End Products of History

My North Carolina and American Revolution professor, Dr. Wade Dudley, has often commented on how unusual it was for me to have a major in American History yet a minor in "Mathematics and the Sciences," a title coined by another friend and academic adviser, my African History professor, Dr. Kenneth Wilburn.  As I'm sure that I've indicated previously, I am a "non-traditional student," a term use by universities that you can read as "old fart."  My academic pursuits took the better part of 27 years (with a 2-decade interim) to achieve what most do in 4 years!  Twenty years ago, I was an Astronomy major.  "A what?," you say.  Yep... Astronomy.  I really got discouraged with that line and dropped out of school to experience the "working-man's" life.  Still, I have many science credits, including a lot of chemistry and math.  So, there's the reason for the minor... what to do with ALL of those credits.

Can I possibly relate my scientific background to American History?  Quite possibly, that answer is yes.  My reasoning is chemical in nature.  To begin a reaction, you take two chemical compounds, heretofore unrelated, mix them together, and observe the reaction.  The end products quite likely include a totally unique compound not easily identifiable chemically with the reactants.  Sodium is a metal that explodes on contact with water and chlorine is a green, poisonous gas.  Together, however, they make NaCl or common table salt that we eat, indeed, absolutely need for our survival!  Ironically, two deadly ideas can give you something unique and even useful.  Same with history.

Take for instance our present work with determining what happened with North Carolina's native inhabitants of Hatteras Island and the long unanswered question of the "Lost Colonists."  What were the Indians like that we see in the 18th-century deed records?  Were they products of the "Lost Colonists" (now, more appropriately termed "Abandoned Colonists") and the local Croatoan Indians of Hatteras Island?

The natives along the mainland viewed Europeans as deadly as that Chlorine gas while Europeans (especially Ralph Lane) saw the natives as Sodium.  Could these two come together and make such a mild compound as salt?  Maybe.

John White certainly was not as destructive as Lane.  When he brought his 100+ colonists in 1587, they intended to settle down, not privateer against the Spanish as the militant Ralph Lane had desired.  Still, others believe that the English government might have had a hidden agenda, to seek Sassafras and they have adequately demonstrated that the medicinal properties of that tree were quite valuable for a short period of time that coincided with Sir Walter Ralegh's (also involved in merchandising Sassafras) colonization period, even that Samuel Mace returned to the area in 1602 to seek it out.  Indeed, the English government may have abandoned search efforts for the colonists to instead search for the tremendously valuable Sassafras.  "Follow the dollar," says Dr. Dudley. It hasn't steered me wrong yet.  Another point that I should make here is also that Cape Hatteras was considered by mariners of the day as a deadly place to go because of the dangerous shoals, contributing even further to the relative isolation of the Croatoan.  Mariners likely viewed Hatteras as the volatile crucible of our chemical experiment.  Eighteenth-century newspaper articles adequately demonstrate this. 

The Sassafras "craze" was a short "bubble" that eventually burst, but not until the colonists were long forgotten.  Still, only a few decades went by before Englishmen from Virginia began filtering down the Outer Banks repopulating the area.  By then, natives were mostly reduced to as much as 10% of their former numbers (disease has had a widespread devastation all across the contact areas in America). 

Without a doubt, some of those colonists lived with the natives of Croatoan, now known as Hatteras.  That's where John White expected to find them because that's where they told him to find them.  Unfortunately, White was prevented from returning to Croatoan by an ever-irritable phenomenon called a "nor'easter" and he never saw his daughter nor granddaughter, Virginia Dare, again.  And, of course, Mace was busy in 1602 looking for plants instead of people (if I need rescue, don't send Samuel Mace).  No mention was made of Hatteras' inhabitants by the English who came down in the 17th century... it was up to John Lawson, in 1701, to find the blue-grey-eyed Indians on Hatteras and claimed that "several of their Ancestors were white People, and could talk in a Book..." and also, in Lawson's words, "this Settlement miscarry'd for want of timely Supplies from England; or thro' the Treachery of the Natives, for we may reasonably suppose that the English were forced to cohabit with them, for Relief and Conversation; and that in process of Time, they conform'd themselves to the Manners of their Indian Relations. And thus we see, how apt Humane Nature is to degenerate."

In my opinion, however, the Indians of Hatteras were not a degenerative end-product of the combination of the two "explosive" elements from our traditional version of the story (related in its present form since the 1939 beginning of the play that rocketed Andy Griffith to stardom).  They were the salt of the earth, so to speak.  They were the mild testimonial of what we all are capable of... getting along when we try.  Lawson was better than most of his peers, but he was still biased toward English (later, American) viewpoints of the Indian "savage."  Sadly, the winner writes history, as they say.

This may not have been the perfect analogy for the chemical reaction, for the Croatoan were never really the "explosive" enemy of the early colonists.   But, the end-products were indeed something unique.  For a time, a handful of Englishmen may have experienced life in a simpler form.  They may have forgotten the struggles of modern existence and lived a pastoral life with friends.  The romantic in me wants to see it that way.  The historian/scientist in me will present the findings, whatever they might be.  But, there's still hope.

Colonial Squirrel Chase

Hear ye!  Hear ye!  All colonists prepare your muskets and yer snares! 

A 1723 Act of the North Carolina General Assembly, Chapter VIII, was entitled "An Act for destroying Squirrels."  Why?  Apparently, because of the furry little American natives, "much Damage and injury is Yearly done as well to the Corn as to the Mast in General in the Several precincts of Pequimins, Pasquotanck and Currituck within this province...."  Does that make sense to you?  Well, it did in 1723 apparently.  This Act was recorded in the North Carolina Colonial Records; available online specifically at http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr25-0015

"That every person or persons who after the Ratification of this Act shall kill and. destroy any Squirrels shall, as Encouragem't therefore, have and receive for each Squirrel the Sum of three pence, to be paid to him or them or to his or their Order by the Vestry men of the parish where he or they are Inhabitants or Resident, in Such Manner and at such times and places as are herein after particularly Set forth; That is to Say, at the Vestry House or place of their Usual meeting, within one Month after Easter Monday now next ensuing..."

That's right... you shoot or capture as many squirrels as you can during the year, "bring in the Same or the scalps of the Same, with the Ears on" to your local church at a date to be set "within one Month after Easter Monday now next ensuing" and get 3 pence each for them.  And to raise the money for the Squirrel Bounty, "the said vestrymen are hereby authorized and impowered to lay a Levy or Tax equally on each Tythable in their Respective Parish to defray and discharge the aforesaid full amount, and no More, and thereupon Cause the Same forthwith to be collected and received by the Church Wardens or Church Warden or such other person or persons as he or they shall appoint for collecting and receiving the other parish Levys and at the Same time..."

Yeah, you got taxed for it.  Do we call it the "Nut tax?"  This was to be a yearly deal.  Happy hunting fellow colonists!  

