The Other States of America History Podcast

The four Puritan colonies of New England, after one successful decade of confederation, faces headwinds internally and externally as the Dutch, Natives, English authorities and their own settlers threaten to disrupt the Puritan Oligarchy.

After 54 years of peace, the tension between the English and the Pokanoket leaders of the Wampanoag Paramount Chiefdom boil over into the one of the deadliest wars, per capita, in history.

An often overlooked period in Wampanoag history is the period of time between the height of Ousamequin's power among the Wampanoag in 1624-25 and his son Metacomet's decision to attack the settlers at Swansea in 1675. However, this period is full of Native politics, suspected poisonings, fraudulent wills, a rumors of war.

Looking to remove himself from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Thomas Mayhew purchases the right to settle and set up a government on islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket from the Earl of Stirling, and gradually purchases the land from the Wampanoag. Mayhew settles the Vineyard and later sells off Nantucket to a like minded group of friends and extended relations under Tristram Coffin. Both Island co-exist as separate colonies ran by their proprietors as if it were a joint stock company. Eventually they are annexed by a larger colony... and it's not the one you think.

An indentured servant boy with a questionable origin story, supposedly inherits a large piece of Long Island from a Native American leader, selling much of it each new buyer has a vested interest in John Scott's claim being legitimate. What follows is a story of conflict and takeover of the New Netherland Colony, treason against the Connecticut colony as its' Long island settlements pull away, pregnant women smuggling objects into prison, all the while John Scott reinventing himself, often falling upwards in life, and helping to shape the boundaries (and existence) of three US States. Believe as much or as little of this story as you wish...

The New Haven colony, originally created to be the most puritanical of puritan colonies, now faces internal and external threats which will wear away the optimism of God's elect.

While England devolves into Civil War, the four Puritan Colonies of New England form a Confederation, leaning on one another for a little order in a chaotic world. Together the United Colonies will have to contend with Roger William's Rhode Island Colony, Sir Ferdinando Gorges' Maine Colony, and the Dutch in New Netherland, all while navigating Native politics, plots and assassination attempts.

Reverend John Davenport and his childhood friend, businessman Theophilus Eaton, lead a wave of the wealthiest and strictest Puritans out of England, unknowingly toward the tail end of the Puritan Exodus. Arriving in Massachusetts they find the colony divided and the "City on a Hill" already tainted with heresy. Davenport and Eaton decide to form their own colony of New Haven out beyond the domain of Massachusetts, Plymouth or Rhode Island.

The great Puritan Lords of England buy a readymade colony on the edge of the English world. Rumored to be a last resort refuge for nobles plotting against King Charles I, if everything were to go south, Saybrook was to be a place of peace. Nonetheless, the colony became consumed by the Pequot War. With the outbreak of the English Civil War, Saybrook struggled to find a new purpose as the Puritan Lords sought to remake Old England and abandon their plans to voyage to New England.

In the final episode of our Rhode Island trilogy, Roger Williams seeks a unified colony known as "Providence Plantations in the Narragansett Bay," while William Coddington tries to merge Rhode Island with Massachusetts and later set the Island apart from mainland Providence.

Anne Hutchinson and her allies form a powerful faction in the politics of the early Massachusetts Bay Colony, challenging the old guard. Anne and her Brother-In-Law Reverend John Wheelwright, elevate the conflict into the spiritual realm condemning most of the colonies' clergy to damnation for teaching a "covenant of works." In secret her supporters draft, what we now call, the Portsmouth Compact and plan to settle their own colony with permission from the Narragansett and without any authorization from the King.

Roger Williams, ill and alone, wanders the winter wilderness of New England until finding Ousamequin of the Wampanoag who offers him shelter. Exiled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony Williams plans to make the most radical settlement in the New World.

John Wheelwright leads an Exodus of his flock from Lincolnshire to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, only to then condemn the colony and accuse their clergy of being Anti-Antichrists. Banished, he must now search for a new place to settle during the cold winter of 1637.

