Stories

Wawaus – James Printer

Linford Fisher

Wawaus, alias “James-the-Printer” later shortened to “James Printer,” was an important Nipmuc leader who experienced and observed the beginning of a wide range of genocide, from physical to biological to cultural, on his person, community, and livelihood. awaus is most known today for his integral work translating and typesetting the first bible printed in the Americas in 1663, usually referred to as the Eliot Bible or the Indian Bible. He was a skilled scholar, linguist, printer, and eventually community leader, yet like many Indigenous people during the 17th century in New England, was mistreated, abused,  arrested, threatened, falsely imprisoned, and forced into exile... [More]

The Story of Sarah John: Enslavement and Escape in Berwick, Maine

Riley Stevenson

The morning of June 17, 1750, dawned cold and wet in Berwick, Maine, as was characteristic of that summer. Sarah John dressed silently and instead of starting the fire or performing her usual morning chores, slipped into the fog and ran, escaping her enslaver’s estate and not looking back.

Biographical Narrative for Pegg

Courtney Akbar

Pegg, last name unknown, was a young Indigenous woman around twenty years of age in the year 1708. She served in some undefined unfree capacity (although likely enslaved) in the household of James Berry, a Boston mariner who lived on Black Horse Lane in Boston’s North End. On one Sunday evening in the month of May, she bravely left the home of Berry, with nothing but the clothes on her back. As was common, a week later Berry paid for an advertisement in the Boston News Letter, in an attempt to describe Pegg to the wider public and offer a reward for her return.