Chasing Hatteras Indians

This summer, I have taken a break from the books to explore Hatteras Island history with Roberta Estes, Dawn Taylor, Anne Poole, Scott Dawson, and many other fine professionals and experienced volunteers to find out what happened to John White's Roanoke colonists. Yeah, I know... not again! Well, yes... this time, it's a serious and painstaking approach to find those who might have blended with the original Croatoan Indians and then spread out into Eastern NC, becoming "lost" in plain sight, as they say.

As Scott will tell you in his book, Croatoan: Birthplace of America, the colonists of 1587 were not "lost" but rather abandoned on Croatoan (Hatteras). John White knew that they had gone to Croatoan by the message they left for him on Roanoke and tried to get there but was held off by a storm. His captain told him that they couldn't stay and so they went back to England. White had waited for three years, held in check by the attack of the Spanish Armada that concentrated all of England's naval forces upon the attack. When he finally gets the chance to rescue his daughter, her husband and newborn daughter, Virginia Dare, plus the other hundred or so colonists, he is forced to leave and never to return. If Queen Elizabeth had lived, she may have sent another mission. Unfortunately, she died and James I became king. It was James I who had other directions to go... namely founding Jamestown in 1607. As a consequence, he simply abandoned the search altogether. The colonists presumably lived with the friendly Croatoan on Hatteras, possibly marrying into the tribe, to be rediscovered by John Lawson in 1701. "Grey-eyed" Indians that could "talk in a book" impressed him not too little and he made note of this in his book, A New Voyage to Carolina, text available at UNC's Documenting the American South website. [Scott Dawson is a local historian and researcher who maintains Hatteras Histories Mysteries museum in Buxton.]

Anyway, Europeans came into NC mostly through Virginia in the later half of the 17th century and probably refound the Croatoan still on the island (they had incurred the enmity of the mainland tribes for hanging out with the Europeans who had tried to kill them more than once). Still, White's colony was not Richard Grenville and his gang, the butthead that he was and the Croatoan got along just fine with them.

As for blending with the Indians, a process known as "miscegenation," a possible letter to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (whew!) tells of people from Hatteras and Ocracoke who came to get baptized. The letter states that, "these persons, half indian and half English, are an offense to my own and I gravely doubt the Kingdom of Heaven was designed to accomodate such. They stunk and their condition was not improved by the amounts of sacramental wine they lapped up nor by sprinkling with baptismal waters."  This letter was found in the Hatterasman, by Ben Dixon MacNeill.

If these guys are the descendants of half-English and half-Croatoans, they may also be the descendants of White's colonists! That's the supposition and that's what the Lost Colony Research Group (the group I joined) is trying to prove. DNA is going to be the answer to this question and it involves DNA comparisons across the Atlantic Ocean with samples obtained from living relatives of colonists who left Bideford, England. The former mayor of Bideford, Andy Powell, is gun-ho with this idea and would lead it himself if we didn't tag along. lol The rest of us, many of us students and researchers like myself are tasked with providing the historical research to link these early colonists with living descendants today for DNA comparison purposes. (Note that the Lost Colony Center for Science and Research has had some questionable practices lately and I do not recommend working through them.)

My task as of late has been to do Hyde County research on the surnames involved and also to piece back together a map of Hatteras in 1770. The Indian Town mentioned on many deeds from 1716 to 1801 is the target of our groups' archaeological study and we would like to know where it is. That would be a good idea before you start digging. Aside from this town, two digs have already been done, turning up thousands of artifacts, some of which are displayed in Scott's local museum. Compare this with Roanoke Island's 102 digs and the resulting lack of artifacts. Hatteras is a wealth of native knowledge yet to be explored. We could be very close to a discovery of immense importance. Time will tell. Personally, I'd like to think that North Carolina has the first English colony in North America. That would just be cool. But, to possibly be descended from those particular colonists is beyond exciting for many North Carolinians!

Revisionist Blues

WARNING: THIS IS FAKE! If I find out that anybody painted an historical marker because of this JOKE, I will verbally abuse you until you bleed from the ears!

Well, where do I start? This is generally about politics. I know.. EVERYTHING is about politics. When you come right down to it, politics is best described as a power struggle over the sandbox. Educated and uneducated alike dwell in this netherworld of emotion... depending on reason ONLY when it will benefit you somehow. Our country's educational system has always been plagued by this anathema towards reality.

Yes, I'm jaded. lol

Recently, I wrote a paper that retells the genesis of Wilmington, North Carolina as a product of political changes in English politics. Earlier stories going back over a hundred years or more tell the story as though there were essentially walls up around our state. We've protected anything North Carolinian because, frankly, we've had little to protect... especially in the beginning of the colony and well into the eighteenth century.

This is what created our unique beliefs and political system which Rob Christensen, a former News & Observer reporter, wrote about in his book, The Paradox of Tarheel Politics. If you haven't read this book and you want to understand why we are the way we are, get it!

That paper I wrote? It retells the history of the Lower Cape Fear in a way that no one has ever told before. It explains the references in the Colonial Records so much better than anything written in the past (in my opinion) because it allows England to be the leader of colonial America... and it was! This is not a popular opinion. In walks the dark and menacing politics! The Revolution may be long over but, the attitudes that were cultured by that conflict still affect our beliefs, ideals, and even our current decisions... especially in North Carolina, who struggled after the Revolution to be one of the "big boys" in colonial politics. We were always attached at the hip to South Carolina, more highly favored by the British administration and still favored by the early United States as well. It stuck!

Our history has been the greatest casualty in that war. Romantic historians abused the truth everywhere in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and even more so here. For example, I will illustrate this with my favorite guy to pick on... Edward Moseley (my wife gets real tired of his name). This is what George Davis had to say about the man:

“Of all the men who watched and guided the tottering footsteps of our infant State, there was not one who in intellectual ability, in solid and polite learning, in scholarly cultivation and refinement, in courage and endurance, in high Christian morality, in generous consideration for the welfare of others, in all true merit in fine, which makes a man among men, who could equal Edward Moseley.”
---- Hon. George Davis

I have recently studied this war-profiteer and I can tell you that this Davis quote is NOT the real Edward Moseley by any means! Still, historians have put the guy on a pedestal because he was one of our state's first examples of a prominent "revolutionary." He may have died in 1749, but he was still a great symbol of fighting the government (in 1776, the "oppressive" and hated ENGLISH government). Understand this: George Davis was a secessionist during the Civil War (still fairly well regarded down here), a slave owner, AND a politician. It's politics that made Moseley the hero you will find on the Highway marker down Highway 117 in Pender County. You can tell by the photo attached to this article that I've had my fun with "Eddie." Davis and dozens of other historians and politicians undoubtedly helped Moseley get on that marker. Still, North Carolina historian, Samuel Ashe (great-nephew to Edward Moseley) rarely talked about his uncle when he wrote about 100 historical figures in North Carolina. He talked a lot about the Moore family though, three generations of them! Moseley was their partner in the Lower Cape Fear adventures of 1726-1733. Still, his own kin didn't acknowledge his contributions and no definitive work has yet come out to detail Edward Moseley's life. Could it be that no one wants to hear the truth? Yep!

