Stolen Relations

@stolenrelations

Official Bluesky of Stolen Relations: Recovering Stories of Indigenous Enslavement in the Americas. Housed at the Brown Center for Digital Scholarship @browncds.bsky.social; PI Linford Fisher @linford.bsky.social. stolenrelations.org

13 Siguiendo270 Seguidores261 Publicaciones

Bluesky

¿Es tu perfil?Reclámalo y stolenrelations.dirty.social es tuyo.Reclamar perfil

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· 5d

(1/4) Two days ago in history, 152 years ago, a Lakota chief referred to as One Stab was freed from his temporary unfreedom under General G. A. Custer. He had been taken captive more than a month earlier, on July 26, 1874.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· 13d

(1/4) On this day, 200 years ago, the Northern Star and Warren and Bristol Gazette printed a story of a shocking murder of an Indigenous servant that took place in Illinois.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· 15d

(1/4) On this day 68 years ago, the American Indian Movement was founded in Minneapolis, MN, as a grassroots movement towards a revitalization of Native identity and an improvement in quality of life for the local community, through the creation of social services, schools, healthcare, and housing.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· 23d

(1/4) Yesterday, 248 years ago, a newspaper article was published describing the self-emancipation of a 30-year old Indigenous cook named André from his enslaver, Maitre Grimperel, a notary in Le Cap, Saint-Domingue. The escape had occurred on July 10, 1778.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· 28d

(4/6) Another example of many is the “poor blind Indian” who went to Thomas Danforth in 1676 to surrender his children to unfreedom under the man and his son. Disability was likely one of many identities that made protection of his children impossible in the society he lived in.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· 28d

(3/6) For individuals like Mary Johns, an Indigenous woman described as “limp[ing] a little” who chose to self-emancipate in 1760, disability was just another marker of identity that could be listed in newspapers alongside her appearance to make her a noticeable person to recapture and reenslave.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Jul 4

(2/5) The same document that proclaimed, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal” and devoted itself to their “unalienable rights” also referred to Indigenous people as “merciless Indian Savages.”

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Jul 2

(1/5) Today marks the 159th commemoration of Canada Day, a Canadian celebration of national pride stemming from the original binding of the three colonies of the United Canadas, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into a combined dominion under the British Empire.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· May 10

(3/5) In 1743, one woman, “Indian Ann,” emancipated herself and her 3 children, Phillis, Ann, and Caesar, from the enslavement of Stephen Gardner, in Norwich, CT, first by the act of self-emancipation, then by arguing their case in court once they were arrested after three days of liminal freedom.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· May 9

(4/5) For individuals like the unnamed Indigenous man who deserted Colonel Greene’s regiment in 1780, the cost placed on freedom was too high, and desertion offered a freedom that was liminal but far more under the own control of the enslaved, rather than at the bidding of the new US government.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· May 2

(1/4) Stolen Relations recognizes that histories of Indigenous unfreedom are connected with global histories of dispossession and assimilation. In honor of AANHPI Heritage Month, we stand in community with all peoples who continue to experience colonialism and denials of sovereignty.

Celebrating AANHPI Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Mar 5

(3/4) Having chosen to self-emancipate in 1750, his participation in protests that led to Boston Massacre was not his first act of resistance. A runaway advertisement in the Boston Gazette called for the return of a self-emancipated multiracial man named “Crispas” who had left Brown’s home.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Mar 5

(2/4) One of the first Americans killed in early disputes was Crispus Attucks, a multiracial Black and Wampanoag sailor who was enslaved by a man in Framingham, MA, known as Deacon William Brown. By 1770, his freedom status was unclear.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Mar 1

(4/4) Source: Letter from W Stewart, New London, Connecticut, Newport Historical Society. #indigenoushistory #indigenous #history #historicalresearch #maritime #maritimehistory #connecticut #connecticuthistory #indenture #captive #freedom #unfreedom

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Feb 21

Please join Linford Fisher, Stolen Relations PI, for a discussion of his forthcoming book, Stealing America, on February 23 at the Tomaquag Museum #book #booklaunch #tomaquagmuseum

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Dec 14

(6/6) Source: What I Saw in California: Being the Journal of a Tour by the Emigrant Route and South Pass of the Rocky Mountains…in the Years 1846-1847, page 372-373. #indigenoushistory #indigenous #history #historicalresearch #california #californiahistory #servant #captive #freedom #unfreedom

