Mystic

     Before the seventeenth century, the Pequot had been constructing an empire across southeastern Connecticut. For many years, historians believed that they migrated in the sixteenth century from eastern New York; however, archaeological evidence now suggests that they were in fact indigenous to southeastern Connecticut. This indication is convincing to historians due to previous evidence of a people who lived in an area called Gungywump, somewhat northwest of the Mystic River.

     At the start of the seventeenth century, Pequot Indians lived throughout southeastern, Connecticut. They built their first village overlooking the western bank of the Mystic River, called Siccanemos, in the year 1665.  By this year, the Pequot were in control of a considerable amount of territory, extending toward the Pawcatuck River, to the east, and the Connecticut River to the west, providing them with full access to the waters. They also had supremacy over some of the most strategically located terrain. To the northwest, the Five Nations of the Iroquois dominated the land linked by the Great Lakes and the Hudson River allowing for the buying and selling to occur between the Iroquois Nations and the Dutch. The Pequot, conversely, were settled just distant enough to be secure from any danger that the Iroquois posed.  As the Europeans came closer in contact with the natives, along the coast of Cape Cod to Nova Scotia, they brought along with them diseases, like small pox, plague, measles and a whole lot of other illnesses that depopulated complete villages at a time, killing between 55 to 95 percent of the coastal people. The Narragansett tribe, however was able to develop some sort of a resistance to European diseases, whom lived a considerable distance from the coastal areas of Cape Cod and Nova Scotia.

     The Pequot were located between the English and the Dutch. To the east of the Pequot, the English had begun to gain bits and pieces along the Massachusetts Bay during the 1620s. Relations between the Native Americans and the English remained ambiguous and rather hostile at times as Separatists from the Church of England settled on the Plymouth Plantation. The minuet relations, however, allowed the establishment of trade with the Plymouth colonists as far west as the Narragansett Bay, if not with the Narragansett nation itself. The English eventually began to trade with the Dutch as well.

     In 1632, the Dutch established Good Hope and deprived the Pequot of a monopoly at the post; they brought in interlopers to the Pequot territory whom they could not control, rising apprehension amongst the two villages. This destabilized the Pequot’s seize on fur and wampum sources. In 1634, right when the Massachusetts Bay post made its first public appearance, hostilities escalated between the Pequot and Narragansett tribes. “The Narragansett passed through or near Pequot territory on their way to the Dutch post, and the Pequot resented the Narragansett’s ability to encroach upon their territory to the point that a Pequot band attacked and killed a Narragansett band on its way to trade at Good Hope.”   In revenge of this attack, the Dutch captured and seized Tatobem, Pequot’s uppermost chief and held him at ransom to be paid in wampum. The ransom was paid immediately, but Tatobem was executed anyway. The murder of Tatobem further escalated aggression between the Pequot nation and Massachusetts Bay; they retaliated by killing an English man, John Stone, at the Connecticut River. There are many assumptions to why Stone was chosen in retribution. Historians say that while trading on shore, Stone kidnapped a handful of Pequot, with intentions to sell them into slavery, and was beaten and slaughtered by their rescuers.  Exasperated by this news the Massachusetts Bay management interpreted the murder of Stone as a statement of warfare. In October 1634, Pequot delegates took a trip to Massachusetts Bay to guarantee the colonists that they had not intended nor planned to go to war with the English. They took full blame for Stone’s death, and offered Governer Roger Ludlow payment for his death. The Massachusetts Bay colonists refused to accept the payment as justice for Stone’s death. As an alternative, the Massachusetts Bay government took the chance to expand their claims in New England. “They demanded that Stone’s killer be handed over to meet European justice, that a ransom in wampum worth 250 pounds sterling be paid; that the Pequot cede all of their land to the Massachusetts Bay Colony; that the Pequot only trade with the English; and that all disputes between the Pequot and the Narragansett be mediated by the English. The Pequot delegation seemed to agree to the settlement and returned home, but Tatobem’s successor, Sassacus, rejected and thereby nullified the agreement.”</ref>Fought, Leigh. A History of Mystic Connecticut- From Pequot Village to Tourist Towm. Charleston, NC: ww.historypress.net, 2007.</ref> With the death of Tatobem, and the rise of Sassacus, two factions formed, both declaring Tatobem’s position: Tatobem’s son, Sassacus, and Tatobem’s son-in-law, Uncas. When Sassacus emerged victorious, Uncas left the tribe and became Sachem of villages around the Niantic River, calling themselves the Mohegan. Tensions increased between the factions of Indians, especially towards the Pequot. The 1636, John Oldham, a respected trader and friend of the Narragansetts, was murdered in his boat off Block Island. The murderers were Block Islanders, a branch of Narragansetts, however, they escaped capture and were given safe haven by the Pequots. This outraged the Narragansetts, and enough was enough!  In May of 1637, captains John Underhill and John Mason led a retaliatory mission through Narragansett land along with their allies, the Narragansett and Mohegan, and struck the Pequot settlement in Mystic. Uncas also joined the fight, bringing seventy of his own men. Mason's order to his soldiers and Narragansett allies was "Let us burn them." The settlement, comprised mostly of women and children, was decimated. Mason abandons his plan to seek booty and sets fire to eighty homes, killing 600-700 Pequot in an hour. Seven are taken captive and seven escape. Two Englishmen are killed, while 20-40 wounded. The English stride toward their ship, blazing Pequot residence all along the way.

