This important talk by award-winning historian Margaret Newell revealed the origins of New England slavery in the Pequot War - a violent conflict from the first years of the Massachusetts colony in which the colonists took the first step establishing slavery for both Indigenous and African peoples. Michael Thomas, Mashantucket Pequot Museum board member, and Rashad Young, member of the cultural resources department of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, added the essential Pequot perspective.

The Pequot War shaped the law and practice of slavery in New England in fundamental ways. English adventurers/explorers kidnapped and trafficked Native inhabitants of New England before 1630. But the practice moved into a new, much more intensive stage in the summer of 1637 with the outbreak of the Pequot War, the first major conflict between English and Indigenous peoples in the region.

Many scholars have explored the causes and consequences of the Pequot War but, as documented in Margaret Newell's groundbreaking book, Brethren by Nature, enslavement of Indians quickly became a key goal of that war - one reflected in military orders, troop movements, the treatment of civilian non-combatants, and in the treaty that ended the conflict.

This makes the Pequot War a crucial event in the history of New England slavery, affecting Indigenous peoples across the region and shaping African slavery. Indeed, and contrary to common belief, Indigenous enslavement became ubiquitous.

Colonial governments distributed Pequot captives to ministers, soldiers, and magistrates. The governor’s “Mansion House” and nearby Cole’s Tavern in Boston housed Pequot slaves, as did many harbor islands. Boston and Salem authorities punished Native runaways, built a slave pen, and used Pequot men and boys as a commodity to enter the lucrative Caribbean trade. Massachusetts Bay’s 1641 legal code, drafted in the wake of the war, included a law of slavery and legalized enslavement of captives.

Individual colonies adopted “slave codes before slavery” that affected both free and enslaved Indians, creating a constant threat of enslavement. The Pequot War demonstrated a destructive side of colonial settlers’ actions that many Native American groups would experience, one that included displacement, violence, family separation, and theft of labor and resources.

To purchase Brethren by Nature - which we can't recommend highly enough - click here.

See also a few of Margaret Newell's op-eds, podcasts and lectures:

"Our Hidden History: Roger Williams and Slavery's Origins," Providence Journal and Bulletin, August 29, 2020

"History Holds Lessons for Nation in Grip of Pandemic," Columbus Dispatch, August 1, 2020

Episode 220: "New England Indians, Colonists and the Origins of Slavery," Ben Franklin's World podcast, January 8, 2019

Lectures in History: State Constitutions, C-SPAN, March 23, 2022

Margaret Newell is the distinguished arts and sciences professor and professor of history at Ohio State University. She is the author of Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists and the Origins of American Slavery (Cornell University Press, 2015; paperback 2016) and From Dependency to Independence: Economic Revolution in Colonial New England (Cornell University Press, 1998; paperback 2015). She won numerous awards for Brethren by Nature, including the Peter Gomes Memorial Prize, Massachusetts Historical Society, and the James A. Rawley Prize for best book dealing with the history of race relations in the United States, Organization of American Historians. Brethren by Nature was supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, an Andrew Mellon Fellowship at the Huntington Library and a fellowship at the John Nicholas Brown Center. She has also received awards for her articles.

She is currently working on three books, one provisionally entitled Undergrounds Before the Age of Rail: Escaping Slavery and Helping Slaves Escape in Colonial America, about which she'll be giving a presentation for the Partnership of Historic Bostons in winter 2024.

Find out more about Margaret's scholarship at her website and OSU's history department.

Michael Thomas is former chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council, 1994-2009. He is currently on the board of directors of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, which brings to life the story of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and is a major resource on the histories and cultures of Native Americans in the northeast.

Rashad Young is an enrolled member of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation who also descends from the Narragansett, Pokanoket and Nemasket Tribal Nations. He is a member of the cultural resources department of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, researching Pequot and other southern New England Algonkian and working to revitalize Indigenous languages of the Pequot and neighbouring Tribes. A skilled woodworker, he creates traditional bows and flutes, which he also plays.

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The opinions expressed in this presentation are those of the presenter and not necessarily those of the Partnership of Historic Bostons.

Image: This portrait was long thought to be of Niantic leader Ninigret II, but recent scholarship identifies it as Robin Cassacinamon, an important Pequot leader. Native American Sachem, accession number 48.246, courtesy of RISD/public domain.

We are grateful to Mass Humanities for its support of the live-streaming of this lecture.