USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > History of the state of Rhode Island and Providence plantations, Vol. I > Part 7
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There is one other point, somewhat akin to this, which should not be overlooked, as it helps to explain the position of parties in this obstinate strife. Viewed in its social aspect, this was a contest between the new-comers and the old settlers. Nearly three thousand passengers arrived the same year with Henry Vane, and only one hundred and forty-five freemen were added to the colony .? This disparity, together with what has before been writ- ten, will account for the feeling which disturbed even the proprieties of social life.
From these various causes the Antinomian party were, at one time, far the most numerous in Boston, recruiting its ranks from the most accomplished as well as the most liberal of her citizens ; while in other towns it was rapidly
1 Passed May 18, 1631. 2 Holmes's Annals, 229.
69
RESULTS OF THE CONTROVERSY.
augmenting its forces, and preparing to imbue the exclu- sive spirit of the Puritans with more of liberality in feel- ing and practice.
Thus much for the causes of this celebrated dispute. Its results upon the Puritans were exhibited in a gradual relaxation from the severity of their political system, de- manded by the growing jealousy of the people at the power of their ministers and magistrates. This was slow but certain in its operation, so that the union of church and state became much less oppressive in the next gene- ration. Its farther results, upon the victims of its fury who were driven to establish their principles in an inde- pendent colony, soon afterwards united by parliamentary patent with the Providence Plantations, the progress of this history will develop.
By Clark's narrative it appears that during the pre- 1637. ceding autumn many of the Antinomians, for the sake of peace, and to enjoy freedom of conscience, had determined to remove. The suffocating heat of the past summer in- duced them to seek a place at the north, but the severity of the ensuing winter compelled them in the spring to inove farther south. With John Clark and William I637-8. Coddington as their leaders, the exiles designed to estab- lish themselves on Long Island or near Delaware Bay, and while their vessel was doubling Cape Cod they went by land to Providence. Narraganset Bay, which seemed the destined refuge for outcasts of every faith, attracted the wanderers by its fertile shores and genial climate. Roger Williams recommended them to settle at Sowams, now called Phebe's Neck, in Barrington, on the main land, or on the island of Aquedneck, now Rhode Island. He accompanied the exploring party, consisting of Clark and two others, to Plymouth, to inquire about Sowams, when finding that this was claimed to be within Ply- mouth patent, they selected the large and beautiful island
CHAP. II. 1638.
70
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. II. of Aquedneck.1 Upon their return to Providence a num- ber of the principal people formed themselves into a body politic .by voluntary agreement, as the inhabitants of Providence had already done, and chose William Codding- ton to be their judge or chief-magistrate.
1637-8. March 7.
Through the powerful influence of Roger Williams, who in his account of the affair, modestly divides the honor with Sir Henry Vane, negotiations were shortly concluded with Canonicus and Miantinomi for the pur- chase of the island. As soon as the deed was obtained
24.
" This name is spelled in several ways, a common thing with all the In- dian names, as Aquetnet, Aquiday, Aquetneck, Aquidneck, Acquettinck, &c., but the writer preserves the orthography used in the original Indian deed of the island. He also, to avoid confusion, will apply to the island colony its original name down to the time of the second charter, 1663, when the official designation in the first patent, 1643, of " The incorporation of the Providence Plantations in Narraganset bay in New England," gave place to the title which has ever since been preserved of "Rhode Island and Providence Plan- tations," now abbreviated in common use to the name Rhode Island. It was not till 1644 that the colonists changed the Indian name to " Rhode Island," or the " Isle of Rhodes." The derivation of this name has given rise to much discussion. By what strange fancy this island was ever supposed to resemble that of Rhodes, on the coast of Asia Minor, is difficult to imagine, and it is equally strange that the tradition that it was named from such resemblance should be transmitted or be believed, unless, indeed, because it is easier to adopt a geographical absurdity than to investigate an historical point.
Verrazano, a Florentine navigator in the service of Francis I. of France, explored the American coast, and spent more than two weeks in the spring of 1524 in the spacious harbor upon which Newport now stands. The passage in his narrative that has been cited as authority by the advocates of this prev- alent mistake, refers to Block Island, which with much more geographical ac- curacy than in the case of Rhode Island, may be thought to resemble the Mediterranean island.
