USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume I > Part 14
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31
221
CONNECTICUT AS COLONY AND STATE
Ann Cole denounced Elizabeth, wife of Richard Seager, as a witch. Mrs. Seager characterized it as a "hodge-podge," as no doubt it was; but barely escaped with her life, being in- dicted three times,-Jan. 6, 1662-3, July 2, 1663 (accused of witchcraft, adultery, and blasphemy, but convicted only of adultery), and July 16, 1665. The last time she was found guilty and lodged in prison, but after about a year was released (May 18, 1666), and removed to the Alsatia of the oppressed, Rhode Island. As the victims were unjustly ac- cused, we praise the government which sheltered them; but as they were usually undesirable citizens of their old resi- dence, the false charge hardly made them desirable acquisi- tions to the new one.
Among the other disesteemed citizens of Hartford at this time were Nathaniel Greensmith and his wife Rebecca, of whom he was the third husband. He was a well-to-farmer, every now and then convicted of petty thievery, assault and battery, or lying. She is described by Rev. John Whiting as a "lewd, ignorant, and considerably aged woman," with two daughters by her first marriage. Almost every country town has such families (granting the accuracy of the details),- low-caste, of bad example, a thorn in the side of the respecta- ble inhabitants, and of whom no one is quite sure what they will do some time. The interesting feature of the witchcraft cases is, that so often these parties have accumulated consid- erable property. Greensmith's estate inventoried about £182, equal in relative rank to fully $5,000 now, and that in a coun- try town. From his wife's "confession," one may suspect that there were local doubts of its being all honestly acquired. The Greensmiths lived next door to the Coles, the first lot on the present Wethersfield Avenue. As a result of these va- rious excitements and suggestions, Rebecca was arrested and
222
CONNECTICUT AS A COLONY
lodged in prison. She had probably the repute of a witch al- ready, as her husband at that very time had an action pend- ing against William Ayres for slandering her, most likely with charges of sorcery, perhaps to relieve his own wife. The result is one of those surprising things we frequently meet in these cases, and which justified the witch-hunters to them- selves and every one else then, and makes it hard to blame them now. How should they doubt the truth when the ac- cused themselves owned to it all, and more? Mrs. Green- smith not only confessed everything charged against her, but invented a luxuriant confession of all sorts of things derived from the stock witch-tales on which she had been fed; and every time a new person asked her questions, she had a fresh confession ready to oblige them. Why ?- who can tell ? Probably her weak old brain was full of delusions, and had given way under the strain. She said that she had resolved at first to deny it all, but it was as though the flesh were pulled off her bones, and she must tell the truth. That the questioners asked if the Devil had had sexual intercourse with her, and she admitted that he frequently had, are matters of course. Perhaps Rev. Mr. Whiting's charge that she was "lewd" means only this, as the "considerably aged" wife of a prosperous third husband should have the presumption of decent conduct.
On Dec. 30, 1662, the Hartford Particular Court indicted the couple for familiarity with Satan and its usual results. The husband refused to make a confession, but his wife re- confessed enough for both, her statement probably shot with threads of irrelevant but fatally confirmatory truth. On Jan. 8, 1662-3, she fairly outdid herself. The first item of the confession was probably true: "My husband . told me that now thou hast confest against thyself, let me
223
CONNECTICUT AS COLONY AND STATE
alone and say nothing of me and I will be good unto thy children." This reasonable request was thrown away: con- trary to the kindly and honorable Goody Knapp, she accused everybody within reach, her husband first of all, and mainly following the beaten track of local suspicions,-Goodies Seager, Sanford, and Ayres, James Walkley, and Judith Varleth. These others were either out of reach or the court discredited the charge; but her husband and herself were found guilty and shortly executed. Ann Cole at once re- covered, and ten years later married a widower with eight children (Andrew Benton), who a couple of years before had bought Greensmith's confiscated estate, where she spent the remainder of her days. Her nerves must have recovered to an enviable equipose, or it would seem she might have pre- ferred some other residence; but sentiment was not mor- bidly insistent in those times, especially with a passee spinster who had an offer of marriage.
Two days before the last confession of Goody Green- smith, Mary Barnes of Farmington was indicted for witch- craft and found guilty by the jury. What relation, if any, her case had to the Greensmiths', is not known, but prob- ably it was part of the same outbreak. The only further note of her fate is a bill for "keep" in prison; and as this was for about the same length of time as the Greensmiths, she was probably executed like them.
