City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Student Theses Baruch College 1-1-1990 English/Indian relations in colonial New England, 1617-1676 Kyle Beard Baruch College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/bb_etds/4 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact:
[email protected] English/Indian Relations in Colonial New England: 1617-1676 by Kyle Beard © 1990 "Submitted to the Committee on Undergraduate Honors of Baruch College of The City University of New York in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in History with Honors." Introduction 1. First Attempts 2. Plague and Pilgrims 3. Massachusetts Bay Colony 4. Smallpox 5. Land 6. The Struggle for Connecticut 7. Trouble With the Pequot 8. Massasoit and His Heirs 9. War 10. Massacre 11. The Indians Lose Conclusion Endnotes Bibliography Introduction Where today is the Pequot? Where are the Narragansetts, the Mohawks, the Pokanoket, and many other once powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and the oppression of the White Man, as snow before a summer sun. -- Tecumseh, Shawnee Chief, 1812 Three years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth the area had been ravaged by a plague which decimated the native population and allowed the settlers to plant their colony in territory which the historian, Francis Jennings, terms as "virgin land". (1) The exact disease which caused such devastation has never been identified; it is not thought that it was smallpox, yellow fever or typhoid, (2) but it is commonly accepted that the disease was introduced to the area by English traders and fishermen.