The revisionist atmosphere in history today may finally expose Edward Moseley for the fraud he was. I'm trying hard... lol (and taking some flack). Likewise, the story of Wilmington, as opposed to the first town on the Cape Fear river, Brunswick Town, has been suppressed as well. England made Wilmington. Still, historians are guilty of succumbing to a fear that undoubtedly kept them focused away from England and away from the entire country of America in favor of telling North Carolina's "valuable" history.

Now, I'm North Carolinian and proud of it. But, I want to know exactly what I'm proud of... the truth. There's lots to be proud of... but, people like Edward Moseley (even his kin, the early Moores of Cape Fear) are seldom the kind of neighbors you want over for supper. The only coup ever recorded in American history occurred in Wilmington in 1898 and you'll never guess who the coup's leader, Alfred Moore Waddell's grandpa was. Waddell was quoted as saying that he would keep blacks out of Wilmington government even if he has to "choke the Cape Fear River with carcasses." Maurice Moore's grandsons were still causing trouble the old-fashioned, good-ol'-boy way. Oh, yeah, Waddell was a politician, too. Then, there's Jesse Helms but let's let Rob Christensen tell that story.

What got my gourd lately was when I tried to publish this piece on Wilmington. You submit a paper, then have it reviewed by your peers, then they make a recommendation to the publishers about whether or not to publish the article. Well, I had every reasonable hope that my Brunswick-Wilmington story would make it. My university had endorsed my work by crowning it with "Honors Thesis of the Year," as well as sending me to Montana to present the work nationally. Many have told me privately that they really like my writing style as well. What's to worry about? Politics. That's what. lol

My article was rejected by the reviewer... even the publisher was trying to understand why. It's seems that the article is just the sort of history the publishers want to publish. But, the reviewer had problems with my "style" and said that it wasn't publishable quality. I admit, my style is a little different but, apparently just the shot in the arm that revisionists feel is needed. The big problem was politics... the unpopularity of the truth in social circles. So, I'm back to rewrites, trying to preserve something that will be enjoyable to read while trying to educate my fellow North Carolinians on their history. Tell me... you've just read this blog... what do you think of my style?

Mattamuskeet Indian Reservation

Complete Document; 1 April 1727: North Carolina Secretary of State Office, Land Grant Library, File 76.
His Excellency John Lord Carteret Palatine, and the rest of the true and absolute Lords Proprietors of Carolina, to persons to whome these presents shall come Greeting in our Lord God Everlasting - Know ye that we the said Lords and absolute proprietors, for and in consideration of the Sum of two Buck Skins in hand paid to our Resever General by King Squieres and the rest of the Indians, commonly called the Mattamuskeet Indians, we hereby Give, Grant, Sell, alien, enfeoff and confirm unto the said Squieres and, and the rest of the Indians commonly called the Mattamaskeet Indians, a tract of Land lying and being at Mattamuskeet on Pamplycoe sound, containing by Estimation, Ten Thousand two hundred and forty acres Beginning at the Mouth of old Mattamuskeet creek, runing up that creek and the Northern most branch of it to the head thereof, thence to the Lake SoWs (___gap___) pole, then along the Lake Southerly to Matchapungo Bluff woods, then NoEs to Pamlicoe sound, from thence along Pamlico sound to the first Station -- To Have and to Hold the said Land, with all rights and Priviledges of Hunting, Hacoking, Fishing and Fowling, with all woods, waters and rivers, with all profits and commoditys and Hereditaments to the same Belonging or appertaining, Except one half of all Gold and Silver Mines unto him the said King Squieres and Mattamuskeet Indians his Heirs and Assigns forever, Yielding and paying unto us and our Heirs and Successors Yearly, every 29th day of September the fee rent of one Shilling, for every hundred acres Hereby Granted to be Holden of us our Heirs and Successors,, in free and Common Sochage Given under the Seal of the Colloney, the first day of April, one Thousand seven hundred and twenty seven
Witness our Trusty and wall Beloved Sir Richd. Everard, Baron. Governor, and the rest of our Trusty and well Beloved Councellors who have hereunto set their Hands--
C. Gale
I. Worley
Edmd. Gale Tho. Harvey
Franics Forster
E. Mosely
I. Lovick
Richd. Everard
Wm. Reed



Is this the Mattamuskeet Reservation? If so, the Indians sold it many times, in pieces or in whole. The reference to NE from the lake edge has to be wrong. That configuration makes no sense. But, change NE to SE and we get the above plot. Edward Moseley often got his survey details wrong because he rarely surveyed them. I am sure that an Indian Reservation was not high on his list of importance as he was most concerned with personal profit and he had already reaped some rewards from Tuscarora lands, after the Indians were removed, that is.



Notice that “Long Shoal R.” (actually much farther to the north and nowhere near the lake) is the northernmost creek, then “Old Mattamuskeet Cr” (correct: about where Far Creek is, but actually should be where “Long Shoal R.” is) then “New Mattamuskeet Cr.” Third (Wysocking?). Passing all the way to the west of the lake, we find Matchapungo Bluff. The bluff is clearly directly south of the lake on other maps. I often wonder if Eddie did drugs. He probably never saw this place. I mean, how could you develop a survey like the one here for the Mattamuskeet Reservation (and he WAS the surveyor-general at the time) and still draw a map like this six years later? He was drunk or completely ignorant of the area!
There’s just one kink in this theory. If Gullrock is included in the Reservation, and Matchapungo Bluff is on the south of the lake like it is today, then this reservation was more than three times the stated 10,240 acres! But, that wouldn’t be unusual for Moseley. He never set foot on this land when it was “surveyed,” just like he did with many of his surveys. Many colonists had to have them redone because they “could not determine the sd bounds within the sd patent” or something like that. Many plots of land were as much as three times the size… or maybe that much less. I found all too common complaints in the Colonial Records.
This might explain why the supposedly “savage” (therefore, unable to take advantage of a survey error) Indians were able to sell this land at least twice… lol. If that’s the case, however, even my NE to SE fixit will not work, but Eddie drew his surveys on paper and from his 1733 map, the area that he was “surveying” was quite a bit different than he thought. It works when you look at his map! Eddie thought he was giving them a small piece of the pie.

Time to put on your genes!

We're southerners and we have one hell of a tradition. Part of that tradition, however has been to stick our collective head between our knees. I've been a genealogist for long enough now to be aware of a change in the accepted method that we genealogists use. For many years , we were taught to ignore certain parts of census records because they did not apply to us. Blacks, whites, and mulattoes have always been distinct groups. Science progresses and old methods are replaced by newer, more valid ones. It goes for history or any discipline, really. Genealogy is becoming a countrywide sensation these days thanks to DNA. However, for the longest time, genealogy was more popular in the South than it was in the North or out west. Why the attention on Southeastern America then?

