Squanto and the Mayflower

Samoset Introduces Squanto to the Pilgrims

Apr 19, 2006 Mary Trotter Kion

Squanto meets the Pilgrims who were aboard the Mayflower, although half of the original company had died during the winter. He is introduced to them by Samoset, an Abena

Squanto, in 1619, now some five year away from his native land after being kidnapped and nearly sold as a slave in Spain, was home again. But the thrill of his return and freedom was short lived after an attack at Martha's Vineyard. The result was that Squanto was, once again, a captive, this time by the Pokanokets. But, as before, a major change was soon to come into his life. This time, 1620, it came in the form of more than 100 passengers aboard the Mayflower .

These Europeans, Pilgrims as well as non-believers, who had arrived to establish Plymouth Colony arrived in the New World in the fall of the year as a New England winter was quickly bearing down upon them. To say that they were unprepared for the arduous task of surviving through such a winter would be an extreme understatement. During that first winter half of their company died of starvation and disease.

In March of the new year, the Pokanokets and Nemaskets sent a man known as Samoset to discover just what sort of persons these new Europeans were. Samoset was a visiting Abenaki who had ties to English traders.

Surely the people of Plymouth Colony were astonished when Samoset strode into their village. It may have been his attire and his request that astonished them most. Samoset, clad only in a belt, in rather good English, welcomed the people of Plymouth, then requested a beer. The drink he was given, then he quickly disappeared. But this was not the last the Pilgrims would see of Samoset.

A few days later Samoset returned to Plymouth. With him was a friend, the captive Squanto.

It was Squanto who showed these would-be farmers some down-home Indian tricks for making crops grow. He showed them the Indian way of planting corn in hills and the trick of planting a dead fish with the seeds for fertilizer.

Squanto instructed the Pilgrims in other way of survival but his assistance extended much further than mere farming techniques. In the end, though his help was greatly beneficial to these European newcomers his association with them would alienate him from his own people and bring about his end.

Recommended Reading:

Squanto the Treaty Maker.

Sources:

Athearn, Robert G. The New World: American Heritage New Illustrated History of the United States, Volume 1. Dell Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1963.

Hoxie, Frederick E., Editor. Encyclopedia of North American Indians: Native American History, Culture, and Life from Paleo-Indians to the Present. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York, 1996.

The copyright of the article Squanto and the Mayflower in American History is owned by Mary Trotter Kion. Permission to republish Squanto and the Mayflower in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

The Mayflower Arrives