September 26, 2024 • 45 mins
In 1638, four English indentured servants attacked and robbed Penowanyanquis, a member of the Nipmuc tribe. Once the killers were caught, colonial authorities decided to put the men on trial. The case seemed clear enough. But with tensions rising between colonists and indigenous peoples, not to mention a makeshift court system, could the Plymouth colonists find a path to justice and prevent further violence?
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You are listening to History on Trial, a production of
iHeart Podcasts. Listener Discretion advised. Darkness was falling over the
Rhode Island woods by the time Roger Williams reached the
wounded man. When Williams had heard that a man had
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been attacked, he'd set off quickly, hoping that he could help.
But looking at the man lying before him, Williams knew
the situation was hopeless. Williams was no stranger to violence,
no one living in New England in the sixteen thirties was.
He knew that wounds like these, a long, ugly gash
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running up one leg ending in a deep wound in
the belly, could not be overcome. Nonetheless, the doctors Williams
had brought with him, John Green and Thomas James, did
what little they could. Then the three men along with
this three in Narrogansett hunters who had discovered the wounded man,
picked the man up and began the trek back to Providence,
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the settlement that Williams had founded two years earlier. It
was an arduous journey through the dense forest. The wounded
man must have been in excruciating pain, but he found
the strength to tell his rescuers his story. His name
was Penowan Yankis. He said he was a member of
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the Nitmuk tribe. He had been set upon by four
men who tried to rob and kill him. He had escaped,
but he knew his wound was grave. Infection was setting
in a fever taking hold. Penowon Yankuis began to pray,
calling out to Mukwachaquan, the children's God. Mukwachaquan was known
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to save lost boys. As a child, Penowa Yankis had
encountered the god in the form of an animal, and
now he called upon the god's protection. But it was
too late. Penawa Yanquist was beyond saving. Before he slipped away,
though he told the men one last crucial fact. His attackers,
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he said, were English. Roger Williams, with a pit in
his stomach, knew who the four men must be. He
had seen them just that morning when they had shown
up at his doorstep, but draggled and starving, Claiming to
have gotten lost in the woods. They said they were
trying to get to Connecticut. Williams fed them, assigned them
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narrogantic guides, and gave them a few letters to deliver
on their way. Williams had just been trying to be kind,
but now he knew the sickening truth he had assisted murderers.
He resolved at once that he would hunt these men
down soon enough, with the help of the narrogantic guides
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and the English colonists on Aquidneck Island present day Portsmouth,
Rhode Island. William had his men. They were four indentured servants,
Arthur Peach, Thomas Jackson, Richard Stinnings and Daniel Cross. Now
that Williams had apprehended the murderers, he faced a new
challenge what to do with them. Their attack on Penawa
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yanquists had taken place in a no man's land of sorts,
a swampy patch claimed by neither the Narraganset nor the
Wampanog tribes, nor by any of the English colonies. And
while the killers were English, their victim was Nitmuck. Who
should have jurisdiction over the murderers? It was a question
with serious implications. For the past two years, the brutal
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Pequot War had raged through New England. Tensions between colonists
and indigenous peoples were at an all time high. Would
this murder spark disaster. The Indians sent for mister Williams
recorded William Bradford, the former governor of Plymouth Colony, and
made a grievous complaint. His friends and kindred were ready
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to rise in arms and provoke the rest thereunto some
conceiving they should now find the Pequot's word true, that
the English would fall upon them. Roger Williams Bradford writes
quote pacified them and told them they should see justice
done upon the offenders. It was determined that the men
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would be tried before a jury in Plymouth Colony. Could
the colonists, would their scant resources manage a fair trial?
Could they overcome their innate prejudices towards their indigenous neighbors.
Could they stave off a looming war? And most of all,
could they fulfill William's promise? Could they see justice done?
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Welcome to history on trial. I'm your host, Mira Hayward.
This week Plymouth Colony v. The Peach Gang. In late
December sixteent any English colonists from the Mayflower arrived at
the remains of a Peduxt village on the southeastern coast
of present day Massachusetts. The new arrivals dubbed this settlement Plymouth.
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The first winter at Plymouth was brutal. Almost half of
the colonists fifty out of one hundred and two, died,
succumbing to disease and starvation. The remaining populations struggled to
build adequate shelter and to make use of the land's
natural resources. Salvation arrived in the form of the Wampanogu Confederation.
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The Wampanogue had once been a dominant presence along the
present day Massachusetts and Rhode Island coasts, with a population
of some forty thousand people living in sixty seven villages.
But between sixteen sixteen and sixteen nineteen, a period that
became known as the Great Dying, thousands of Wampanog died
from infectious diseases brought by European explorers. A neighboring group,
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the Narragansett, who had been less impacted by disease, began
to encroach on Wampanog territory. When the Plymouth colonists arrived
in sixteen twenty, the Wampanog saw an opportunity. An alliance
with the English could provide weapons and bodies to fight
off the nar against it In the spring of sixteen
twenty one, the Wampanogue established contact with the English, and
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in late March the two groups signed a peace treaty.
This alliance saved the colonists. Their Wampanog allies provided invaluable assistance,
teaching the colonists how to work the land, maximize crop output,
and hunt. Over the next decade, thanks to this knowledge,
the colonists began to thrive. By the mid sixteen thirties,
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Plymouth's population had more than tripled, and it was about
to grow even more. Colonists lived in neat houses with
small gardens behind them. A large defensive wall encircled the town,
and a meeting house sat atop the town's highest point.
The establishment of further English colonies, the Massachusetts Bay, Saybrook
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and Connecticut colonies, gave Plymouth residents further security and opportunities
for trade, but not all was well in Plymouth. In
sixteen thirty six, the various English colonies allied with the
Narraganset and Mohegan tribes in a war against the Pequots.
Though the English dominated the conflict, the brutality of the war,
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which included a massacre of more than four hundred Pequot
in a single day in sixteen thirty seven, deeply concerned
the English's native allies what would happen if the English
turned against them? The English, too were becoming increasingly wary
of their indigenous neighbors, prejudice against native people's crew earnest interactions,
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writes historian Toby Pearl in her book Terror to the
Wicked gave way to mistrust, suspicion, and hatred are also
tensions between the English colonies. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was
growing much faster than Plymouth, sucking up resources and land
and new arrivals, including indentured servants, which Plymouth Colony desperately needed.
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The colony relied on these servants, men and women who
agreed to a period of unpaid labor in exchange for
passage to the colony and the promise of land at
the end of their indenture to keep it running. But
by the late sixteen thirties, with land becoming scarce, Plymouth
Colony leaders reduced the amount of land guaranteed to indentured
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servants from one hundred acres to five, which would only
be granted to servants that the colony deemed fit. These
unattracted terms quickly stemmed the flow of indentured servants. These
changes also infuriated many of Plymouth's existing indentured servants, who
felt cheated out of their futures. One such servant was
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Our Peach, a twenty three year old Irishman. Peach had
sailed on the Plain Joan from Gravesend to England to
the Colony of Virginia in the spring of sixteen thirty five.
In sixteen thirty six, he had traveled to New England,
where he signed a four year in denture contract with
Edward Winslow, a prominent Plymouth resident. Peach spent part of
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the first years of his contract as a soldier fighting
for Plymouth in the Pequot Wars. William Bradford, the Plymouth governor,
recorded that Peach had done as good service as the
most there and was one of the forwardest in any attempt.
Peach was brave, no doubt. Unfortunately, domestic life did not
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suit him as well as war did. Peach was loathe
to work, Bradford wrote. Instead of completing his duties for Winslow,
Peach spent most of his time at Stephen Hopkins's house.
Hopkins hosted a makeshift cavern and gambling den there, much
to the chagrin of Plymouth's leader. Peach quickly racked up
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large gambling debts to Hopkins. He also got entangled with
Dorothy Temple, one of Hopkins's indentured servants. Relationships between servants
were forbidden in Plymouth, but that didn't stop Peach from
wooing Temple. If Plymouth officials discovered the relationship, Peach and
Temple would both face punishment fines or whippings or both.
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Despite this burgeoning romance, Arthur Peach was unhappy. He didn't
know if he could bear two more years of indentured servitude.
He didn't know if he could ever pay off his
gambling debts. He craved adventure, but indentured servants couldn't leave
Plymouth colony without their master's permission. What was Arthur Peach,
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who William Bradford called quote a lusty and desperate young
man to do? Run? That was Arthur Peach's answer. He
would flee dry, drab Plymouth for the exciting possibilities of
New Amsterdam, the Dutch settlement on Manhattan Island. He wouldn't
go alone at Stephen Hopkins's house he'd made friends with
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a number of similarly disillusioned servants, and he'd convinced three
of them, Thomas Jackson, Richard Stinnings, and Daniel Cross, to
leave with him. On July twenty fourth, sixteen thirty eight,
in the dark of night, the men met on the
Green Harbor Path, a well trodden byway running along the coast.