We wanted to reaffirm our "purity" and record it definitively for all time. Were we worried about our heritage? I think we might have been and where there's smoke, there's fire. Recently, we have begun to accept some blending in our genetic sense of purity. It has become a delight to discover that Indian connection. Accepting the Indian connection, however, opens doors we southerners might not want to walk through. DNA virtually slams the door behind us, in fact!

The South is ground zero for the American invasion and that's where the trouble first started. The invasion was typified by English raiders (well, that's what they were). Indians (now the accepted "P.C." phrase) were pushed back and disregarded for the entire colonial period. I've lately been part of a "fact-finding" group at East Carolina University, interested in re-discovering the Indians of our earliest days. In that process, my findings (collecting Indian-related colonial records) have begun to show similar results found by both Stephen Feeley in "Tuscarora Trails" and Noeleen McIlveena in A Very Mutinous People. These records show that North Carolina started off as a "black sheep" colony and that Virginia and South Carolina, with better port access, were much more favored by English authorities, interested in taking advantage of the sea trade before the Revolution. Only since our progress in building road access and intra/inter-colonial trade through the colonies (in other words, not with England) did we climb out of the hole.

Still, that time spent in the netherworld of English disdain was critical for this state's cultural development. Yes, I said "cultural." We are very different from other states today for the very reason of being left to ourselves for so long. If you have any doubt of that fact, I encourage you to get a copy of Rob Christensen's A Paradox of Tarheel Politics and you will come away with a huge "OH....," that travels lightyears in helping us understand the enigma of Jesse Helms, among others. This was a "cultural" difference.

Now, I'd like you to ponder what that implies. I can tell you that while England's desire for settlement of America was simply financial, the Indian was completely disregarded in the accounting books, except as a supplier of certain goods (deerskins, beaver pelts, etc). These became the rage in English, French, Dutch... well, European societies. North Carolina needed the money and, so cultivated a relationship to obtain these articles. Different subsistence technologies aside, we liked Indians. Even after the Tuscarora War, we tried to maintain a congenial relationship.

One thing that South Carolinians were known for was Indian slavery. Alan Gallay, Stephen Feeley, and Neoleen McIlveena can explain this aspect best. The gist of it is that South Carolinians (and other colonies) collected Indians that they didn't want, "freighted" them to Charles Town for transfer to New England or the West Indies, anywhere but mainland America where they could continue being a nuisance to the colonists here. South Carolina was known
for this, but they were by far not the only colony to observe these practices.

Except , for the most part, North Carolina (during the colonial period, that is). What I have been seeing as I dove into the colonial and British records, is that North Carolina applied (comparatively) the greatest efforts of any colony to work with the natives that they had to share this land with. In my opinion, the fact that North Carolinians received no favors from the English government contributed greatly to their need to seek other partners and allies. The various nations next door served that purpose admirably well: Tuscarora, Bear (Bay) River, Meherrin, Nottoway, Saponi, Coree, ... the list goes on. Even after the Tuscarora War of 1711-1713 (some use 1715, but the fighting was largely over by 1713), in which South Carolinians, in an effort to make use of Tuscarora slaves before Virginia could make another "border-tribe" out of them, kidnapped several hundred, reducing the native population to a "manageable" level in North Carolina. They did this supposedly as an "aid" to the North Carolina government, desperate to survive Indian attacks, but it was a political maneuver designed to profit from the slaves. My "friend" for the past year and a half, Mr. Edward Moseley, was instrumental in that effort, being an "adopted" young castaway to Charles Town elites like the Goose Creek Moores, of which Maurice Moore was a son. His efforts as a government official in North Carolina helped The Goose Creek Indian slavers to prevent aid (thus, any future influence) from Virginia. Indeed, he may have instigated the war to obtain those slaves in the first place. Gov. Robert Johnson of South Carolina implied the use of those tactics in a 1732 note to the Board of Trade in London. Boys will be boys, as they say. Personally, I'm trying to chastise Mr. Moseley, surprisingly held in great regard by North Carolina for the past two centuries. Apparently, making a map will get you lots of kuddos!

Why do you suppose that we viewed Moseley as such a "Great Man" all these years. For instance, D.H. Hill quoted George Davis as saying, “Of all the men who watched and guided the tottering footsteps of our infant State, there was not one who in intellectual ability, in solid and polite learning, in scholarly cultivation and refinement, in courage and endurance, in high Christian morality, in generous consideration for the welfare of others, in all true merit in fine, which makes a man among men, who could equal Edward Moseley.” ---- Putting this into perspective, let me tell you that Mr. Davis was a secessionist, a slave owner, a lawyer and a politician. My impression of D.H. Hill is no better because of it, either.

North Carolinians of the late 19th and early 20th century tended to view their state as an already established, fully-functioning and organized colony in 1704 when Moseley first arrived to take over in Governor Henderson Walker’s stead as the next husband of the wealthy Ann Lillington. It was not. It was a wilderness filled with exotic natives and great uncertainty, a backwoods quarry for the larger and more popular colony of South Carolina. It’s in this paltry backwoods world that Edward Moseley should be viewed, as an opportunist in a colony of opportunists. Moseley was not well-regarded by his contemporaries (nearly convicted I should say) but was later crowned as a “king” by romantic North Carolina historians. This has much to do with national ethnocentrism following the Revolution. Anything English was thrown out with the bathwater and anyone opposed to English rules was not only accepted, but often glorified. That answers the Moseley question.

What does this have to do with genealogy? I knew you were going to ask me that so let me tell you that it's so complicated that it needs a setup like this. As I said, DNA is making tremendous changes to the art of genealogy. It has already forced my family to re-evaluate the traditional lines and we've lost many "cousins" as a result simply because we have a similar last name. This is another change of perception not unlike turning Edward Moseley from a King into a crook. Losing "family" is just one part of the impact. And, thanks to the "Hippie" generation and "Civil Rights," some southerners might be ready to hear this.

The Lost Colony Genealogy And DNA Research Group has identified several haplogroups (roughly equal to ethnicities or branches of ethnic groups) in the DNA samples of many surnames in eastern North Carolina. These surnames also may have a connection to Indian groups like the Lumbee, who traditionally claim to be descended from the Lost Colonists themselves. Q and C haplogroups have the greatest connection to Indian groups, but there were other groups present as well. Haplogroup R is representative of southern Indians, the Muskogean stock. A few generations ago, it was not cool to have Indian blood. Today, it's exciting to make that discovery! Fickle of us isn't it? Is it exciting also when you hear about early Indian tribes and ex-slaves co-existing as a single entity, intermarrying with each other? Indians accepted everyone into their culture. Horticultural societies like Indians saw no color differences like agricultural Europeans who made cultural judgments based upon it, like "racist" ones. Charles W. Chestnutt wrote in 1904 an article titled, "The Free Colored People of North Carolina" in which he said, "Another source of free colored people in certain counties was the remnant of the Cherokee and Tuscarora Indians, who, mingling with the Negroes and poor whites, left more or less of their blood among the colored people of the state"(Chestnutt, 1904, 138). What Chestnutt did not say definitively was that Native Americans also contained African blood as well. After all, it was 1904...

