WEBVTT - Murder in Plymouth 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.800 You are listening to History on Trial, a production of 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:14.800 iHeart Podcasts. Listener Discretion advised. Darkness was falling over the 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:18.400 Rhode Island woods by the time Roger Williams reached the 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:22.280 wounded man. When Williams had heard that a man had 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:26.000 been attacked, he'd set off quickly, hoping that he could help. 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:30.160 But looking at the man lying before him, Williams knew 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:35.720 the situation was hopeless. Williams was no stranger to violence, 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.360 no one living in New England in the sixteen thirties was. 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:44.400 He knew that wounds like these, a long, ugly gash 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:47.440 running up one leg ending in a deep wound in 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:52.360 the belly, could not be overcome. Nonetheless, the doctors Williams 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:55.920 had brought with him, John Green and Thomas James, did 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:59.800 what little they could. Then the three men along with 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:03.200 this three in Narrogansett hunters who had discovered the wounded man, 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:07.320 picked the man up and began the trek back to Providence, 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:12.440 the settlement that Williams had founded two years earlier. It 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:16.800 was an arduous journey through the dense forest. The wounded 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:21.039 man must have been in excruciating pain, but he found 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:25.080 the strength to tell his rescuers his story. His name 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:29.160 was Penowan Yankis. He said he was a member of 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:32.560 the Nitmuk tribe. He had been set upon by four 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:36.440 men who tried to rob and kill him. He had escaped, 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:41.200 but he knew his wound was grave. Infection was setting 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:45.679 in a fever taking hold. Penowon Yankuis began to pray, 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:51.640 calling out to Mukwachaquan, the children's God. Mukwachaquan was known 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:55.320 to save lost boys. As a child, Penowa Yankis had 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:58.560 encountered the god in the form of an animal, and 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:01.720 now he called upon the god's protection. But it was 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:06.920 too late. Penawa Yanquist was beyond saving. Before he slipped away, 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:12.480 though he told the men one last crucial fact. His attackers, 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:17.320 he said, were English. Roger Williams, with a pit in 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:20.840 his stomach, knew who the four men must be. He 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:23.560 had seen them just that morning when they had shown 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:27.640 up at his doorstep, but draggled and starving, Claiming to 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.519 have gotten lost in the woods. They said they were 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:34.480 trying to get to Connecticut. Williams fed them, assigned them 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:37.760 narrogantic guides, and gave them a few letters to deliver 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:41.440 on their way. Williams had just been trying to be kind, 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:46.919 but now he knew the sickening truth he had assisted murderers. 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:50.360 He resolved at once that he would hunt these men 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:54.560 down soon enough, with the help of the narrogantic guides 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:58.320 and the English colonists on Aquidneck Island present day Portsmouth, 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:04.080 Rhode Island. William had his men. They were four indentured servants, 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:10.600 Arthur Peach, Thomas Jackson, Richard Stinnings and Daniel Cross. Now 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:13.520 that Williams had apprehended the murderers, he faced a new 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:17.560 challenge what to do with them. Their attack on Penawa 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:20.760 yanquists had taken place in a no man's land of sorts, 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:24.520 a swampy patch claimed by neither the Narraganset nor the 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:28.960 Wampanog tribes, nor by any of the English colonies. And 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:32.880 while the killers were English, their victim was Nitmuck. Who 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:37.000 should have jurisdiction over the murderers? It was a question 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:41.720 with serious implications. For the past two years, the brutal 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:46.440 Pequot War had raged through New England. Tensions between colonists 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:50.720 and indigenous peoples were at an all time high. Would 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:55.600 this murder spark disaster. The Indians sent for mister Williams 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:59.680 recorded William