The English Civil War manifests itself in New England where Royalist Maine is reduced by the creation of Parliamentarian Lygonia, both of which will have to stave off the northern advance of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. A three way conflict for legitimacy in a chaotic world.

For most the history of Maine begins with the Missouri Compromise of 1820, however another Maine existed long before. This Maine would be split in two, one half becoming New Hampshire, the other becoming its' forgotten sister colony of New Somersetshire. All the while, the owners of these Colonies, and members of the Council for New England were bent on the destruction of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Captain Wollaston creates a small settlement in New England, seemingly to use as a way-station and storage facility for Indentured Servants. Thomas Morton, one of his minor investors, had another plan in mind. Morton's neighbors in the Plymouth Colony will come to know him as, "The Lord of Misrule."

Plymouth castaways, fishermen and farmers, find refuge to the North of the Plymouth Colony, creating small autonomous settlements along the coast. Unknowingly, their assistance to the Dorchester Company would redraw the maps for the Natives and the Old Planters as they laid the foundation for a "City upon a Hill."

Plymouth and the scattered fishing camps to the north owe their tenuous legal existence in the English world to The Council for New England. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, President of the Council, has a grand vision for New England: of feudal estates, worked by sturdy pheasants, worshiping in proper Anglican fashion under a single governor. His Council for New England reserved the right to govern, as granted to them by King James, having only given the Plymouth settlers the right to settle and purchase land from the Natives. Now Gorges intended to install a proper government and the man for the job would be his son Robert.

Thomas Weston, the man who financed the Separatists and legitimized their settlement at Plymouth, plans a colony of his own. Without the distractions of family units and religious fanaticism, Weston hopes his colony will return greater profits than the fledging Pilgrims were providing. Success will depend on forging a trade relationship with the Native Massachusetts Tribe, and is counting on the riff-raff he hires off the streets of London to settle his colony. What could go wrong? In the meantime, Weston himself runs afoul with the law, has dealings with Turkish pirates, assumes a new identity, and is captured by Native Americans in an attempt to reach Wessagusset. 

Ousamequin, Paramount Chief of the Wampanoag, leads his people through a period of near desolation, only to live to see the enemy Narragansett threaten to absorb the remainder of his once great confederacy. In 1621 he decides to make allies with strange bedfellows in a gambit to take back control of his world. 

The Popham Colony is abandoned and now the Virginia Company of Plymouth is without a settlement to defend their claims. During this shadowy period of time the English still maintain a presence in Northern Virginia, as they call it, soon to be reimagined as New England by an unsuspecting character you may know from Jamestown fame. Unknowingly, the groundwork is laid by Sir Ferdinando Gorges for a a strange group of Separatists who recently returned from the Netherlands. 

18 years before the Mayflower carried its' famous passengers, Bartholomew Gosnold plans to start a small fishing colony on a small island off the coast of Southern New England. Little known to history, Gosnold's colony surprisingly had a lasting impact on the place names of New England and the foundation of a later colony you may have heard of... 

Who were the Wampanoag in the period immediately preceding contact with Europeans? How did they view themselves and the world around them? In this episode Eric reconstructs the Wampanoag in the time before the Thanksgiving story, Tisquantum, or Plymouth. 

This season will cover the  many forgotten English colonies that became the Middle and New England Colonies we all know and love so well. Rather than serve as missteps and side stories, these ventures shaped the borders, nature and circumstances of the Colonies that would one day declare their independence, beginning yet another state of America. A few topics covered this season: The Wampanoag, The United Colonies of New England, Lygonia, West New Jersey and many more.

In this episode Eric rambles on about the season, people who reached out and the sources used to put together season two.

The people of New France witness the utter desolation of many of their Native allies, only to find themselves living under the constant siege of the Haudenosaunee. Desperate pleas to New England to start a Holy War against the Iroquois fall on deaf ears as the English leave the French to fend for themselves. Martyrs and Heroines are made, visions and signs of the end times abound.   

