Speaker 1: You are listening to History on Trial, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeart Podcasts. Listener Discretion advised. Darkness was falling over the
Speaker 1: Rhode Island woods by the time Roger Williams reached the
Speaker 1: wounded man. When Williams had heard that a man had
Speaker 1: been attacked, he'd set off quickly, hoping that he could help.
Speaker 1: But looking at the man lying before him, Williams knew
Speaker 1: the situation was hopeless. Williams was no stranger to violence,
Speaker 1: no one living in New England in the sixteen thirties was.
Speaker 1: He knew that wounds like these, a long, ugly gash
Speaker 1: running up one leg ending in a deep wound in
Speaker 1: the belly, could not be overcome. Nonetheless, the doctors Williams
Speaker 1: had brought with him, John Green and Thomas James, did
Speaker 1: what little they could. Then the three men along with
Speaker 1: this three in Narrogansett hunters who had discovered the wounded man,
Speaker 1: picked the man up and began the trek back to Providence,
Speaker 1: the settlement that Williams had founded two years earlier. It
Speaker 1: was an arduous journey through the dense forest. The wounded
Speaker 1: man must have been in excruciating pain, but he found
Speaker 1: the strength to tell his rescuers his story. His name
Speaker 1: was Penowan Yankis. He said he was a member of
Speaker 1: the Nitmuk tribe. He had been set upon by four
Speaker 1: men who tried to rob and kill him. He had escaped,
Speaker 1: but he knew his wound was grave. Infection was setting
Speaker 1: in a fever taking hold. Penowon Yankuis began to pray,
Speaker 1: calling out to Mukwachaquan, the children's God. Mukwachaquan was known
Speaker 1: to save lost boys. As a child, Penowa Yankis had
Speaker 1: encountered the god in the form of an animal, and
Speaker 1: now he called upon the god's protection. But it was
Speaker 1: too late. Penawa Yanquist was beyond saving. Before he slipped away,
Speaker 1: though he told the men one last crucial fact. His attackers,
Speaker 1: he said, were English. Roger Williams, with a pit in
Speaker 1: his stomach, knew who the four men must be. He
Speaker 1: had seen them just that morning when they had shown
Speaker 1: up at his doorstep, but draggled and starving, Claiming to
Speaker 1: have gotten lost in the woods. They said they were
Speaker 1: trying to get to Connecticut. Williams fed them, assigned them
Speaker 1: narrogantic guides, and gave them a few letters to deliver
Speaker 1: on their way. Williams had just been trying to be kind,
Speaker 1: but now he knew the sickening truth he had assisted murderers.
Speaker 1: He resolved at once that he would hunt these men
Speaker 1: down soon enough, with the help of the narrogantic guides
Speaker 1: and the English colonists on Aquidneck Island present day Portsmouth,
Speaker 1: Rhode Island. William had his men. They were four indentured servants,
Speaker 1: Arthur Peach, Thomas Jackson, Richard Stinnings and Daniel Cross. Now
Speaker 1: that Williams had apprehended the murderers, he faced a new
Speaker 1: challenge what to do with them. Their attack on Penawa
Speaker 1: yanquists had taken place in a no man's land of sorts,
Speaker 1: a swampy patch claimed by neither the Narraganset nor the
Speaker 1: Wampanog tribes, nor by any of the English colonies. And
Speaker 1: while the killers were English, their victim was Nitmuck. Who
Speaker 1: should have jurisdiction over the murderers? It was a question
Speaker 1: with serious implications. For the past two years, the brutal
Speaker 1: Pequot War had raged through New England. Tensions between colonists
Speaker 1: and indigenous peoples were at an all time high. Would
Speaker 1: this murder spark disaster. The Indians sent for mister Williams
Speaker 1: recorded William Bradford, the former governor of Plymouth Colony, and
Speaker 1: made a grievous complaint. His friends and kindred were ready
Speaker 1: to rise in arms and provoke the rest thereunto some
Speaker 1: conceiving they should now find the Pequot's word true, that
Speaker 1: the English would fall upon them. Roger Williams Bradford writes
Speaker 1: quote pacified them and told them they should see justice
Speaker 1: done upon the offenders. It was determined that the men
Speaker 1: would be tried before a jury in Plymouth Colony. Could
Speaker 1: the colonists, would their scant resources manage a fair trial?
