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On this week's Peace of History: In 1721, white settlers of mostly English and Scotch-Irish descent incorporated a small village in the area between Jewett City to the west and the powerful Narragansett nation to the east. Dozens of Pequot settlements had dotted the area just a few decades previously, but by 1721, they had mostly disappeared. The white colonists settled their village upon the ruins of one of these Pequot settlements, so recently evacuated by its Native builders and stewards, and named the new settlement “Voluntown,” after the volunteer colonial soldiers who fought in King Philip’s War. But what exactly happened to the Pequot, and how did the English come to settle on land so recently occupied by them? How did it come to be that the mighty Pequot nation almost completely disappeared in the years leading up to the town’s incorporation? How does King Philip’s War fit with this story? And what does any of this have to do with Thanksgiving? The story of the Pequot genocide does not begin here. In fact, by the time of Voluntown’s incorporation, the Pequot nation had already been declared extinct by the colonial government for 83 years. Some may be familiar with the story of the Pequot War, the first major violent conflict between Native Americans and English colonists in New England: from 1636-1638, the English and their allies, the Mohegan nation and the Narragansett nation, waged war against the Pequot nation. After two years of terrible violence and struggle, the English, Mohegans, and Narragansetts had pushed the Pequots to a fortified village in Mystic, CT. It was there that English soldiers torched the fort, killing all but 14 of the estimated 400-700 people within the palisade walls. To end the war, the English with the Mohegans and Narragansetts wrote the Treaty of Hartford (1638), which, among other things, declared what would become of the over 200 Pequot survivors: about half would be taken by the Mohegan nation, and the other half by the Narragansett nation. The rest would be taken by the English to be enslaved, either domestically or to be sold in the West Indies. Moreover, according to the treaty, all Native Americans were forbidden from ever calling themselves Pequot again. The unprecedented destructruction and brutality of the English colonists, however, shocked their Mohegan and Narragansett allies. The Mohegans largely remained faithful allies to the English colonists, but the Narragansetts and many other Native peoples of the area became ever more wary. The Christian missionaries were converting their people and threatening their cultural traditions. The colonial governments became more confident and demanding as they sought to exert control over the Native governments. And every year, the numbers of these English continued to swell -- and with their numbers, the demand for more land. Meanwhile, to the north, the Wampanoag nation had been dealing with English settlers of their own. In 1620, the Wampanoag leader Ousamequin (a.k.a. Sassasoit) had sent Tisquantum (a.k.a. Squanto) and Epenow to teach the Mayflower Pilgrims to plant corn and survive the winter. He had also made a mutual defense treaty with the same Pilgrims the very same year, and he had honored that treaty one autumn day in the next year. Having heard repeated gunfire and, thus, expecting trouble, ninety Wampanoag soldiers warily approached Plymouth Colony only to find the strange newcomers not in conflict but in high spirits: carousing, feasting, and discharging their weapons for sport. After the tension and mutual distrust dissipated, the two peoples spent the next three days together in peace. Although the story of how the holiday came to be invented is much more complicated, many would call this the first “Thanksgiving.” By the time Ousamequin’s son, Pumetacom, had become the new Wampanoag leader, however, the situation had changed dramatically. Pumetacom (a.k.a. Metacomet), called the Christian name “Philip” for his father’s famous good relations with the Mayflower Pilgrims, recognized the threat posed by the English colonists to Native life. War broke out over a small controversial issue, as they often do, involving the murder of a Christianized Wampanoag man and the execution of his alleged Wampanoag murderers by the colonial government. The Narragansett, former allies of the English but who had by 1675 declared official neutrality, were accused by the English of harboring Wampanoag soldiers, and suffered preemptive attacks by their former allies as a result. When the English brought war to the Narragansett nation, they brought their signature brutality to the Pequot survivors living in eastern Connecticut under Narragansett protection as well. Doubling the tragedy was that among the Mohegans, still allies of the English, were the “western” Pequot people who had been absorbed into the Mohegans decades earlier. For three years, King Philip’s War consumed most of New England, destroying 17 English towns, damaging 52 other English towns, destroying untold numbers of Native settlements, and claiming the lives of thousands, including as much as 40% of all Native people of the area. There is some evidence to suggest that around the main house at the Voluntown Peace Trust may have been the site of a small Pequot village, and local