Rosenfeld Susan. Encyclopedia of American Historical Documents

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now I must part with that little company I had. Here I

parted from my daughter Mary (whom I never saw again

till I saw her in Dorchester, returned from captivity), and

from four little cousins and neighbors, some of which I

never saw afterward.

* * *

The Fifth Remove

. . . The first week of my being among them I hardly ate

any thing; the second week I found my stomach grow very

faint for want of something; and yet it was very hard to get

down their filthy trash; but the third week, though I could

think how formerly my stomach would turn against this or

that, and I could starve and die before I could eat such

things, yet they were sweet and savory to my taste. I was at

this time knitting a pair of white cotton stockings for my

mistress; and had not yet wrought upon a Sabbath day.

When the Sabbath came they bade me go to work. I told

them it was the Sabbath day, and desired them to let me

rest, and told them I would do as much more tomorrow; to

which they answered me they would break my face. And

here I cannot but take notice of the strange providence of

God in preserving the heathen. They were many hun-

dreds, old and young, some sick, and some lame; many had

papooses at their backs. The greatest number at this time

with us were squaws, and they traveled with all they had,

bag and baggage, and yet they got over this river aforesaid;

and on Monday they set their wigwams on fire, and away

they went. On that very day came the English army after

them to this river, and saw the smoke of their wigwams,

and yet this river put a stop to them. God did not give them

courage or activity to go over after us. We were not ready

for so great a mercy as victory and deliverance. If we had

been God would have found out a way for the English to

have passed this river, as well as for the Indians with their

squaws and children, and all their luggage . . .

The Eighth Remove

. . . When I was in the canoe I could not but be amazed at

the numerous crew of pagans that were on the bank on the

other side. When I came ashore, they gathered all about

me, I sitting alone in the midst. I observed they asked one

another questions, and laughed, and rejoiced over their

gains and victories. Then my heart began to fail: and I fell

aweeping, which was the first time to my remembrance,

that I wept before them. Although I had met with so much

affliction, and my heart was many times ready to break, yet

could I not shed one tear in their sight; but rather had

been all this while in a maze, and like one astonished. But

now I may say as Psalm 137.1, “By the Rivers of Babylon,

there we sate down: yea, we wept when we remembered

Zion.” There one of them asked me why I wept. I could

hardly tell what to say: Yet I answered, they would kill me.

“No,” said he, “none will hurt you.” Then came one of

them and gave me two spoonfuls of meal to comfort me,

and another gave me half a pint of peas; which was more

worth than many bushels at another time. Then I went to

see King Philip. He bade me come in and sit down, and

asked me whether I would smoke it (a usual compliment

nowadays amongst saints and sinners) but this no way

suited me. For though I had formerly used tobacco, yet I

had left it ever since I was first taken. It seems to be a bait

the devil lays to make men lose their precious time. I

remember with shame how formerly, when I had taken

two or three pipes, I was presently ready for another, such

a bewitching thing it is. But I thank God, He has now given

me power over it; surely there are many who may be bet-

ter employed than to lie sucking a stinking tobacco-pipe.

* * *

The Eighteenth Remove

. . . In this town there were four English children, cap-

tives; and one of them my own sister’s. I went to see how

she did, and she was well, considering her captive condi-

tion. I would have tarried that night with her, but they that

owned her would not suffer it. Then I went into another

wigwam, where they were boiling corn and beans, which

was a lovely sight to see, but I could not get a taste thereof.

Then I went to another wigwam, where there were two of

the English children; the squaw was boiling horses feet;

then she cut me off a little piece, and gave one of the

English children a piece also. Being very hungry I had

quickly eat up mine, but the child could not bite it, it was

so tough and sinewy, but lay sucking, gnawing, chewing

and slabbering of it in the mouth and hand. Then I took it

of the child, and eat it myself, and savory it was to my taste.

Then I may say as Job 6.7, “The things that my soul refused

to touch are as my sorrowful meat.” Thus the Lord made

that pleasant refreshing, which another time would have

been an abomination. Then I went home to my mistress’s

wigwam; and they told me I disgraced my master with beg-

ging, and if I did so any more, they would knock me in the

head. I told them, they had as good knock me in head as

starve me to death.

The Nineteenth Remove

. . . Then came Tom and Peter, with the second letter from

the council, about the captives. . . . When the letter was

come, the Sagamores met to consult about the captives,

and called me to them to inquire how much my husband

would give to redeem me. When I came I sat down among

them, as I was wont to do, as their manner is. Then they

bade me stand up, and said they were the General Court.

They bid me speak what I thought he would give. Now

162 ERA 2: Colonization and Settlement

knowing that all we had was destroyed by the Indians, I

was in a great strait. I thought if I should speak of but a lit-

tle it would be slighted, and hinder the matter; if of a great

sum, I knew not where it would be procured. Yet at a ven-

ture I said “Twenty pounds,” yet desired them to take less.

But they would not hear of that, but sent that message to

Boston, that for twenty pounds I should be redeemed. It

was a Praying Indian that wrote their letter for them. . . .

When my master came home, he came to me and bid me

make a shirt for his papoose, of a holland-laced pillowbere.