Connecticut's debauch was over for many years. What produced the change, is matter of inference. Probably the very extent and fury of the craze, as with the Salem cases, showed the community the possible abyss under its feet, and bred secret doubts. Its close, too, is nicely coincident with the new charter, the absorption of New Haven, and the ex- pansion of horizon due to this great enlargement of political
224
CONNECTICUT AS A COLONY
interests, with the overturn in New York. Nor is it altogether unlikely that the new spirit introduced by the Restoration, the violent reaction against Puritanism in the old country, gave courage to the more liberal element in the new to hold up its head. Something certainly strengthened the hands of the Connecticut magistrates.
In May 1669 occurred the most remarkable case in the colony, in one respect. One of the richest persons in Weth- ersfield was indicted for witchcraft: Catherine Harrison, widow of a former town surveyor and crier, who had died three years before worth by appraisal £610-equivalent cer- tainly to fifteen or twenty thousand dollars now, and in a rural village. She had three daughters, the eldest sixteen. A jury of the Court of Assistants convicted her; she appealed to the General Court, May Term 1670, which heard the case without a jury and acquitted her, but compelled her to pay the costs, and advised her to leave the town for her own safety and the neighbors' content. As the court knew the lo- cal circumstances, we may infer that it thought she had her- self to thank for much of the trouble, in what way we can- not guess. She went to Westchester, N. Y., but its inhab- itants attempted to send her back; after three years' harry- ing, however, an accusation before the new Dutch governor (Colve) failed ignominously, and she was thereafter left unmolested.
In 1683 the house of Nicholas Desborough in Hartford was pelted with stones and clods by invisible hands, and a fire set without much harm, till Desborough returned some goods belonging to a neighbor, when the supernatural man- ifestations ceased.
When the Salem craze spread over New England in 1692, one spot in Connecticut shared it deeply; that actual blood-
225
CONNECTICUT AS COLONY AND STATE
shed was averted testifies to the general broadening which upheld the magistrates in not carrying out sentences. That spot was Fairfield, an instance of the persistent localization of feeling which shows that each community has its separate moral physiognomy. Perhaps it shows too that the feuds of forty years before were still smoldering; for we find our old friend Mrs. Staplies, who must by this time have become an expert (there can hardly have been two witches of the name, unless she had trained a daughter-in-law in her own craft), among the accused and imprisoned. The Connecticut General Court ordered a special court held in Fairfield, which assembled in September (14 or 19), composed of the leading men of the colony-including Governor Treat, Depu- ty-Governor William Jones (Eaton's son-in-law), and Secre- tary John Allyn-and a grand and petty jury. To be fully prepared with evidence, the townspeople had put two sus- pects, Mercy Disborough and Elizabeth Clawson, to the wa- ter ordeal; both "swam like a cork," we are required to be- lieve, though the crowd tried to push at least Mrs. Dis- borough under. The two, with Mrs. Staplies and one Goody Miller, were indicted, and some two hundred witnesses ex- amined. The jury disagreed, and the court met again on Oct. 28 for final decision. More evidence was taken, includ- ing the examination of the prisoners' bodies for witch-marks by a committee of women. Their report is not quotable with decency : evidently none of the committee had grown old and flabby, or would admit the fact if so; each should have been at least seventy. The jury were required to find a verdict; they evidently attached no weight to the ordeal or the "witch- marks," for they found all but Mercy Disborough not guilty, and.convicted her. They were sent out to reconsider the ver- dict, but repeated it. The Governor, for the judges, then
226
CONNECTICUT AS A COLONY
pronounced the death sentence; but (probably at the sugges- tion of the members of the court ) a memorial to the General Assembly for her pardon was drawn up. Although there is no record of formal action, she was doubtless quietly re- leased, as she (or her double ) was alive fifteen years later.
An unexplained sporadic case occurred in Fairfield short- ly after this : on Nov. 15 one Hugh Crosher ("Crocia") was indicted for witchcraft; but on May 8, 1693, the grand jury threw it out, indorsing "Ignoramus" (we know nothing of it ) on the bill.
