From Paradise to Prison

From Paradise to Prison. South Boston. , Quonehassit, now known as Boston Harbor, is part of the ancestral lands of the Massachusett, one of many Algonkian peoples in eastern North America. For generations, thousands of Massachusett lived on the harbor islands in warmer months, fishing, foraging, and farming. When English captain John Smith visited the Harbor in 1614, he called it "the Paradise of all those parts.", After founding Boston in 1630, English colonists continued to expand into Native lands. In 1675, indigenous resistance culminated in war between an Algonkian tribal alliance and the English and their Native allies. During the conflict, later called King Philip's War, colonists rounded up Native people living peacefully among them and forced them into concentration camps on the harbor islands. Without adequate food or shelter, more than half of those imprisoned on the islands died that winter., Colonists held war captives , men, women, and children , in the fort here on Castle Island before selling them into slavery as far away as North Africa. Hundreds of enslaved Algonkians passed through Castle Island in the 1670s, never to return to their homeland.,

"Why shall wee have peace to bee made slaves, and either be kild or sent away to sea to Barbadoes?" , - Algonkian warriors on why they would not surrender during King Philip's War, as recounted by James Quannapaquait, a Native emissary sent by the English to gather information from "enemy" Algonkians, 1676, "We are all here. Against all odds, we have survived as a people. Ritual dance drum, rattle, song, and rites of passage all enable the present day Massachusett tribe to transfer knowledge of our ancestors to succeeding generations. We thank our ancestors for keeping the traditions, for their foresight and the gifts they left us." , -Ren Green, Medicine Sac'hem of the Massachusett, 2018

, [Captions:] , The bountiful tideland environment of the harbor islands provided the Massachusett with fish, shellfish, berries, wood splints for basket-making, fertile soil for farming, and many other resources. ~ Painting by Robert Peters, a Mashpee Wampanoag artist, Detail of John Smith's map of New England (first published 1616) showing Quonehassit/Boston Harbor. Although no English settlements existed yet, Smith depicted Native towns with European buildings and asked Crown Prince Charles to give them English names in an effort to claim the land as an English colony. ~ Courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center at Boston Public Library, This European-style portrait of a Native American sac'hem, or leader, was completed ca. 1700, making it one of the earliest surviving depictions of an indigenous person in New England. ~ Courtesy of the RISD Museum