About that time there came an Indian to me and bid me

come to his wigwam at night, and he would give me some

pork and ground nuts. Which I did, and as I was eating,

another Indian said to me, he seems to be your good

friend, but he killed two Englishmen at Sudbury, and there

lie their clothes behind you: I looked behind me, and there

I saw bloody clothes, with bullet-holes in them. Yet the

Lord suffered not this wretch to do me any hurt. Yea,

instead of that, he many times refreshed me; five or six

times did he and his squaw refresh my feeble carcass. If I

went to their wigwam at any time, they would always give

me something, and yet they were strangers that I never

saw before. Another squaw gave me a piece of fresh pork,

and a little salt with it, and lent me her pan to fry it in; and

I cannot but remember what a sweet, pleasant and delight-

ful relish that bit had to me, to this day. So little do we

prize common mercies when we have them to the full.

The Twentieth Remove

[The Native Americans hold a general court (using the

Massachusetts term for an assembly) to decide if Mary

should be “redeemed.” She digresses to query why God

appeared to favor the Indians.]

. . . It was thought [by the English], if their [Indians’]

corn were cut down, they would starve and die with

hunger, and all their corn that could be found, was

destroyed, and they driven from that little they had in

store, into the woods in the midst of winter; and yet how to

admiration did the Lord preserve them for His holy ends,

and the destruction of many still amongst the English!

strangely did the Lord provide for them; that I did not see

(all the time I was among them) one man, woman, or child,

die with hunger. Though many times they would eat that,

that a hog or a dog would hardly touch; yet by that God

strengthened them to be a scourge to His people. The

chief and commonest food was ground nuts. They eat also

nuts and acorns, artichokes, lilly roots, ground beans, and

several other weeds and roots, that I know not. They would

pick up old bones, and cut them to pieces at the joints, and

if they were full of worms and maggots, they would scald

them over the fire to make the vermine come out, and

then boil them, and drink up the liquor, and then beat the

great ends of them in a mortar, and so eat them. . . .

But to return again to my going home, where we may

see a remarkable change of providence. At first they were

all against it, except my husband would come for me, but

afterwards they assented to it, and seemed much to rejoice

in it; some asked me to send them some bread, others

some tobacco, others shaking me by the hand, offering me

a hood and scarfe to ride in; not one moving hand or

tongue against it. Thus hath the Lord answered my poor

desire, and the many earnest requests of others put up

unto God for me. In my travels an Indian came to me and

told me, if I were willing, he and his squaw would run

away, and go home along with me. I told him no: I was not

willing to run away, but desired to wait God’s time, that I

might go home quietly, and without fear. And now God

hath granted me my desire. . . . Let the redeemed of the

Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of

the enemy, especially that I should come away in the midst

of so many hundreds of enemies quietly and peaceably,

and not a dog moving his tongue. So I took my leave of

them. . . .

. . . I see, when God calls a person to anything, and

through never so many difficulties, yet He is fully able to

carry them through and make them see, and say they have

been gainers thereby. And I hope I can say in some mea-

sure, as David did, “It is good for me that I have been

afflicted.”

Source:

Department of History. The College of Staten Island/CUNY.

“The Narrative . . . of Mary Rowlandson.” Available on-line.

URL: www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/

rownarr. html. Downloaded October 2003.

The Examination of Bridget Byshop,

Salem Witchcraft Trials, 1692

The witchcraft trials, which occurred in Salem, Massachusetts,

in 1692, have occupied historians, novelists, and playwrights,

including Arthur Miller (

The Crucible

). The only completely

accepted facts are that several teenaged girls (“the afflicted”)

started the process by accusing a West Indian slave in the

household of the Reverend Samuel Parris of bewitching them.

She confessed, as did more than 50 others, who in turn

accused still others. By the time the authorities called a halt to

the trials (because the accusations were reaching prominent

people outside of Salem), 19 people, 14 of them women, were

hanged, and one man, Giles Corey, was pressed to death.

Explanations for the witchcraft hysteria run from foiled

romance (Miller) to economic rivalries to hallucinations from

tainted wheat. The excerpt below is representative. Bridget

Byshop was executed June 10, 1692.

Settlers and Native Americans in the Colonies 163

________________________

_______________________

The Examination of Bridget Byshop at

Salem Village 19. Apr. 1692

By John Hauthorn & Jonath: Corwin Esq’rs

As soon as she came near all [the afflicted girls] fell into fits

Bridget Byshop, You are now brought before Authority to

Give acco. of what witchcrafts you are conversant in.

I take all this people (turning her head & eyes about)

to witness that I am clear.

Hath this woman hurt you speaking to the afflicted.

Eliz: Hubbard Ann Putman, Abigail Williams & Mercy

Lewes affirmed she had hurt them. You are here accused

by 4. or. 5. for hurting them, what do you say to it[?]

I never saw these persons before, nor I never was in

this place before.

Mary Walcot said that her brother Jonathan stroke her

appearance & she saw that he had tore her coat in striking,

& she heard it tare.

Upon some search in the Court, a rent that seems to

answere what was alledged was found.

