Map of Cape Cod with Mashpee in red.

Focus Question:

What were the causes and consequences of the Mashpee Woodlot Revolt of 1833?

Topics on the Page

Context

- Native American and Colonist interaction - Land Issues

Who is William Apess?

• A Son of the Forest (c. 1829)

• The Pequot Tribe

2. The relations leading to the revolt

3. The Revolt

4. The results of the "Bloodless" Mashpee Revolt

5. Native American Resistance Throughout the United States

American Indian Heritage Teaching Resources


DETAILED OVERVIEW OF THE REVOLT

Local Blog Post By a Local Historian About the Mashpee Revolt of 1833.

 TIMELINE - Native American and Colonist Wars Throughout History

• Interestingly, this timeline does not mention the Mashpee Revolt of 1833... why would that be?

 Mashpee Wampanoag Declaration of Independence (1833) 

1. Context

-Native American and Colonist interactions

The issue of land is the most significant in the relationship between the native peoples and the colonists.

 Natives and the English, Crash Course Video #3

"The English valued everything in monetary terms. The Native Americans’ goal was to live in harmony with nature. While the Native Americans tried to make political alliances with the colonists, the Europeans were more interested in grabbing as much land as possible. The Native Americans’ social hierarchy was not based on property ownership. They lived in different areas during the year, depending on the season. Their mobile lifestyle meant that their homes had none of the possessions that were the sign of status in Europe. Using matting, bark and pelts, they lived in easily built lodges.

Relationships between the two groups were troubled by disagreements over land use and land rights. Part of the problem stemmed from their different attitudes toward land ownership. To the New England Natives, selling land did not mean granting exclusive, eternal ownership to the buyer. It simply involved accepting a new neighbor and sharing their resources.The Puritans, though, were committed to private property ownership, and expected the Natives to immediately and permanently vacate their land upon its sale. Some settlers thought they were entitled to Native American lands, because the natives were squandering the land’s potential by failing to enclose it for pasture or to farm it in the English manner.

These problems were compounded by the Puritans’ increasing conviction that the Indians’ claims were invalid, because God had bestowed New England upon the English. By 1676, the minister Increase Mather wrote about the Puritans’ property rights over “the Heathen People amongst whom we live, and whose Land the Lord God of our Fathers has given to us for a rightful possession.

Trade had an equally significant impact. To make a profit, the colonies had to export materials back to England. These included furs, which were very valuable in Europe. In exchange for furs, the colonists gave the Native Americans metal implements, such as axe-heads and knives." -Native Americans and the Massachusetts Bay Colony

- Who is William Apess?

William Apess, Pequot Indian and Native American Author

William Apess Leads the Bloodless Mashpee Revolt, New England Historical Society

• William Apess (1798-1839) born in Colrain, MA, had a childhood consisting of a torn family, indentured servitude, and religious indoctrination.
• Apess, a descendant of the Pequot tribe, was critical of injustices in the church (Methodist) and in the treatment of native people by European settlers.

A Son of the Forest : the experience of William Apes, a native of the forest : comprising a notice of the Pequod tribe of Indians

• A Son of the Forest (c. 1829) was the first complete book written by a Native American. In it, Apess reflects on themes in his work including culture crossing, hybridity, the way that whites are represented by Indians, colonial politics, Methodism, racism, and satire.
• An Indian's Looking Glass for the White Man

Eulogy on King Philip IJanuary 26, 1836)

University of Houston Clear Lake: A Timeline and Overview of the Life of William Apess

The Pequot Tribe

• Outlined in purple on the map above, the Pequot people were the tribe the Mohegan people later fractioned from.
• History of the Pequot people, as told by them. 