The celebrated Dutch navigator Adrian Block, gave his own name, still preserved with the omission of the Christian name, to that island which Ver- razano had before noticed as resembling the Isle of Rhodes. The name in full is found on the Dutch charts of that day. Afterward, like his Italian predecessor, he sailed into Narraganset Bay, where he commemorated the fiery aspect of the place, caused by the red clay in some portions of its shores, by giving it the name of Roodt Eylandt-the Red Island, and by easy transposition, Rhode Island ; and Verrazano's casual notice of the neighboring island has been inadvertently transferred to this.
71
SETTLEMENT OF AQUEDNECK.
they commenced a settlement called Pocasset, at the cove CHAP. on the northeast part of the island, in the town of Ports-
1I. mouth. The colony increased rapidly during the sum- mer, so that, in the following spring, a portion of their number moved to the southwest part of the island, and began the settlement of Newport.
1638. March 24.
1639.
72
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAPTER III.
THE ABORIGINES OF RHODE ISLAND-PEQUOT WAR.
CHAP. III.
WE have now traced the causes which led to the set- tlement of Providence and Aquedneck. Before speak- ing of the later settlements within what is now the State of Rhode Island, let us glance at the condition of the country at the time when Wm. Blackstone first broke the stillness of the primeval forest with the axe of the English pioneer, on the banks of the stream that now bears his name ; when Roger Williams with his little band first crossed the Seekonk, to found a State upon principles as novel to his own race as to the swarthy Indians with whom he sought a home ; when John Clark and his brave companions peaceably purchased " the Eden of America " from its aboriginal lords, and founded a Christian colony in the midst of heathen barbarism.
A fertile soil yielded an ample return for the simple agriculture of the Indians. Numerous streams, frequented by the trout and the salmon, discharged themselves into a broad and beautiful bay, whose full extent was yet un- known to the sails of commerce, but which was dotted with emerald islands, and on its shores were found the de- licious shellfish that furnished the favorite food and the only money to the rude natives. Forests, the undisturbed growth of centuries, overspread the land and sheltered
73
THE INDIAN TRIBES.
alike the bear, the panther, the wolf, the red deer and CHAP. the fox, with their natural master the aboriginal Man. - III.
Dense swamps furnished a lurking-place for the serpent, 1638. and a safe retreat for the feeble in time of war. Hills and rocks, sloping valleys, and verdant plains diversified the scene, spread out with all the wildness of nature, and over all the Indian roamed, unmindful, as yet, of that other race which was so soon to supplant his own.
The principal tribes of southern New England were the Massachusetts on the east, the Pokanokets inhabiting the Plymouth region, and including among their subordi- nate tribes the Wampanoags, who dwelt around Mount Hope Bay ; the Narragansets, who inhabited nearly all of the present State of Rhode Island, including the islands in the bay, Block Island, and the east end of Long Island ; and the Pequots, who with the Mohegans, with whom they soon became blended, occupied the whole of Con- necticut. Westward of these in New York were the sav- age tribes of Mohawks, part of the Six Nations, who were accused of being cannibals, and were every where dreaded for their cruelty. The great tribes were ruled by one or more chiefs or sachems, and were divided into many sub- ordinate tribes, each with its own petty sachem or saga- more. The Narragansets were at one time the most numerous and powerful of all the New England tribes. Shortly before the landing of the Pilgrims a pestilence, by some supposed to have been the small-pox, and by others the yellow fever, had swept over the seaboard of New England and nearly depopulated some of the tribes.' 1613. Prior to this the Narragansets had extended their con- quests over all the eastern tribes, and at that time their dominion spread from the Pawcatuck River to the Merri- mack. The Massachusetts and the Pokanokets paid them tribute, as did the Montauk Indians of Long Island. Wonumetonomy, Sachem of Aquedneck, confessed the