     Captain John Underhill, one of the English commanders, documents the event in his journal, Newes from America: Down fell men, women, and children. Those that 'scaped us, fell into the hands of the Indians that were in the rear of us. Not above five of them 'scaped out of our hands. Our Indians came us and greatly admired the manner of Englishmen's fight, but cried "Mach it, mach it!" - that is, "It is naught, it is naught, because it is too furious, and slays too many men." Great and doleful was the bloody sight to the view of young soldiers that never had been in war, to see so many souls lie gasping on the ground, so thick, in some places, that you could hardly pass along.  The Treaty of Hartford was drawn up stating the terms of the English victory. On September 21, 1638, the colonists signed the Treaty of Hartford, officially ending the Pequot War. It outlawed the name Pequot, forbid the Pequot from regrouping as a tribe, and required that other tribes in the region submit all their inter-tribal grievances to the English and abide by their decisions. Gradually, with the help of sympathetic English leaders, the Pequot are able to reestablish their identity, but as separate tribes in separate communities: the Mashantucket (Western) Pequot and the Pawcatuck (Eastern) Pequots, the first Indian reservations in America.

     The Pequot, the first community on the Mystic River were met by disaster. As a result of the Pequot War, Pequot dominance ended with the emergence of English settlements on the open land of Mystic. After John Mason’s victorious encounter with the Indians, the King of England began to assess the conquered Pequot territory. By the 1640s, he began to grant land to the Pequot War veterans. John Winthrop Jr., the son of the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was among those to receive a huge amount of property, which would have been equivalent to what is now called southeastern Connecticut. John Winthrop, given so much land, gave people who had worked with him in the Pequot settlement, portions of his land. Among those were Robert Burrows and George Denison, who were given land in the Mystic River Valley.

     Settlement on the east side of the Thames River grew slowly. With the removal of the Pequot, the Narragansett, led by Miantonomo, claimed the former Pequot territory, which the colonists had also claimed. While the colonists allegedly owned the territory by rights of conquest, they continued to consult with the native villages to purchase the land. The Narragansett and Mohegan nations had conflicting views on the issue that war broke out between the two, resulting in Miantonomo’s death and the Mohegan’s victory.

     The Connecticut government and Massachusetts Bay government began to quarrel about land, thus delaying the migration process of English families to the Mystic River. “Connecticut,” referred to, in the 1640s and 1650s, settlements located along the Connecticut River as well as its claims in other parts of the region.  Many groups of people may have claimed the same land as rightfully theirs. However when settlers were being brought to the disputed territory, conflict arose.

     Since Connecticut did not have a royal charter that separated it from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, it had created their own government to meet the calamities that followed the Pequot War, and was preserved to handle affairs including land distribution and grants.  The General Court was formed by leaders of the settlements, which addressed the problem against the Pequot.

     The General court ruled the Pequot land by right of conquest, in order to pay the Connecticut veterans of the war. The Bay Colony however saw matters differently. The Bay Colony had contributed to the war by sending a militia under Captains John Underhill and Thomas Stoughton, which would enable them territorial rights.  On top of that, the Massachusetts Bay legally claimed Connecticut as their territory, and the right to freely distribute the conquered Pequot land. This made John Winthrop Jr.’s Pequot Plantation answerable to the Massachusetts Bay Colony opposed to the Connecticut Court.

     With conflicting views, both colonies turned to the United Colonies of New England to resolve the dispute. The United Colonies of New England, formed in 1643, was established in order to settle the disputes such as this one. It was voted to create the boundary between the claims of the Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut at the Thames River. As a result, Connecticut would be positioned west of the river and Massachusetts Bay could have the land to the east, including the Mystic River.

     Throughout the next decade, settlers were beginning to emerge around the Mystic River. John Mason, one of the captains who led the colonists against the Pequot, had previously been granted five hundred acres on the eastern banks of the Mystic River.  He also received the island that later bore his name, however, he never lived on the property. In 1653, John Gallup Jr., was given three hundred acres approximately midway up the east part of the Mystic River.