They say you bewitcht your first husband to death.

If it please your worship I know nothing of it.

She shake her head & the afflicted were tortured.

The like again upon the motion of her head. Sam:

Braybrook affirmed that she told him to day that she had

been accounted a Witch these 10 years, but she was no

Witch, the Devil cannot hurt her.

* * *

I am no witch[.]

Why if you have not wrote in the book, yet tell me how

far you have gone? Have you not to do with familiar Spir-

its?

I have no familiarity with the devil.

How is it then, that your appearance doth hurt these?

I am innocent.

Why you seem to act witchcraft before us, by the

motion of your body, which seems to have influence upon

the afflicted.

I know nothing of it. I am innocent to a Witch. I know

not what a Witch is[.]

How do you know then that you are not a witch[?]

I do not know what you say.

* * *

What do you say of those murders you are charged with?

I hope, I am not guilty of Murder

Then she turned up her eyes, the eyes of the afflicted

were turned up[.]

It may be you do not know, that any have confessed to

day, who have been examined before you, that they are

Witches.

No. I know nothing of it. John Hutchinson & John

Lewis in open Court affirmed that they had told her.

* * *

Salem Village Aprill the.19’th 1692 Mr Sam’l Parris being

desired to take into wrighting the Examination of Bridget

Byshop, hath delivered it as aforesaid. And upon hearing

the same, and seeing what wee did then see, togather with

the Charge of the afflicted persons then present: Wee

Committed said Bridget Olliver.

John Hathorne.

Source:

Boyer, Paul, and Stephen Nissenbaum, eds. The Salem Witch-

craft Papers. Vol. 1. Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Doc-

uments of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692,

p. 34. Electronic Text Center. University of Virginia Library.

Available on-line. URL: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/salem/

witchcraft/texts/BoySal1.html. Accessed October 2003.

Ebenezer Cook, “The Sotweed Factor

or a Voyage to Maryland,” 1707

Ebenezer Cook and his poem about Maryland may be best

known as the subject of the John Barth novel

The Sotweed Fac-

tor

Sotweed

was another word for tobacco, and the word

fac-

tor

was the middleman between the tobacco growers and the

English merchants who brought the dried leaves to England

where they were sold for smoking and snuff. Perhaps surpris-

ingly, many of the characters in the Barth novel, including the

prostitute Joan Toast and Cook himself were actual people, and

many of the tales Barth relates come straight out of the

Archives

of Maryland

. Cook was probably born in London around 1670.

Like the Barth character, he was Maryland’s first poet laureate,

and went to Maryland to handle an inherited estate on the

Choptank River on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay.

The excerpts below describe Cook’s “seasoning,”

(thought to be malaria, a common affliction among new ar-

rivals to the Chesapeake area), and his being swindled first out

of his tobacco, then by his attorney. They also satirize the

courts. Court days provided entertainment for settlers and

were well-attended. An illiterate and drunken judge was cer-

tainly not unknown in this frontier colony, and many “attor-

neys” were self-taught, like the former apothecary Cook hires.

Seventeenth-century Maryland, as a “tolerant” colony, was

home to religious fugitives of all kinds. They included a sig-

nificant number of Quakers, who were considered shrewd

businesspeople. By the time Cook arrived, however, the Angli-

can Church was established there. Annapolis, on the western

shore of the Chesapeake, was Maryland’s capital.

164 ERA 2: Colonization and Settlement

________________________

_______________________

The Sotweed Factor or

A Voyage to Maryland

A SATYR

Condemn’d by Fate to way-ward Curse,

Of Friends unkind, and empty Purse:

Plagues worse than fill’d Pandora’s Box,

I took my leave of Albion’s Rocks:

With heavy heart, concern’d that I

Was forc’d my Native soil to fly.

And the Old World must bid good-buy.

But Heav’n ordain’d it should be so.

And to repine is vain we know:

Freighted with Fools, from Plymouth sound,

To Mary-Land our ship was bound.

Where we arriv’d in dreadful Pain,

Shock’d by the Terrours of the Main

* * *

Waking next day, with aking Head,

And Thirst that made me quit my Bed;

I rigg’d myself, and soon got up,

to cool my Liver with a Cup

Of Succahana fresh and clear,

Not half so good as English Beer;

Which ready stood in Kitchin Pail,

And was in fact but Adam’s Ale [water];

* * *

The soathing drought scarce down my throat,

Enough to put a ship a float,

With Cockerouse as I was sitting,

I felt a Feaver Intermitting:

A fiery Pulse beat in my Veins,

From Cold I felt resembling Pains:

This cursed seasoning I remember

Lasted from March to cold December:

* * *

But thanks to fortune and a Nurse

Whose Care depended on my Purse,

I saw myself in good Condition,

Without the help of a Physitian:

At length the shivering ill relieved,

Which long my Head and Heart had grieved;

I then began to think with Care,

How I might sell my British Ware,

* * *

While riding near a Sandy Bay,

I met a Quaker, Yea and Nay:

A Pious conscientious rogue,

As e’er woar Bonnet or a Brogue,

Who neither Swore nor kept his Word.

