The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement that was established during the 17 th century on the east coast of North America. It was considered as the heart of New England based on a number of outlying factors such as its size, its people’s diverse nature and their customs. The purpose of this essay is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the seal of the Massachusetts Bay colony and how it represented the relationship between the Puritans and Indians.
The seal featured an Indian man holding a bow and arrow with the words “come over and help us” coming from his mouth ( Rex, 2011 ). This particular Indian man was wearing a loincloth made of leaves. This image portrayed the Indian as a fierce and noble man holding a gadget of war while confined in a primitive place. It meant that they were culturally immature, intellectually substandard and spiritually darkened. The seal was generally projected to exhibit the supremacy of the English colonists and also unveil the subordination of the Indians. The sarcasm of this seal is that, the English settlers had no interest in helping the Indians and as such, they only looked out for their own interests. According to Dow (2012) , the seal revealed that the members of the Massachusetts Bay colony viewed the Indians as barbarians who needed guidance and governance. They did not approve their religious practices because they considered them as unsubstantiated and inferior. The puritans often considered the Native Americans as deficient because of the latter’s primitive lifestyle. The English Puritans therefore took immediate steps to convert native people to their version of Christianity.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The Pequot War
The expansion of the Puritans to the North Connecticut regions served as a major factor that led to the Pequot war. This pursuit for a territory, specifically the Mystic River valley, that was home to the Pequot Indians made the puritans to be labelled as sworn enemies to the natives ( Digital Public Library of America, n.d. ). The Indians did not welcome their settlement to the region and when the English therefore started encroaching the land, a war became inevitable. The Indians were of course no match for the Puritans who defeated them easily as many of them were killed while others were sold into slavery.
Attack on Block Island
The death of Englishman John Oldham’s death at the hands of the natives was received with fury from the English empire ( Digital Public Library of America, n.d. ). This death elicited raging reactions in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. As a retaliation, Governor Vane sent John Endecott in 1936 to revenge the death of Oldham on the natives. A party of 90 men was therefore gathered and the ship sailed to Block Island where they attacked and killed the natives as he destroyed two villages, crops and canoes. This quest for revenge shows the nature of the relationship between the puritans and the Indians.
Indifferences
The religious beliefs between the Native Americans and the Puritans were exceptionally different ( Rex, 2011 ). On one hand, the Puritans believed that a person should not do any work on Sundays and instead they should go to church. The Native Americans on the other hand participated in many activities such as hunting, and attending social meetings. They did not therefore have any religious affiliations for Sunday as a special day. The Puritans therefore became hostile to the Native Americans as a result of these differing beliefs. Moreover, many of the Native Americans died from European diseases such as small pox and influenza. They suffered greatly because of the lack of immunity. Surprisingly, the British ignored the Native’s suffering and instead chose to interpret the deaths as a sign of divine disapproval. According to them, God was slaying the Indians and their supporters to ensure that the land remains pure to the British Empire.
The Puritans and the native people experienced tension from the time they started co-existing together. Even though the Native Americans had welcomed the Puritans settlers to their shores, their relationship started deteriorating when the Puritans continued to expand their territory further to the west into the Native American Land ( Dow, 2012 ) . Governor Endicott noted that this resettlement appeared as a strange image for the Puritans because their primary reason for settling in New England was because they needed their freedom from religion discrimination. It also deceives their critical awareness based on the fact that the land they were settling in was already occupied.
From the discussion provided above, it is evident that the seal of the Massachusetts Bay colony signified a deteriorating relationship between the Puritans and the Indians. No help was offered to the Native Americans even when they started to die of diseases. The Puritan’s attempt to invade foreign land and force their religion on the natives elicited negative reactions from the latter and tampered with the connection that the two had initially created. This was simply an egocentric invitation to come and help oneself as it also represented an arrogant reminder to the Puritans that God was on their side. The modest response is that the seal was a public relations tactic and the main purpose for it was economic use. The Puritans were able to raise money to support their migration to New England hence promising great economic benefits for their investors.
References
Dow, G. F. (2012). Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony . Courier Corporation.
Rex, C. (2011). Indians and Images: The Massachusetts Bay Colony Seal, James Printer, and the Anxiety of Colonial Identity. American Quarterly , 63 (1), 61-93.
Corbould, Edward Henry, “Pequot War,” Digital Public Library of America, http://dp.la/item/a9c21ea70b7318f2983551607ebdffb8 .
“ Governor Endicott landing on Block Island,” Digital Public Library of America, http://dp.la/item/712a89a39d0e09c0d818bacf4a682e5b .