Bradford, the former governor of Plymouth Colony, and 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:04.360 made a grievous complaint. His friends and kindred were ready 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:08.839 to rise in arms and provoke the rest thereunto some 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:12.640 conceiving they should now find the Pequot's word true, that 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:17.240 the English would fall upon them. Roger Williams Bradford writes 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:21.840 quote pacified them and told them they should see justice 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:25.320 done upon the offenders. It was determined that the men 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:28.680 would be tried before a jury in Plymouth Colony. Could 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:32.720 the colonists, would their scant resources manage a fair trial? 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:37.240 Could they overcome their innate prejudices towards their indigenous neighbors. 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:41.479 Could they stave off a looming war? And most of all, 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:47.720 could they fulfill William's promise? Could they see justice done? 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:51.599 Welcome to history on trial. I'm your host, Mira Hayward. 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:58.760 This week Plymouth Colony v. The Peach Gang. In late 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:03.200 December sixteent any English colonists from the Mayflower arrived at 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:06.360 the remains of a Peduxt village on the southeastern coast 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:11.799 of present day Massachusetts. The new arrivals dubbed this settlement Plymouth. 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:17.000 The first winter at Plymouth was brutal. Almost half of 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.279 the colonists fifty out of one hundred and two, died, 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:25.320 succumbing to disease and starvation. The remaining populations struggled to 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:28.200 build adequate shelter and to make use of the land's 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:33.200 natural resources. Salvation arrived in the form of the Wampanogu Confederation. 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:37.000 The Wampanogue had once been a dominant presence along the 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:41.000 present day Massachusetts and Rhode Island coasts, with a population 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:44.719 of some forty thousand people living in sixty seven villages. 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:49.520 But between sixteen sixteen and sixteen nineteen, a period that 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:53.960 became known as the Great Dying, thousands of Wampanog died 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:58.760 from infectious diseases brought by European explorers. A neighboring group, 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:03.320 the Narragansett, who had been less impacted by disease, began 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:08.240 to encroach on Wampanog territory. When the Plymouth colonists arrived 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:12.640 in sixteen twenty, the Wampanog saw an opportunity. An alliance 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:15.640 with the English could provide weapons and bodies to fight 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:18.839 off the nar against it In the spring of sixteen 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:22.720 twenty one, the Wampanogue established contact with the English, and 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:25.800 in late March the two groups signed a peace treaty. 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:32.880 This alliance saved the colonists. Their Wampanog allies provided invaluable assistance, 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:37.120 teaching the colonists how to work the land, maximize crop output, 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:40.760 and hunt. Over the next decade, thanks to this knowledge, 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:44.799 the colonists began to thrive. By the mid sixteen thirties, 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:48.360 Plymouth's population had more than tripled, and it was about 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:52.200 to grow even more. Colonists lived in neat houses with 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:56.720 small gardens behind them. A large defensive wall encircled the town, 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:00.280 and a meeting house sat atop the town's highest point. 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:05.240 The establishment of further English colonies, the Massachusetts Bay, Saybrook 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:10.120 and Connecticut colonies, gave Plymouth residents further security and opportunities 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:15.280 for trade, but not all was well in Plymouth. In 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.600 sixteen thirty six, the various English colonies allied with the 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:22.120 Narraganset and Mohegan tribes in a war against the Pequots. 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.440 Though the English dominated the conflict, the brutality of the war, 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:30.000 which included a massacre of more than four hundred Pequot 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:34.640 in a single day in sixteen thirty seven, deeply concerned 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:38.720 the English's native allies what would happen if the English 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:43.960 turned against them? The English, too were becoming increasingly wary 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:50.720 of their indigenous neighbors, prejudice against native people's crew earnest interactions, 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:53.760 writes historian Toby Pearl in her book Terror to the 0:07:53.760 --> 0:08:00.400 Wicked gave way to mistrust, suspicion, and hatred are also 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:04.960 tensions between the English colonies. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:08.920 growing much faster than Plymouth, sucking up resources and land 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:14.680 and new arrivals, including indentured servants, which Plymouth Colony desperately needed. 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:19.560 The colony relied on these servants, men and women who 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:22.400 agreed to a period of unpaid labor in exchange for 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.080 passage to the colony and the promise of land at 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:28.240 the end of their indenture to keep it running. But 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:32.400 by the late sixteen thirties, with land becoming scarce, Plymouth 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:35.880 Colony leaders reduced the amount of land guaranteed to indentured 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:41.160 servants from one hundred acres to five, which would only 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:44.920 be granted to servants that the colony deemed fit. These 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:50.360 unattracted terms quickly stemmed the flow of indentured servants. These 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:55.280 changes also infuriated many of Plymouth's existing indentured servants, who 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:59.680 felt cheated out of their futures. One such servant was 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:04.120 Our Peach, a twenty three year old Irishman. Peach had 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:07.160 sailed on the Plain Joan from Gravesend to England to 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:10.160 the Colony of Virginia in the spring of sixteen thirty five. 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:13.360 In sixteen thirty six, he had traveled to New England, 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:16.080 where he signed a four year in denture contract with 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:20.520 Edward Winslow, a prominent Plymouth resident. Peach spent part of 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:23.480 the first years of his contract as a soldier fighting 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:28.040 for Plymouth in the Pequot Wars. William Bradford, the Plymouth governor, 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:32.040 recorded that Peach had done as good service as the 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:35.800 most there and was one of the forwardest in any attempt. 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:41.199 Peach was brave, no doubt. Unfortunately, domestic life did not 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:45.360 suit him as well as war did. Peach was loathe 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:50.000 to work, Bradford wrote. Instead of completing his duties for Winslow, 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:53.240 Peach spent most of his time at Stephen Hopkins's house. 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:58.320 Hopkins hosted a makeshift cavern and gambling den there, much 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:02.200 to the chagrin of Plymouth's leader. Peach quickly racked up 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:06.560 large gambling debts to Hopkins. He also got entangled with 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:12.560 Dorothy Temple, one of Hopkins's indentured servants. Relationships between servants 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:15.760 were forbidden in Plymouth, but that didn't stop Peach from 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:20.280 wooing Temple. If Plymouth officials discovered the relationship, Peach and 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:25.360 Temple would both face punishment fines or whippings or both. 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:30.880 Despite this burgeoning romance, Arthur Peach was unhappy. He didn't 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:34.199 know if he could bear two more years of indentured servitude. 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:36.400 He didn't know if he could ever pay off his 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:42.760 gambling debts. He craved adventure, but indentured servants couldn't leave 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:46.760 Plymouth colony without their master's permission. What was Arthur Peach, 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:51.240 who William Bradford called quote a lusty and desperate young 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:57.360 man to do? Run? That was Arthur Peach's answer. He 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:01.960 would flee dry, drab Plymouth for the exciting possibilities of 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:06.520 New Amsterdam, the Dutch settlement on Manhattan Island. He wouldn't 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:10.520 go alone at Stephen Hopkins's house he'd made friends with 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:15.080 a number of similarly disillusioned servants, and he'd convinced three 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:19.160 of them, Thomas Jackson, Richard Stinnings, and Daniel Cross, to 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:23.480 leave with him. On July twenty fourth, sixteen thirty eight, 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:26.320 in the dark of night, the men met on the 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:30.200 Green Harbor Path, a well trodden byway running along the coast. 