1 Gookin's Indians of N. England, chap. 2.
1612 &
74
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. III. sovereignty of the Narragansets. The Niantics around
Pawcatuck River, whose sachem was Ninnigret, a por- 1613. tion of the wandering Nipmucks to the north and west, and the tribes of Pumham and Soconoco, inhabiting what is now Kent County, were all subsidiary to and formed a portion of the great Narraganset tribe, whose chief sachems were the sage and peaceful Canonicus and his high-souled nephew Miantinomi. How long the empire of the Narragansets had been established over the other subject tribes is unknown. At the time of the arrival of the English it had reached its culminating point. That they were a proud and martial race is proved by the ex- tent of their conquests. These were savage virtues in which at one time certainly the Narragansets held pre- eminence. The empire which the valor of his predeces- sors had acquired, was preserved by the wisdom of Canon- icus, until the English émigration gave opportunity to the Pokanokets gradually to withdraw their allegiance, and seek the dangerous friendship of the colonists. The policy of Canonicus was peace, and was pursued so far as the warlike spirit of his neighbors would permit. Under it the Narragansets became the most commercial and civilized of any of the natives, and on this account they were taunted by the hostile Pequots. At one time the Narragansets could bring over five thousand warriors into the field,1 and one would meet a dozen of their towns in the course of twenty miles travel.2 Their weapons were the bow and arrow and club. It was not till intercourse with Europeans had made them acquainted with the use of metals that hatchets were used, which being placed on the end of their clubs formed the dreaded tomahawk that has since become the adopted emblem of Indian warfare. 1622. Two years after the English landed at Plymouth the Nar- ragansets sent to them, by way of challenge, a bundle
1 Gookin's Indians of New England, chap. 2.
2 Key to the Indian language, chap. 1.
75
INDIAN CHARACTERISTICS.
of arrows tied with a snake skin.' The tomahawk was of later date, and the horrible custom among the Indians of scalping their prisoners was taught them by the French, before which time the heads of their victims were taken as trophies.2
The natives are described, by one who knew them well, as being of two sorts. The better class were sober and grave, yet cheerful; and as ready to begin as to return a salute upon meeting the English, while the lower class, of whom the more obscure had no names, were more rude and clownish and rarely saluted first, " but upon salutation re-salute lovingly." 3 Their mode of doing obeisance to an offended sachem was by stroking him upon both his shoulders, and using a word which signified "I pray your favor." 3 Hospitality and a grateful remembrance of kindness, proportionate to their vindictive resentment for injuries received, were marked traits of Indian character. They freely shared their scanty meals with the passing stranger, and extended to him the protection of their wigwams, often, with a delicacy that finds no parallel in civilized life, sleeping out of doors themselves to allay the fears or promote the comfort of their temporary guests. Their domestic feelings were very strong. So dearly did they hold the tie of brotherhood that it was usual for the survivor to pay the debts of a deceased brother, and the brother of an escaped murderer was executed in his stead as full atonement for the crime. Their fondness for their children was carried to an excess that made them unruly and disobedient. Orphans were always provided for, and beggary was unknown among them. Marriage was publicly solemnized by consent of the parents. Fornication was not considered criminal in single persons, but adultery was severely condemned. The injured party might claim a
1 Winslow, in Prince, p. 200.
2 Niles' Hist. of French and Indian Wars, p. 174 in 3 M. H. C. v. 6. The French learned it from the Huns. 3 Key to the Indian language, chap. i.
CHAP. III. 1622.
76
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. divorce, and if the woman was false, the husband, in III. presence of witnesses, might beat the offender without
1622. resistance on his part, and if death resulted from the, punishment it was not revenged. Polygamy was toler- ated, but among the Narragansets monogamy prevailed. Dower was given by the husband to the parents of the maid, or if he were poor his friends contributed for him. Divorce was permitted, as among the Jews, for other causes than adultery. The Indians were very prolific, and as usual among savage nations where the women till the ground and perform the severest manual labor, the pains of childbirth were very light. The proportion of deaths in infancy was larger than among the English, from the want of proper treatment and ignorance of medicine. In sickness they used such simple remedies as experience had taught them, and which their Powwaws, or priests, or medicine men, dispensed, accompanied with hideous singing and howling, in which the rest of the people joined, until the patient either recovered or expired. The Powwaws extorted large sums for these services, often to the ruin of their patients. The principal treatment in use among them was the sweat bath, which was taken in this manner. A small cave made in the side of a hill near some brook, was heated with wood placed over a heap of stones in the middle ; when the fire was removed the stones still retained great heat. Small parties of Indians then stripped themselves and entered the cave, sitting around the hot stones for an hour or more, smoking and talk- ing, while a profuse perspiration opened every pore, cleans- ing the skin and often removing the sources of disease. Emerging from the cave in this condition they would plunge into the brook, whether in summer or winter, and receive no harm from this sudden and violent transition.' When one was taken ill the women of the family black-
1 Among the Tartar tribes of Siberia and in Lapland the same severe treatment is in common use, particularly for fevers.
77
INDIAN FUNERAL RITES.