* * *.

With this sly Zealot soon I struck

A Bargain for my English Truck,

Agreeing for ten thousand weight,

Of Sot-weed good and fit for freight,

Broad Oronooko bright and sound.

The growth and product of his ground;

In Cask that should contain compleat,

Five hundred of Tobacco neat

The contract thus betwixt us made,

Not well acquainted with the Trade,

My goods I trusted to the Cheat,

Whose crop was then aboard the Fleet;

And going to receive my own,

I found the Bird was newly flown:

Cursing this execrable Slave,

This damn’d pretended Godly Knave;

On due Revenge and Justice ent,

I instantly to Counsel went,

Unto an ambodexter Quack

learnedly had got the knack

Of giving Glisters, making Pills,

Of filling bonds, and forging Wills;

And with a stock of Impudence,

Supply’d his want of Wit and Sense;

* * *

Resolv’d to plauge the holy Brother,

I set one Rogue to catch another;

To try the Cause then fully bent,

Up to Annapolis I went,

* * *

The Judges left their Punch and Rum,

When Pettifogger Docter draws,

His Paper forth, and opens Cause:

And least I shou’d the better get,

Brib’d Quack supprest his Knavish Wit.

So Maid upon the downy Field,

Pretends a Force, and Fights to yeild:

The Byast Court without delay,

Adjudg’d my Debt in Country Pay:

In Pipe staves, Corn, or Flesh of Boar,

Rare Cargo for the English Shoar:

Raging with Grief, full speed I ran,

To join the Fleet at Kicketan;

Embarqu’d and waiting for a Wind,

Settlers and Native Americans in the Colonies 165

I left this dreadful Curse behind.

May Canniballs transported o’er the Sea

Prey on these Slaves, as they have done on me:

May never Merchant’s, trading Sails explore

This Cruel, this Inhospitable Shoar;

But left abandon’d by the World to starve,

May they sustain the Fate they well deserve:

May they turn Savage, or as Indians Wild,

From Trade, Converse, and Happiness exil’d:

Recreant to Heaven, may they adore the Sun,

And into pagan Superstitions run

For Vengeance ripe . . .

May Wrath Divine then lay those Regions wast

Where no Man’s Faithful*, nor a Woman Chast.

15 January 1707

* The Author does not intend by this, any of the English Gentle-

men resident here.

Source:

University of Oregon. Renascense Editions. “The Sotweed Factor.:

Available on-line. URL: www.uoregon.edu/ ˜rbear.sotweed.

htm. Accessed October 2003.

Smallpox in New England,

1721–1722

In the spring of 1621, a maritime fleet from Barbados arrived

in Boston, Massachusetts, and brought with it the beginnings

of a smallpox epidemic. By autumn the disease had spread

throughout the city and reached the neighboring towns of

Cambridge, Charlestown, and Roxbury. The epidemic was

especially hard on the young and elderly populations, with

mortality rates ranging from 15 percent to 50 percent. The

clergyman Cotton Mather (1663–1728) sought the help of Dr.

Zabdiel Boylston to innoculate New Englanders against the

disease. According to some accounts, Mather learned about

smallpox inoculations from a slave named Onesimus. Others

say he had read of a method employed in Turkey. The idea was

to produce a mild form of smallpox from which the patient

would recover and, as a result, be protected against a more

severe attack. After Boylston administered the smallpox vac-

cine to 250 slaves and his own son, the death rate dropped

from one in 12 to about one in 40. According to the article

below, it was even more successful. Mather’s interest in sci-

ence and particularly in various American phenomena—pub-

lished in his

Curiosa Americana

(1712–24)—won him

membership in the Royal Society of London. His account of

the innoculation episode was published in the society’s trans-

actions.

________________________

_______________________

While our brethren to the South struggle with the feared

Malaria, New England continues to be the victim of

repeated Smallpox epidemics. Common in England, it

arrives cloaked by the scores of newcomers who then visit

it upon the colony. Governor Bradford describes its effects

upon the Plymouth Indians in horrific detail and con-

cludes, “they fall into a lamentable condition . . . and die

like rotten sheep.” Fatal to the Indians, sometimes exceed-

ing a 90 percent mortality rate, the dread “distemper” is

only somewhat less kind to citizens as it sweeps through

the colonies at unpredictable intervals devastating entire

families, communities and commerce. Smallpox has

claimed victims across all class boundaries including Dea-

con Samuel Fuller in 1633.

The disease was first documented in China in 1122, by

the name variola.

The smallpox virus is described as a “mostly fatal” dis-

ease that runs its course fairly quickly. After initially inhal-

ing the virus from an infected person, his clothes or

bedding, the classic smallpox symptoms appear quickly. A

few days after exposure, sever headaches, backaches, chills

and a fever up to 105 degrees develop. Three to four days

later, these symptoms may decline, but are replaced by a

rash of hard red lumps. These lumps begin developing on

the bodies extremities and then spread to the rest of the

body. This rash continues to develop into small blisters that

itch and are extremely painful. On the twelfth day, if the

patient survives, the blisters scab over and leave perma-

nent pitted scars.