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Fearing pursuit, they decided to leave the path and head
into the thick woods. The woods were dense and imposing,
but through them Peach believed lay freedom. For three exhausting,
frustrating days, Arthur Peach and his companions stumbled their way
through the forest. They likely argued as they went. The
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three other men had only joined Peach because he claimed
to know the way to New Amsterdam, but as the
days wore on, it became clear that he did not.
The Peach Gang, as the group would become known, also
had not packed well. They were running short on food
and water. On July twenty seven, the gang stopped to
rest in miss Quam Squeeze, a swampy patch of land
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north of present day Seaconk, Massachusetts. They were only thirty
six miles from Plymouth, as the crow flies, but it
must have felt much further. Mosquitoes nipped at their ankles,
their heads throbbed in the heat, and their stomachs ached
from hunger. The atmosphere was oppressive. Some locals called the
area the Devil's swamp. All At once Arthur Peach heard
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a rustling behind him. He grabbed his rapier, a thin,
double edged, deadly sharp sword, the only thing he had
taken with him from Plymouth. The gang tensed who was
walking through the woods, a party from Plymouth out to
apprehend them or an animal they could kill for food.
The rustling grew louder. A lone man emerged from the
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trees at the clearing's edge. Nervous. None of the Peach
gang addressed the man. He walked silently through the clearing
and disappeared back into the trees. Arthur Peach had been
caught off guard by the man's appearance, but it had
given him an idea, a dark idea. He told his
men that they would not be traveling further that day.
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The man they had just seen is known by history
as Penawa Yanquis. This is likely not his real name.
Penaway means foreigner or stranger in Eastern Algonquin, so the
man may have been describing himself as a stranger when
he later gave his name to Roger Williams. Penawa Yanquis
was a member of the Nitmuck people. Nitmuk means freshwater people,
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a fitting name given that their homelands contained the headwaters
of all major rivers in eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The Nitmuk lived in villages across the interior of present
day Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island and Connecticut. When
the Mayflower colonists landed at Plymouth in sixteen twenty, there
were an estimated five to six thousand Nitmucks, but contact
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with the English and the infectious diseases they carried decimated
the tribe's population. By sixteen thirty eight, the Nitmuck were
paying tribute to the Narragansett tribe in exchange for protection.
On July twenty seventh, when he crossed paths with the
Peach Gang, penawa Yanquis was on his way to the
Uptuxet Trading Post outside of present day Bourne, Massachusetts. The
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trading post had been built in sixteen twenty seven to
facilitate trade between the Wampanog the Dutch and the English.
The Narragansett, being enemies of the Wampanogu, could not visit
the trading post, so they set members of affiliated tribes
like the Nipmuck to do their trading for them. Penawa
Yanquist carried beaver pelts and beads with him, which was
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trading on behalf of Mixano Canonicus, leader of the Narraganset.
At the trading post, Penawa Yankuis exchanged his pelts and
beads for three cloth coats and five fathoms of wampum.
Wampum small shell beads were used as currency. A fathom
consisted of three hundred and sixty wampum strung in six
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foot lengths. Five fathoms was worth approximately six contemporary English
pounds or around twelve hundred dollars to day. It was
a small fortune to carry through the woods a magnet
for danger, especially since traders were required to trade unarmed,
But Penawa Yanquist was well trained, he knew this land intimately,
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he likely had no fear as he set out from
the trading post, heading west. He walked until dark, set
up camp, and then resumed his journey along the Narraganset Trail.
The next morning, further down the trail, Arthur Peach and
his men huddled in a clearing. Seeing Penawa Yankuist two
days earlier had given Arthur pea teach an idea. The
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things he and his gang wanted food, water, money, required
hard work. Wouldn't it just be easier to steal them
from someone else? All they had to do was wait
for a traveler to pass by. Their first opportunity appeared
in a clatter of hoofs. John Throckmorton, a Providence resident,
was traveling the trail on horseback. Throckmorton recoiled at seeing
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four dirty, disheveled men step out onto the trail. Suspicious,
he urged his horse into a gallop and rode past quickly.
The Peach gang was out of luck. They settled back
down to wait. Some time later, they heard the sounds
of someone approaching on foot. It was penawan Yanquist. Arthur
Peach was prepared this time. The gang had built a fire,
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and Peach invited penawa Yanquist to sit beside it, offering
his pipe too. Penawan Yanquist, having no reason to fear
these friendly travelers, approached. Now that the moment was upon them.
Peach's compatriots hesitated. One of them told Peach not to attack,
but Peach would not be deterred. Hang him rogue. I
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had killed many of them, he cried, speaking of his
time in the Pequot War, and then he thrust his
rapier at Penawa Yankuists, sinking the blade into the man's
stomach and pulling it down his belly through his upper thigh.
Penawa Yankis reeled, but his reflexes were faster than Peach's.
He dodged a second blow and turned to run. Another
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gang member lashed out at him, but Penawa Yankis bounded away.
He knew his greatest advantage was his knowledge of the land.
He sprinted into the thick vegetation of the swamp. The
Peach gang gave chase, slashing at plants with their blades.
Penawa Yankuist did not look back. He splashed through the swamp,
holding his stomach as blood poured from his wounds. He
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tripped and fell, and then, hearing his pursuers nearby, pulled
himself up and made one more agonizing push deeper into
the swamp. Unable to go further, he lay down in
the brackish water, letting the reeds shelter him. The Peach
Gang gave up the hunt. They figured Penawa Yankish would
soon lead out, and they had what they wanted, the
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strings of wampum and the coats. With this small fortune,
they could establish themselves in New Amsterdam. They just needed
to get there, but luck was not on their side.
Not far away, near Pawtucket Falls, the Peachgang encountered a
group of Narragansetts. The Narragansets were concerned to see four
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filthy Englishmen wandering in the woods and encouraged the men
to travel south to nearby Providence, where the settlement's leader,
Roger Williams, could help them. The Peach Gang declined, saying
that they were headed west to Connecticut, but the Narragants
were worried about the men and decided to report them
to Roger Williams, one of the first colonists in Boston.
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Williams's unorthodox beliefs had gotten him kicked out of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony in sixteen thirty five. Williams headed to
present day Rhode Island, where he founded a settlement that
he named Providence. Williams was fascinated by indigenous culture and
enjoyed close relationships with many native people. He advocated for
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fair dealings with the tribes and learned to speak a
number of Algonquin dialects, including Narragansett. But Williams also owned
a Pequot slave, a child called will and he could
be brusque and temperamental. When the Narragansett party informed Williams
about the men in the woods, he sent a messenger
with food and an invitation to visit him. The messenger
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returned with the news that the men preferred to get
some sleep. The Peach gang must have realized that it
would look suspicious to turn Williams down indefinitely. Early the
next morning, they set off for Providence. Williams welcomed them
into his home, offering them food and water. Learning that
they were bound for Connecticut, he asked them to deliver
some letters for him. They agreed, and Williams arranged for
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some narrogant guides to accompany them so they didn't get
lost again. Around the time that the Peach gang arrived
in Providence, a group of Narragansett hunters stumbled across Penawa Yanquists.
Sometime in the night, the wounded man had mustered the
strength to pull himself onto a path. The hunters immediately
sent word to Roger Williams that a nipmuck trader had
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been attacked by a party of Englishmen. By the time
the message arrived, the Peach gang had already left. Williams
summoned two physicians, John Green and Thomas James, and set
off to find the Penawa Yanquist. Before leaving, Williams sent
a messenger to surreptitiously warn the Narraganset guide that their
traveling companions might actually be fugitives. Williams hoped the messenger
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could catch up with them in time. Penawa Yankuis's strength
rapidly faded as his rescuers carried him towards Providence. It
was incredible that he had even lived this long, long
enough to tell his story, but his grasp on life
was slipping. Exactly when he died is unknown. None of
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the written records we have contained an account of his death,
and Williams, for one, did not witness it. Miles away,
Arthur Peach knew that his time was running out. At
some point, he had learned that Penawa Yanquist had survived
and identified his assailants. Desperate, Peach abandoned his pretense of
going to Connecticut and told the guides that he needed
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to stop at a Quidneck Island in Narragansett Bay. A
Quidneck had recently been settled by a group of religious
exiles from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Peach hoped that
these people would shelter him. He pushed his group to hurry,
and they'd eventually made it to Narragansett Bay. All that
was between the gang and freedom was a canoe ride.
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As the boats pushed off from shore, Arthur Peach must
have sighed in relief when he reached a Quidnick. The
settlers there welcomed him. He had made it well, not quite.