     Within the same year, other settlers joined John Gallup and began to settle around the Mystic River. George Denison, a war veteran of Oliver Cromwell’s army, was given his own strip of three hundred acres, just south of Gallup’s land in 1654. Thomas Miner, who had immigrated to Massachusetts with John Winthrop, was granted many land plots, the main one lying on Quiambaug Cove, just east of the Mystic River.  Other families granted land at their arrival were Reverend Robert Blinman, the Beebe brothers, Thomas Parke and Connecticut Governor John Hayne. Like Captain John Mason, not all these men actually lived on their land. Many sold it to profit from or employed an overseer to cultivate their property. Many men, however, actually brought their wives and children which indicated their plans on forming a community in the Mystic River Valley.

     There was one recorded case of a woman who did not come to the Mystic River Valley as a wife. Margaret Lake, a widow, received a grant from the Massachusetts Bay authority, and was the only woman to receive a land grant in her own name. Margaret Lake, like many men in her day, also did not live on her land, and hired other people to maintain her property. She end up taking up residence in the Pequot Plantation. Lake’s daughter was married to John Gallup, while her sister was married to John Winthrop, Massachusetts Bay Governor.

     As settlers made the move to the conquered land of the Pequot, the Native American population deceased drastically. Nearly all tribes were hit with rampant epidemics, and fur-bearing animals that they relied on for as food had disappeared as the English began to increase on their reliance on the fur trade and farming.

     By 1675, the Mystic River Valley grew tremendously, and infrastructure, as well as an economy was beginning to appear. The Pequot Trail was used as a main highway to get around the Mystic River, and played a vital role in the English lives, allowing them transport livestock, crops, furs, and other equipment to and from their farm lands. However those families living on the east side of the Mystic River were unable make any use of the Pequot Trail, like Miner and Mason, and desired for the creation of a bridge to connect the two. As early as 1660, Robert Burrows was given authorization to institute a ferry somewhere along the middle of the river’s length. This earned his home the name of Half-way House.

     The Pequot Trail also connected the Quakers to their church. In the beginning, there were issues of Stonington residents attending their church. This led to the creation of their own church. The town of Stonington was then established as separate from Mystic, in regards to church attendance, and was granted leave to build one of their own. The building became known as the Road Church. As the religious community around the Mystic River diversified and grew, new churches were allowed to be built along the Pequot Trail near the river.

     In 1679, schooling systems emerged and John Fish became the first schoolmaster in Stonington, conducting classes and lessons in his home. Education was the most important thing to the New England Colonists, even allowing girls, African Americans and Native Americans, and slaves to learn basic literacy skills. Most families throughout New England were comprised of six or more children in each household, giving Fish a handful of students.

     Fish also gave lectures and insights about marriage and maintenance of a solid family. Divorce was very uncommon in those days, however, John Fish’s wife ran off with Samuel Culver. In the case of a runaway spouse, the abandoned spouse was not allowed to file for divorce until six years had passed. This law ensured that their spouse was in actuality gone and not intending to come back. Fish was eventually allowed to divorce in 1680, but this had no impact on his reputation as a school teacher, and parents continued to allow their children to attend his classes.

     By the first decade of the eighteenth century, three villages had begun to develop along the Mystic River. The largest village, called Mystic, was also known as the Head of the River, because it lay where several creeks united into the Mystic River estuary.  Two villages also lay farther down the river. One was called Stonington and was considered as Lower Mystic consisting of only twelve houses by the early 1800s. These twelve houses lay along Willow Street, which ended at the ferry landing. On the opposite bank of the river, in the town of Groton, stood the village that became known as Portersville.

     Through the eighteenth century, Mystic’s economy composed of manufacturing, road building and maritime trades. Agriculture was the main component of their economy, since most of the citizens were farmers. In turn, the colonist provided for their mother country with raw material resources that lead to the emergence of a colonial manufacturing system. Land remained an essential source of wealth; though some land was very rocky and prevented early farmers from producing crops. This however did not necessarily lead to poverty. They grew corn, wheat, peas, potatoes and a variety of fruits. They raised cattle, chicken, pigs, and sheep. They were hunters and fishers and were generally able to sustain themselves. With an average household of about nine children, labor was easily provided in the fields, but when a farmer was in need of more work to be done, slaves were bought.

     Slavery was a very small percent in the New England colonies, roughly three percent. On the other hand, most of the black population was concentrated in the New London County of Connecticut, but there very few living in Groton and Stonington. Thus, with such little reliance on slavery in Connecticut, the Emancipation Act was easily passed.  The most famous slave in southeastern Connecticut was a man by the name Venture Smith, who was able to buy his freedom and become a successful land owner and to operate a shipping business.
(Found at wikipedia.com)