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:33.959 Fearing pursuit, they decided to leave the path and head 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:38.040 into the thick woods. The woods were dense and imposing, 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:46.440 but through them Peach believed lay freedom. For three exhausting, 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:50.760 frustrating days, Arthur Peach and his companions stumbled their way 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:54.560 through the forest. They likely argued as they went. The 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:57.280 three other men had only joined Peach because he claimed 0:11:57.320 --> 0:11:59.640 to know the way to New Amsterdam, but as the 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:02.480 days wore on, it became clear that he did not. 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:06.240 The Peach Gang, as the group would become known, also 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:09.480 had not packed well. They were running short on food 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:13.280 and water. On July twenty seven, the gang stopped to 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:16.720 rest in miss Quam Squeeze, a swampy patch of land 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:21.160 north of present day Seaconk, Massachusetts. They were only thirty 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:23.960 six miles from Plymouth, as the crow flies, but it 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:28.319 must have felt much further. Mosquitoes nipped at their ankles, 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:31.680 their heads throbbed in the heat, and their stomachs ached 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:36.400 from hunger. The atmosphere was oppressive. Some locals called the 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:41.000 area the Devil's swamp. All At once Arthur Peach heard 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:44.800 a rustling behind him. He grabbed his rapier, a thin, 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:48.360 double edged, deadly sharp sword, the only thing he had 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:52.920 taken with him from Plymouth. The gang tensed who was 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:56.080 walking through the woods, a party from Plymouth out to 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.520 apprehend them or an animal they could kill for food. 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:04.200 The rustling grew louder. A lone man emerged from the 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:08.240 trees at the clearing's edge. Nervous. None of the Peach 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:11.840 gang addressed the man. He walked silently through the clearing 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:15.679 and disappeared back into the trees. Arthur Peach had been 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:19.000 caught off guard by the man's appearance, but it had 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:23.040 given him an idea, a dark idea. He told his 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.800 men that they would not be traveling further that day. 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:29.640 The man they had just seen is known by history 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:33.480 as Penawa Yanquis. This is likely not his real name. 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:38.520 Penaway means foreigner or stranger in Eastern Algonquin, so the 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:41.760 man may have been describing himself as a stranger when 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:45.679 he later gave his name to Roger Williams. Penawa Yanquis 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:50.320 was a member of the Nitmuck people. Nitmuk means freshwater people, 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:53.839 a fitting name given that their homelands contained the headwaters 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:57.320 of all major rivers in eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:01.760 The Nitmuk lived in villages across the interior of present 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:05.480 day Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island and Connecticut. When 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:09.439 the Mayflower colonists landed at Plymouth in sixteen twenty, there 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:13.559 were an estimated five to six thousand Nitmucks, but contact 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:17.360 with the English and the infectious diseases they carried decimated 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:21.280 the tribe's population. By sixteen thirty eight, the Nitmuck were 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:24.880 paying tribute to the Narragansett tribe in exchange for protection. 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:28.960 On July twenty seventh, when he crossed paths with the 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:31.720 Peach Gang, penawa Yanquis was on his way to the 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:36.600 Uptuxet Trading Post outside of present day Bourne, Massachusetts. The 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:39.600 trading post had been built in sixteen twenty seven to 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:43.200 facilitate trade between the Wampanog the Dutch and the English. 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:47.320 The Narragansett, being enemies of the Wampanogu, could not visit 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:50.600 the trading post, so they set members of affiliated tribes 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:54.360 like the Nipmuck to do their trading for them. Penawa 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:57.840 Yanquist carried beaver pelts and beads with him, which was 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:02.320 trading on behalf of Mixano Canonicus, leader of the Narraganset. 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:06.080 At the trading post, Penawa Yankuis exchanged his pelts and 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:09.760 beads for three cloth coats and five fathoms of wampum. 