Arthur Peach didn't know it, but a trap was closing
in on him. Miraculously, Williams's messenger had managed to track
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the party down and secretly notify the Narraganset guides of
the gang's true nature. The guides, knowing that they were
outnumbered by the Englishmen, had maintained their composure and betrayed
nothing of their knowledge. They had bided their time until
they arrived at a Quidneck. Then, while the Peach Gang rested,
they told the settlers there about the crime. A Quidneck
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Islanders didn't like the colonial authorities, but they didn't like
murderers either. Working with the Narragansetts, they took the Peach
Gang by surprise and arrested them. Unfortunately, the island had
no place to hold the captives. Daniel Cross, member of
the Beach Gang, took advantage of this. He managed to
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loose his bindings and slip away, stealing a canoe and
heading for land. Once there, he traveled some one hundred
miles north to the settlement of Piscataqua, near present day Portsmouth,
New Hampshire. Piscataqua had a reputation for welcoming misfits. John Winthrop,
governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, wrote contemptuously of Piscataquans,
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that it was their usual manner, some of them, to
countenance all such lewd persons as fled from us to them.
As for the other three prisoners, there would be no reprieve.
After a conversation between leaders from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Providence,
Aquinnock Island, and Plymouth, it was determined that Arthur Peach,
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Thomas Jackson, and Richard Stinnings would stand trial in Plymouth.
After barely a week on the run, the Peach gang
was headed right back to where they'd started. What did
the law look like in Plymouth Colony? Unlike the neighboring
Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony had not been granted a
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Royal Charter by the King of England. Charters defined the
laws in a colony and gave the colonies leader authority
to enforce set laws. Without a charter, it was up
to Plymouth's residents to define their own government. In late
sixteen twenty forty, one of the settlers signed a document
declaring themselves quote a civil body politic with the power
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to create laws for quote the general good of the colony,
unto which promise all due submission and obedience. In sixteen
thirty six, two years before Penawa Yanquis's murder, Plymouth produced
its first written set of laws. Enforcement of the laws
would be managed in part by the colony's General Court,
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a part judicial and part legislative body led by the
colony's elected governor. The laws in this code were shaped
by the English in law, but there were some key differences. Too.
Many Plymouth residents had experienced or been witnessed to grave
injustices perpetrated by the English legal system. Religious dissenters were
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frequently punished for criticizing the Church of England and the King.
Punishments could include whippings, brandings, and having one's ears chopped off.
The colonists did not eliminate corporal or capital punishments from
their legal code, but they greatly reduced the number of
crimes that could receive such penalties, and they tried to
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ensure that the punishments were not arbitrarily applied, as they
so often had been in England by the infamous Star Chamber.
In sixteen twenty three, Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford declared
that all criminal trials must be heard by quote a
jury upon their oaths, so the Peach Gang would receive
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a jury trial. The jury selection process in sixteen thirty
eight looked quite different than it does today. To begin
with that very few people were eligible for jury service.
Plymouth at this time had only five hundred and fifty
residents from that pool. Women, children, the elderly, and of
the sick were automatically excluded, so were indentured servants, who
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made up around a fifth of the population. Coawnee officials
and religious leaders were also exempt. That didn't leave many options,
so instead of summoning a random jury pool like we
do now, Plymouth leaders carefully hand selected jurors for this trial.
Twelve men served on the jury. Two additional men served
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as grand jurors, which meant in this time that they
served as watchdogs over the jury and the trial to
make sure no laws were broken. On September fourth, sixteen
thirty eight, the trial began at the Plymouth Meetinghouse, a
thick walled building made of rough planks. The meetinghouse loomed
over the town from its spot atop a hill. The
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meeting house served many purposes. Originally built as a fort,
the second floor sported six cannons, while the first floor
hosted church services. On this day, the meeting house would
be a courthouse. It was dark and hot in the
meeting house. The only windows were thin, defensive slits for
firing guns out of on the second floor. The colony's
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military commander, Myles Standish, had provided a disturbing decoration for
the occasion. The severed head of an Indian named Wittawomet,
whose standish had killed years earlier. The skull grinned down
at the convicts, a grim reminder of their possible fate.
Arthur Peach, Thomas Jackson, and Richard Stinnings were charged with
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wilful murder, one of the few crimes punishable by death
under Plymouth laws. The men who had been jailed in
the colonies since their capture a month earlier were malnourished
and filthy. The fourth member of the gang, Daniel Cross,
would not be in attendance. Pscataqua had refused Plymouth's requests
to extradite the fugitive. Cross's ultimate fate is unknown. The
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meetinghouse was packed. English colonists and members of the Narragansett
and Wampanog tribes filled the room. Those who could not
squeeze in stayed outside, listening intently through the walls. Thomas Prince,
the current governor of Plymouth Colony, presided over the trial.
Prince was not only the judge, he was also Toby
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Pearl Writes quote both FactFinder and prosecutor, supervising the proceedings
and interviewing witnesses and defendants alike. Four hundred years on
from this trial. We can't accurately reconstruct a play by play,
but we do know enough to sketch an outline. John Throckmorton,
the Providence colonist who had encountered the Peat Gang in
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the woods, was on call to establish the gang's presence
near the crime scene. The defendants unsurprisingly denied ever seeing Brockmorton.
Next up was Roger Williams. Williams had been intimately involved
in the story almost from its beginning and had interacted
with both the Peachgang and Penawa Yanquist. He could repeat
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what Penawa Yanquist told him in his dying declaration that
quote four English had slain him. He could describe the
way the Peach Gang tried to escape, but Williams could
not testify on the matter at the heart of the case.
Had the Peach Gang truly killed Penawa Yanquist. No one
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had actually seen Penawa Yanquist die. We don't know why
this is. Maybe realizing the end was near Penawa Yankuis
had asked to be alone, and after his death his
body had disappeared, perhaps because local indigenous people had cremated
it in order to return his ashes to his family.
So how could it be proved that this was really
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a murder. At the trial, both Roger Williams and doctor
Thomas James swore an oath that Penawa Yanquist's quote wound
was mortal. As a physician, Doctor James's testimony on this
matter carried weight, but would it be enough? So much
doubt still existed. Two men arrived in the courtroom to
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try to settle the matter. It had not been an
easy decision for these men to testify. There was considerable
danger involved. These men were two of the naraganst hunters
who had discovered Penawa Yanquists and fetched help. It was
only with quote much difficulty that they were procured to
come to trial John winthroprote, for they still feared that
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the English were conspiring to kill all the Indians. But
despite the dangers, the Narragansetts were here. They were willing
to risk their lives to see justice done, and they
told the court as much. Neither of these men had
seen Penawa Yanquist die, but in court they both swore
that quote, if he were not dead of that wound,
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then they would suffer death. With four men all taking
oaths that Penawa Yankuist must be dead. The matter of
whether or not this was murder was likely settled, but
that didn't mean that a guilty verdict was guaranteed. There
were a number of complicated factors at play for the jurors,
who now began their deliberations on the second floor of
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the meetinghouse. As we've discussed before, no court room is
a vacuum, the outside world inevitably leaks in. In this case,
the jurors couldn't have helped but to be aware of
the heightened pensions between colonists and indigenous tribes. Roger Williams
had promised the naragainst its justice. It was only this
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promise that had kept the narrogainst from quote rising in arms.
A guilty verdict might satisfy the tribe and stave off
a war. A guilty verdict could also serve as a
deterrent for other indentured servants who were considering running off.
But on the other hand, news of three indented servants
being executed might not exactly be great marketing material for
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a colony desperate to entice more indentured servants. And that
wasn't the only reason to consider a not guilty verdict.
Arthur Peach had valuable fighting skills that the colony afford
to lose a soldier, especially as the Pequot War had
not yet ended. There were also more philosophical reasons to
let the Peach gang off. Many colonial leaders believed in
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a lenient application of the law. In the infancy of plantations,
John Winthrop wrote justice should be administered with more lenity
than in a settled state, because people are more apt
than to transgress. Partly out of opposition, many colonists in
New England had been escaping the tyranny of the English
crown and courts. They might have been more inclined to
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give defendants the benefit of the doubt. This inclination is
reflected in conviction rates during the colonial era. Toby Pearl rites,
nearly half of defendants were acquitted. Of those who faced
preliminary grand jury, many were not indicted. This meant that
approximately two thirds of accused criminals avoided conviction. What's more,
(33:09):
Arthur Peach was English, the man he had killed was not.
William Bradford noted that quote. Some of the rude and
ignorant sort murmured that an English should not be put
to death for the Indians, though Roger Williams exhorted his
fellow colonists to quote, boast not proud English of thy
(33:30):
birth and blood. Thy brother Indian is by birth as good.
Not everyone in Plymouth had the same beliefs. Many colonists
simply valued Arthur Peach's life more than they valued Penawan Yanquish's.
So what would the jury do? At the trial's start,
Thomas Prince had asked them to swear an oath to
(33:52):
quote give a true verdict according to law and evidence.
But the evidence in this case was not necessarily rock solid.
Everyone knew Penawa Yanquist was dead, but the absence of
a body left the jurors just enough wiggle room to
justify either verdict. By the day's end, the jury had
reached a conclusion. Returning to the meetinghouse's first floor, they
(34:16):
announced their verdict to the crowd on the charge of
wilful murder for the death of Penawa Yanquist. The defendants
Arthur Peach, Thomas Jackson, and Richard Stinnings were found guilty.