One more indictment, in 1697, probably closes the list of Connecticut's witchcraft prosecutions, though it was not the last appearance of the crime for the courts' cognizance. This was in Wallingford, where "Winnifrett Denham Sr." and the same Jr. (a girl of twelve or thirteen) were indicted for the old common-form acts, and for "misteriously hurting the Bodies and Goods of . Jno. Moss, Jr., Joseph Roys, and Ebenezer Clark, with divers others." They were searched for witch-teats, subjected to the water-ordeal, and excom- municated by the ministers; what happened to them is un- certain, except that they saved their lives. Fowler's 'His- tory of Salem Witchcraft' (1765) says they were bound over to the Superior Court at Hartford, acquitted at the August Term 1697, again complained of, and fled to New York. Un- fortunately, the Superior Court records from 1697 to 1701 are lost. Davis' 'History of Wallingford and Meriden' says the grand jury indorsed on the bill "Ignoramus"; but this may be a confusion with the case of Hugh Crosher.
From 1665 on, all the convictions had been virtually quashed by the court; it has been intimated that the court's will to do so earlier was probably as good as that of the New Haven body. There is no further evidence of any active
227
CONNECTICUT AS COLONY AND STATE
measures to suppress witchcraft in Connecticut, or I believe in New England : the so-called Age of Queen Anne, indeed, was already at hand in England, and its spirit probably felt even in New England, and it was not a spirit of zeal. But one more case brought the general merits of the witchcraft theory before the courts, as late as 1724. One Sarah Spen- cer had removed from East Haddam to Colchester, carrying with her the repute of a witch. She suffered so much annoy- ance from it that her minister, Rev. John Bulkley, gave her a certificate for "good religion and virtue." But on revisiting Haddam, one Elizabeth Ackley cried out on Mrs. Spencer for "pinching and riding" her, and the husband James Ack- ley threatened her if she came that way again. Mrs. Spen- cer sued them for £500 damages in the County Court, and received £5 with costs; the defendants appealed to the Supe- rior Court, which gave the case to a jury, who awarded Mrs. Spencer one shilling damages, and said they found the de- fendants not insane-wherefore we may infer that they were a poor old half-crazy couple not thought capable of harm- ing any one.
In other American colonies considering themselves entitled to throw stones at the Puritans, and liberally availing them- selves of the privilege, the superstition as an active force survived much later than in New England: the water ordeal was practiced in Virginia in 1712. And what Hutchinson said late in the eighteenth century has never been contra- dicted,-that "more have been put to death in a single coun- ty in England, in a short space of time, than have suffered in all New England from the first settlement to this time." The chief distinction of New England from Old England in this matter, in fact, is that its rural population were so soon, so far, and so universally emancipated from the sway of the
228
CONNECTICUT AS A COLONY
superstition ; that its own historians have so unflinchingly dragged the facts to light; and that the revolt of its sons against the system of their ancestors has led them to welcome and themselves exaggerate every charge against the latter, to deny them the commonest justice of pleading, and to judge them by a standard imposed on no other people in history. Furthermore, the history of an English county is only ranked as local antiquities, sunk out of sight in the larger issues of English history; while the Puritan American common- wealths are independent entities, set on a hill for all to scru- tinize, their every detail of social action enveloped in a glare of light, and usually hostile light. If there are other Amer- ican foundations seemingly freer from this particular delu- sion than New England, it will be found on examination that it was only on the surface; that the differences were not in beliefs, which were no more advanced or rational than those of the Puritans, but in the power of effective action under them; that while the New England commonwealths were relatively homogeneous, in others there were different ele- ments neither of which had power to persecute the rest, nor was inclined to persecute itself in the presence of the others.
F. M.
229
CHAPTER XII INDIAN TROUBLES FROM 1640 TO 1675
T HE colony of Connecticut was not to be en- tirely relieved of her Indian troubles by the termination of the Pequot war. The planters of Wethersfield demanded the punishment of the perpetrators of the massacre which oc- curred in their plantation in 1637, and accused Sowheag the Indian Sachem of instigating the outrage and of concealing the murderers. Sowheag had removed to Mattabesett (now Middletown), and lived in a fort situated on high ground, three-quarters of a mile northwest of the present court-house. His tribe consisted of from three to four hundred warriors, thickly located on the banks of the Connecticut River. His authority extended over the Wethersfield Indians, and one of his sons was a Sagamore of that tribe from which the New Haven colonists made their original purchase. Sowheag paid no attention to the English demands for the surrender of the murderers, and the colonists decided to follow their re- quests by recourse to arms. It was determined to raise a company of one hundred men, and notification was given to the New Haven settlers that hostilities were to begin. The cautious executive of the New Haven colony remonstrated with the Connecticut authorities, urging that the colonists needed their men and means to develop the country. Connec- ticut acceded to this voice of reason, and matters were ami- cably arranged between Sowheag and the Wethersfield plant- ers.