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:15.400 Wampum small shell beads were used as currency. A fathom 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.400 consisted of three hundred and sixty wampum strung in six 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:23.400 foot lengths. Five fathoms was worth approximately six contemporary English 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:27.480 pounds or around twelve hundred dollars to day. It was 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:30.760 a small fortune to carry through the woods a magnet 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:35.600 for danger, especially since traders were required to trade unarmed, 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:40.720 But Penawa Yanquist was well trained, he knew this land intimately, 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:43.400 he likely had no fear as he set out from 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:47.120 the trading post, heading west. He walked until dark, set 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:50.640 up camp, and then resumed his journey along the Narraganset Trail. 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:54.440 The next morning, further down the trail, Arthur Peach and 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:58.240 his men huddled in a clearing. Seeing Penawa Yankuist two 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:01.880 days earlier had given Arthur pea teach an idea. The 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:07.359 things he and his gang wanted food, water, money, required 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:10.840 hard work. Wouldn't it just be easier to steal them 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:13.360 from someone else? All they had to do was wait 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:17.160 for a traveler to pass by. Their first opportunity appeared 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:21.240 in a clatter of hoofs. John Throckmorton, a Providence resident, 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:25.680 was traveling the trail on horseback. Throckmorton recoiled at seeing 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:30.120 four dirty, disheveled men step out onto the trail. Suspicious, 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:33.240 he urged his horse into a gallop and rode past quickly. 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:36.760 The Peach gang was out of luck. They settled back 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:40.760 down to wait. Some time later, they heard the sounds 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:45.080 of someone approaching on foot. It was penawan Yanquist. Arthur 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:49.440 Peach was prepared this time. The gang had built a fire, 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:53.000 and Peach invited penawa Yanquist to sit beside it, offering 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:56.760 his pipe too. Penawan Yanquist, having no reason to fear 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:01.680 these friendly travelers, approached. Now that the moment was upon them. 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:06.119 Peach's compatriots hesitated. One of them told Peach not to attack, 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:10.960 but Peach would not be deterred. Hang him rogue. I 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:13.840 had killed many of them, he cried, speaking of his 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:17.240 time in the Pequot War, and then he thrust his 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:20.600 rapier at Penawa Yankuists, sinking the blade into the man's 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:23.600 stomach and pulling it down his belly through his upper thigh. 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:29.080 Penawa Yankis reeled, but his reflexes were faster than Peach's. 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:32.679 He dodged a second blow and turned to run. Another 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:36.080 gang member lashed out at him, but Penawa Yankis bounded away. 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:39.800 He knew his greatest advantage was his knowledge of the land. 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:43.840 He sprinted into the thick vegetation of the swamp. The 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:47.080 Peach gang gave chase, slashing at plants with their blades. 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:51.280 Penawa Yankuist did not look back. He splashed through the swamp, 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:55.040 holding his stomach as blood poured from his wounds. He 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:59.040 tripped and fell, and then, hearing his pursuers nearby, pulled 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:02.920 himself up and made one more agonizing push deeper into 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:06.159 the swamp. Unable to go further, he lay down in 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:10.920 the brackish water, letting the reeds shelter him. The Peach 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:14.920 Gang gave up the hunt. They figured Penawa Yankish would 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:18.399 soon lead out, and they had what they wanted, the 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:21.960 strings of wampum and the coats. With this small fortune, 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:26.240 they could establish themselves in New Amsterdam. They just needed 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:31.040 to get there, but luck was not on their side. 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:34.840 Not far away, near Pawtucket Falls, the Peachgang encountered a 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:38.960 group of Narragansetts. The Narragansets were concerned to see four 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:42.640 filthy Englishmen wandering in the woods and encouraged the men 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:46.720 to travel south to nearby Providence, where the settlement's leader, 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:51.280 Roger Williams, could help them. The Peach Gang declined, saying 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:55.320 that they were headed west to Connecticut, but the Narragants 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:58.080 were worried about the men and decided to report them 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:02.000 to Roger Williams, one of the first colonists in Boston. 