With their fate sealed, the convicted men saw no point
(34:36):
in further denying their actions. They all confessed to attacking
Penawa Yanquists to quote get his wompum. The confession did
nothing to change their sentence. There was only one punishment
in Plymouth, for wilful murder death. They did not have
to wait long for the end. The three convicts were
taken by cart to the gallows. All the fight had
(34:59):
gone out of them, or at least out of two
of them, who, according to John Winthrop quote, died very penitently.
We don't know if it was Stinnings or Jackson who
refused to repent, but Arthur Peach at least expressed remorse.
John Winthrop called him quote especially penitent, and subsequently gave Peach,
(35:19):
despite his crimes, a fine obituary, describing him as quote
a young man of good parentage and fair conditioned, and
who had done very good service against the Peaquots. A
reputation for good service and for murder wouldn't be Arthur
Peach's only legacy in Plymouth Colony. Sitting in the shadows
(35:39):
at his trial and perhaps in attendance at his execution,
was Dorothy Temple, Peach's twenty three year old lover. She
was pregnant with Arthur Peach's child. Her employer, Stephen Hopkins,
the town libertine, who made money from gambling and liquor sales,
apparently drew a line at pregnancy. Out of wedlock, Temple
(36:00):
gave birth to a son in early February sixteen thirty nine.
Hopkins tried to kick her out of his house, but
the Plymouth General Court ruled that he was required to
support Temple. Shortly after, John Holmes, a member of the
jury at Arthur Beach's trial, bought Temple's in denture contract
from Hopkins. Temple moved in with the Holmes family. In June,
(36:22):
only four months after giving birth, she was sentenced to
be whited twice four quote uncleanness and bringing forth a
male bastard. She fainted during the first whipping, so the court,
in its mercy, let her off without the second one.
What became of Dorothy Temple and her son are unknown.
(36:43):
What of penawon Yanquis's family, We don't know exactly who
they were, but we can imagine how deeply his loss
must have affected them. Besides the emotional devastation, penawa Yanquis's
role as a trader made him valuable to his tribe.
Financial restitution for crime was common in Plymouth, and at
the close of the trial, Governor Prince had ordered that
(37:04):
the Peach gang provide payment to the Nitmuk, but the
men had declared that they had quote no lands or
tenement goods or cattle's Penawa Yankuis's family would receive no
compensation for their loss. At least the killers had been
caught and convicted. We can hope that this gave some
sort of peace to the Nitmuk. At the very least,
(37:25):
the guilty verdict did help reduce tensions between the colonists
and the tribes. No new conflicts arose, and old ones
were settled. On September twenty first, sixteen thirty eight, a
little more than two weeks after the trial, representatives of
the English, the Narragansett, and the Mohegan signed the Treaty
of Hartford, ending the Pequot War. The Pequots themselves had
(37:48):
been nearly entirely wiped out. The treaties stripped the approximately
two hundred survivors of their lands and identities. That this
trial happened at all is remarkable. A colony with no
officially sanctioned government managed to conduct a jury trial in
a fort. As Toby Pearl writes, quote when juries made
(38:10):
law in the colonies. They wrested control from centralized authorities
and empowered local communities, a foundational principle for the fledgling nation.
Average individuals, otherwise disenfranchised became surrogate lawmakers. They became world changers. Unfortunately,
these world changers would not always use their powers for good.
(38:34):
But the sixteen fifties, writes Jennifer Altman in her study
Native Americans in criminal cases of Plymouth Colony, quote, impatience
with Native Americans resistance to adopting English custom and religion
caused the court to show more leniency towards its own
people and less toward Native Americans. This trend only intensified
(38:55):
in the sixteen sixties as Plymouth colonies demands for land skyrocketed,
leading to increased resistance from its native neighbors. The focus
of the court, Altman says, became quote not restitution but
retribution for crimes that white settlers were usually fined for.
Indians were whipped. By the sixteen seventies, the Plymouth Court
(39:19):
was selling Indians convicted of crimes into slavery in the Caribbean.
The same legal system that had once convicted the killers
of a Native man was now being used to tear
Indigenous people from their lands and families. In both its
victories and its failings, the Plymouth Colony legal system mirrors
(39:39):
our own legal system. The outcomes are often inequitable and
the process is often unfair, But in some cases we
can transcend our biases, and, as Roger Williams once promised,
see justice done. That's the story of Plymouth Colony VI.
The Peach Gang. Stay with me after the break to
(40:02):
learn more about the remarkable history of the Nitmucks. Today,
many people in the town of Grafton, Massachusetts, commute to
work in Worcester or Boston. Before Grafton was a commuter suburb,
it was a mill town, and before it was a
mill town, it was a hub for leather manufacturing. Before
(40:22):
all of this, though, Grafton was hassen amiss It the
place of small Stones, home to the Hassenamisco band of Nitmucks.
The Nitmuks who lived on this land planted corn and
beans and squash, caught fish from the rivers, and hunted
deer and rabbits. In sixteen fifty four, John Elliot, an
(40:43):
English missionary, established a praying town at Hassenamissit, occupying eight
thousand acres. Elliott had developed the Praying town model as
a method of converting Indians to Christianity. Indigenous people living
in these villages had to conform to English go customs
and Christian dictates in exchange. Those who moved to these
(41:03):
towns hoped to receive protection from rival tribes or establish
better relationships with the English. But, writes Cheryl Tony Holley,
the current Sansqua, or female leader of the Hassenamisco quote,
while Hassenamissit was a safe harbor for nitmucks, it also
meant publicly relinquishing nitmuck lifeways to stay, and a further
(41:25):
blow to nitmuck society was looming. During King Philip's War
in the late sixteen seventies, the nitmucks at Hassenamissit who
had not moved into the Praying Town were driven off
their land. After the war, the Praying Town itself was dissolved.
Over the next six decades, some nitmuck families returned to
the area, but in seventeen twenty eight, the colonial government
(41:46):
decided to transfer most of the eight thousand acres used
by the Praying town to English settlers. Twelve hundred of
the acres were set aside for only seven Nitmuck families.
Many Nitmuck families were not allocated anything. The Hassenamisco. Nitmuck
were supposed to receive payment for this land, as the
National Park Service records quote, a system was set up
(42:10):
whereby non native trustees or guardians were responsible for investing
the proceeds from the land transfer and protecting the remaining
native lands from encroachment by English settlers. However, the system
failed to protect either the principle from the sale or
the lands of the Nipmuck families. Sheryl Tony hollywrites, quote.
(42:30):
The twenty five hundred pounds paid by forty English proprietors
was placed in trust by the guardians or trustees of
the Hassanamisco. The Hassenamisco were to be paid the interest
on the fund annually, but according to multiple petitions to
the legislature, this only sometimes happened. Trustees also took it
upon themselves to decrease the principle of the fund from
(42:52):
time to time to pay their own debts. These stolen
funds are still owed to the tribe today. The next
century and a half, the remaining Hassenamiscow Nitmunks sold their
land or lost it through rig deals with settlers. By
eighteen fifty seven, all the land was gone, all the land,
that is, except for three acres belonging to a Nitmuck
(43:16):
woman named Sarah Arnold Cisco. Today, nearly four hundred years
after Penawa Yankuis's death, the land still belongs to the Nitmuck.
It is called the Hassenamisco Reservation, and it is the
only plot of land in all of Massachusetts that has
never left the hands of Native people. Thank you for
(43:38):
listening to History on Trial. If you've enjoyed this episode,
please consider leaving a rating or review. They can help
new listeners find the show. My main sources for today's
episode were Toby Pearl's book Terror to the Wicked, America's
first trial by jury that ended a war and helped
to form a nation, as well as the Plymouth Colonial
Archive and various primary sources, including the writings of Roger Williams,
(44:01):
William Bradford, and John Winprepp. Special thanks to Chief Peter
Silva of the Hassinamisco Nitmuk tribe for his assistance. For
a full bibliography, as well as a transcript of this
episode with citations, please visit our website History on Trial
podcast dot com. History on Trial is written and hosted
by me Mira Hayward. The show is edited and produced
(44:25):
by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer Trevor Young and executive
producers Dana Schwartz, Alexander Williams, Matt Frederick, and Mira Hayward.
Learn more about the show at History on Trial podcast
dot com and follow us on Instagram at History on
Trial and on Twitter at Underscore History on Trial. Find
(44:47):
more podcasts from iHeartRadio by visiting the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
You are listening to History on Trial, a production of
iHeart Podcasts. Listener Discretion advised. Darkness was falling over the
Rhode Island woods by the time Roger Williams reached the
wounded man. When Williams had heard that a man had
(00:22):
been attacked, he'd set off quickly, hoping that he could help.
But looking at the man lying before him, Williams knew
the situation was hopeless. Williams was no stranger to violence,
no one living in New England in the sixteen thirties was.