Dec. 12.—To relieve our horses, which are constantly giving out from exhaustion, the grass being insufficient for their sustenance while performing labor, the entire battalion, officers and men, were ordered to march on foot, turning their horses, with the saddles and bridles upon them, into the general caballada to be driven along by the horse-guard. The day has been drizzly, cold and disagreeable. The country has a barren and naked appearance, but this, I believe, is attributable to the extreme drought that has prevailed in this region for one or two years past. We encamped near the rancho of a friendly Californian,—the man who was taken prisoner the other day and set at large. An Indian, said to be the servant of Tortoria Pico, was captured here by the advance party. A letter was found upon him, but its contents I never learned. This being the first foot-march, there were, of course, many galled and blistered feet in the battalion.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Dec 8

(5/5)Source: New England Weekly Journal, December 6, 1737. Our Fellow-Creatures & our Fellow-Christians: Race and Religion in Eighteenth-Century, by Katherine Grandjean. #indigenoushistory #indigenous #history #colonialhistory #historicalresearch #connecticut #connecticuthistory #newspaper #servant

We are informed that at a Special Superiour Court held at Saybrook in the Colony of Connecticut, on the third Tuesday of November past, Kate an Indian Woman, lately a Servant to the Reverend Mr. Wm. Worthington of said Saybrook, was Indicted by the Grand Jury for murdering her Child, and was found Guilty, and received Sentence of Death accordingly; the Time of her Execution is not yet fixed, but 'tis tho't it will not be till toward Spring.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Nov 27

(1/4) Today, in the United States, we celebrate Thanksgiving. Conceptualized broadly as a day of gratitude, it holds different meanings for Indigenous communities across the country. For many Native people, it represents a Day of Mourning and recognition of past harms.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Nov 24

(3/4) Reprive went on to be accused of spying for Winthrop and was returned to him by the Narragansett people. For self-emancipated people like Reprive, similar webs of power often resulted in their re-enslavement. Source: The Correspondence of Roger Williams Vol I, p. 137.

To John Winthrop, 20 November 1637

Sir

I rest thanckfully Satisfied in Your propounding of my Motion to the Court, and the Answere. (The Earth is Jehovahs, and the Plenitude of it.)

I am not a litle glad that the Lot is fallen upon a Branch of that Roote, in whose good (present and aeternall both of Roote and Branches) I rejoice.

For his sake I wish it Ground and Grasse, and Trees, yet what use so ever he please to make of it I desire he would not spare to make use of me in any Service toward the Natives on it or about it.

Miantunnomu in his Relations of passages in the Bay with you, thanckfull acknowledges to my Selfe and others your loving Cariage to him and promiseth to send forth word to all Natives to cease from Prudence Trees etc.

Since Your letter I travelled up to Nayantaquit by Land where I heard Reprive was. There the Sachim (to whome he adheres Wepiteammock) and the people related that he was gone to his wife to Monhiggin: allso that he Wepiteammock had sent to Onkas advising and urging the Retune but he could not prevaile, and that if Reprive come within his Reach he will send him (though alone without his wife) however.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Nov 19

(3/5) The Stolen Relations archive contains stories that illustrate this longer history, like when, 160 years ago, a ten year old Native girl living on a North Fork, CA, rancheria faced kidnapping by two white men.

INDIAN KILLED.—Near North Fork of Cottonwood, week before last, a most cowardly and barbarous murder was committed. It seems that two white barbarians went to an Indian rancheria in that neighborhood, for the purpose of getting possession of an Indian girl about ten years old. This attempt at forcible possession was resisted by the mother of the child, assisted by a crippled Indian boy, the only one in the rancheria. The resistance of this prior cripple so exasperated the villains that one of them seized him by the top of the head, while with his knife he first cut his throat and then stabbed him to the knife hilt, and to wreak his vengeance fully, turned the knife in the wound several times, then withdrawing it, again stabbed his victim, turning the knife as before, repeating the act until life was extinct. While this butchery was going on the girl and her mother made their escape. In a few days after the fiends burnt the rancheria. There is nothing but the dead body and Indian testimony to prove the above, and though it is convincing, it is not enough, under the law, to punish the miscreants.—White men who live with Indians habitually, should do so subject to Indian testimony; and we think a law to that effect would be wise and proper.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Nov 19

(1/5) Today we observe Red Shawl Day. This is a day of recognition for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Today, in the United States, Indigenous women face violence at more than ten times the national average, and these instances of violence are often unprosecuted.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Nov 14

(4/4) Source: America's Historical Newspapers. Pennsylvania Gazette, November 15, 1753. #indigenoushistory #indigenous #history #colonialhistory #historicalresearch #Pennsylvania #Pennsylvaniahistory #newspaper #enslavement #indenture

Lancaster, October 31, 1753.

