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Tag: Native Americans

The Legend of Heartbreak Hill

October 11, 2022January 15, 2023 Gordon Harris
Legend of Heartbreak Hill, Ipswich MA

"In Ipswich town, not far from the sea, rises a hill which the people call Heartbreak Hill, and its history is an old, old legend known to all."

Posted in LegendsTagged 1650, Heartbreak Hill, Native Americans

Joseph English: Loyalty and Survival in the Life of a Colonial Native Scout

June 22, 2021November 19, 2022 Gordon Harris1 Comment
Map of Indian Lands by Sidney Perley

Joseph English, a descendant of Sagamore Masconomet, served as a scout for the Colonial forces and participated in land transactions with Essex County communities. Benjamin Webster used archival documents to construct this narrative of his life.

Posted in Native AmericansTagged Joseph English, Native Americans

The Great Dying 1616-1619, “By God’s visitation, a wonderful plague”

April 21, 2021November 24, 2022 Gordon Harris9 Comments
A Mortal Sickness Among the Indians

An estimated 18,000,000 Native Americans lived in North America before the 17th Century. The arrival of 102 Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower at Plymouth in 1620 and the settlements by the Puritans a decade later were accompanied by the demise of the native population of North America.

Posted in HistoryTagged 1616, Agawam, Commons, Native Americans

The Bull Brook Paleo-Indian Discovery

March 13, 2021January 7, 2023 Gordon Harris10 Comments
The Ipswich discovery of PaleoIndian artifacts at Bull Brook

in the early 1950's, a group of young amateur archeologists men discovered one of the largest Paleo-Indian sites in North America along the banks of Bull Brook and the Egypt River in Ipswich, with over 6,000 artifacts uncovered.

Posted in History, Places, VideoTagged 1953, Agawam, Bull Brook, Ipswich, Ipswich Neighbors, Native Americans

Emma Jane Mitchell Safford

March 10, 2021October 18, 2022 Gordon Harris7 Comments
Emma Safford, Ipswich MA

Emma Jane Mitchell Safford was a descendant of Massasoit, Sachem of the Wampanoag. Her daughter, also Emma, tried to help her relatives regain land taken from them on the reservation.

Posted in PeopleTagged 1950, Native Americans, truth, women

Ipswich, the Brookfield Massacre and King Philip’s War

March 8, 2021January 12, 2023 Gordon Harris5 Comments
Attack on Brookfield

In 1660, a group of Ipswich families settled in Quaboag which they renamed Brookfield. Indian attacks in 1675 resulted in its destruction.

Posted in HistoryTagged 1675, August, fear, insanity, Ipswich, Native Americans

Discovery of native American shell heap on Treadwell’s Island, 1882

January 23, 2021 Gordon HarrisLeave a comment

In1882, a shell heap on the shore of Treadwell's Island was observed to contain nearly two quarts of human bones, broken into short pieces.

Posted in HistoryTagged 1882, Agawam, Clams, Native Americans

PTSD in the Massachusetts Bay Colony

January 13, 2021November 13, 2022 Gordon Harris7 Comments
Winthrop fleet ships

The Great Migration brought nearly 14,000 Puritan settlers, unprepared for the hardships and trauma that awaited them. Building a new society in the wilderness induced transgenerational post-traumatic stress and mass conversion disorder, culminating in the Salem Witch Trials.

Posted in Commentary, HistoryTagged colonial ptsd, conspiracy, hysteria, Native Americans, Puritans

The Bones of Masconomet

January 7, 2021November 22, 2022 Gordon Harris5 Comments

On March 6, 1659 a young man named Robert Cross dug up the remains of the Agawam chief Masconomet, and carried his skull on a pole through Ipswich streets, an act for which Cross was imprisoned, sent to the stocks, then returned to prison until a fine was paid.

Posted in Legends, People, StoriesTagged 1659, Agawam, Court, EDITED, Hamilton, Ipswich, Masconomet, Native Americans, Sagamore
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