He knew that wounds like these, a long, ugly gash
(00:44):
running up one leg ending in a deep wound in
the belly, could not be overcome. Nonetheless, the doctors Williams
had brought with him, John Green and Thomas James, did
what little they could. Then the three men along with
this three in Narrogansett hunters who had discovered the wounded man,
picked the man up and began the trek back to Providence,
(01:07):
the settlement that Williams had founded two years earlier. It
was an arduous journey through the dense forest. The wounded
man must have been in excruciating pain, but he found
the strength to tell his rescuers his story. His name
was Penowan Yankis. He said he was a member of
(01:29):
the Nitmuk tribe. He had been set upon by four
men who tried to rob and kill him. He had escaped,
but he knew his wound was grave. Infection was setting
in a fever taking hold. Penowon Yankuis began to pray,
calling out to Mukwachaquan, the children's God. Mukwachaquan was known
(01:51):
to save lost boys. As a child, Penowa Yankis had
encountered the god in the form of an animal, and
now he called upon the god's protection. But it was
too late. Penawa Yanquist was beyond saving. Before he slipped away,
though he told the men one last crucial fact. His attackers,
(02:12):
he said, were English. Roger Williams, with a pit in
his stomach, knew who the four men must be. He
had seen them just that morning when they had shown
up at his doorstep, but draggled and starving, Claiming to
have gotten lost in the woods. They said they were
trying to get to Connecticut. Williams fed them, assigned them
(02:34):
narrogantic guides, and gave them a few letters to deliver
on their way. Williams had just been trying to be kind,
but now he knew the sickening truth he had assisted murderers.
He resolved at once that he would hunt these men
down soon enough, with the help of the narrogantic guides
(02:54):
and the English colonists on Aquidneck Island present day Portsmouth,
Rhode Island. William had his men. They were four indentured servants,
Arthur Peach, Thomas Jackson, Richard Stinnings and Daniel Cross. Now
that Williams had apprehended the murderers, he faced a new
challenge what to do with them. Their attack on Penawa
(03:17):
yanquists had taken place in a no man's land of sorts,
a swampy patch claimed by neither the Narraganset nor the
Wampanog tribes, nor by any of the English colonies. And
while the killers were English, their victim was Nitmuck. Who
should have jurisdiction over the murderers? It was a question
with serious implications. For the past two years, the brutal
(03:41):
Pequot War had raged through New England. Tensions between colonists
and indigenous peoples were at an all time high. Would
this murder spark disaster. The Indians sent for mister Williams
recorded William Bradford, the former governor of Plymouth Colony, and
made a grievous complaint. His friends and kindred were ready
(04:04):
to rise in arms and provoke the rest thereunto some
conceiving they should now find the Pequot's word true, that
the English would fall upon them. Roger Williams Bradford writes
quote pacified them and told them they should see justice
done upon the offenders. It was determined that the men
(04:25):
would be tried before a jury in Plymouth Colony. Could
the colonists, would their scant resources manage a fair trial?
Could they overcome their innate prejudices towards their indigenous neighbors.
Could they stave off a looming war? And most of all,
could they fulfill William's promise? Could they see justice done?
(04:48):
Welcome to history on trial. I'm your host, Mira Hayward.
This week Plymouth Colony v. The Peach Gang. In late
December sixteent any English colonists from the Mayflower arrived at
the remains of a Peduxt village on the southeastern coast
of present day Massachusetts. The new arrivals dubbed this settlement Plymouth.
(05:12):
The first winter at Plymouth was brutal. Almost half of
the colonists fifty out of one hundred and two, died,
succumbing to disease and starvation. The remaining populations struggled to
build adequate shelter and to make use of the land's
natural resources. Salvation arrived in the form of the Wampanogu Confederation.
(05:34):
The Wampanogue had once been a dominant presence along the
present day Massachusetts and Rhode Island coasts, with a population
of some forty thousand people living in sixty seven villages.
But between sixteen sixteen and sixteen nineteen, a period that
became known as the Great Dying, thousands of Wampanog died
from infectious diseases brought by European explorers. A neighboring group,
(05:58):
the Narragansett, who had been less impacted by disease, began
to encroach on Wampanog territory. When the Plymouth colonists arrived
in sixteen twenty, the Wampanog saw an opportunity. An alliance
with the English could provide weapons and bodies to fight
off the nar against it In the spring of sixteen
twenty one, the Wampanogue established contact with the English, and
(06:22):
in late March the two groups signed a peace treaty.
This alliance saved the colonists. Their Wampanog allies provided invaluable assistance,
teaching the colonists how to work the land, maximize crop output,
and hunt. Over the next decade, thanks to this knowledge,
the colonists began to thrive. By the mid sixteen thirties,
(06:44):
Plymouth's population had more than tripled, and it was about
to grow even more. Colonists lived in neat houses with
small gardens behind them. A large defensive wall encircled the town,
and a meeting house sat atop the town's highest point.
The establishment of further English colonies, the Massachusetts Bay, Saybrook
(07:05):
and Connecticut colonies, gave Plymouth residents further security and opportunities
for trade, but not all was well in Plymouth. In
sixteen thirty six, the various English colonies allied with the
Narraganset and Mohegan tribes in a war against the Pequots.
Though the English dominated the conflict, the brutality of the war,
(07:26):
which included a massacre of more than four hundred Pequot
in a single day in sixteen thirty seven, deeply concerned
the English's native allies what would happen if the English
turned against them? The English, too were becoming increasingly wary
of their indigenous neighbors, prejudice against native people's crew earnest interactions,
(07:50):
writes historian Toby Pearl in her book Terror to the
Wicked gave way to mistrust, suspicion, and hatred are also
tensions between the English colonies. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was
growing much faster than Plymouth, sucking up resources and land
and new arrivals, including indentured servants, which Plymouth Colony desperately needed.
(08:15):
The colony relied on these servants, men and women who
agreed to a period of unpaid labor in exchange for
passage to the colony and the promise of land at
the end of their indenture to keep it running. But
by the late sixteen thirties, with land becoming scarce, Plymouth
Colony leaders reduced the amount of land guaranteed to indentured
(08:35):
servants from one hundred acres to five, which would only
be granted to servants that the colony deemed fit. These
unattracted terms quickly stemmed the flow of indentured servants. These
changes also infuriated many of Plymouth's existing indentured servants, who
felt cheated out of their futures. One such servant was
(08:59):
Our Peach, a twenty three year old Irishman. Peach had
sailed on the Plain Joan from Gravesend to England to
the Colony of Virginia in the spring of sixteen thirty five.
In sixteen thirty six, he had traveled to New England,
where he signed a four year in denture contract with
Edward Winslow, a prominent Plymouth resident. Peach spent part of
(09:20):
the first years of his contract as a soldier fighting
for Plymouth in the Pequot Wars. William Bradford, the Plymouth governor,
recorded that Peach had done as good service as the
most there and was one of the forwardest in any attempt.
Peach was brave, no doubt. Unfortunately, domestic life did not
(09:41):
suit him as well as war did. Peach was loathe
to work, Bradford wrote. Instead of completing his duties for Winslow,
Peach spent most of his time at Stephen Hopkins's house.
Hopkins hosted a makeshift cavern and gambling den there, much
to the chagrin of Plymouth's leader. Peach quickly racked up
(10:02):
large gambling debts to Hopkins. He also got entangled with
Dorothy Temple, one of Hopkins's indentured servants. Relationships between servants
were forbidden in Plymouth, but that didn't stop Peach from
wooing Temple. If Plymouth officials discovered the relationship, Peach and
Temple would both face punishment fines or whippings or both.
(10:26):
Despite this burgeoning romance, Arthur Peach was unhappy. He didn't
know if he could bear two more years of indentured servitude.
He didn't know if he could ever pay off his
gambling debts. He craved adventure, but indentured servants couldn't leave
Plymouth colony without their master's permission. What was Arthur Peach,
(10:47):
who William Bradford called quote a lusty and desperate young
man to do? Run? That was Arthur Peach's answer. He
would flee dry, drab Plymouth for the exciting possibilities of
New Amsterdam, the Dutch settlement on Manhattan Island. He wouldn't
go alone at Stephen Hopkins's house he'd made friends with
(11:10):
a number of similarly disillusioned servants, and he'd convinced three
of them, Thomas Jackson, Richard Stinnings, and Daniel Cross, to
leave with him. On July twenty fourth, sixteen thirty eight,
in the dark of night, the men met on the
Green Harbor Path, a well trodden byway running along the coast.
(11:30):
Fearing pursuit, they decided to leave the path and head
into the thick woods. The woods were dense and imposing,
but through them Peach believed lay freedom. For three exhausting,
frustrating days, Arthur Peach and his companions stumbled their way
through the forest. They likely argued as they went. The
(11:54):
three other men had only joined Peach because he claimed
to know the way to New Amsterdam, but as the
days wore on, it became clear that he did not.