One physician describes his patient who did not sur-

vive: “The smallpox came out by the thousands on his

face which soon became one entire blister, and in two

of three days after the body and limbs were beset with

such numbers of them that the load bore down his

strength before it in spite of every measure taken for his

assistance.”

So reviled is the disease that the infected have been

known to be abandoned, sent to “pest” houses, and fear-

fully buried in common graves.

Among “cures” suggested are those of “A Brief Rule to

Guide the Common-People of New-England How to

Order Themselves and Theirs in the Small Pocks, or

Measels,” by Reverend Thomas Thacher, Old South

Church, Boston. Rev. Thacher suggests that as soon as the

disease appears, “Let the sick abstein from Flesh and

Wine, and open Air, let him use small Bear warmed with a

Tost for his ordinary drink, and moderately when he

desires it.” Suggested foodstuffs are water-gruel, water-

potage, boild Apples, and milk, none of which should

“manifest a hot quality.”

166 ERA 2: Colonization and Settlement

A more radical and hotly debated cure of European

origin proposed by Rev. Cotton Mather, is that of “innocu-

lation,” or the purposeful introduction of the disease so as

to bring on a mild case of the disease and leave the patient

henceforth immune. Mather’s concept was at first heatedly

debated and scorned by many of the medical community

who scoffed at his lack of medical credentials.

In the recent 1721–22 epidemic, however, Mather and

his clericals surreptitiously performed numerous inocula-

tions. Victoriously, Mather proclaimed the procedure’s

veracity. Nearly 900 died who had no inoculation. Of about

300 persons who had inoculations, only five or six died,

those possibly already infected with the disease before

inoculation.

Source:

G.L. Kittredge. “Cotton Mather’s Scientific Communications to

the Royal Society.” Proceedings, American Antiquarian So-

ciety, n.s., 26, 1916, pp. 18–57.

James Barbot, Jr.,

“Premeditated a Revolt,” before 1732

These recollections of James Barbot, Jr., a sailor aboard the

English slaver

Don Carlos,

were included in a 1732 collection.

Barbot apparently held a certain degree of sympathy for

slaves, as he concluded, “. . . Officers should consider these

unfortunate creatures . . . men as well as themselves, tho’ of a

different colour, and pagans; and that they ought to do to oth-

ers as they would be done by in like circumstances.” In this

episode, Barbot first recounts a slave revolt aboard his ship

that involved deaths among both slaves and the crew. He goes

on to describe the layout of the ship and how the slaves are

treated. According to Barbot, they received better treatment on

the

Don Carlos

than on most slave ships.

________________________

_______________________

About one in the afternoon, after dinner, we, according to

custom caused them, one by one, to go down between

decks, to have each his pint of water; most of them were

yet above deck, many of them provided with knives, which

we had indiscreetly given them two or three days before,

as not suspecting the least attempt of this nature from

them; others had pieces of iron they had torn off our fore-

castle door, as having premeditated a revolt, and seeing all

the ship’s company, at best but weak and many quite sick,

they had also broken off the shackles from several of their

companions feet, which served them, as well as billets they

had provided themselves with, and all other things they

could lay hands on, which they imagin’d might be of use

for this enterprize. Thus arm’d, they fell in crouds and

parcels on our men, upon the deck unawares, and stabb’d

one of the stoutest of us all, who receiv’d fourteen or fif-

teen wounds of their knives, and so expir’d. Next they

assaulted our boatswain, and cut one of his legs so round

the bone, that he could not move, the nerves being cut

through; others cut our cook’s throat to the pipe, and oth-

ers wounded three of the sailors, and threw one of them

over-board in that condition, from the fore-castle into the

sea; who, however, by good providence, got hold of the

bowline of the fore-sail, and sav’d himself . . . we stood in

arms, firing on the revolted slaves, of whom we kill’d some,

and wounded many: which so terrif’d the rest, that they

gave way, dispersing themselves some one way and some

another between decks, and under the fore-castle; and

many of the most mutinous, leapt over board, and drown’d

themselves in the ocean with much resolution, shewing no

manner of concern for life. Thus we lost twenty seven or

twenty eight slaves, either kill’d by us, or drown’d; and hav-

ing master’d them, caused all to go betwixt decks, giving

them good words. The next day we had them all again

upon deck, where they unanimously declar’d, the Men-

bombe slaves had been the contrivers of the mutiny, and

for an example we caused about thirty of the ringleaders to

be very severely whipt by all our men that were capable of

doing that office. . . .

I have observ’d, that the great mortality, which so

often happens in slave-ships, proceeds as well from taking

in too many, as from want of knowing how to manage them

aboard. . . .

As to the management of our slaves aboard, we lodge

the two sexes apart, by means of a strong partition at the

main mast; the forepart is for men, the other behind the

mast for the women. If it be in large ships carrying five or

six hundred slaves, the deck in such ships ought to be at

least five and a half or six foot high, which is very requisite

for driving a continual trade of slaves: for the greater

height it has, the more airy and convenient it is for such a

considerable number of human creatures; and conse-

quently far the more healthy for them, and fitter to look

after them. We build a sort of half- decks along the sides

with deals and spars provided for that purpose in Europe,

that half-deck extending no father than the sides of our

scuttles and so the slaves lie in two rows, one above the

other, and as close together as they can be crouded. . . .