stories point to other parts of the VPT property, especially the area around Ahimsa Lodge, as one of the temporary sanctuaries used by Pequot women and children fleeing for their lives after the English had slaughtered the men of the community. To learn more about the Wampanoag nation, Ousamequin and the Pilgrims, Pumetacom and King Philip’s War, and more, please visit the excellent and free exhibit ‘“Our” Story: 400 Years of Wampanoag History’ at the Tantaquidgeon Museum in Uncasville, Tuesday-Friday, 10am-4pm until December 20: https://www.plymouth400inc.org/our-story-exhibit-wampanoag-history/ To learn more about the Pequot nation, the Mystic Massacre, and genocide studies, please visit the fantastic and massive Mashuntucket Pequot Museum in Ledyard, the largest indigenous-owned museum in the world: http://www.pequotmuseum.org/default.aspx For more reading on how Thanksgiving came to be, please check out this wonderful article from The New Yorker, “The Invention of Thanksgiving”: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/11/25/the-invention-of-thanksgiving?link_id=0&can_id=e2de4dab1836e83e680ee6e6cf168667&source=email-taking-on-the-myth-of-thanksgiving&email_referrer=email_668868&email_subject=taking-on-the-myth-of-thanksgiving&fbclid=IwAR2AIxVafv7Wo4ylUWL26JWeihNJz8bVVJk9KcmO-CDvIrkDadlZhIjssnk Next week: we will return to the 1960s to look at another result of the Polaris Action, one that traveled halfway across the world -- on foot. 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On this week's Peace of History: We will begin to look at the history of the original 40-acre property before it became the Voluntown Peace Trust in 1962, and to do that, we must examine the colonial history of the region, Voluntown itself, and the family that lived here in the colonial period. Emigrating from Ulster County, Ireland in 1719, the Campbell family first appears in Connecticut in records kept in New London, but the family soon relocated north to Voluntown around the time of its incorporation in 1721. Although the exact date is unknown, the Campbells were among the first European colonists to settle in Voluntown, which had been named for the English volunteer soldiers of King Philip's War. Dr. John Campbell (the second son in the family) is known to have visited Voluntown as early as Nov. 19, 1719, when he and a woman named Agnes Allen got married. The whole Campbell family received a lot of 40 acres, 10 of which they cleared and farmed, and established themselves in the community. In 1723, Robert (the father), and his two oldest sons Charles and John became founding members of the first Presbyterian Church in the town and the state. Robert Campbell passed away a couple years later at the age of 52 in 1725, but the property remained in his family for over a century. Around 1750, Dr. John Campbell had a house built on the farm -- the very same that still stands at the front of the property today. Dr. John Campbell was the first physician to practice in Voluntown, and many of his descendants carried on in the profession. The house itself offers some clues to Dr. John Campbell’s vocation: the side door and entryway are both unusually wide for colonial houses of the era. Bob Swann believed that may have been the Doctor’s office entrance and waiting area. What is now the bathroom off the hallway is suspected to have originally been the pharmacy. The room across the hall, what is now the Gandhi Reading Room, may have been the original examination room. Former residents have found small antique glass jars buried near the house: old discarded medicine bottles likely from one of the doctors’ practices. Decades later, people escaping slavery in the South found refuge in the basement of the Campbell Farm as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Although the basement has long since been remodeled, according to a newsletter from the Voluntown Historical Society, there was once “a room behind the chimney in the cellar which several sources report was used as a hiding place for the slaves who came through the underground escape route during the Civil War.” Next week: we shall dig even deeper into the past to examine the history of the original Pequot inhabitants who lived here before European colonization, as well as the terrible war that led to the town's founding. (click here to view the original post on Facebook)
On this week's Peace of History: We return to southeastern Connecticut in the early 1960s to learn the various factors that helped form the Voluntown Peace Trust. As the summer schedule of protests, outreach attempts, and nonviolence trainings of Polaris Action wrapped up in August of 1960, it was decided that they should continue this work, extended their summer project into a permanent presence. Several participants made plans to stay on a full or part-time basis, joining Bob and Marj Swann (and their children) to continue and expand upon the activities. From “Prospectus for a History of New England CNVA” by Marj Swann: “Moving from the tenement which had been the living quarters for the summer project to a house in Norwich, owned by a supporter, several of the summer participants continued to staff the office, engage in interaction with workers at Electric Boat and sailors at the Navy Base, and began reaching out around the New England Region.” This group named