The Peach Gang, as the group would become known, also
had not packed well. They were running short on food
and water. On July twenty seven, the gang stopped to
rest in miss Quam Squeeze, a swampy patch of land
(12:16):
north of present day Seaconk, Massachusetts. They were only thirty
six miles from Plymouth, as the crow flies, but it
must have felt much further. Mosquitoes nipped at their ankles,
their heads throbbed in the heat, and their stomachs ached
from hunger. The atmosphere was oppressive. Some locals called the
area the Devil's swamp. All At once Arthur Peach heard
(12:41):
a rustling behind him. He grabbed his rapier, a thin,
double edged, deadly sharp sword, the only thing he had
taken with him from Plymouth. The gang tensed who was
walking through the woods, a party from Plymouth out to
apprehend them or an animal they could kill for food.
The rustling grew louder. A lone man emerged from the
(13:04):
trees at the clearing's edge. Nervous. None of the Peach
gang addressed the man. He walked silently through the clearing
and disappeared back into the trees. Arthur Peach had been
caught off guard by the man's appearance, but it had
given him an idea, a dark idea. He told his
men that they would not be traveling further that day.
(13:27):
The man they had just seen is known by history
as Penawa Yanquis. This is likely not his real name.
Penaway means foreigner or stranger in Eastern Algonquin, so the
man may have been describing himself as a stranger when
he later gave his name to Roger Williams. Penawa Yanquis
was a member of the Nitmuck people. Nitmuk means freshwater people,
(13:50):
a fitting name given that their homelands contained the headwaters
of all major rivers in eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The Nitmuk lived in villages across the interior of present
day Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island and Connecticut. When
the Mayflower colonists landed at Plymouth in sixteen twenty, there
were an estimated five to six thousand Nitmucks, but contact
(14:13):
with the English and the infectious diseases they carried decimated
the tribe's population. By sixteen thirty eight, the Nitmuck were
paying tribute to the Narragansett tribe in exchange for protection.
On July twenty seventh, when he crossed paths with the
Peach Gang, penawa Yanquis was on his way to the
Uptuxet Trading Post outside of present day Bourne, Massachusetts. The
(14:36):
trading post had been built in sixteen twenty seven to
facilitate trade between the Wampanog the Dutch and the English.
The Narragansett, being enemies of the Wampanogu, could not visit
the trading post, so they set members of affiliated tribes
like the Nipmuck to do their trading for them. Penawa
Yanquist carried beaver pelts and beads with him, which was
(14:57):
trading on behalf of Mixano Canonicus, leader of the Narraganset.
At the trading post, Penawa Yankuis exchanged his pelts and
beads for three cloth coats and five fathoms of wampum.
Wampum small shell beads were used as currency. A fathom
consisted of three hundred and sixty wampum strung in six
(15:18):
foot lengths. Five fathoms was worth approximately six contemporary English
pounds or around twelve hundred dollars to day. It was
a small fortune to carry through the woods a magnet
for danger, especially since traders were required to trade unarmed,
But Penawa Yanquist was well trained, he knew this land intimately,
(15:41):
he likely had no fear as he set out from
the trading post, heading west. He walked until dark, set
up camp, and then resumed his journey along the Narraganset Trail.
The next morning, further down the trail, Arthur Peach and
his men huddled in a clearing. Seeing Penawa Yankuist two
days earlier had given Arthur pea teach an idea. The
(16:01):
things he and his gang wanted food, water, money, required
hard work. Wouldn't it just be easier to steal them
from someone else? All they had to do was wait
for a traveler to pass by. Their first opportunity appeared
in a clatter of hoofs. John Throckmorton, a Providence resident,
was traveling the trail on horseback. Throckmorton recoiled at seeing
(16:25):
four dirty, disheveled men step out onto the trail. Suspicious,
he urged his horse into a gallop and rode past quickly.
The Peach gang was out of luck. They settled back
down to wait. Some time later, they heard the sounds
of someone approaching on foot. It was penawan Yanquist. Arthur
Peach was prepared this time. The gang had built a fire,
(16:49):
and Peach invited penawa Yanquist to sit beside it, offering
his pipe too. Penawan Yanquist, having no reason to fear
these friendly travelers, approached. Now that the moment was upon them.
Peach's compatriots hesitated. One of them told Peach not to attack,
but Peach would not be deterred. Hang him rogue. I
(17:11):
had killed many of them, he cried, speaking of his
time in the Pequot War, and then he thrust his
rapier at Penawa Yankuists, sinking the blade into the man's
stomach and pulling it down his belly through his upper thigh.
Penawa Yankis reeled, but his reflexes were faster than Peach's.
He dodged a second blow and turned to run. Another
(17:32):
gang member lashed out at him, but Penawa Yankis bounded away.
He knew his greatest advantage was his knowledge of the land.
He sprinted into the thick vegetation of the swamp. The
Peach gang gave chase, slashing at plants with their blades.
Penawa Yankuist did not look back. He splashed through the swamp,
holding his stomach as blood poured from his wounds. He
(17:55):
tripped and fell, and then, hearing his pursuers nearby, pulled
himself up and made one more agonizing push deeper into
the swamp. Unable to go further, he lay down in
the brackish water, letting the reeds shelter him. The Peach
Gang gave up the hunt. They figured Penawa Yankish would
soon lead out, and they had what they wanted, the
(18:18):
strings of wampum and the coats. With this small fortune,
they could establish themselves in New Amsterdam. They just needed
to get there, but luck was not on their side.
Not far away, near Pawtucket Falls, the Peachgang encountered a
group of Narragansetts. The Narragansets were concerned to see four
(18:39):
filthy Englishmen wandering in the woods and encouraged the men
to travel south to nearby Providence, where the settlement's leader,
Roger Williams, could help them. The Peach Gang declined, saying
that they were headed west to Connecticut, but the Narragants
were worried about the men and decided to report them
to Roger Williams, one of the first colonists in Boston.
(19:02):
Williams's unorthodox beliefs had gotten him kicked out of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony in sixteen thirty five. Williams headed to
present day Rhode Island, where he founded a settlement that
he named Providence. Williams was fascinated by indigenous culture and
enjoyed close relationships with many native people. He advocated for
(19:23):
fair dealings with the tribes and learned to speak a
number of Algonquin dialects, including Narragansett. But Williams also owned
a Pequot slave, a child called will and he could
be brusque and temperamental. When the Narragansett party informed Williams
about the men in the woods, he sent a messenger
with food and an invitation to visit him. The messenger
(19:46):
returned with the news that the men preferred to get
some sleep. The Peach gang must have realized that it
would look suspicious to turn Williams down indefinitely. Early the
next morning, they set off for Providence. Williams welcomed them
into his home, offering them food and water. Learning that
they were bound for Connecticut, he asked them to deliver
some letters for him. They agreed, and Williams arranged for
(20:08):
some narrogant guides to accompany them so they didn't get
lost again. Around the time that the Peach gang arrived
in Providence, a group of Narragansett hunters stumbled across Penawa Yanquists.
Sometime in the night, the wounded man had mustered the
strength to pull himself onto a path. The hunters immediately
sent word to Roger Williams that a nipmuck trader had
(20:30):
been attacked by a party of Englishmen. By the time
the message arrived, the Peach gang had already left. Williams
summoned two physicians, John Green and Thomas James, and set
off to find the Penawa Yanquist. Before leaving, Williams sent
a messenger to surreptitiously warn the Narraganset guide that their
traveling companions might actually be fugitives. Williams hoped the messenger
(20:54):
could catch up with them in time. Penawa Yankuis's strength
rapidly faded as his rescuers carried him towards Providence. It
was incredible that he had even lived this long, long
enough to tell his story, but his grasp on life
was slipping. Exactly when he died is unknown. None of
(21:14):
the written records we have contained an account of his death,
and Williams, for one, did not witness it. Miles away,
Arthur Peach knew that his time was running out. At
some point, he had learned that Penawa Yanquist had survived
and identified his assailants. Desperate, Peach abandoned his pretense of
going to Connecticut and told the guides that he needed
(21:36):
to stop at a Quidneck Island in Narragansett Bay. A
Quidneck had recently been settled by a group of religious
exiles from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Peach hoped that
these people would shelter him. He pushed his group to hurry,
and they'd eventually made it to Narragansett Bay. All that
was between the gang and freedom was a canoe ride.
(21:57):
As the boats pushed off from shore, Arthur Peach must
have sighed in relief when he reached a Quidnick. The
settlers there welcomed him. He had made it well, not quite.