Speaker 1: Could they overcome their innate prejudices towards their indigenous neighbors.
Speaker 1: Could they stave off a looming war? And most of all,
Speaker 1: could they fulfill William's promise? Could they see justice done?
Speaker 1: Welcome to history on trial. I'm your host, Mira Hayward.
Speaker 1: This week Plymouth Colony v. The Peach Gang. In late
Speaker 1: December sixteent any English colonists from the Mayflower arrived at
Speaker 1: the remains of a Peduxt village on the southeastern coast
Speaker 1: of present day Massachusetts. The new arrivals dubbed this settlement Plymouth.
Speaker 1: The first winter at Plymouth was brutal. Almost half of
Speaker 1: the colonists fifty out of one hundred and two, died,
Speaker 1: succumbing to disease and starvation. The remaining populations struggled to
Speaker 1: build adequate shelter and to make use of the land's
Speaker 1: natural resources. Salvation arrived in the form of the Wampanogu Confederation.
Speaker 1: The Wampanogue had once been a dominant presence along the
Speaker 1: present day Massachusetts and Rhode Island coasts, with a population
Speaker 1: of some forty thousand people living in sixty seven villages.
Speaker 1: But between sixteen sixteen and sixteen nineteen, a period that
Speaker 1: became known as the Great Dying, thousands of Wampanog died
Speaker 1: from infectious diseases brought by European explorers. A neighboring group,
Speaker 1: the Narragansett, who had been less impacted by disease, began
Speaker 1: to encroach on Wampanog territory. When the Plymouth colonists arrived
Speaker 1: in sixteen twenty, the Wampanog saw an opportunity. An alliance
Speaker 1: with the English could provide weapons and bodies to fight
Speaker 1: off the nar against it In the spring of sixteen
Speaker 1: twenty one, the Wampanogue established contact with the English, and
Speaker 1: in late March the two groups signed a peace treaty.
Speaker 1: This alliance saved the colonists. Their Wampanog allies provided invaluable assistance,
Speaker 1: teaching the colonists how to work the land, maximize crop output,
Speaker 1: and hunt. Over the next decade, thanks to this knowledge,
Speaker 1: the colonists began to thrive. By the mid sixteen thirties,
Speaker 1: Plymouth's population had more than tripled, and it was about
Speaker 1: to grow even more. Colonists lived in neat houses with
Speaker 1: small gardens behind them. A large defensive wall encircled the town,
Speaker 1: and a meeting house sat atop the town's highest point.
Speaker 1: The establishment of further English colonies, the Massachusetts Bay, Saybrook
Speaker 1: and Connecticut colonies, gave Plymouth residents further security and opportunities
Speaker 1: for trade, but not all was well in Plymouth. In
Speaker 1: sixteen thirty six, the various English colonies allied with the
Speaker 1: Narraganset and Mohegan tribes in a war against the Pequots.
Speaker 1: Though the English dominated the conflict, the brutality of the war,
Speaker 1: which included a massacre of more than four hundred Pequot
Speaker 1: in a single day in sixteen thirty seven, deeply concerned
Speaker 1: the English's native allies what would happen if the English
Speaker 1: turned against them? The English, too were becoming increasingly wary
Speaker 1: of their indigenous neighbors, prejudice against native people's crew earnest interactions,
Speaker 1: writes historian Toby Pearl in her book Terror to the
Speaker 1: Wicked gave way to mistrust, suspicion, and hatred are also
Speaker 1: tensions between the English colonies. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was
Speaker 1: growing much faster than Plymouth, sucking up resources and land
Speaker 1: and new arrivals, including indentured servants, which Plymouth Colony desperately needed.