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:05.919 Williams's unorthodox beliefs had gotten him kicked out of the 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:10.520 Massachusetts Bay Colony in sixteen thirty five. Williams headed to 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:13.399 present day Rhode Island, where he founded a settlement that 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:18.919 he named Providence. Williams was fascinated by indigenous culture and 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:23.080 enjoyed close relationships with many native people. He advocated for 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:25.760 fair dealings with the tribes and learned to speak a 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:30.840 number of Algonquin dialects, including Narragansett. But Williams also owned 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:35.040 a Pequot slave, a child called will and he could 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:39.760 be brusque and temperamental. When the Narragansett party informed Williams 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:42.360 about the men in the woods, he sent a messenger 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:46.000 with food and an invitation to visit him. The messenger 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:48.400 returned with the news that the men preferred to get 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:51.280 some sleep. The Peach gang must have realized that it 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:55.399 would look suspicious to turn Williams down indefinitely. Early the 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:59.120 next morning, they set off for Providence. Williams welcomed them 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:02.760 into his home, offering them food and water. Learning that 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:05.320 they were bound for Connecticut, he asked them to deliver 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:08.879 some letters for him. They agreed, and Williams arranged for 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:12.000 some narrogant guides to accompany them so they didn't get 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:15.320 lost again. Around the time that the Peach gang arrived 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:19.840 in Providence, a group of Narragansett hunters stumbled across Penawa Yanquists. 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:23.600 Sometime in the night, the wounded man had mustered the 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:27.480 strength to pull himself onto a path. The hunters immediately 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:30.159 sent word to Roger Williams that a nipmuck trader had 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:33.360 been attacked by a party of Englishmen. By the time 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:37.400 the message arrived, the Peach gang had already left. Williams 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:40.840 summoned two physicians, John Green and Thomas James, and set 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:44.680 off to find the Penawa Yanquist. Before leaving, Williams sent 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:48.480 a messenger to surreptitiously warn the Narraganset guide that their 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:54.440 traveling companions might actually be fugitives. Williams hoped the messenger 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:59.080 could catch up with them in time. Penawa Yankuis's strength 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:03.480 rapidly faded as his rescuers carried him towards Providence. It 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:06.720 was incredible that he had even lived this long, long 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:10.480 enough to tell his story, but his grasp on life 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:14.840 was slipping. Exactly when he died is unknown. None of 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:17.879 the written records we have contained an account of his death, 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:22.600 and Williams, for one, did not witness it. Miles away, 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:26.320 Arthur Peach knew that his time was running out. At 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:29.120 some point, he had learned that Penawa Yanquist had survived 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:33.840 and identified his assailants. Desperate, Peach abandoned his pretense of 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:36.760 going to Connecticut and told the guides that he needed 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:40.480 to stop at a Quidneck Island in Narragansett Bay. A 0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:43.200 Quidneck had recently been settled by a group of religious 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:46.520 exiles from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Peach hoped that 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:49.960 these people would shelter him. He pushed his group to hurry, 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:53.040 and they'd eventually made it to Narragansett Bay. All that 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:56.280 was between the gang and freedom was a canoe ride. 0:21:57.200 --> 0:22:00.000 As the boats pushed off from shore, Arthur Peach must 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:03.600 have sighed in relief when he reached a Quidnick. The 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:11.480 settlers there welcomed him. He had made it well, not quite. 