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, if you want to open Pandora's genetic box and find Indian, you will also discover the absolutely irrefutable truth (made possible by scientific evidence), that most of us are a mix of genes comprising European, Indian, and African. There's not only milk in the coffee, but perhaps a little coffee in the milk... maybe a little cinnamon thrown in for an extra zing! And, it's even more common than we (or even Chestnutt) thought. Our ancestors did not write down everything they were doing... do you? Just like you father's critical accusing stare, you can't hide from DNA.

So, it's time that we shut up and get along, kiddies. We are all family. Let's just get used to it. America has suffered more than any nation on the planet because of racism... and there's never been a valid reason for any of it. We've lied to ourselves since day one. Slavery was money... capitalism... political. Just like Edward Moseley. Certain things were hidden about his past for political reasons like acquisition of wealth. But, no longer at least for Moseley thanks to serious research. Now, DNA is helping us to grow up a little more. Past preconceived notions are being shot down. But, the South still has a huge emotional stake in the "race" issue despite modern progressiveness. A teacher of mine told me about the meaning of the word "race." After he did, I realized that it never applied to the difference in color; in fact, it really does not apply to human beings at all. Color is simply a factor of melanin in the skin. Red flowers still pollinate yellow flowers. Apparently, we can pollinate each other across the world and did. And, if you have any doubts as to how this was accomplished, please read William Byrd's 1728 Secret History of the Dividing Line for a description of "free love" in the 18th century.

It kinda thickens the soup in the "melting pot!" You could say that since most North Carolinians (probably most multi-generation Americans) are blends of Blacks, Whites, and Reds, that we're sort of... "Biter" varieties of the American "mutt."

National Conference on Undergraduate Research

Also subtitled, "Trip to another world, Missoula, Montana." Two groups of us came from East Carolina University to this land of the big - big land, but also big personalities and hearts. This is a place like no other. I've met more friendly and interesting people here in such a short time. From Cliff and his genuine interest in every student that climbed aboard his bus to Leann, Sue, and Delores, who treated us like family in the hotel, it has been a fantastic experience. The weather has been great, almost spring-ish even though we arrived on the tail end of a snow storm (saw patches of it still in many places. The daily temperatures easily compare to those we left in Eastern NC.

Speaking of buses, another group from North Carolina, from Western Carolina University, had 70 students accepted at NCUR and had to take a bus to Montana (cost of air travel prohibitive). They spent 45 hours on the bus to get here! That's a trip to remember, I'm sure.

Of course, the presentations were all excellent and I'm amazed at what human beings can learn in such a short time. It may not seem that short to them, however. :) They worked hard to get here and deserve the opportunity. I have to say that it is an opportunity quite rare. Our undergraduate conference even drew the governor of Montana! He seemed like a really cool guy, wearing casual attire and followed by a little dog that stuck to his heels all the way. But, what he said about renewable energy and taking it easier on Mother Earth meant a lot more to me. Alternative sources of energy are well within our grasp as we speak. The task is really to convince millions of Americans of another way to accomplish their travel objectives. Oil is not necessary. We've only just begun this debate and it will consume a great deal of time before we can all agree on the solution. But, at least, it's beginning.

Of the presentations that I saw in our group, I spoke about Brunswick Town and Wilmington (not a surprise, I know) and Sarah spoke about microbiology (a very knowledgeable treatise on bacteria on smoker vents in the inner space, benthic world of submarine spreading zones). Ellen gave her presentation on iron supplements to countereffect the loss of learning ability from the effects of alcohol-using mothers. Megan and Jacqueline told us about the shoe company Nike and their effect on the global market from their base in China. A bit of recent Chinese history came to light in this presentation - the recent trend to enter the world market and increased westernization. What effect the largest country in the world will have in the world market is somewhat worrisome, although it could be positive. Hopefully, they won't make the same mistakes that we did. Tiffany and Parteek work in the same lab and so, had different angles on the same topic. While Parteek studied the effects of Poxvirus on specific organs, Tiffany looked at "studying viral replication in organs of mice that were infected with either a 'wild type' or our deletion mutant...." This is how it was explained to me. See what I mean about learning so much in so little time? I did not get a chance to hear Deepak's presentation because he went first thing on Thursday. I will say this about Deepak, I hear him speaking to family in his native language, then to us in English, and to a waiter at Rowdy's in Spanish. He's quite the linguist. If he weren't headed for a medical career, I'd say "go linguistics!" Learning about all cultures is the best part of a trip like this, from exploring genetics, medicine, inner-space and deep-sea environments to history, astronomy and protecting the environment. Truly, the planet is in the care of these terrific guys. I'd joked with Ellen (who plans to be a Clinical psychologist) about what discounts she plans to offer (may need those one day). She is currently working as a crisis counselor to have an immediate influence on our world.

Last, but not least, I'd like to thank Dr. Mary Farwell for all her diligent efforts to get us here. She has driven us all over Montana and guided treks across the campus and even up a mountain and out to see Bison in the wild. Thank goodness she didn't have to resort to a bus across the country! Two food places I should mention are Rowdy's (the really cool Mexican restaurant with animals in the lobby) and the Big Dipper, a very popular ice cream shop with lines of customers across the parking lot on both nights that we went. For myself, I'd like to thank Dr. Wade G. Dudley for his very important contribution to my own historical exploratory talents. Without the occasional "kick in the pants," I may have floundered from time to time. He's been a guiding influence to many of us. Thank you, Dr. "D."

Well, time to hop on the plane to return to the "Old North State" and my pretty wife, Julie. We must say so long to the wide open spaces, the very roomy interstates (seriously, no fighting or crowding of cars or jammed traffic), and the friendliest and most laid back state I've ever been to. But, it will be good to get back home. See ya there!

A Tale that's Worth the Time

We came to the Phi Alpha Theta undergraduate research regional conference in Conyers, SC today. I gave my presentation on “Captain James Wimble: American Merchant, Founder, and Privateer.” We had comments afterward. One of the judges offered me some wonderful compliments on the research. I was flattered and thankful for that recognition. It’s relieving to get that after so much work. We students question what we do every day. A friend of mine told me that that’s what makes a good student… that you always believe you didn’t do well on a test but, it almost always works out that you did. You question everything you do. Still, this judge had a criticism. One comment he had was on the necessity of having a thesis to work from. I gave him some pat answer, like “Oh, I’ll remember that” or something like that. It occurred to me later in the hotel, in fact just a half hour ago, that I didn’t write it for that purpose. My story about James Wimble did not need a thesis to be important to me. And, I don’t think it needs one for any other reason, unless it needs to be pitched to someone. But, that’s not why I wrote it. In fact, I didn’t write it for a class. I wrote that piece because I was genuinely fond of Wimble’s story, that he had endured so much, and lost so much time, pride, and money to Spanish privateers and then took it back with heart-felt anger… no, not anger or vengeance, but something that I heard in a movie once. He demanded a “reckoning.” This was nearly biblical for Wimble. Evil (namely, the Spanish) lurked and threatened until it was smote by the Archangel Michael. For Wimble, there was never any failure in the Board of Trade to give him his due from all those Spanish privateers and hurricanes. It was somehow Spain’s fault.