Arthur Peach didn't know it, but a trap was closing
in on him. Miraculously, Williams's messenger had managed to track
(22:19):
the party down and secretly notify the Narraganset guides of
the gang's true nature. The guides, knowing that they were
outnumbered by the Englishmen, had maintained their composure and betrayed
nothing of their knowledge. They had bided their time until
they arrived at a Quidneck. Then, while the Peach Gang rested,
they told the settlers there about the crime. A Quidneck
(22:42):
Islanders didn't like the colonial authorities, but they didn't like
murderers either. Working with the Narragansetts, they took the Peach
Gang by surprise and arrested them. Unfortunately, the island had
no place to hold the captives. Daniel Cross, member of
the Beach Gang, took advantage of this. He managed to
(23:03):
loose his bindings and slip away, stealing a canoe and
heading for land. Once there, he traveled some one hundred
miles north to the settlement of Piscataqua, near present day Portsmouth,
New Hampshire. Piscataqua had a reputation for welcoming misfits. John Winthrop,
governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, wrote contemptuously of Piscataquans,
(23:25):
that it was their usual manner, some of them, to
countenance all such lewd persons as fled from us to them.
As for the other three prisoners, there would be no reprieve.
After a conversation between leaders from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Providence,
Aquinnock Island, and Plymouth, it was determined that Arthur Peach,
(23:46):
Thomas Jackson, and Richard Stinnings would stand trial in Plymouth.
After barely a week on the run, the Peach gang
was headed right back to where they'd started. What did
the law look like in Plymouth Colony? Unlike the neighboring
Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony had not been granted a
(24:08):
Royal Charter by the King of England. Charters defined the
laws in a colony and gave the colonies leader authority
to enforce set laws. Without a charter, it was up
to Plymouth's residents to define their own government. In late
sixteen twenty forty, one of the settlers signed a document
declaring themselves quote a civil body politic with the power
(24:30):
to create laws for quote the general good of the colony,
unto which promise all due submission and obedience. In sixteen
thirty six, two years before Penawa Yanquis's murder, Plymouth produced
its first written set of laws. Enforcement of the laws
would be managed in part by the colony's General Court,
(24:52):
a part judicial and part legislative body led by the
colony's elected governor. The laws in this code were shaped
by the English in law, but there were some key differences. Too.
Many Plymouth residents had experienced or been witnessed to grave
injustices perpetrated by the English legal system. Religious dissenters were
(25:13):
frequently punished for criticizing the Church of England and the King.
Punishments could include whippings, brandings, and having one's ears chopped off.
The colonists did not eliminate corporal or capital punishments from
their legal code, but they greatly reduced the number of
crimes that could receive such penalties, and they tried to
(25:33):
ensure that the punishments were not arbitrarily applied, as they
so often had been in England by the infamous Star Chamber.
In sixteen twenty three, Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford declared
that all criminal trials must be heard by quote a
jury upon their oaths, so the Peach Gang would receive
(25:53):
a jury trial. The jury selection process in sixteen thirty
eight looked quite different than it does today. To begin
with that very few people were eligible for jury service.
Plymouth at this time had only five hundred and fifty
residents from that pool. Women, children, the elderly, and of
the sick were automatically excluded, so were indentured servants, who
(26:17):
made up around a fifth of the population. Coawnee officials
and religious leaders were also exempt. That didn't leave many options,
so instead of summoning a random jury pool like we
do now, Plymouth leaders carefully hand selected jurors for this trial.
Twelve men served on the jury. Two additional men served
(26:38):
as grand jurors, which meant in this time that they
served as watchdogs over the jury and the trial to
make sure no laws were broken. On September fourth, sixteen
thirty eight, the trial began at the Plymouth Meetinghouse, a
thick walled building made of rough planks. The meetinghouse loomed
over the town from its spot atop a hill. The
(26:59):
meeting house served many purposes. Originally built as a fort,
the second floor sported six cannons, while the first floor
hosted church services. On this day, the meeting house would
be a courthouse. It was dark and hot in the
meeting house. The only windows were thin, defensive slits for
firing guns out of on the second floor. The colony's
(27:22):
military commander, Myles Standish, had provided a disturbing decoration for
the occasion. The severed head of an Indian named Wittawomet,
whose standish had killed years earlier. The skull grinned down
at the convicts, a grim reminder of their possible fate.
Arthur Peach, Thomas Jackson, and Richard Stinnings were charged with
(27:45):
wilful murder, one of the few crimes punishable by death
under Plymouth laws. The men who had been jailed in
the colonies since their capture a month earlier were malnourished
and filthy. The fourth member of the gang, Daniel Cross,
would not be in attendance. Pscataqua had refused Plymouth's requests
to extradite the fugitive. Cross's ultimate fate is unknown. The
(28:10):
meetinghouse was packed. English colonists and members of the Narragansett
and Wampanog tribes filled the room. Those who could not
squeeze in stayed outside, listening intently through the walls. Thomas Prince,
the current governor of Plymouth Colony, presided over the trial.
Prince was not only the judge, he was also Toby
(28:30):
Pearl Writes quote both FactFinder and prosecutor, supervising the proceedings
and interviewing witnesses and defendants alike. Four hundred years on
from this trial. We can't accurately reconstruct a play by play,
but we do know enough to sketch an outline. John Throckmorton,
the Providence colonist who had encountered the Peat Gang in
(28:51):
the woods, was on call to establish the gang's presence
near the crime scene. The defendants unsurprisingly denied ever seeing Brockmorton.
Next up was Roger Williams. Williams had been intimately involved
in the story almost from its beginning and had interacted
with both the Peachgang and Penawa Yanquist. He could repeat
(29:12):
what Penawa Yanquist told him in his dying declaration that
quote four English had slain him. He could describe the
way the Peach Gang tried to escape, but Williams could
not testify on the matter at the heart of the case.
Had the Peach Gang truly killed Penawa Yanquist. No one
(29:32):
had actually seen Penawa Yanquist die. We don't know why
this is. Maybe realizing the end was near Penawa Yankuis
had asked to be alone, and after his death his
body had disappeared, perhaps because local indigenous people had cremated
it in order to return his ashes to his family.
So how could it be proved that this was really
(29:54):
a murder. At the trial, both Roger Williams and doctor
Thomas James swore an oath that Penawa Yanquist's quote wound
was mortal. As a physician, Doctor James's testimony on this
matter carried weight, but would it be enough? So much
doubt still existed. Two men arrived in the courtroom to
(30:15):
try to settle the matter. It had not been an
easy decision for these men to testify. There was considerable
danger involved. These men were two of the naraganst hunters
who had discovered Penawa Yanquists and fetched help. It was
only with quote much difficulty that they were procured to
come to trial John winthroprote, for they still feared that
(30:37):
the English were conspiring to kill all the Indians. But
despite the dangers, the Narragansetts were here. They were willing
to risk their lives to see justice done, and they
told the court as much. Neither of these men had
seen Penawa Yanquist die, but in court they both swore
that quote, if he were not dead of that wound,
(31:00):
then they would suffer death. With four men all taking
oaths that Penawa Yankuist must be dead. The matter of
whether or not this was murder was likely settled, but
that didn't mean that a guilty verdict was guaranteed. There
were a number of complicated factors at play for the jurors,
who now began their deliberations on the second floor of
(31:20):
the meetinghouse. As we've discussed before, no court room is
a vacuum, the outside world inevitably leaks in. In this case,
the jurors couldn't have helped but to be aware of
the heightened pensions between colonists and indigenous tribes. Roger Williams
had promised the naragainst its justice. It was only this
(31:40):
promise that had kept the narrogainst from quote rising in arms.
A guilty verdict might satisfy the tribe and stave off
a war. A guilty verdict could also serve as a
deterrent for other indentured servants who were considering running off.
But on the other hand, news of three indented servants
being executed might not exactly be great marketing material for
(32:04):
a colony desperate to entice more indentured servants. And that
wasn't the only reason to consider a not guilty verdict.
Arthur Peach had valuable fighting skills that the colony afford
to lose a soldier, especially as the Pequot War had
not yet ended. There were also more philosophical reasons to
let the Peach gang off. Many colonial leaders believed in
(32:26):
a lenient application of the law. In the infancy of plantations,
John Winthrop wrote justice should be administered with more lenity
than in a settled state, because people are more apt
than to transgress. Partly out of opposition, many colonists in
New England had been escaping the tyranny of the English
crown and courts. They might have been more inclined to
(32:48):
give defendants the benefit of the doubt. This inclination is
reflected in conviction rates during the colonial era. Toby Pearl rites,
nearly half of defendants were acquitted. Of those who faced
preliminary grand jury, many were not indicted. This meant that
approximately two thirds of accused criminals avoided conviction. What's more,
(33:09):
Arthur Peach was English, the man he had killed was not.
William Bradford noted that quote. Some of the rude and
ignorant sort murmured that an English should not be put
to death for the Indians, though Roger Williams exhorted his
fellow colonists to quote, boast not proud English of thy
(33:30):
birth and blood. Thy brother Indian is by birth as good.
Not everyone in Plymouth had the same beliefs. Many colonists
simply valued Arthur Peach's life more than they valued Penawan Yanquish's.
So what would the jury do? At the trial's start,
Thomas Prince had asked them to swear an oath to
(33:52):
quote give a true verdict according to law and evidence.