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:14.840 Arthur Peach didn't know it, but a trap was closing 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:19.920 in on him. Miraculously, Williams's messenger had managed to track 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:23.639 the party down and secretly notify the Narraganset guides of 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:27.320 the gang's true nature. The guides, knowing that they were 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:31.320 outnumbered by the Englishmen, had maintained their composure and betrayed 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:34.920 nothing of their knowledge. They had bided their time until 0:22:34.920 --> 0:22:38.920 they arrived at a Quidneck. Then, while the Peach Gang rested, 0:22:39.280 --> 0:22:42.840 they told the settlers there about the crime. A Quidneck 0:22:42.920 --> 0:22:46.960 Islanders didn't like the colonial authorities, but they didn't like 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:51.399 murderers either. Working with the Narragansetts, they took the Peach 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:56.560 Gang by surprise and arrested them. Unfortunately, the island had 0:22:56.560 --> 0:23:00.320 no place to hold the captives. Daniel Cross, member of 0:23:00.320 --> 0:23:03.720 the Beach Gang, took advantage of this. He managed to 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:06.879 loose his bindings and slip away, stealing a canoe and 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:10.879 heading for land. Once there, he traveled some one hundred 0:23:10.960 --> 0:23:15.200 miles north to the settlement of Piscataqua, near present day Portsmouth, 0:23:15.240 --> 0:23:20.760 New Hampshire. Piscataqua had a reputation for welcoming misfits. John Winthrop, 0:23:20.880 --> 0:23:25.439 governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, wrote contemptuously of Piscataquans, 0:23:25.560 --> 0:23:29.159 that it was their usual manner, some of them, to 0:23:29.280 --> 0:23:34.240 countenance all such lewd persons as fled from us to them. 0:23:34.520 --> 0:23:37.640 As for the other three prisoners, there would be no reprieve. 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:42.639 After a conversation between leaders from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Providence, 0:23:42.680 --> 0:23:46.440 Aquinnock Island, and Plymouth, it was determined that Arthur Peach, 0:23:46.800 --> 0:23:51.160 Thomas Jackson, and Richard Stinnings would stand trial in Plymouth. 0:23:52.080 --> 0:23:55.119 After barely a week on the run, the Peach gang 0:23:55.280 --> 0:24:00.640 was headed right back to where they'd started. What did 0:24:00.680 --> 0:24:04.280 the law look like in Plymouth Colony? Unlike the neighboring 0:24:04.320 --> 0:24:08.000 Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony had not been granted a 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:11.600 Royal Charter by the King of England. Charters defined the 0:24:11.680 --> 0:24:15.040 laws in a colony and gave the colonies leader authority 0:24:15.080 --> 0:24:18.560 to enforce set laws. Without a charter, it was up 0:24:18.560 --> 0:24:22.040 to Plymouth's residents to define their own government. In late 0:24:22.119 --> 0:24:25.440 sixteen twenty forty, one of the settlers signed a document 0:24:25.520 --> 0:24:30.200 declaring themselves quote a civil body politic with the power 0:24:30.240 --> 0:24:34.440 to create laws for quote the general good of the colony, 0:24:35.000 --> 0:24:40.280 unto which promise all due submission and obedience. In sixteen 0:24:40.320 --> 0:24:44.640 thirty six, two years before Penawa Yanquis's murder, Plymouth produced 0:24:44.680 --> 0:24:48.320 its first written set of laws. Enforcement of the laws 0:24:48.359 --> 0:24:51.439 would be managed in part by the colony's General Court, 0:24:52.040 --> 0:24:55.000 a part judicial and part legislative body led by the 0:24:55.000 --> 0:24:59.159 colony's elected governor. The laws in this code were shaped 0:24:59.200 --> 0:25:03.639 by the English in law, but there were some key differences. Too. 0:25:04.000 --> 0:25:08.000 Many Plymouth residents had experienced or been witnessed to grave 0:25:08.200 --> 0:25:13.200 injustices perpetrated by the English legal system. Religious dissenters were 0:25:13.280 --> 0:25:16.720 frequently punished for criticizing the Church of England and the King. 0:25:17.320 --> 0:25:22.520 Punishments could include whippings, brandings, and having one's ears chopped off. 0:25:23.480 --> 0:25:27.119 The colonists did not eliminate corporal or capital punishments from 0:25:27.160 --> 0:25:29.960 their legal code, but they greatly reduced the number of 0:25:30.000 --> 0:25:33.520 crimes that could receive such penalties, and they tried to 0:25:33.640 --> 0:25:37.159 ensure that the punishments were not arbitrarily applied, as they 0:25:37.200 --> 0:25:40.600 so often had been in England by the infamous Star Chamber. 0:25:41.480 --> 0:25:45.760 In sixteen twenty three, Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford declared 0:25:45.800 --> 0:25:49.679 that all criminal trials must be heard by quote a 0:25:49.800 --> 0:25:53.719 jury upon their oaths, so the Peach Gang would receive 0:25:53.840 --> 0:25:57.600 a jury trial. The jury selection process in sixteen thirty 0:25:57.640 --> 0:26:01.240 eight looked quite different than it does today. To begin 0:26:01.320 --> 0:26:04.040 with that very few people were eligible for jury service. 0:26:04.880 --> 0:26:07.639 Plymouth at this time had only five hundred and fifty 0:26:07.680 --> 0:26:12.600 residents from that pool. Women, children, the elderly, and of 0:26:12.600 --> 0:26:17.680 the sick were automatically excluded, so were indentured servants, who 0:26:17.720 --> 0:26:21.240 made up around a fifth of the population. Coawnee officials 0:26:21.240 --> 0:26:25.760 and religious leaders were also exempt. That didn't leave many options, 0:26:26.560 --> 0:26:28.960 so instead of summoning a random jury pool like we 0:26:29.040 --> 0:26:34.280 do now, Plymouth leaders carefully hand selected jurors for this trial. 0:26:34.400 --> 0:26:37.960 Twelve men served on the jury. Two additional men served 0:26:38.000 --> 0:26:41.280 as grand jurors, which meant in this time that they 0:26:41.320 --> 0:26:44.480 served as watchdogs over the jury and the trial to 0:26:44.560 --> 0:26:48.600 make sure no laws were broken. On September fourth, sixteen 0:26:48.680 --> 0:26:52.280 thirty eight, the trial began at the Plymouth Meetinghouse, a 0:26:52.320 --> 0:26:56.520 thick walled building made of rough planks. The meetinghouse loomed 0:26:56.560 --> 0:26:59.639 over the town from its spot atop a hill. The 0:26:59.680 --> 0:27:03.320 meeting house served many purposes. Originally built as a fort, 0:27:03.440 --> 0:27:06.919 the second floor sported six cannons, while the first floor 0:27:07.000 --> 0:27:10.640