The planks, or deals, contract some dampness more

or less, either from the deck being so often wash’d to keep

it clean and sweet, or from the rain that gets in now and

then through the scuttles or other openings, and even

from the very sweat of the slaves; which being so crouded

in a low place, is perpetual, and occasions many distem-

pers, or at best great inconveniences dangerous to their

health. . . .

Settlers and Native Americans in the Colonies 167

It has been observ’d before, that some slaves fancy

they are carry’d to be eaten, which make them desperate;

and others are so on account of their captivity: so that if

care be not taken, they will mutiny and destroy the ship’s

crue in hopes to get away.

To prevent such misfortunes, we use to visit them

daily, narrowly searching every corner between decks, to

see whether they have not found means, to gather any

pieces of iron, or wood, or knives, about the ship, notwith-

standing the great care we take not to leave any tools or

nails, or other things in the way: which, however, cannot be

always so exactly observ’d, where so many people are in

the narrow compass of a ship.

We cause as many of our men as is convenient to lie in

the quarter-deck and gun-room, and our principal officers

in the great cabin, where we keep all our small arms in a

readiness, with sentinels constantly at the doors and

avenues to it; being thus ready to disappoint any attempts

our slave might make on a sudden.

These precautions contribute very much to keep them

in awe; and if all those who carry slaves duly observ’d

them, we should not hear of so many revolts as have hap-

pen’d. Where I was concern’d, we always kept our slaves in

such order, that we did not perceive the least inclination in

any of them to revolt, or mutiny, and lost very few of our

number in the voyage.

It is true, we allow’d them much more liberty, and us’d

them with more tenderness than most other Europeans

would think prudent to do; as, to have them all upon deck

every day in good weather; to take their meals twice a- day,

at fix’d hours, that is, at ten in the morning, and at five at

night; which being ended, we made the men go down

again between the decks; for the women were almost

entirely at their own discretion, to be upon deck as long as

they pleas’d, nay even many of the males had the same lib-

erty by turns, successively; few or none being fetter’d or

kept in shackles, and that only on account of some distur-

bances, or injuries, offer’d to their fellow captives, as will

unavoidably happen among a numerous croud of such sav-

age people. Besides, we allow’d each of them betwixt their

meals a handful of Indian wheat and Mandioca, and now

and then short pipes and tobacco to smoak upon deck by

turns, and some coconuts; and to the women a piece of

coarse cloth to cover them, and the same to many of the

men, which we took care they did wash from time to time,

to prevent vermin, which they are very subject to; and

because it look’d sweeter and more agreeable. Toward the

evening they diverted themselves on the deck, as they

thought fit, some conversing together, others dancing,

singing, and sporting after their manner, which pleased

them highly, and often made us pastime; especially the

female sex, who being apart from the males, on the quar-

terdeck, and many of them young sprightly maidens, full of

jollity and good-humour, afforded us abundance of recre-

ation; as did several little fine boys, which we mostly kept

to attend on us about the ship.

We mess’d the slaves twice a day, as I have observed;

the first meal was of our large beans boil’d, with a certain

quantity of Muscovy lard. . . . The other meal was of pease,

or of Indian wheat, and sometimes meal of Mandioca

. . . boiled with either lard, or suet, or grease by turns: and

sometimes with palm-oil and malaguette or Guinea pep-

per I found they had much better stomachs for beans, and

it is a proper fattening food for captives. . . .

At each meal we allow’d every slave a full coconut

shell of water, and from time to time a dram of brandy, to

strengthen their stomachs. . . .

Much more might be said relating to the preservation

and maintenance of slaves in such voyages, which I leave

to the prudence of the officers that govern aboard, if they

value their own reputation and their owners advantage;

and shall only add these few particulars, that tho’ we ought

to be circumspect in watching the slaves narrowly, to pre-

vent or disappoint their ill designs for our own conserva-

tion, yet must we not be too severe and haughty with them,

but on the contrary, caress and humor them in every rea-

sonable thing. Some commanders, of a morose peevish

temper are perpetually beating and curbing them, even

without the least offence, and will not suffer any upon deck

but when unavoidable to ease themselves does require;

under pretence it hinders the work of the ship and sailors

and that they are troublesome by their nasty nauseous

stench, or their noise; which makes those poor wretches

desperate, and besides their falling into distempers thro’

melancholy, often is the occasion of their destroying them-

selves.

Such officers should consider, those unfortunate crea-

tures are men as well as themselves, tho’ of a different

colour, and pagans; and that they ought to do to others as

they would be done by in like circumstances. . . .

Source:

Awnsham Churchill and John Churchill, eds. Collection of Voy-

ages and Travels. London, 1732.

Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands

of an Angry God,” 1741

Sermon written by the New England minister Jonathan

Edwards in 1741 in order to convince his congregants to con-

fess and be saved. Edwards was just one of the many preach-

ers of his time trying to revive religious ardor to the colonies

in what is known as the First Great Awakening. This sermon

168 ERA 2: Colonization and Settlement

from which these excerpts come was written in order to scare

his audience into converting.