But the evidence in this case was not necessarily rock solid.
Everyone knew Penawa Yanquist was dead, but the absence of
a body left the jurors just enough wiggle room to
justify either verdict. By the day's end, the jury had
reached a conclusion. Returning to the meetinghouse's first floor, they
(34:16):
announced their verdict to the crowd on the charge of
wilful murder for the death of Penawa Yanquist. The defendants
Arthur Peach, Thomas Jackson, and Richard Stinnings were found guilty.
With their fate sealed, the convicted men saw no point
(34:36):
in further denying their actions. They all confessed to attacking
Penawa Yanquists to quote get his wompum. The confession did
nothing to change their sentence. There was only one punishment
in Plymouth, for wilful murder death. They did not have
to wait long for the end. The three convicts were
taken by cart to the gallows. All the fight had
(34:59):
gone out of them, or at least out of two
of them, who, according to John Winthrop quote, died very penitently.
We don't know if it was Stinnings or Jackson who
refused to repent, but Arthur Peach at least expressed remorse.
John Winthrop called him quote especially penitent, and subsequently gave Peach,
(35:19):
despite his crimes, a fine obituary, describing him as quote
a young man of good parentage and fair conditioned, and
who had done very good service against the Peaquots. A
reputation for good service and for murder wouldn't be Arthur
Peach's only legacy in Plymouth Colony. Sitting in the shadows
(35:39):
at his trial and perhaps in attendance at his execution,
was Dorothy Temple, Peach's twenty three year old lover. She
was pregnant with Arthur Peach's child. Her employer, Stephen Hopkins,
the town libertine, who made money from gambling and liquor sales,
apparently drew a line at pregnancy. Out of wedlock, Temple
(36:00):
gave birth to a son in early February sixteen thirty nine.
Hopkins tried to kick her out of his house, but
the Plymouth General Court ruled that he was required to
support Temple. Shortly after, John Holmes, a member of the
jury at Arthur Beach's trial, bought Temple's in denture contract
from Hopkins. Temple moved in with the Holmes family. In June,
(36:22):
only four months after giving birth, she was sentenced to
be whited twice four quote uncleanness and bringing forth a
male bastard. She fainted during the first whipping, so the court,
in its mercy, let her off without the second one.
What became of Dorothy Temple and her son are unknown.
(36:43):
What of penawon Yanquis's family, We don't know exactly who
they were, but we can imagine how deeply his loss
must have affected them. Besides the emotional devastation, penawa Yanquis's
role as a trader made him valuable to his tribe.
Financial restitution for crime was common in Plymouth, and at
the close of the trial, Governor Prince had ordered that
(37:04):
the Peach gang provide payment to the Nitmuk, but the
men had declared that they had quote no lands or
tenement goods or cattle's Penawa Yankuis's family would receive no
compensation for their loss. At least the killers had been
caught and convicted. We can hope that this gave some
sort of peace to the Nitmuk. At the very least,
(37:25):
the guilty verdict did help reduce tensions between the colonists
and the tribes. No new conflicts arose, and old ones
were settled. On September twenty first, sixteen thirty eight, a
little more than two weeks after the trial, representatives of
the English, the Narragansett, and the Mohegan signed the Treaty
of Hartford, ending the Pequot War. The Pequots themselves had
(37:48):
been nearly entirely wiped out. The treaties stripped the approximately
two hundred survivors of their lands and identities. That this
trial happened at all is remarkable. A colony with no
officially sanctioned government managed to conduct a jury trial in
a fort. As Toby Pearl writes, quote when juries made
(38:10):
law in the colonies. They wrested control from centralized authorities
and empowered local communities, a foundational principle for the fledgling nation.
Average individuals, otherwise disenfranchised became surrogate lawmakers. They became world changers. Unfortunately,
these world changers would not always use their powers for good.
(38:34):
But the sixteen fifties, writes Jennifer Altman in her study
Native Americans in criminal cases of Plymouth Colony, quote, impatience
with Native Americans resistance to adopting English custom and religion
caused the court to show more leniency towards its own
people and less toward Native Americans. This trend only intensified
(38:55):
in the sixteen sixties as Plymouth colonies demands for land skyrocketed,
leading to increased resistance from its native neighbors. The focus
of the court, Altman says, became quote not restitution but
retribution for crimes that white settlers were usually fined for.
Indians were whipped. By the sixteen seventies, the Plymouth Court
(39:19):
was selling Indians convicted of crimes into slavery in the Caribbean.
The same legal system that had once convicted the killers
of a Native man was now being used to tear
Indigenous people from their lands and families. In both its
victories and its failings, the Plymouth Colony legal system mirrors
(39:39):
our own legal system. The outcomes are often inequitable and
the process is often unfair, But in some cases we
can transcend our biases, and, as Roger Williams once promised,
see justice done. That's the story of Plymouth Colony VI.
The Peach Gang. Stay with me after the break to
(40:02):
learn more about the remarkable history of the Nitmucks. Today,
many people in the town of Grafton, Massachusetts, commute to
work in Worcester or Boston. Before Grafton was a commuter suburb,
it was a mill town, and before it was a
mill town, it was a hub for leather manufacturing. Before
(40:22):
all of this, though, Grafton was hassen amiss It the
place of small Stones, home to the Hassenamisco band of Nitmucks.
The Nitmuks who lived on this land planted corn and
beans and squash, caught fish from the rivers, and hunted
deer and rabbits. In sixteen fifty four, John Elliot, an
(40:43):
English missionary, established a praying town at Hassenamissit, occupying eight
thousand acres. Elliott had developed the Praying town model as
a method of converting Indians to Christianity. Indigenous people living
in these villages had to conform to English go customs
and Christian dictates in exchange. Those who moved to these
(41:03):
towns hoped to receive protection from rival tribes or establish
better relationships with the English. But, writes Cheryl Tony Holley,
the current Sansqua, or female leader of the Hassenamisco quote,
while Hassenamissit was a safe harbor for nitmucks, it also
meant publicly relinquishing nitmuck lifeways to stay, and a further
(41:25):
blow to nitmuck society was looming. During King Philip's War
in the late sixteen seventies, the nitmucks at Hassenamissit who
had not moved into the Praying Town were driven off
their land. After the war, the Praying Town itself was dissolved.
Over the next six decades, some nitmuck families returned to
the area, but in seventeen twenty eight, the colonial government
(41:46):
decided to transfer most of the eight thousand acres used
by the Praying town to English settlers. Twelve hundred of
the acres were set aside for only seven Nitmuck families.
Many Nitmuck families were not allocated anything. The Hassenamisco. Nitmuck
were supposed to receive payment for this land, as the
National Park Service records quote, a system was set up
(42:10):
whereby non native trustees or guardians were responsible for investing
the proceeds from the land transfer and protecting the remaining
native lands from encroachment by English settlers. However, the system
failed to protect either the principle from the sale or
the lands of the Nipmuck families. Sheryl Tony hollywrites, quote.
(42:30):
The twenty five hundred pounds paid by forty English proprietors
was placed in trust by the guardians or trustees of
the Hassanamisco. The Hassenamisco were to be paid the interest
on the fund annually, but according to multiple petitions to
the legislature, this only sometimes happened. Trustees also took it
upon themselves to decrease the principle of the fund from
(42:52):
time to time to pay their own debts. These stolen
funds are still owed to the tribe today. The next
century and a half, the remaining Hassenamiscow Nitmunks sold their
land or lost it through rig deals with settlers. By
eighteen fifty seven, all the land was gone, all the land,
that is, except for three acres belonging to a Nitmuck
(43:16):
woman named Sarah Arnold Cisco. Today, nearly four hundred years
after Penawa Yankuis's death, the land still belongs to the Nitmuck.
It is called the Hassenamisco Reservation, and it is the
only plot of land in all of Massachusetts that has
never left the hands of Native people. Thank you for
(43:38):
listening to History on Trial. If you've enjoyed this episode,
please consider leaving a rating or review. They can help
new listeners find the show. My main sources for today's
episode were Toby Pearl's book Terror to the Wicked, America's
first trial by jury that ended a war and helped
to form a nation, as well as the Plymouth Colonial
Archive and various primary sources, including the writings of Roger Williams,
(44:01):
William Bradford, and John Winprepp. Special thanks to Chief Peter
Silva of the Hassinamisco Nitmuk tribe for his assistance. For
a full bibliography, as well as a transcript of this
episode with citations, please visit our website History on Trial
podcast dot com. History on Trial is written and hosted
by me Mira Hayward. The show is edited and produced
(44:25):
by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer Trevor Young and executive
producers Dana Schwartz, Alexander Williams, Matt Frederick, and Mira Hayward.
Learn more about the show at History on Trial podcast
dot com and follow us on Instagram at History on
Trial and on Twitter at Underscore History on Trial. Find
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more podcasts from iHeartRadio by visiting the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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