Mashantucket (Western) Pequot Tribal Nation website (2024)

The relations leading to the revolt

- The Mashpee - Wampanoag Tribe

TIMELINE - history of the Mashpee-Wampanoag Tribe

Contact Timeline for Mashpee Wampanoag

• 1616 
• Traders from Europe bring yellow fever to Wampanoag territory. The geographical area affected was all of the 69 tribes of the Wampanoag Nation from present day Provincetown, MA to Narragansett Bay; the boundary of the Wampanoag and Narragansett Nations. Fully two thirds of the entire Wampanoag Nation (estimated at 45,000) die. This also represents a loss of as many speakers of the language. Hardest hit are Elders and small children; critical age groups for any language. European disease would also place in jeopardy each tribes ability to sustain a population for defense of its territory and culture.
• 1620 
• Mayflower arrives in current day Provincetown, MA and then moves across Cape Cod Bay to Pahtuksut (current day Plimouth MA). The Pahtuksut Wampanoag do not approach the Europeans for another three months for fear of more disease being brought ashore.
• 1632 
• Missionaries begin to arrive in Wampanoag territory. John Eliot arrives from Cambridge, England and begins to learn the language of the Wampanoag in an effort to translate religious materials into Wopanaotaok (Wampanoag language) for the conversion of Wampanoag to Christianity. This is the first Amer-Indian language to employ an alphabetic writing system in the codification of its language.
• 1655 
• Harvard Indian College opens for the purpose of educating Indian youth. Harvard was in financial troubles during this time and felt that if they opened an Indian College they could secure more funding from those benefactors in England. If the Wampanoag population were assimilated to Christianity and moved away from traditional life, the ease with which land could be appropriated would prove profitable.
• 1763
• In compliance with the King of England, the Plymouth Colony recognizes the Mashpee district of Cape Cod as a self-governing Native American district. However, after the Revolutionary War, Mashpee self-governance is revoked and a committee of 5 white men is set up to oversee the district. 
• 1822
• The Federal Government rules that the Mashpee people are in legal occupation of a reservation on Cape Cod.
• 1870 
• Without approval from the Federal Government, the Massachusetts Legislature votes to abolish the Mashpee reservation district and establishes the town of Mashpee. 
• 2007 
• The Mashpee become a federally recognized tribe.
• 2015 
• The Mashpee Tribe begins re-acquiring tribal land. 

2. Context

Following the American Revolution, Mashpee self-governance was revoked by the State of Massachusetts and replaced by a board of white overseers. Instead of protecting Mashpee lands, these overseers allowed white settlers from neighboring towns to make incursions onto Mashpee land to take wood, graze their animals, and steal other resources. Many whites resented the Mashpee, whose largely untouched lands had some of the best woodlots remaining on the increasingly deforested Cape Cod. Meanwhile, the Mashpee were infuriated by the violations of their sovereignty. 

3. The Revolt

Led by William Apess, the Mashpee Tribe responded to repeated incursions by declaring self-rule in 1833. This coincided with the national Nullification Crisis, in which the State of South Carolina claimed to have the authority to nullify Federal law. 

   Primary Source: The Mashpee Tribe's declaration to the Massachusetts State Government, 1833. Signed by 108 members of the Tribe.

White were ordered to stop encroaching upon Mashpee land and vacate the district after a July deadline. In response, the Governor of Massachusetts threatened to send in the state militia and Apess was arrested. Subsequently, the Mashpee backed down.

4. Results

The immediate aftermath of the revolt appeared to be a defeat for the Mashpee people. However, Apess was released and with the backing of a sympathetic attorney from a nearby town, travelled to Boston to make a case to the Massachusetts Legislature. The Legislature ultimately agreed with the Tribe and abolished the board of white overseers, replacing it with a one-man liaison between the Tribe and the State. The Mashpee people would then enjoy a large degree of self-rule until 1870.

Many Mashpee people continue to live in the town today, or elsewhere on Cape Cod.

     Click here to see footage from the Mashpee Tribe's annual powwow. 

5. Native American Resistance Throughout the United States

Hidden in Plain Sight:  Native Strategies of Resistance to Indian Removal

Red Ink:  Native Americans Picking Up the Pen in the Colonial Period.  Drew Lopenzina (State University of New York Press, 2013)