild West <em>Shows.<\/em> They were similar in that some accurate portrayals were carefully treated, yet always in the context of each of these people who will soon be the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153last of his kind.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Deloria 75)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Seven years have passed since the first annual festival, and almost 400 years since the first southern New England Indian boy discovered pearls under the sea near there. It has also been 28 years since Boissevain asked the following:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Now that schooling and literacy is universal in Bermuda and since United States television is dominant there, it is interesting to speculate to what extent some Bermudian Indian descendants will take interest in their areas of origin and make efforts to communicate with fellow tribal descendants in New England. (Boissevain 113)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Hopefully Ethel Boissevain got to enjoy an awareness that just such speculation was answered many different ways by so many different people during the summer and fall seasons of 2002 in Bermuda and Ledyard. A December 22, 2002 New York Times Obituary says that she died at 89 November 29<sup>th<\/sup> of that year while still teaching anthropology at CUNY in Ithaca.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Post Script: <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; font-weight: normal;\">In <\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; font-weight: normal;\">Slavery in Bermuda<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; font-weight: normal;\"> Smith had written a little bit about a few occasions when unfree people were shipped between Bermuda and Ireland also. None of it seemed directly related really; but I bring this up because some of them may very well have come from New England before ending up in Bermuda for all we know.<\/span><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; font-weight: normal;\">Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just one of the entries: 1650, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153an unknown number of Irish war prisoners, defeated by Cromwell, were imported for a 7 year penal indentured service term. (Smith 23)<\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Works Cited<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Boissevain, Ethel. &#8220;Whatever Became of the New England Indians Shipped to Bermuda to be Sold as Slaves?&#8221; <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Man In The Northeast<\/span> 21 (1981): 103-114.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Deloria, Philip. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Indians in Unexpected Places (Cultureamerica)<\/span>. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">The Eliot Tracts: With Letters from John Eliot to Thomas Thorowgood and Richard Baxter (Contributions in American History)<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">. Praeger Publishers, 2003.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Foggo Simon, Jean . &#8220;St. David&#8217;s Indian Committee.&#8221; <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Rootsweb Ancestry.<\/span> 2003. 14 Dec. 2008. &lt;http:\/\/www.rootsweb.ancestry.com\/~bmuwgw\/stdavidislanders.htm&gt;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Hauptman, Laurence. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The Pequots in Southern New England: The Fall and Rise of an American Indian Nation (Civilization of the American Indian Series)<\/span>. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Leiker, James n. The First and the Forced: Essays on the Native American and African American Experience. Ed. Kim Warren. Lawrence: University Of Kansas, 2007. 14 Dec. 2008 &lt;http:\/\/www.shiftingborders.ku.edu\/Hall_Center_CD\/All-in-one-books\/First\/First_binder.pdf&gt;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">&#8220;Mohawk.&#8221; Def.3. The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">&#8220;Mohican.&#8221; Def.1. The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">New York Times<\/span> 22 Dec. 2002, sec. Obituary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Peters, Paula . &#8220;Finding a link that was never really lost.&#8221; <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Cape Cod<\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"> Online.<\/span> 14 Jul. 2002. 28 Nov. 2008. &lt;http:\/\/archive.capecodonline.com\/special\/tribeslink\/findinga14.htm&gt;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">&lt; http:\/\/archive.capecodonline.com\/special\/tribeslink\/emissed14.htm&gt;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Shakespeare, William. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The Tempest (Signet Classics)<\/span>. Signet Classics, 1998.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Smith, James E. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Slavery in Bermuda<\/span>. Vantage Press, 1976.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\">Zuill, William. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The Story of Bermuda and Her People<\/span>. Macmillan Caribbean, 1999.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PEARLS AND PEQUOTS: Of How Native American Indians Ended Up in Bermuda At About the Same Time Shakespeare was Producing The Tempest At Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Globe Theatre. By Marc Frucht University Of Connecticut, Anthropology 3027 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Safely in harbor \/ Is the King\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ship; in the deep nook where once \/ Thou call\u00e2\u20ac\u2122dst me up at midnight [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic","category-mundane-or-sublime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=343"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":346,"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343\/revisions\/346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}