themselves the New England Committee for Non-Violent Action (CNVA), became an independent affiliate of the national CNVA, and selected Bob and Marj Swann as Co-coordinators for their combined experience as peace activists. As others joined them, Marj Swann writes, “The office in New London was maintained, and the program expanded all around New England, with local groups springing up after the staff had conducted a vigil, a march, or a public education program at local high schools, churches, and universities.” After a year and a half of sustained work and growth, the New England CNVA decided that they needed more space to effectively hold trainings and workshops, and neither the office in New London nor the house in Norwich, CT would do. A property in a nearby rural area, however, could serve the group’s needs much better. The solution was provided by Mary Meigs, who had joined the New England CNVA after her partner, Barbara Deming -- the subject of last week’s post -- joined the group. On May 8, 1962, for the sum of $17,000, Mary Meigs bought the 40-acre Campbell Farm in rural Voluntown, CT, northeast of New London and Groton. Just a few months later, on August 30, Meigs entered the property into a land trust with Gordon Christiansen and Marjorie Swann. Community land trust pioneer Bob Swann authored the agreement. The first three terms of the agreement are:
Putting the land in trust was both a commitment to the nonviolent economic structures being developed by Bob Swann, and a protection of the land for activists, many of whom were war tax resisters who did not want to own private property that could be seized by the government. The Voluntown Peace Trust was established to be the home of the Community for Non-Violent Action, renamed to reflect the permanence of the group in southeastern Connecticut. Bob, however, wrote the trust agreement to be dynamic and flexible, so that the land could be used for a variety of purposes. Called the “Peace Farm” in those early years, the flexibility written into the original trust agreement proved to have been a wise decision as the priorities, programs, faces and names of the Voluntown Peace Trust changed throughout the decades, while continuing to promote peace. Next week: we will dig even deeper into the history of the Campbell Farm property, and into the history of the founding of Voluntown, Connecticut. (click here to view the original post on Facebook)
On this week's Peace of History: Let us return to Polaris Action in New London, summer of 1960, and examine the impression that CNVA and the Peacemakers had left on feminist author Barbara Deming. Near the end of the Action, in late August, the Peacemakers ran a 16-day nonviolence training in New London which was regularly attended by 30-50 people. The participants ranged in age, race and gender and came from a diversity of backgrounds, from the religiously devout (of many different faiths) to young “beatnik” types. Having read Gandhi for the past year, Deming’s curiosity was piqued, but she still arrived skeptical, planning “to attend for perhaps a day.” She would write for the Nation afterwards: “But I had expected to be unimpressed by the people I would find in New London. I assumed blandly that if they were, in fact, impressive, I should somehow have heard about them before this.” That skepticism dissipated over just the first few hours of the training -- enough, at least, to convince Deming to stay another day. She would ultimately attend every day of the sixteen day training. By the end of it, Deming was convinced that “The ‘pacifists’ are the only freely active people I have met in a long time” because their uniquely principled lifestyles revealed them to be “above all people ready to act.” From that same Nation article, Deming wrote: “Coming face to face with them was, in fact, like entering a new world.” Indeed, after Polaris Action, and as a direct result of her experiences there, Deming joined CNVA herself. For the next two decades, Deming participated in innumerable civil rights and anti-war activities, adopting that same freedom and spontaneity into her own life that she had first witnessed and admired during that summer in New London. Deming would go on to commit the rest of her life not only to the principles of nonviolence, but also to the incorporation of nonviolence theory into feminist practice, as well as to the communication of those principles to the public at large. Joanne Sheehan tells the story of Barbara Deming and others at the Peacemakers/CNVA training in the video “Roots of Nonviolent Direct Action Training” (https://youtu.be/jprdqKEBGvU?t=790). If possible, we strongly encourage reading Barbara Deming’s own words. This Peace of History quoted heavily from Deming’s Nation article “The Peacemakers” (Dec. 17, 1960), which is itself an incredibly honest and moving first-hand impression of Polaris Action -- and all the more exciting to read knowing how profoundly the experience shaped her life after. "The Peacemakers" was printed in Barbara Deming's book Revolution and Equilibrium and can also be found in the Barbara Deming reader We Are All Part of One Another. Next week: we will dig into more of the history of VPT proper to tell the story of how and why the CNVA acquired a 54-acre farm in Voluntown at all. |
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