Speaker 1: The colony relied on these servants, men and women who
Speaker 1: agreed to a period of unpaid labor in exchange for
Speaker 1: passage to the colony and the promise of land at
Speaker 1: the end of their indenture to keep it running. But
Speaker 1: by the late sixteen thirties, with land becoming scarce, Plymouth
Speaker 1: Colony leaders reduced the amount of land guaranteed to indentured
Speaker 1: servants from one hundred acres to five, which would only
Speaker 1: be granted to servants that the colony deemed fit. These
Speaker 1: unattracted terms quickly stemmed the flow of indentured servants. These
Speaker 1: changes also infuriated many of Plymouth's existing indentured servants, who
Speaker 1: felt cheated out of their futures. One such servant was
Speaker 1: Our Peach, a twenty three year old Irishman. Peach had
Speaker 1: sailed on the Plain Joan from Gravesend to England to
Speaker 1: the Colony of Virginia in the spring of sixteen thirty five.
Speaker 1: In sixteen thirty six, he had traveled to New England,
Speaker 1: where he signed a four year in denture contract with
Speaker 1: Edward Winslow, a prominent Plymouth resident. Peach spent part of
Speaker 1: the first years of his contract as a soldier fighting
Speaker 1: for Plymouth in the Pequot Wars. William Bradford, the Plymouth governor,
Speaker 1: recorded that Peach had done as good service as the
Speaker 1: most there and was one of the forwardest in any attempt.
Speaker 1: Peach was brave, no doubt. Unfortunately, domestic life did not
Speaker 1: suit him as well as war did. Peach was loathe
Speaker 1: to work, Bradford wrote. Instead of completing his duties for Winslow,
Speaker 1: Peach spent most of his time at Stephen Hopkins's house.
Speaker 1: Hopkins hosted a makeshift cavern and gambling den there, much
Speaker 1: to the chagrin of Plymouth's leader. Peach quickly racked up
Speaker 1: large gambling debts to Hopkins. He also got entangled with
Speaker 1: Dorothy Temple, one of Hopkins's indentured servants. Relationships between servants
Speaker 1: were forbidden in Plymouth, but that didn't stop Peach from
Speaker 1: wooing Temple. If Plymouth officials discovered the relationship, Peach and
Speaker 1: Temple would both face punishment fines or whippings or both.
Speaker 1: Despite this burgeoning romance, Arthur Peach was unhappy. He didn't
Speaker 1: know if he could bear two more years of indentured servitude.
Speaker 1: He didn't know if he could ever pay off his
Speaker 1: gambling debts. He craved adventure, but indentured servants couldn't leave
Speaker 1: Plymouth colony without their master's permission. What was Arthur Peach,
Speaker 1: who William Bradford called quote a lusty and desperate young
Speaker 1: man to do? Run? That was Arthur Peach's answer. He
Speaker 1: would flee dry, drab Plymouth for the exciting possibilities of
Speaker 1: New Amsterdam, the Dutch settlement on Manhattan Island. He wouldn't
Speaker 1: go alone at Stephen Hopkins's house he'd made friends with
Speaker 1: a number of similarly disillusioned servants, and he'd convinced three
Speaker 1: of them, Thomas Jackson, Richard Stinnings, and Daniel Cross, to
Speaker 1: leave with him. On July twenty fourth, sixteen thirty eight,
Speaker 1: in the dark of night, the men met on the
Speaker 1: Green Harbor Path, a well trodden byway running along the coast.
Speaker 1: Fearing pursuit, they decided to leave the path and head
Speaker 1: into the thick woods. The woods were dense and imposing,
Speaker 1: but through them Peach believed lay freedom. For three exhausting,
Speaker 1: frustrating days, Arthur Peach and his companions stumbled their way
Speaker 1: through the forest. They likely argued as they went. The
Speaker 1: three other men had only joined Peach because he claimed
Speaker 1: to know the way to New Amsterdam, but as the
Speaker 1: days wore on, it became clear that he did not.
