English 4371: Cultural Encounters

Householder, fall 2005

11/15/05: Encounter and Diplomacy

 

 

  1. Some reminders about the situation of the English Separatist settlers at Patuxet/Plymouth

 

    1. Their lack of provisions. 

 

 

    1. Their tenuous relationship with the Wampanoags and other native peoples of the region.  Bradford’s explanation for the tension. 

 

 

 

    1. January-February 1620/1: The Starving Time.  Although only a handful of the 102 passengers died during transit, within a few months on land, nearly half were dead.  Bradford’s description.

 

 

  1. Some reminders about the perspective of the indigenous people of the area. 

 

 

    1. Samoset. 

 

 

    1. Squanto/Tisquantum 

 

 

    1. Massasoit. 

 

 

    1. Corbitant. 

 

 

    1. Hobomok. 

 

 

    1. The anonymous old woman of Cummaquid. 

 

 

 

 

  1. British-Indigenous Encounters in New England.  What conclusions can we reach about English attitudes toward the Wampanoag?  Wampanoag attitudes toward the English?  Daily life for the English?  Daily life for the Wampanoag? 

 

 

 

 

a.      The arrival of Samoset and Squanto in Patuxet/Plymouth (51-55). 

 

 

 

b.     The arrival of Massasoit in Patuxet/Plymouth and the conclusion of the peace treaty with the Wampanoag (55-59). 

 

 

 

c.      The English emissary to Pokanoket (65-7). 

 

 

 

d.     The English expedition to Cummaquid and Nauset in search of a lost boy (69-72).  

 

 

 

e.      The English expedition to rescue Squanto and Hobomok from Namasket (73-76).    

 

 

 

f.        The English expedition to trade and negotiate with the Massachusetts (77-80). 

 

 

 

  1. Edward Winslow’s letter: fact or propaganda?

 

    1. The first Thanksgiving. 

 

 

 

    1. “Yea, it hath pleased God so to possess the Indians with a fear of us, and love unto us” 

 

 

 

    1. “They are a people without any religion or knowledge of any God, yet very trusty, quick of apprehension, ripe-witted, just.”  [and what he wrote in 1623]

 

 

 

 

Conclusion:

 

 

 

 

 

Next time:  Religious justifications for colonization by Cushman (in Mourt’s Relation), Winthrop (in Mancall), and Cotton (on-line).