________________________

_______________________

Deuteronomy 32:35.—Their foot shall slide in due time.

In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on

the wicked unbelieving Israelites, that were God’s visible

people, and lived under means of grace; and that notwith-

standing all God’s wonderful works that he had wrought

towards that people, yet remained, as is expressed verse

28, void of counsel, having no understanding in them; and

that, under all the cultivations of heaven, brought forth bit-

ter and poisonous fruit. . . .

The expression that I have chosen for my text, their

foot shall slide in due time, seems to imply the following

things relating to the punishment and destruction that

these wicked Israelites were exposed to:

* * *

3. Another thing implied is, that they are liable to fall of

themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of

another; as he that stands or walks on slippery ground

needs nothing but his own weight to throw him down.

4. That the reason why they are not fallen already, and

do not fall now, is only that God’s appointed time is not

come. For it is said that when that due time, or appointed

time comes, their feet shall slide. Then they shall be left to

fall, as they are inclined by their own weight. God will not

hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will

let them go; and then, at that very instant, they shall fall

into destruction; as he that stands in such slippery declin-

ing ground on the edge of a pit that he cannot stand alone,

when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost.

The observation from the words that I would now

insist upon is this.

[H]ere is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one

moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God.

The truth of this observation may appear by the fol-

lowing considerations:

1. There is no want of power in God to cast wicked

men into hell at any moment. Men’s hands cannot be

strong when God rises up: the strongest have no power to

resist him, nor can any deliver out of his hands.

* * *

They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice

never stands in the way, it makes no objection against

God’s using his power at any moment to destroy them. Yea,

on the contrary, justice calls aloud for an infinite punish-

ment of their sins. Divine justice says of the tree that

brings forth such grapes of Sodom, “Cut it down, why

cumbereth it the ground?” Luke 13:7. The sword of divine

justice is every moment brandished over their heads and it

is nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and God’s mere

will, that holds it back.

* * *

4. They are now the objects of that very same anger and

wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell: and

the reason why they do not go down to hell at each

moment, is not because of God, in whose power they are,

is not then very angry with them; as angry, as he is with

many of those miserable creatures that he is now torment-

ing in hell, and do there feel and bear the fierceness of his

wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great num-

bers that are now on earth; yea, doubtless, with many that

are now in this congregation, that, it may be, are at ease

and quiet, than he is with many of those that are now in the

flames of hell.

So that it is not because God is unmindful of their

wickedness, and does not resent it, that he does not let

loose his hand and cut them off. God is not altogether such

a one as themselves, though they may imagine him to be

so. The wrath of God burns against them; their damnation

does not slumber; the pit is prepared; the fire is made

ready; the furnace is now hot; ready to receive them; the

flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet,

and held over them, and the pit hath opened her mouth

under them.

5. The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize

them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him.

They belong to him; and he has their soul in his possession,

and under his dominion. The Scripture represents them as

his goods, Luke 11:21. The devils watch them, like greedy

hungry lions that see their prey, and except to have it, but

are for the present kept back; if God should withdraw his

hand by which they are restrained, they would in one

moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gap-

ing for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them;

and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swal-

lowed up and lost.

* * *

7. It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that

there are no visible means of death at hand. It is no secu-

rity to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he

does not see which way he should now immediately go out

of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible

danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold

and continual experience of the world in all ages, shows

that this is no evidence that a man is not on the very brink

of eternity, and that the next step will not be into another

world. The unseen, unthought of ways and means of per-

sons going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and

Settlers and Native Americans in the Colonies 169

inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell

on rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in

this covering so weak that they will not bear their weight,

and these places are not seen. The arrows of death fly

unseen at noonday; the sharpest sight cannot discern

them. God has so many different, unsearchable ways of

taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to

hell, that the is nothing to make it appear, that God had

need to be at the expense of a miracle, or go out of the

ordinary course of his providence, to destroy any wicked

man, at any moment. All the means that there are of sin-

ners going out of the world, are so in God’s hands, and so

absolutely subject to his power and determination, that it

does not depend at all less on the mere will of God,

whether sinners shall at any moment go to hell, than if

means were never made use of, or at all concerned in the

case.

8. Natural men’s prudence and care to preserve their

own lives, or the care of others to preserve them, do not

secure them a moment. . . .

* * *

10. God has laid himself under no obligation, by any

promise, to keep any natural man out of hell one moment:

God certainly has made no promises either of eternal life,

or of any deliverance or preservation from eternal death,

but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the

promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises

are yea and amen. But surely they have no interest in the

promises of the covenant of grace that are not the children

of the covenant, and that do not believe in any of the

promises of the covenant, and have no interest in the

Mediator of the covenant.

So that, whatever some have imagined and pretended

about promises made to natural men’s earnest seeking and

knocking, it is plain and manifest, that whatever pains a

natural man takes in religion, whatever prayers he makes,

that he believes in Christ, God is under no manner of obli-

gation to keep him a moment from eternal destruction.