Speaker 1: The Peach Gang, as the group would become known, also
Speaker 1: had not packed well. They were running short on food
Speaker 1: and water. On July twenty seven, the gang stopped to
Speaker 1: rest in miss Quam Squeeze, a swampy patch of land
Speaker 1: north of present day Seaconk, Massachusetts. They were only thirty
Speaker 1: six miles from Plymouth, as the crow flies, but it
Speaker 1: must have felt much further. Mosquitoes nipped at their ankles,
Speaker 1: their heads throbbed in the heat, and their stomachs ached
Speaker 1: from hunger. The atmosphere was oppressive. Some locals called the
Speaker 1: area the Devil's swamp. All At once Arthur Peach heard
Speaker 1: a rustling behind him. He grabbed his rapier, a thin,
Speaker 1: double edged, deadly sharp sword, the only thing he had
Speaker 1: taken with him from Plymouth. The gang tensed who was
Speaker 1: walking through the woods, a party from Plymouth out to
Speaker 1: apprehend them or an animal they could kill for food.
Speaker 1: The rustling grew louder. A lone man emerged from the
Speaker 1: trees at the clearing's edge. Nervous. None of the Peach
Speaker 1: gang addressed the man. He walked silently through the clearing
Speaker 1: and disappeared back into the trees. Arthur Peach had been
Speaker 1: caught off guard by the man's appearance, but it had
Speaker 1: given him an idea, a dark idea. He told his
Speaker 1: men that they would not be traveling further that day.
Speaker 1: The man they had just seen is known by history
Speaker 1: as Penawa Yanquis. This is likely not his real name.
Speaker 1: Penaway means foreigner or stranger in Eastern Algonquin, so the
Speaker 1: man may have been describing himself as a stranger when
Speaker 1: he later gave his name to Roger Williams. Penawa Yanquis
Speaker 1: was a member of the Nitmuck people. Nitmuk means freshwater people,
Speaker 1: a fitting name given that their homelands contained the headwaters
Speaker 1: of all major rivers in eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Speaker 1: The Nitmuk lived in villages across the interior of present
Speaker 1: day Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island and Connecticut. When
Speaker 1: the Mayflower colonists landed at Plymouth in sixteen twenty, there
Speaker 1: were an estimated five to six thousand Nitmucks, but contact
Speaker 1: with the English and the infectious diseases they carried decimated
Speaker 1: the tribe's population. By sixteen thirty eight, the Nitmuck were
Speaker 1: paying tribute to the Narragansett tribe in exchange for protection.
Speaker 1: On July twenty seventh, when he crossed paths with the
Speaker 1: Peach Gang, penawa Yanquis was on his way to the
Speaker 1: Uptuxet Trading Post outside of present day Bourne, Massachusetts. The
Speaker 1: trading post had been built in sixteen twenty seven to
Speaker 1: facilitate trade between the Wampanog the Dutch and the English.
Speaker 1: The Narragansett, being enemies of the Wampanogu, could not visit
Speaker 1: the trading post, so they set members of affiliated tribes
Speaker 1: like the Nipmuck to do their trading for them. Penawa
Speaker 1: Yanquist carried beaver pelts and beads with him, which was
Speaker 1: trading on behalf of Mixano Canonicus, leader of the Narraganset.
Speaker 1: At the trading post, Penawa Yankuis exchanged his pelts and
Speaker 1: beads for three cloth coats and five fathoms of wampum.
Speaker 1: Wampum small shell beads were used as currency. A fathom
Speaker 1: consisted of three hundred and sixty wampum strung in six
Speaker 1: foot lengths. Five fathoms was worth approximately six contemporary English
Speaker 1: pounds or around twelve hundred dollars to day. It was
Speaker 1: a small fortune to carry through the woods a magnet
Speaker 1: for danger, especially since traders were required to trade unarmed,
Speaker 1: But Penawa Yanquist was well trained, he knew this land intimately,
Speaker 1: he likely had no fear as he set out from
Speaker 1: the trading post, heading west. He walked until dark, set
Speaker 1: up camp, and then resumed his journey along the Narraganset Trail.