You have to realize that I read letters, journal entries for the Board of Trade, wills and deeds. I dove head first into Wimble’s world and didn’t come up for air. I imagined a man that consistently blamed Spain for his troubles and never once felt that politicians were simply using the system against his claims for the money’s sake. James Wimble believed in a higher ideal… Wimble gave his life for that belief. There was something noble in that story, if a bit naïve. Still, there was this larger than life hero figure that looms above the normal tale and I simply believed it had to be told. The whole misconstrued, narrow focus on the historical Wilmington needed to be revised completely.

To tell the truth, I cared nothing for a thesis in this story and I don’t believe that anyone else should either. Unless you consider that this was the thesis… that James Wimble’s life was indeed common, but that how he responded to adversity was enormously instructive. His tenacity was extraordinary. I felt anger myself that this man has not been given the credit he was due simply because his story was English. But, I will argue that it was more than English, more than American… it was an uncommon human tale and North Carolina historians have been hogswaggled for decades over this wall around the historical realm of the state. This wall was impermeable to any of the outside effects from South Carolina, Virginia, and especially from the other side of the Atlantic. The story had to be North Carolinian or nothing and I couldn’t help but think that North Carolina fought as the underdog for so long that perhaps this affected our intellectual pursuit of history too. Wimble only got a single coastal hazard named after him, “Wimble Shoals.” It’s not even complimentary.

Revisionism has begun. Several recent historians have retold tales of this state as tales of a larger family, English, French, Spanish, Native American, and most certainly, African. When I speak like this, my impression of this revision is wearing round, colored sunglasses and singing “Imagine.” This is the way truth absolutely must be, not political or subjective in any way, but told for the benefit of all. REAL heroes are men who stand out from others, who seek their “reckoning” after enduring great injustice, men like James Wimble. I know he wasn’t perfect, but he certainly was better than most.

Tears in the Quill

Melvoin, Richard I. New England Outpost: War and Society in Colonial Deerfield. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1989.

Lepore, Jill. Name of War: King Philip’s War and the Origins of American Identity. New York: Vintage Books, 1999.

In New England Outpost, Melvoin demonstrates three themes that surround the story of Deerfield, Massachusetts. These themes tend to meld Native American history into that of the European’s. “The Indians become active agents in history, not simply pawns or objects in the study of the past” (Melvoin, 1989, 11). First, war was a fundamental aspect of life in colonial America. Melvoin explores war and its effects on the microcosm of the individual community. Second, what was the long-term effect of war like on a small frontier town and its development? Third, a study of the Indians before, during, and after the war is an essential complement to the history of the European settlement of Deerfield. The most unique aspect of Melvoin’s book is that it explores a well-told story from a part of the battleground that is rarely heard from. From this perspective the story can be told afresh, with a new theme and plot, necessary to truly understand the Native American contribution to the story, the side of the frontier.

Jill Lepore, in The Name of War approaches American identity through various perceptions of war as they were written. For Lepore, “War is perhaps best understood as a violent contest for territory, resources, and political allegiances, and no less fiercely, a contest for meaning” (Lepore, 1999, x). Her exploration for meaning delves deeply into psychology and individual perceptions of the players involved. Motivations, education, desires, horrors, events, and reactions all become vital considerations for Lepore in her remarkable study. King Philip’s War became the most devastating war known to Americans and how it was expressed in more than four hundred personal accounts photographs the human mind at the focal point of the despair. Just as important as the personal accounts of the war were how colonists defended their actions in that war. So, for Lepore, the narratives tell a great deal more than just a dry account of events. America’s view of the Indian was forever hardened by their seventeenth-century experience. Whether for history or psychology, this book is essential material, a unique first in historical exploration.

Unavoidable and incomprehensible destruction and death typifies both books. Melvoin’s exploration of relationships between the destruction of both Pocumtuck and of Deerfield relate to the thoughtful comparison of English “savagery” with the “savage” Mohegan torture of a Narragansett captive. The two states of mind were shocking, misunderstood, and ill-defined at the time they occurred. Clearly, both authors encourage an understanding of events from the opposite perspective. The roles change back and forth, interchangeably blurring into each other. The result becomes a human story, the tragic mortar that built a country. Indians and Europeans alike felt the sharp birth pangs of America. Certainly, for its earliest residents, seeking solace in their writing, their quills were filled with the tears of both.

Complexity defines both authors’ efforts. Taoistic imagery was employed by the original writers of these events, extremes that helped them to arrive at an understanding of the tragedy before them. Truth lies in the middle, in the synthesis. Again, for both book authors, names transfer the meanings and preserve the feelings. From these names, these symbols evolve an unconventional historical source, almost an “oral history” archive that can reflect the motivations of the colonist’s opponents. Where “Muddy Brook” becomes “Bloody Brook,” a miry swamp, horrifying to a colonist, can be considered an Indian’s “castle.” Individual words and disconnected phrases become source material. Truth must be derived from the sources left by only one side of the equation for most Indians did not write. Still, a scant few did, colored by their white teacher’s impressions as they were. Verbal walls were built so hastily that they reveal the hidden passages through them. Lepore’s most incisive accomplishment has to be that the war's brutality caused the colonists to defend themselves against accusations, both internal and external, that they had become savages, a horrifying idea for a people motivated by God and morality. Puritans knew Aquinas’ argument that a savage inflicts pain for pleasure. Might they be guilty of this? Did not Englishmen burn numerous Indians in a manner inconsistent with the benevolent principles of the gospel? These were hard questions – a hard reality. As Melvoin indicates in his “tapestry” analogy, seventeenth-century atypical becomes America’s modern typical. As Lepore argues, Americans discovered themselves, identity evolved. At that moment, the “English” rubbed off.

Melvoin utilizes a symbolic device of impartiality to view Deerfield’s unique history. A buttonball tree in the center of the village has been alive for more than four hundred years and has witnessed the many events that led from Pocumtuck to Deerfield, Indian to European, red to white. The tree, like memory, endures. It saw the clash between Indians that destroyed the Pocumtucks, Indians that destroyed the colonists, and the clash between Europeans, assisted by Indians that destroyed Deerfield. The buttonball tree stands eternal and remains an impartial witness. Lepore’s device is literature, just as enduring. Like the tree, it stands eternal and, yet rarely impartial on the surface. Yet, through its partiality can be viewed the same perspective in time.

