Early Settler Accounts

http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/becomingamer/growth/text1/text1read.htm

For this blog post, I found an extraordinary extract taken from a travel journal of a young woman named Sarah Kemble Knight. In October 1704 Knight (originally from Boston) began a five-month round-trip journey to New York City to complete some family business. I found this journal fascinating as Knight travelled alone along the whole way and she also described the colony of Connecticut, emphasising the diversity and prosperity of its white inhabitants and how it differed from her hometown of Boston.

The colony of Connecticut was an english colony located in North America, thought to be founded by an Englishman named Edward Winslow of Plymouth Colony Connecticut. Originally known as the River Colony, it was organised on March 3, 1636 as a haven for Puritan gentlemen. It is thought that these Puritan settlers had been attracted to the area by the excellent reports brought back by one of their members, John Oldham, in 1633. Oldham returned to the Connecticut area in 1634 and in the following year Puritans flocked in great numbers to the Connecticut River Valley. In 1636, an Englishman named Thomas Hooker left Newtown and settled near the Dutch trading post that had been established on the site of Hartford. The Pequot people resisted white settlement, but by the late 1630's the English had gained control of the colony permanently.

Sarah Kemble Knight gives a very detailed account of what the predominantly white colonies of America were like back in the mid 1600's:

'They are Govern’d by the same Laws as we in Boston (or little differing) throughout this whole Colony of Connecticut, And much the same way of Church Government, and many of them good, Sociable people, and I hope Religious too.'

Knight describes them as having the same laws as they did back in Boston, this shows that already within America their is beginning to be uniform in the way in which the country is run, this tells us that America within this time period was moving forward to becoming a country as a whole rather than separate states. Night also mentions that their are laws about 'a harmless Kiss or Innocent merriment among Young people' and that often a whipping was a frequent way of dealing with crimes within the area.

An extract from Knights journal I found most interesting was when she described a 'young negro slave' stealing a hogshead (wooden barrel) from his master and then selling it on to an indian native of the place. What I found shocking was that she then goes on to explain how the court at the time accused to Native Indian of stealing from the Slave

'You, Indian, why did You steal from this man? You shouldn’t do so ⎯ it’s a Grandy wicked thing to steal. Hol’t Hol’t, cries Justice Junior Brother, You speak negro to him. I’ll ask him. You, sirrah, why did You steal this man’s Hogshead? Hogshead? (replies the Indian,) me no stomany. No? says his Worship; and pulling off his hat, Patted his own head with his hand, says, Tatapa⎯You, Tatapa⎯you; all one this. Hogshead all one this. Hah!'

This extract shows how divided the Native Indians within the colony and the new settlers were. The court of law would blame a native Indian for a crime over (at the time) a black slave. This is shocking as later on in her journal she describes how when she passed through the towns, there was a large amount of native Indians. She calls them savages which shows that the natives of the colonies were not welcome anywhere within America.

Knight also describes the landscape of Connecticut: 'There are great plenty of Oysters all along by the seaside, as far as I Rode in the Colony, and those very good. And they Generally lived very well and comfortably in their families.'

The fact that she uses the word comfortable, makes it seem that Connecticut was more affluent at that time than Boston. This gives us an isight into what the colony was like. She talks about how she is shocked that the slaves are able to eat with them at the dinner table and how 'into the dish goes the black hoof as freely as the white hand.' Knight also refers to the fashion of the colony and how it is different from her own. She writes that the women are generally very plain in their dress and they tend to follow one another in their models (fashions). I think that the words Knight uses to describe the Native Indians within the colony are questionable.

'The most savage of all the savages of that kind that I had ever Seen: little or no care taken to make them otherwise. They have in some places Lands of their own, and Govern’d by Laws of their own making; they marry many wives and at pleasure put them away, and on the least dislike or fickle humour, on either side, saying stand away to one another is a sufficient Divorce.'

I believe Knight doesn't feel she can have any 'use' out of the Natives of the colonies, much like everyone else during that era, she believes that they are of no use to her and so she looks down upon them. I think this is a negative view on the Natives as the people of the time could have learnt a lot about the land form them.