So that thus it is, that natural men are held in the hand

of God over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit,

and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully pro-

voked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that

are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his

wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least, to

appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least

bound by any promise to hold them up one moment; the

devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the

flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay

hold on them and swallow them up; the fire pent up in

their own hearts is struggling to break out; and they have

no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within

reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have

no refuge, nothing to take hold of; all that preserves them

every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and

uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.

Application

[H]e use may be of awakening to unconverted persons in

this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of

every one of you that are out of Christ. That world of mis-

ery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad

under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames

of the wrath of God; there is hell’s wide gaping mouth

open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to

take hold of. There is nothing between you and hell but

the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that

holds you up.

* * *

Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to

tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards

hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately

sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless

gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and

prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteous-

ness, would have no more influence to uphold you and

keep you out of hell, than a spider’s web would have to stop

a falling rock. Were it not that so is the sovereign pleasure

of God, the earth would not bear you one moment; for you

are a burden to it; the creation groans with you; the crea-

ture is made subject to the bondage of your corruption, not

willingly; the sun does not willingly shine upon you to give

you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth does not willingly

yield her increase to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a

stage for your wickedness to be acted upon; the air does

not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of

life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service

of God’s enemies. God’s creatures are good, and were

made for men to serve God with, and do not willingly sub-

serve to any other purpose, and groan when they are

abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and

end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for the

sovereign hand of him who hath subjected it in hope.

There are the black clouds of God’s wrath now hanging

directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big

with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of

God, it would immediately burst forth upon you. The

sovereign pleasure of God, for the present, stays his rough

wind; otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruc-

tion would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like

the chaff of the summer threshing floor.

* * *

170 ERA 2: Colonization and Settlement

. . . God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one

holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire,

abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards

you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of noth-

ing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes

than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand

times so abominable in his eyes, as the most hateful and

venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him

infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince:

and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from

falling into the fire every moment: it is ascribed to noth-

ing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you

were suffered to awake again in this world, after you

closed your eyes to sleep; and there is no other reason to

be given, why you have not dropped into hell since you

arose in the morning, but that God’s hand has held you up:

there is no other reason to be given why you have not

gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God,

provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of

attending his solemn worship: yea, there is nothing else

that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very

moment drop down into hell.

O sinner! consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a

great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of

the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that

God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much

against you, as against many of the damned in hell: you

hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath

flashing about it, and ready every moment to single it, and

burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any Mediator,

and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep

off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that

you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce

God to spare you one moment.

And consider here more particularly several things

concerning that wrath that you are in such danger of.

* * *

It is the fierceness of his wrath that you are exposed to. We

often read of the fury of God; as in Isaiah 59:18: “Accord-

ing to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his

adversaries.” So Isaiah 66:15, “For behold, the Lord will

come with fire and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to

render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of

fire.” And so in many other places. So we read of God’s

fierceness, Rev. 19:15. There we read of “the wine-press of

the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” The words are

exceedingly terrible: if it had only been said, “the wrath of

God,” the words would have implied that which is

infinitely dreadful: but it is not only said so, but “the fierce-

ness and wrath of God”: the fury of God! the fierceness of

Jehovah! Oh how dreadful must that be! Who can utter or

conceive what such expressions carry in them! But it is not

only said so, but “the fierceness and wrath of Almighty

God.” As though there would be a very great manifestation

of his almighty power in what the fierceness of his wrath

should inflict, as though omnipotence should be as it were

enraged, and exerted, as men are wont to exert their

strength in the fierceness of their wrath. Oh! then, what

will be the consequence! What will become of the poor

worm that shall suffer it! Whose hands can be strong! And

whose heart endure! To what a dreadful, inexpressible,

inconceivable depth of misery must the poor creature be

sunk who shall be the subject of this!

. . . Thus it will be with you that are in an unconverted

state, if you continue in it; the infinite might, and majesty,

and terribleness, of the omnipotent God shall be magni-

fied upon you in the ineffable strength of your torments:

you shall be tormented in the presence of the holy angels,

and in the presence of the Lamb; and when you shall be in

this state of suffering, the glorious inhabitants of heaven

shall go forth and look on the awful spectacle, that they

may see what the wrath and fierceness of the Almighty is;

and when they have seen it, they will fall down and adore

that great power and majesty. Isa. 66:23, 24, “And it shall

come to pass, that from one moon to another, and from

one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship

before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and look

upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed

against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their

fire be quenched, and they shall be abhorring unto all

flesh.”

4. It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suf-

fer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one

moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity: there will be

no end to this exquisite, horrible misery: when you look

forward, you shall see a long forever, a boundless duration

before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and

amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever

having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at

all; you will know certainly that you must wear out long

ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflict-

ing with this Almighty merciless vengeance; and then

when you have so done, when so many ages have actually

been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is

but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will

indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a

soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say

about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it;

it is inexpressible and inconceivable: for “who knows the

power of God’s anger?”

How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and

hourly in danger of this great wrath and infinite misery!

But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congrega-

Settlers and Native Americans in the Colonies 171