Image credit: By Unknown - http://www.cmhg.gc.ca/cmh/fr/image_57.asp?page_id=42, PD-US, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13424183

Champlain is dead, but the order he put in place holds New France together. However, the Haudenosaunee have returned armed with guns and determined dominate the fur trade along the St. Lawrence. Montreal is settled by a secret society and a mutilated missionary seeks Martyrdom among the Mohawks... 

In the 17th Century, the mighty Huron Confederacy, or Wendat Confederacy consisted of several Iroquoian speaking nations who held a monopoly on the fur trade from all points North and West headed to New France. Both the French and the Wendat became economically dependent on one another and the acceptance of Jesuit missionaries into the lands of the Confederacy in the 1630's a French precondition to keep the Fur flowing. Despite their best intentions the Jesuits cause a rift among the Wendat and and the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) seeks to assimilate the Wendat, take over their territory and monopolize the trade for themselves. The ensuing war has left us with perhaps the most graphically depicted acts of torture from the Colonial Period, not for the faint of heart. 

(Picture Courtesy of Library and Archives Canada)

The French, for the third time are determined to rebuild Acadia. However, competing titles split Acadia into two, run by rival claimants with powerful wives. Fate seemingly switching favor from one man to another, the outcome of the war is wholly unexpected. 

Baron Poutrincourt returns to Acadia to find the great Mi'kmaq Chief Membertou, true to his word, preserved Port Royal for the French. Now he and his son Biencourt, without Champlain, de Mons, or Pont-Grave seek to rebuild Acadia all on their own. However, funded by a headstrong Noblewoman, the Jesuits mean to take Acadia for themselves and a rival settlement on Mount Desert Island (in present day Maine) splits Acadia in two. Both factions are in for a surprise from Virginia, and here a now the epic colonial wars between England and France begins. 

After 30 years of hard work in the New World Champlain finds himself a prisoner, his colony destroyed, his friends turned to enemies and his family torn apart. For most, this would be the end of the story, but Champlain had one more chapter left to be written. 

Photo Credit: By Cephas - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6984208

Samuel de Champlain's days of exploration were over, he had built up New France along the St.Lawrence into a profitable enterprise requiring constant management. Helene, his reluctant wife, joins him in Quebec and the colony begins to take on the character of French society, rather than a frontier outpost. Champlain's successes make New France a lucrative target to his personal enemies and the adversaries of the French Empire. All will be lost, but not for long.

Founding Quebec will be easier than keeping it. Champlain spends the decade crossing the Atlantic over and over again, in an effort to keep the financing of New France afloat. Champlain enters into an unsavory marriage, chases rumors of the lost Henry Hudson and invades Onondaga the center of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy. 

In our continuing story of Samuel de Champlain, Quebec is finally settled, but keeping control of the trade along the St. Lawrence will require overcoming constant obstacles. The Natives convince Champlain to war with the Iroquois and a conspiracy in Quebec requires Champlain to lay down the law. 

Champlain participates in founding Saint Croix, located in the modern day State of Maine, visits Patuxet the Wampanoag Village and future site of Plymouth and maps the coast of Southern Acadia a decade before it became know as New England. At Port Royal the 100 year old Mi'kmaq Chief Membertou meets the French in his own sail boat and claims to have known Jacques Cartier some seven decades ago.

Champlain sailed the seas, fought in wars, befriended a king, worked as a spy, visited New Spain, envisioned a canal across Panama and became ridiculously wealthy, before ever setting foot in New France. 

After the failed colony of Roberval the sailors of St. Malo and elsewhere continued a clandestine trade with the Natives. The St. Lawrence Iroquois mysteriously disappeared and the Innu at Tadoussac create a monopoly on the furs coming from the interior of the continent. France, enveloped in civil wars has few resources to settle their claim to the region, but when the price of fur skyrockets a few brave souls, and a few unwilling prisoners give it try...

The famished colonists of Fort Caroline were preparing to abandon the colony and return to France, when ships were spotted... 

War is coming, but in the end from whom? Will the Civil Wars of France spill over into French Florida? Will a Timucuan Chiefdom turn on the French? Will the Spanish or English invade? The Huguenots of Fort Caroline are about to play their part in shaping American History in unexpected ways. 