A stray band of Pequots had built a village on the banks of the Pawcatuck River, and were again hunting over their old haunts and tilling their old fields. This aroused the wrath of the Connecticut settlers ; the very name of Pequot was enough to inflame them to vindictive measures, and as long as any were there, a conflict with the other Indians was
233
CONNECTICUT AS COLONY AND STATE
always liable to draw in the colony. The General Court of Connecticut raised a company of forty soldiers, and this was reinforced by a hundred of their Indian allies under the lead- ership of Uncas. The command of the expedition was given to Captain John Mason, and the instructions of the Court were to proceed against the Pequots, "drive them off, burn their wigwams, and bring away their corn." At the ap- proach of Mason's party the Indians fled; their wigwams were burned, their corn harvest and their utensils were car- ried aboard Mason's bark; fifty canoes were filled, thirty having been seized from the enemy.
The Indians throughout southern New England were kept in a state of continual warfare by Uncas, the sagacious and wily ally of the colonists. The extinction of the Pequot na- tion gave Uncas the opportunity of again asserting his rights, as a member of the "royal" family, to the office of Chief Sachem of the Mohegans. This tribe had been augmented by the one hundred Pequot warriors allowed by the treaty of 1638, and by many refugees from that nation, beside wan- derers from other tribes. The alliance between Uncas and the English was of mutual benefit; it added to the chieftain's tribe those who desired protection, or wished to shine by the reflected glory of such a brilliant and politic leader; to the colonies Uncas was useful in war, and in peace was a spy on his brother Sachems. The rival of Uncas was Sequassen, Sachem of the river tribes, who hoped on the overthrow of Sassacus that he might regain his ancient influence, and the leadership of the Connecticut Indians. He was a kinsman and ally of the Narragansetts, who still retained their hatred of the Pequots, of which tribe they considered the Mohegans a part. Uncas promulgated rumors that Sequassen had con- spired with Miantonomo, chief of the Narragansetts, to
234
CONNECTICUT AS A COLONY
make the latter Grand Sachem of all the New England Indians, and to declare war on the whites. The suspicions of the colonial magistrates were aroused by these rumors, and the Narragansett chief was summoned to Boston to answer the charges against him. He was acquitted of all suspicions of conspiracy; these accusations, however, increased the hatred of Miantonomo for Uncas, and he instigated Se- quassen to open deeds of violence. As a result of this, a lead- ing Mohegan was assassinated, and attempts were made on Uncas' life. The latter complained to the Connecticut au- thorities ; the governor summoned both Sachems to appear before him, and a reconciliation was effected by Sequassen agreeing to surrender one of his tribe for the murdered Mo- hegan. Sequassen afterwards refused to comply with this agreement, basing his decision on the support of his Narra- gansett allies. In retaliation Uncas invaded Sequassen's country, killed and wounded about twenty braves, burned their wigwams, and carried away large quantities of plun- der. This coming to the knowledge of Miantonomo, he notified the executives of the Massachusetts and Connecticut colonies that he proposed to engage in war with the Mo- hegans, and asked if they would be offended. Governor Haynes replied that the English did not uphold Uncas in his depredations, and Governor Winthrop answered that he would leave him to choose his own course. Thus did Mian- tonomo comply with the conditions of the treaty of 1638, by submitting his complaints to the English before proceeding to war upon the Mohegans.
The Narragansett chieftain collected a large body of war- riors ; notification of which reached Uncas at his fort about five miles below the present site of Norwich. Hastily gath- ering his braves, Uncas with about three hundred followers
235
CONNECTICUT AS COLONY AND STATE
marched to a spot situated in the present town of Nor- wich, known as the Great Plain. The Narragansetts numbered twice as many as their adversaries; and on the approach of Miantonomo's army, Uncas sent forward a courier to request an interview. The Narragansett chief acceded to this request, and the Sachems met in a narrow space between the armies. Uncas, with sagacious cunning, proposed to Miantonomo to settle their differences by per- sonal combat, and thereby save the lives of their followers. Confident in the superiority of his men, Miantonomo rejected the offer, as Uncas had expected. The time had now arrived for the preconcerted strategem: Uncas threw himself flat on the ground, which was the signal for his braves to shower arrows upon the astonished and unsuspecting Narragansetts. After the volley, Uncas sprung from the ground and led his army to a hand-to-hand fight with the tomahawk. The Nar- ragansetts, stricken with panic, fled from the field in disorder, madly pursued by the Mohegans.
