For those of our readers who attempted to unpack the rebus, America to her Mistaken Mother, last week, here’s the quick solution to the puzzle: America to her mistaken mother. You silly old woman that you have sent a dove to…
Author: Paul Grant-Costa
“We did not land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us.”
Frank James, whose Wampanoag name is Wamsutta, organized the United American Indians of New England in 1970 after a speech he had written for the celebration of the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrim arrival was considered inappropriate and too inflamatory by…
America to her Mistaken Mother, an 18th Century Rebus
The convention of using the figure of a Native American woman as an allegorical representation for the continent of America or the British American colonies was quite commonplace by the Eighteenth Century. Often meant to evoke the exotic, these depictions embodied…
She is willing to go with her husband
On December 16, 1675, Thomas Hamilton of the Royal Navy in Tangier, Northern Africa, wrote to the Admiralty Board with some observations and recommendations. Onboard Hamilton’s ship, the Margaret Galley, were thirty New England Indians, condemned to slavery by Massachusetts’ magistrates…
East Haven Quinnipiac Fort
In October of 1761, Ezra Stiles and a companion, Rev. Nicholas Street, explored the remains of an old Quinnipiac fort, which once stood on a hill at the east end of East Haven’s burying yard. As the pair walked…
This Week in New England Native Documentary History
1690 was a bad year for Nathaniel Niles. Three times he was taken captive by French Indians and twice had his property plundered, all within a span of sixteen months. By the fall of 1691, as King William’s War continued,…
Book Notice: Leviathan
Understanding the British Empire can be particularly challenging for American scholars, especially those of us whose work often intersects with some aspect of its long influence on Native American history. Most helpful in making sense of British history is David…