After the 1st expedition to Florida ended in mutiny, murder and cannibalism, the Huguenots suffer through the first French Civil War of Religion. The prospects of Florida proved tempting to both the religious refugee and the opportunist alike. However, their settlement, Fort Caroline is built in the Land of the Timucua a people divided into dozens of warring chiefdoms, and the seas crawling with Spanish war ships, who consider Florida their domain. 

1562, The Huguenots sensing the coming wave of violence against their sect, look for opportunities on the fringes of the Empire. Spanish Florida, boarding the French claim to parts north remained Native and had not one loyal Spanish subject, perhaps it could become part of New France? What's the worse that could happen... 

After five years of war and waiting Cartier is given a commission to plant a colony in the New World, only to be usurped by nobleman named Roberval; a dreaded Huguenot. Both men would search for the mystical Kingdom of Saguenay, The Natives finally attack, a woman is abandoned on an island full of polar bears. The French build their first settlement in North America decades before St. Augustine, Jamestown and Plymouth.

In a time when Spain and Portugal laid claim to the entire non-Christian world, Jacques Cartier plunged himself into the realm of the St. Lawrence Iroquois. Searching for a westward passage he meets the mighty Chief Donnacona, and lies from both men spur a tale of abduction, scurvy, a winter spent frozen in ice, river going monsters, and the rumor of a Golden Kingdom.  

I know i pronounce every name in this episode differently moment to moment, don't give me sass. 

 At the turn of the 16th Century, there existed no indication that France would come to dominate North America. The Portuguese, due to an error in mapping Newfoundland, seemed destined to master the North Atlantic, the Spanish dominated all points south until Brazil. The English staked their claim early and yet New France came to label much of North America. Where did this begin, and between the Norse and nameless hordes of fishermen, did it all start with Columbus, or was he a symptom of the time? Where is the lost colony of Fagundes, what happened to John Cabot or the Corte-Real brothers? 

New France only ever functioned because of the Native population. France designed New France to accommodate the Natives in order to obtain furs and keep out other colonial powers. In this episode we learn about the natives of the Saint Lawrence as they can be best represented before European contact. Focusing on the St.Lawrence Iroquois, The Innu, the Mi'kmaq and the lonely Beothuk located on Newfoundland beyond who will serve as a cautionary tale to the rest of the Natives of the Americas. Google Matshikapeau at your own risk!

In this very short introduction to Season Two the case is made for New France to be our next Other State of America. 

In this episode we hear form those you who left reviews and messages to be read on the podcast. Then we move into an informal discussion of the sources that went into making this season, many of the Iroquois sources will be discussed in the endnotes of future seasons. Many thanks to everyone who listened to season one!

The Beaver Wars continue to rage on, punctuated by pandemics and waves of assimilated captives. The tribes around the Iroquois acquire guns and cannons, and the French now aim to annihilate the Five Nations. Internal conflicts arise over trade and religion, and a time will come when two nations of the Confederacy will face one another in battle.

What is left of New Netherland today? A more important question to ask is how did New Netherland help create today. In this episode we look at the immediate aftermath of the English take over, the birth of the middle colonies and then go down a couple existential rabbit holes. Santa Claus, cookies, Yankee Doodle; New Netherland is the secret ingredient in the American Melting Pot. 

In the past rival claims to New Netherland were laughable, the Dutch had control over the Hudson (North), the Delaware (South) and and the Connecticut (Fresh) river. Then New Sweden stole the Delaware, and the English took the Connecticut. Peter Stuyvesant destroyed New Sweden with the largest professional army ever assembled in that part of the world up until that point. Stuyvesant also negotiated a treaty establishing a border with the New England colonies, only giving up on paper what he already had no plans to recover. New Netherland was now stable and the population exploding under Stuyvesant, in less than 20 years growing to be ten times in size.

Still the English Colonies outnumbered the Dutch colony 10:1, and the tides were turning...