Deer Island (Massachusetts) in the context of Nipmuc

👉 Deer Island (Massachusetts) in the context of Nipmuc

The Nipmuc or Nipmuck people are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who historically spoke an Eastern Algonquian language, probably the Loup language. Their historic territory Nippenet, meaning 'the freshwater pond place', is in central Massachusetts and nearby parts of Connecticut and Rhode Island.

The Nipmuc Tribe had contact with traders and fishermen from Europe prior to the colonization of the Americas. The first recorded contact with Europeans was in 1630, when John Acquittamaug took maize to sell to the starving colonists of Boston, Massachusetts. After the colonists encroached on their land, negotiated fraudulent land sales and introduced legislation designed to encourage further European settlement, many Nipmucs joined Metacomet's war, known as King Philip's War, in 1675, though they were unable to defeat the colonists. Many Nipmuc were held captive on Deer Island in Boston Harbor and died of disease and malnutrition, while others were executed or sold into slavery in the West Indies.

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Deer Island (Massachusetts) in the context of Praying town

Praying towns were settlements established by English colonial governments in New England from 1646 to 1675 in an effort to convert local Native Americans to Christianity.

The Native people who moved into the towns were known as Praying Indians. Before 1674 the villages were the most ambitious experiment in converting Native Americans to Christianity in the Thirteen Colonies, and led to the creation of the first books in an Algonquian language, including the first bible printed in British North America. During King Philip's War from 1675 to 1678, many praying towns were depopulated, in part due to the forced internment of praying Indians on Deer Island, many of whom died during the winter of 1675. After the war, many of the originally praying towns which were allotted were never reestablished, however some praying towns remained. Living descendants in New England trace their ancestry to residents of praying towns.

View the full Wikipedia page for Praying town

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