ened their faces with soot, and when death ensued all the CHAP. men of the neighborhood adopted the same peculiar style III. -- of mourning, smearing their faces thick with soot, which 1622. was continued for several weeks, or if the deceased was a distinguished person, for a whole year. Their visits of condolence were not less remarkable than the mode and length of their lamentations. They were frequently made, and were always accompanied by patting the cheek and head of the afflicted parties, and bidding them "be of good cheer." Their burial service was still more singu- lar. The corpse was wrapt in mats or coats, answering to our winding sheets. This was a sacred duty not to be performed by a common person, but devolving upon some one who was held in high esteem. The body was then laid beside the grave and all sat down to bewail their loss for some time. The corpse was then placed in the grave, Oct. and sometimes some of the personal effects of the de- ceased were buried with him. A second lamentation was then held over the grave, and upon it was spread the mat upon which the person had died and the dish. from which he ate. Often too his coat of skin was hung upon a tree nearest the grave, and there left to decay, as a sacred thing which it would be sacrilege to touch. In the case of the death of a prince the ceremonies were yet more striking. Canonicus, after the burial of his son, burned his own residence with all its contents, of great value, in solemn remembrance of the dead, and as a kind of humble expiation to the gods who had thus bereaved " him. The Indians carefully avoided mentioning the name of a deceased person, but employed some circumlo- cution when referring to the dead. If a stranger acci- dentally spoke the name of such he was checked, and whoever wilfully named him was fined. If any man bore the name of the dead he immediately changed his name, and so far was this idea carried, that between different tribes the naming of their departed Sachems was held as a just cause of war.
78
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. III. J In religion it is difficult to say whether the Indians were Polytheists or Pantheists. They imagined a God in 1622. every locality and connected with every phenomenon of nature. Roger Williams obtained the names of thirty- seven of their deities, to all of which they prayed in their solemn worship. Their great God Cowtantowit lived in the southwest, the region of balmy airs. From him came their grain and fruits, and to his home sped the souls of their virtuous dead to enjoy an eternity of sensual bliss, while the spirits of the wicked wandered without rest. Here we find the doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul entertained by a barbarous race who affirmed that they re- ceived it from their ancestors, and whose connection with civilized nations had not then been sufficient to account for its existence in that way. They were ignorant of Revelation, yet here was Plato's great problem solved in the American wilderness, and believed by all the aborigi- nes of the West.
What connection subsisted between Cowtantowit and their many other Gods does not appear. It is probable that their religious system was too vague and undefined to admit, even in their own minds, of any fixed relation- ship among their deities. But Cowtantowit certainly held the place of a Supreme Being, clothed with all the attri- butes of Deity, while the existence and nature of their many other Gods argues a species of pantheism which minds so clear and thoughtful, unaided by higher knowl- edge, yet capable of evolving the idea of the soul's im- mortality, might readily adopt. They acknowledged the power and agency of their Deity in all things whether good or ill. If a child died their God was angry, and was entreated to withhold his chastening hand from the surviving offspring. If an accident occurred, the wrath of God occasioned it ; and so in case of good fortune they returned thanks to God for the blessing. In the time of disaster, and after a plentiful harvest or successful hunt,
79
INDIAN DIVERSIONS.
or on the occasion of peace or war, they held a great feast or dance. The Powwaws commenced with an invocation to the Gods, in which the people joined with violent dan- 1622 cing and shouting. Always once a year, in the winter, they held a great public feast, or thanksgiving, to Cow- tantowit, for the fruits of the harvest. Private feasts upon particular occasions were frequent, where besides feasting the whole company, a great amount of money and goods was distributed among the guests, a small sum to each one, who as soon as he received the gift went out and shouted three times for the health and happiness of the donor.
