New Bedford, Massachusetts
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HENRY THOREAU’S INVOLVEMENT WITH THE TOWN OF NEW BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS “I know histhry isn’t thrue, Hinnissy, because it ain’t like what I see ivry day in Halsted Street. If any wan comes along with a histhry iv Greece or Rome that’ll show me th’ people fightin’, gettin’ dhrunk, makin’ love, gettin’ married, owin’ th’ grocery man an’ bein’ without hard coal, I’ll believe they was a Greece or Rome, but not befur.” — Dunne, Finley Peter, OBSERVATIONS BY MR. DOOLEY, New York, 1902 “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project New Bedford HDT WHAT? INDEX NEW BEDFORD NEW BEDFORD 1602 May 14, Friday (Old Style): Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, in the vessel Concord commissioned by the Earl of Southampton in March to establish a New World colony, had sighted Cape Neddick (Latitude 43 degrees) on the Maine coast: They skirted the coastline for several days and then on this day came to anchor in York Harbor, where they were greeted by “a Biscay shallop [a small fishing vessel used by the Basque of Spain on the Bay of Biscay] with sails and oars, having eight persons in it, whom we supposed to be Christians distressed. But approaching us nearer, we perceived them to be savages.” It is to be noted that even at this early point, one of the natives was attired in a waistcoat, breeches, stockings, shoes, and a hat, and knew some English words, and was able to draw a map of the coastline, on which he marked out the Newfoundland fisheries. Clearly, the New England coast had previously been being visited by trading or fishing vessels. HDT WHAT? INDEX NEW BEDFORD NEW BEDFORD One of these intrusives, the Reverend John Brereton, reporting on the voyage, would author a BRIEFE AND TRUE RELATION OF THE DISCOVERIE OF THE NORTH PART OF VIRGINIA. The sponsor of this voyage, the Earl of Southampton, was also a patron of William Shakespeare, and about three years later this playwright would be writing a little something called The Tempest — quite probably accessing, for inspiration, Brereton’s accounts of Cuttyhunk. RHODE ISLAND BRERETON’S RELATION Brereton described the Wampanoag: exceeding courteous, gentle of disposition and well- conditioned, excelling all others that we have seen; so for shape of body and lovely favour ... of a stature much higher than we ... complexion ... dark olive; their eyebrows and hair black ... of a perfect constitution of body, active, strong, healthful and very wittie [intelligent]. HDT WHAT? INDEX NEW BEDFORD NEW BEDFORD “So long as the past and present are outside one another, knowledge of the past is not of much use in the problems of the present. But suppose the past lives on in the present: suppose, though encapsulated in it, and at first sight hidden beneath the present’s contradictory and more prominent features, it is still alive and active; then the historian may very well be related to the non-historian as the trained woodsman is to the ignorant traveller.” — R.G. Collingwood, AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1939, page 100 The Islands offlying New England Block Island Mt. Desert Island Boston Harbor Nantucket Island Dry Salvages Naushon Island Gardiners Island Newfoundland Isles of Shoals Plum Island Long Island Shelter Island Manhattan Staten Island Martha’s Vineyard St. George’s Bank Minots Ledge Aquidneck Island A WEEK: An island always pleases my imagination, even the smallest, as a small continent and integral portion of the globe. I have a fancy for building my hut on one. Even a bare, grassy isle, which I can see entirely over at a glance, has some undefined and mysterious charm for me. HDT WHAT? INDEX NEW BEDFORD NEW BEDFORD YOUR GARDEN-VARIETY ACADEMIC HISTORIAN INVITES YOU TO CLIMB ABOARD A HOVERING TIME MACHINE TO SKIM IN METATIME BACK ACROSS THE GEOLOGY OF OUR PAST TIMESLICES, WHILE OFFERING UP A GARDEN VARIETY OF COGENT ASSESSMENTS OF OUR PROGRESSION. WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP! YOU SHOULD REFUSE THIS HELICOPTERISH OVERVIEW OF THE HISTORICAL PAST, FOR IN THIS REAL WORLD THINGS HAPPEN ONLY AS THEY HAPPEN. WHAT THIS SORT WRITES AMOUNTS, ON THE MODEL OF “SCIENCE FICTION,” MERELY TO “HISTORY FICTION”: IT’SNOT WORTHY OF YOUR ATTENTION. New Bedford “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX NEW BEDFORD NEW BEDFORD 1652 Joseph Russell, in starting up an offshore whaling enterprise, effectively founded the town of New Bedford. What happened was that 36 whites joined together in the purchase of a parcel of land –encompassing what is now New Bedford, Acushnet, Fairhaven, Dartmouth and Westport– from Ousamequin Yellow Feather (the Massasoit) and his son Sachem Mooanam (Wamsutta). They agreed to remove the native