Melvoin and Lepore demonstrate a transition of thought from coexistence to self-preservation, that relationships between Indians and colonists began courteously, if flimsily. Intertribal warfare between the Pocumtucks, Mohawks, and Sokokis did not adversely affect the colonists, who often functioned as intermediaries at peace talks. Still, the ancient animosities between the tribes prevailed, occasionally pulling in the colonists. The most devastating effect to Indians involved whites against whites, Dutch versus French, French versus English, and English versus Dutch. These external international disputes, completely analogous to intertribal disputes, often pulled in the Indians. The English settlers simply became another tribe amongst tribes, with the Iroquois worried about their French neighbors and their conflicts with other Europeans. The Dutch contrived against the English, strengthening their alliance to Mohawks. Everyone seemed equal.

The Puritans failed to consider certain Indian rights before laying claim to their lands. They also did not concern themselves with who had the authority to sell those lands. Melvoin declares that they made bargains with people not capable of comprehending the consequences of those bargains and they imposed their system of beliefs and standards on these people. Arguably, the Puritans were not unique in this approach to Indian-Colonist relations. This would have far-reaching consequences for early Deerfield and Massachusetts as it would have for all American colonies. Whereas most historians would avoid a definitive assessment that conflict between Europeans and Indians was unavoidable, statistically speaking, it was nearly so. Modern anthropological thought states that a food-foraging, partially agricultural egalitarian society such as Native Americans were not uncommon in the world. Indeed, European society had also been in this state at one time and probably would have fought fervently for their dominance over a more primitive society, as they saw it. Statistically speaking, the conflict was inevitable.

Melvoin implies that it took only fifty years before Pocumtuck speculation and economic gain began to override the Puritan utopia. The “city upon a hill” had become just a “village in the valley” (Melvoin, 1989, 67). Even though Pocumtuck had broken free of Dedham proprietorship and grew quickly after 1671, they grew apart from their Puritan traditions in their backwoods home. Most Puritans screened their newcomers but Pocumtuck, as a new town, was settled quickly and did not achieve such precautions. Furthermore, Pocumtuck had no communal covenant to bind the town ecclesiastically. Absentee owners like John Pynchon and Henry Woodward Jr. speculated heavily in the town and while the intent may originally have been to help it grow, the possibilities were ominous for corrupt practices. John and Mary Farrington became the only original Dedham proprietors to settle at Pocumtuck. Another unusual characteristic of this Puritan town was the youthful marriages of the general populace. Pocumtuck, as a frontier Massachusetts town differentiated sharply from their Puritan brethren.

Many of Pocumtuck’s settlers also came from other Massachusetts towns as refugees from religious disputes or dissenting reforms. Many of them were outlaws, as well. Settlers from towns like Hadley, Hatfield, and Northampton included thieves, possible rapists, and adulterers. The Massachusetts frontier town was different from the typical American frontier town in that Pocumtuck exhibited all of the usual frontier aspects except the disorder and disorganization that typified the American western style. Even though Pocumtuck stood apart from other Puritan towns, they perceived little to fear from the neighboring Indians which made the events of 1675 even more horrifying and unsuspected. Northern Carolina’s Tuscarora conflict of 1711-1713 was a close comparison to the suddenness of King Philip’s War on Massachusetts, but especially on the isolated Pocumtuck. The element of surprise worked in the Indians’ favor and the effects were that much more shocking. It was this particular aspect of the war that brings Melvoin’s discussion of future Deerfield into perspective with Lepore’s psychological treatise on the affects of the unleashing of Hell upon the highly religious Puritans. It was the suddenness of the loss that forced explanation in the numerous writings, captivity accounts, records of great loss, and laments.

There was a growing social differentiation that may have frightened many hard-line purists, men like Increase Mather, Josiah Winslow, and Nathaniel Saltonstall. Lepore argues that Puritans never tried to understand Indians, never knew that they lived in towns like Europeans, and believed that they could only find common ground with fellow Christians. The attempt to Christianize the Indians resulted in drastic consequences. Indians made attacks upon Christians in retaliation against their faith. They verbally abused the colonists, taunting them with their own religious phraseology as they burned their homes, exposing Christians to their own doubts. The fire was biblical. King Philips War became a holy war. It was a symbolic and verbal reaffirmation of the truth of their native religion and a forceful revulsion of Christianity. Colonists saw it as an affirmation of their worst fears, the fear of losing their civilization, becoming savage themselves.

The colonists could not make this “savage” world in the shape of their creator. They could not build their great Christian “City Upon a Hill.” They were also exposed as unworthy of such a gift as well. They were truly alone now and the guilt they felt manifested in denial and vicious response. Colonists committed atrocities of which they never believed themselves capable. The burning of an entire Indian population, women and children included in the Great Swamp Massacre typified the fright with which they responded. “Oh, what an Indian calamity was this,” wrote the Reverend Noah Newman (Lepore, 1999, 89). These acts against the Narragansett were not consistent with religious principles. Benjamin Tompson wrote “Had we been cannibals, here we might feast” (Lepore, 1999, 89). Turner’s Falls the next year reflected English savagery in the enemy’s heads upon pikes, torn body parts, and taking of scalps. One Indian woman was even ordered to be torn apart by dogs. Like Lepore, Melvoin makes it clear that these acts were at least as savage as those of the Indians. They were exceptional in the baseness and cruelty. These Indians were family and friends who suddenly turned against the colonists. Religion was used against them, to taunt them. “Where is your, Oh God?” and “Come and pray, & sing Psalms,” the Nipmucks had spat at the citizens of Brookfield (Lepore, 1999, 104-5). The message was clear. “God” was not welcome any longer. “Creator” was supreme.

As the Mohawk tide turned against King Philip and the whites once again felt the hand of the Lord on their side, they threw revulsion back upon their tormentors. Indians had been rounded up and sold into slavery, former friends, treated with kindness, now vile creatures with no human value. Many of the Puritans understood this and the change that had taken place, yet few recognized their fear, guilt, and culpability. Hell on earth came to Massachusetts. That was the only certainty and they desperately sought to justify their actions and redeem themselves. The colonists lashed out at any and all, even other whites like Governor Edmund Andros of New York. Lepore’s in-depth psychological and methodical analysis exposes humanity of action, both good and bad. Moreover, like a mirror she exposes the colonists’ own savagery to their disbelieving eyes. Melvoin takes his time in explaining the specific affects on Pocumtuck. Once 1675 arrived, his transition to the horror of the attacks seems as sudden as the attacks actually were.