The Indians were fond of sports and addicted to gam- bling, using a kind of dice made of plum stones. Pub- lic games were often held in houses from one to two hun- dred feet long, erected for the purpose, where many thou- sands would meet to dance. Towns would often mcet to play against other towns with dice, on which occasions an arbor or play-house was built of long poles sixteen or twenty feet high, from which large amounts of their mo- ney, staked on the game, were suspended, and two men were chosen out of the rest, in course, to play amid the shouting of their abettors. Individuals would often stake every thing, their money, houses, clothes, and even them- selves, like the ancient Germans, described by Tacitus, in this absorbing vice. Football was a favorite summer di- version, when they would meet, town against town, to contend on some smooth plain or sandy shore, and stake large sums on the result.
Hunting, fowling and fishing were the chief occupa- tions of the men, in which they often displayed great skill and powers of endurance. They often met in large parties to drive the woods for deer. In the autumn they took them in traps, of which they had many kinds. In fowling they were expert, being excellent marksmen with the bow or gun, and skilled in laying snares for the ducks,
CHAP. III.
80
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. geese, turkeys and other fowl that abounded on the sea III. and shore. Cormorants which frequented the rocks off 1622. the coast they would take in great quantities at night while these birds were asleep. Blackbirds caused the Indians great annoyance by their countless numbers. For protection against them the seed was planted quite deep, lodges were built in the middle of the cornfields, where they staid at sprouting time to frighten away the birds, and hawks were tamed and kept about their houses as a still greater security from the depredation of the smaller birds. Crows, although doing some harm, were held in veneration by the Indians, and were rarely killed. They had a tradition that a crow first brought to them a grain of corn in one ear, and a bean in the other, from the fields of their great God Cowtantowit in the south- west, and from that seed came all their corn and beans. They were very fond of fishing, and would endure much hardship in its pursuit. They chiefly used nets made of hemp, setting weirs across the rivers and killing the bass with their arrows as they became entangled in the meshes. The head of the bass was considered a great luxury. The sturgeon they caught with a kind of harpoon of their own invention, going out in their canoes to attack it, and so highly was its flesh esteemed by them that they would rarely sell it to the English.
Their canoes were made from the trunk of the pine, oak, or chestnut tree, burnt out and hewn into shape. Ten or twelve days were required to complete one. They were of all sizes, carrying from two to forty men, and were worked with paddles, or when the wind was fair a blanket raised upon a pole was used as a sail. In these canoes they would push boldly out on the open sea, sometimes in fleets of thirty or forty, and if they met an enemy a regular sea fight would ensue. They were such expert swimmers that if overset two or three miles from land they would reach the shore unharmed.
81
INDIAN MANUFACTURES AND MONEY.
The Narragansets were skilled in the manufacture of CHAP. III. bracelets, stone pipes and earthen vessels, and were the principal coiners of wampumpeage, the established cur- 1622. rency of the country, and which continued to be so long after the European settlement. This was of two sorts, the white called wampum, made from the stem or stock of the periwinkle shell, and valued at six for an English penny, and the black, made from the shell of the quahawg or round clam,' and of twice the value of the white, or three for a penny. The dark part or eye of this shell was ground to a smooth round surface, polished and drilled, ready to be strung,2 and thus worn as a necklace or brace- let, or sewed to bits of cloth and used as a girdle, or car- ried as a scarf about the shoulders. The name wampum or peage was applied to both sorts. The regalia of their Princes was made of these beads, with the different colors handsomely blended and curiously wrought in figures. The people living on the seashore generally made peage, and no license from the Sachem was required to do so. A string of three hundred and sixty white beads made a fathom, and its ordinary value was five shillings sterling. A fathom of black was worth two of white. Before the extent of the fur trade had reduced the value of beaver in England the fathom of wampum was worth ten shil- lings, and the Indians could not understand why their money, in consequence, would bring only half as much as formerly. This currency was used by the Indians for six hundred miles in the interior, in trading among them- selves, and also with the English, French and Dutch, who made it legal tender. This money was often coun- terfeited, but the Indians were quick to detect the real value, requiring an allowance for defective pieces and re- jecting the spurious article. Their trade consisted chiefly in furs, provisions and their rude manufactures, wherein the principle of division of labor was well understood,
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