inhabitants within one year. That entire area would be incorporated as “Dartmouth” in 1654. NO-ONE’S LIFE IS EVER NOT DRIVEN PRIMARILY BY HAPPENSTANCE “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project New Bedford HDT WHAT? INDEX NEW BEDFORD NEW BEDFORD HDT WHAT? INDEX NEW BEDFORD NEW BEDFORD 1676 The English began moving into the vacated Narragansett lands and the surviving tribespeople submitted to what would prove to be long periods of indenture to colonial families. Those Narragansett tribespeople who had survived the war were merging with a small neighboring group, the Niantic, with whom their dominant families had extensively intermarried. The combined population eventually would come to be termed Narragansett. Neither Rhode Island nor Connecticut would exercise much control over the affairs of this now powerless tribe and it would be allowed to remain on more-or-less unwanted land between Kingston and Westerly under the hereditary leadership of a lineage of Narragansett/Niantic sachems. “KING PHILLIP’S WAR” “HUCKLEBERRIES”: The largest Indian huckleberry party that I have heard of is mentioned in the life of Captain Church who, it is said, when in pursuit of King Phillip in the summer of 1676, came across a large body of Indians, chiefly squaws, gathering whortleberries on a plain near where New Bedford now is, and killed and took prisoner sixty-six of them — some throwing away their baskets and their berries in their flight. They told him that their husbands and brothers, a hundred of them, who with others had their rendezvous in a great cedar swamp nearby, had recently left them to gather whortleberries there, while they went to Sconticut Neck to kill cattle and horses for further and more substantial provisions. Old Dartmouth suffered greatly in the race war. All was lost except one or two outlyingN homesEW BEDFORD and the homeMA of John Russell, known as Russells’ Garrison. HDT WHAT? INDEX NEW BEDFORD NEW BEDFORD 1699 The 1st ecclesiastical body in old Dartmouth was organized by the Society of Friends (the Quakers). LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project New Bedford HDT WHAT? INDEX NEW BEDFORD NEW BEDFORD 1700 During the 1st half of this century the Russell family would effectively be founding the town of New Bedford by means of land purchases along the Acushnet River and the overlooking heights, and by means of subsequent planning and development — in particular, founding father Joseph Russell III. THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project New Bedford HDT WHAT? INDEX NEW BEDFORD NEW BEDFORD 1716 It as at about this point that New Bedford, a Quaker whaling town, began its formal opposition to the institution of slavery, and thus began its career as a sanctuary for runaway slaves. This would be the city of origin for Friend Daniel Ricketson, and would be the city of refuge for Frederick Douglass. HDT WHAT? INDEX NEW BEDFORD NEW BEDFORD Here is an American bill of sale for a human being, dating to July 16th of this year: In this year New York enacted a rather mysterious “5 oz. and 10 oz. plate Duty Act,” rather mysterious because we have only the title and none of the text. According to the title it had something to do with a Duty laid on HDT WHAT? INDEX NEW BEDFORD NEW BEDFORD Negroes, and other Slaves, imported into this Colony: “An Act to Oblige all Vessels Trading into this Colony (except such as are therein excepted) to pay a certain Duty; and for the further Explanation and rendring more Effectual certain Clauses in an Act of General Assembly of this Colony, Intituled, An Act by which a Duty is laid on Negroes, and other Slaves, imported into this Colony.” The act referred to is not to be found. ACTS 1 OF ASSEMBLY, 1691-1718, p. 224. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY 1. The following is a summary of the legislation of the colony of New York; details will be found in W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: — 1709, Duty Act: £3 on Negroes not direct from Africa (Continued by the Acts of 1710, 1711). 1711, Bill to lay further duty, lost in Council. 1716, Duty Act: 5 oz. plate on Africans in colony ships. 10 oz. plate on Africans in other ships. 1728, Duty Act: 40s. on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. 1732, Duty Act: 40s. on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. 1734, Duty Act: (?) 1753, Duty Act: 40s. on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. (This act was annually continued.) [1777, Vermont Constitution does not recognize slavery.] 1785, Sale of slaves in State prohibited. [1786, Sale of slaves in Vermont prohibited.] 1788, Sale of slaves in State prohibited. HDT WHAT? INDEX NEW BEDFORD NEW BEDFORD 1734 Foundation of the community of New Bedford, Massachusetts on the banks of the Acushnet River.