Jill Lepore stresses that this newfound revulsion of the Indian set a trend for America itself. Savagery preserved itself in the foundations of this country. She illustrates this with the disconnected normalcy with which men of faith regarded anything Indian after 1675. “Increase Mather would later relish the image of Philip being ‘hewed in pieces before the Lord’” (Lepore, 1999, 173). Philip’s rotting head remained on a pole for all to see long after the war, some bits of dried flesh tenaciously holding the pieces together after all those years. A twelve-year-old Cotton Mather, on a pilgrimage to Plymouth, irreverently separated the lower jaw from Philip’s skull to silence the blasphemous words of Philip while his father symbolically silenced other “incorrect” versions of the war with his writing. Writing was the salve for the wounds. To make sense from their devastation, their barbarism, writing normalized the tragedy in their minds. Nathaniel Saltonstall’s “True but Brief Account of our Losses,” William Hubbard’s “Narrative,” or Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative joined hundreds of attempts to understand and justify. Most significant, writing helped to harden white feeling against the Indians. It was denial.

Melvoin shows us that seventeenth-century Massachusetts was a swirl of political agendas and competing faction. Still, this reflected similar trends over the culturally-contaminating expanse of European settlement in the New World. Like Lepore, Melvoin implies a cultural evolution that resulted in modern America. The current values, impressions of Native Americans, and impressions of our world itself are cultivated in past perceptions of this conflict and in wonder at past events. Efforts to explain the strange carvings on the Mount Hope Rock in Rhode Island enlighten this tale. At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was known as “Lief’s Rock,” a reference to a Viking origin. Edmund Delabarre, a psychology professor tried to disprove this hypothesis by pointing out that the inscription had not been described before about 1835 and declared it to be written in the Cherokee syllabary, which then he translated as “Metacom, Great Sachem.” Still, it must have been written by an amateur if it was. No one can really be sure of its origins, but a great deal of effort has been expended on its explanation.

Melvoin goes beyond King Philip’s war to tell how Pocumtuck, now “Deerfield,” rebuilt after the war. They epitomized once again, even more fervently than before, the frontier of the American wilderness, the drive toward democracy and the belief in a single people, regardless of breeding and status. “Selectmen” were not as select as before, land was available evenly to all, and few of the former Dedham proprietors had anything to do with the town. Deerfield became a closed, interdependent community. Deerfielders focused upon land and work. Still, the Connecticut valley was not all pastoral pleasantries. There was a building sense of religious foundering, a loss of mission that was not completely unrelated to the willingness of the town to accept all refugees.

King William’s War or the War of the League of Augsburg pitted France against the English and had its counterparts in New France and New England. The colonies in America were expected to fight without much help from home. The Indians once again became allies to the Europeans and, once again they found intertribal animosities mingling with European difficulties. What resulted was a “Covenant chain” between the Iroquois and the English against the French and Mohawks, Abenaki, and a mixture of refugees from King Philip’s War. War had come full circle and whereas New England experienced a decade of peace, it would be all they would get. Threats to Deerfield once again came from the north in 1688. At least this time, they had time to prepare. The town militia, the consistent training, and the maintenance of war materiel would benefit Deerfield, the New England “spearhead” of valley defense. Sporadic attacks over the years landed all around the town until 1693. Captain George Colton and his men prevented disaster. The Treaty of Ryswick in 1698 gave nothing for a decade of constant stress, establishing no gained territories for either side.

Deerfield found no respite from the troubles. Sarah Smith’s travails and eventual infanticide refocused the town’s attention from war. Still, Queen Anne’s War followed upon its heels while the English and French each vied for control of Indian powers in America. While numerous English colonies awaited attack and Governors Winthrop, Dudley, and Cornbury strategized all of New England against French maneuvers, Deerfield, once again became the focus of attack. It suffered mostly a financial devastation and lost the ability to defend itself.

The French threat remained persistent. The horrors of the past would come again in 1704. Only, this time a multicultural enemy, a treacherous yet “normal” enemy came in the mix. Still, the heavy snow drifts piled against the palisades of Deerfield held a deceptively protective quality. Again, narratives tell the story of the failed watch. Like Lepore’s narratives of King Philip’s War, these varying tales make little sense of his failure. The attack came suddenly and unexpectedly, not unlike attacks they had before. Again, the horrors were visited upon Deerfield. Sieur Hertel de Rouville and his Indian allies took the town by surprise and marched their captives back to Quebec, killing those that could not make the journey. The Reverend John Williams, amazed himself, made the journey. His narrative of The Redeemed Captive told of how remarkable the French found their resistance to French Catholicism. Such was the strength of their faith.

Still, Deerfield survived this blow. Unlike the previous destructions, it maintained itself through the 1704 attack. Truly, Massachusetts needed Deerfield on the frontier. Stories of the Indian captives at Deerfield galvanized resistance and preservation. Again, tales told of war were the most meaningful events of the war. The image of Mary Brooks lying in the snow next to her newborn child, killed on the northward journey, remain the most poignant. A “trail of tears” narrative would be told for the white slaves of Mohawks. Interestingly, 88 of 109 white captives survived this bitterly cold snowbound “trail,” a starkly different comparison of the 1835 journey of the Cherokee.

Melvoin takes the reader through the Indian village of Pocumtuck, the European town of Pocumtuck, the European town of Deerfield, and Deerfield, phase II. He gives an excellent description of the genesis of four separate towns, from inception, settlement, destruction, and resettlement. Surprisingly, all of them were built on the same spot. It is a story of town building and rebuilding, but certainly, disaster as well. King Philip’s War, undoubtedly, scarred people the most. Indians and Europeans alike felt the devastation of the bloodiest war in American history. Unlike Frederick Jackson Turner who saw the Massachusetts frontier as a “hedge” against the evil beyond, it was rather a point of exchange with the “other side.” Even after 1675, Indians were often welcome in Deerfield until they faded from existence by the end of the century. Melvoin’s work is a monument to the frontier fluidity of Deerfield, Massachusetts while Jill Lepore’s book is a psychological study of war and its effects on the human psyche.

Lepore was much more successful at viewing history through a different lens. The destruction, horror, guilt, and savagery of King Philip’s War are laid out and examined in detail from both sides of the dispute. She examines primary sources in a way that few ever have, as though she were the first to read them. Melvoin’s excellent efforts should not be slighted. Lepore’s work was simply that different, the first book of its kind, a new genre of historical exploration destined to be a precedent for others.

Native American and European relations suffered immeasurably, never again to be partners in the wilderness. Both books explore different attributes of Indian-European American culture, but in very different ways. King Philip’s War affected for centuries the country that became the United States. The aftereffects are still with us today. Business signs and advertisements, high schools, sports teams, even candy wrappers reflect the unseen ghosts of those days. Metamora, a nineteenth-century play designed to tell the story of the war, and of King Philip (Metacom), salved the wounds of a people whose guilt patterned their futures. Truly, America shed its tears through the pen. Only today does America begin to understand what King Philip’s War really meant to America. Human beings really only know history by what they read. Still, Lepore’s words come as close as any to bringing history to life.