The flight of Miantonomo being retarded by an English corselet, he was finally captured by Uncas, and no effort was made by his affrighted followers to rescue their Sachem. The captive chieftain was treated with kindness and respect by his captors; and the Narragansetts forwarded to him at different times various fathoms of wampum, which Mianto- nomo presented to Uncas and his counsellors. The Narra- gansetts claimed these presents to be a ransom for their chief; but Uncas contended they were only to assure his courteous treatment, and that his fate should be decided by the English. Miantonomo, by his friendship and his hon- orable actions, had made a number of friends among the English settlers of Rhode Island, and these demanded his release from Uncas. Afraid to murder his captive, and
236
CONNECTICUT AS A COLONY
fearing that an attempt might be made to rescue him, he de- ported Miantonomo to Hartford, where he asked the ad- vice of the governor and council as to the disposition of his prisoner. That body thought it not prudent for them to interfere, as there was no open warfare between the colony and the Narragansetts, and referred their supplicant to the first meeting of the United Colonies of New England. Mi- antonomo at his own request was left in the custody of the English magistrates, though still a prisoner of Uncas.
At the session of the United Colonies of New England, held at Boston in September 1643, the Commissioners were predisposed in favor of Uncas on account of his submission to the English; and they were fearful of Miantonomo's growing power and independence of spirit. Their judgment wavered. They deemed it unsafe to give the captive liberty, yet could not find sufficient cause for his death. In this state of hesitation, they referred the decision, as many others had been done, to a body more directly advised from heaven, or better instructed in its mandates. There was at this time a convocation of fifty New England clergymen at Boston, and the Commissioners referred the case to five of them for final decision ; they ordered the prisoner handed over to Uncas. The decree was kept secret until it was known that the Con- necticut and New Haven Commissioners had reached their homes in safety, as they had been threatened with capture by the Narragansetts to be held as hostages. On their ar- rival, Uncas was notified to appear at Hartford. His brother Wawequa, and a selected band of Mohegans, ac- companied Uncas to the plantation, where he received the decision of the Commissioners and his prisoner; two of the colonists being deputized to witness the execution. The cap- tured Sachem was taken to the plain where he had suffered
237
CONNECTICUT AS COLONY AND STATE
defeat; and while walking unsuspiciously, at a signal from Uncas his brother raised his tomahawk, and sunk it in the head of the unfortunate prisoner. Uncas cut a large piece from the shoulder of his slain foe, and ate it with exultation, remarking, "It is the sweetest meat I ever ate, it makes my heart strong." Miantonomo was buried on the spot. Gov- ernor Winthrop, in accordance with the resolutions passed by the Commissioners, despatched messengers to the Narragan- setts justifying Uncas in the execution of their edict, and of- fered them peace with the English and their allies, which the Indians were obliged to accept.
The Dutch settlement at New Netherlands was in 1643 to become actively engaged in Indian warfare; the primary cause was misconduct of the whites. Some Dutch traders, making an Indian drunk, robbed him of his valuable dress of beaver-skins; in retaliation, the victim of this theft killed two white men and fled to a distant tribe. The following winter, two of the Hudson River tribes of Indians were sur- prised by the Mohawks, and having suffered defeat, several hundred of them fled to the vicinity of Manhattan for pro- tection. The Dutch Governor Kieft furnished them with rations; but in an evil moment, he sought to avenge the in- sult that had been offered the colony in not delivering to them the Indian murderer. Kieft, with the concurrence of his counsellors, dispatched in the night a body of soldiers who massacred more than one hundred of the Indians while they slept. No more foolish, wanton, and dastardly crime was ever perpetrated on the continent by white men or red; and the writers who are perpetually glorifying the Dutch at the expense of the Puritans may be challenged to find any- thing in all New England history that even resembles it in unprovoked atrocity. The English settlers killed foes at
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.