THis day was committed to the goal of this county, on suspicion of being a runaway servant, Indian Thomas, who says he’s a free man, and served his time with Samuel Lippincut, near Mount-holly ironworks, in the Jerseys. And on the day following Abigail Allen, who says she’s a freewoman, and served her time with John Rowls, in Chester. These are to desire their masters to come or send for them, otherwise they will be sold to pay their cost, by

JOHN CLARK, Goal-keeper.

The. 6 W.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Nov 2

(5/5) #nativeamericanheritagemonth #nativeamerican #native #indigenous #indigenoushistory #americanhistory #history #indigenousactivism

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Nov 2

(4/4) Source: Chronicling America. The Brownsville Daily Herald, September 9, 1898. #indigenoushistory #history #indigenous #colonialhistory #historicalresearch #massachusettshistory #massachusetts #newspaper

[1] Belton, Tex., Sept. 5—Colonol H. C. Denny of this city has a unique document in the shape of a will made by an ancestor. Henry Jaques, in Newburyport, Essex county, Mass., on the 30th day of October, 1686. […] After going on to provide for his children and grandchildren, he says that "whereas my Jasper, my Indian, hath been a good servant to me, my will is that she shall serve my executor well and faithfully six years after my decease, and then he shall have his freedom, being by my executor set at liberty.”

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Oct 26

(4/4) Source: America’s Historical Newspapers. Boston News-Letter, October 25, 1708. #indigenoushistory #history #indigenous #colonialhistory #historicalresearch #massachusettshistory #massachusetts #newspaper

[4] AN Indian Boy aged about 10 years to be Sold, Inquire at the Post-Office in Boston and know further.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Oct 19

(4/4) Source: Soldiers in King Philip's War, by George Madison Bodge (1891), page 69. #indigenoushistory #history #indigenous #nipmuc #colonialhistory #historicalresearch #massachusettshistory #massachusetts #militaryhistory

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Oct 13

(1/5) Today we celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead of Columbus Day. Looking at the history of Indigenous enslavement helps us to understand why this is fully appropriate. #IndigenousPeoplesDay #Indigenous #ColumbusDay #Columbus #IndigenousHistory #IndigenousPeople

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Oct 13

(4/4) Source: Minutes of the Council and General Court of Colonial Virginia: 1622-1632, 1670-1676, page 424, 542. #indigenoushistory #history #indigenous #susquehannock #haudenosaunee #colonialhistory #assimilation #historicalresearch #virginiahistory #virginia #legalhistory

[424] It is Orderd by This Honoble Court that the Susquahannah Indians doe Still Continue in the possession of the Land they are now upon, Untill the Right Honoble the Governor Shall ordr to the Contrary and that Capt Wm Bird Goe upp to the aforesaid Indians & Demand two Hostages of them & take Care that they are ye Children of Great men & Betweene four & Eight years of Age.

[542] Bird, Capt. William… to demand hostages of Susquehanna Indians, 425.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Oct 7

(3/3) Included in the LOC manuscript collection are the papers of the Federal Writers Project, a 1930s interview project of those who lived through enslavement. These papers notably consider enslavement from the perspective of enslaved people, rather than that of legal owners and masters.

An example of a document from the Library of Congress:
320144 2
MEMORIES OF UNCLE JACKSON
I was born in 1851, in the yard where my owner lived next door to the City Hall. I remember when they was finishin' up the City Hall. I also remember the foreman, Mr. James Walker, he was general manager. The overseen (overseer) was Mr. Keen. I remember all the bricklayers; they all was colored. The man that plastered the City Hall was named George Price, he plastered it inside. The men that plastered the City Hall outside and put those colum's up in the front, their names was Robert Finey and William Finey, they both was colored. Jim Art is now a contractor an' builder. He done a lot of work 'round Wilmin'ton.

Stolen Relations@stolenrelations· Sep 30

(1/3) Orange Shirt Day, or the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, is a Canadian day of remembrance for the forced assimilation and cultural genocide experienced by Indigenous children in the Canadian boarding school system. #orangeshirtday #indigenoushistory #boardingschools #history