Speaker 1: The next morning, further down the trail, Arthur Peach and
Speaker 1: his men huddled in a clearing. Seeing Penawa Yankuist two
Speaker 1: days earlier had given Arthur pea teach an idea. The
Speaker 1: things he and his gang wanted food, water, money, required
Speaker 1: hard work. Wouldn't it just be easier to steal them
Speaker 1: from someone else? All they had to do was wait
Speaker 1: for a traveler to pass by. Their first opportunity appeared
Speaker 1: in a clatter of hoofs. John Throckmorton, a Providence resident,
Speaker 1: was traveling the trail on horseback. Throckmorton recoiled at seeing
Speaker 1: four dirty, disheveled men step out onto the trail. Suspicious,
Speaker 1: he urged his horse into a gallop and rode past quickly.
Speaker 1: The Peach gang was out of luck. They settled back
Speaker 1: down to wait. Some time later, they heard the sounds
Speaker 1: of someone approaching on foot. It was penawan Yanquist. Arthur
Speaker 1: Peach was prepared this time. The gang had built a fire,
Speaker 1: and Peach invited penawa Yanquist to sit beside it, offering
Speaker 1: his pipe too. Penawan Yanquist, having no reason to fear
Speaker 1: these friendly travelers, approached. Now that the moment was upon them.
Speaker 1: Peach's compatriots hesitated. One of them told Peach not to attack,
Speaker 1: but Peach would not be deterred. Hang him rogue. I
Speaker 1: had killed many of them, he cried, speaking of his
Speaker 1: time in the Pequot War, and then he thrust his
Speaker 1: rapier at Penawa Yankuists, sinking the blade into the man's
Speaker 1: stomach and pulling it down his belly through his upper thigh.
Speaker 1: Penawa Yankis reeled, but his reflexes were faster than Peach's.
Speaker 1: He dodged a second blow and turned to run. Another
Speaker 1: gang member lashed out at him, but Penawa Yankis bounded away.
Speaker 1: He knew his greatest advantage was his knowledge of the land.
Speaker 1: He sprinted into the thick vegetation of the swamp. The
Speaker 1: Peach gang gave chase, slashing at plants with their blades.
Speaker 1: Penawa Yankuist did not look back. He splashed through the swamp,
Speaker 1: holding his stomach as blood poured from his wounds. He
Speaker 1: tripped and fell, and then, hearing his pursuers nearby, pulled
Speaker 1: himself up and made one more agonizing push deeper into
Speaker 1: the swamp. Unable to go further, he lay down in
Speaker 1: the brackish water, letting the reeds shelter him. The Peach
Speaker 1: Gang gave up the hunt. They figured Penawa Yankish would
Speaker 1: soon lead out, and they had what they wanted, the
Speaker 1: strings of wampum and the coats. With this small fortune,
Speaker 1: they could establish themselves in New Amsterdam. They just needed
Speaker 1: to get there, but luck was not on their side.
Speaker 1: Not far away, near Pawtucket Falls, the Peachgang encountered a
Speaker 1: group of Narragansetts. The Narragansets were concerned to see four
Speaker 1: filthy Englishmen wandering in the woods and encouraged the men
Speaker 1: to travel south to nearby Providence, where the settlement's leader,
Speaker 1: Roger Williams, could help them. The Peach Gang declined, saying
Speaker 1: that they were headed west to Connecticut, but the Narragants
Speaker 1: were worried about the men and decided to report them
Speaker 1: to Roger Williams, one of the first colonists in Boston.
Speaker 1: Williams's unorthodox beliefs had gotten him kicked out of the
Speaker 1: Massachusetts Bay Colony in sixteen thirty five. Williams headed to
Speaker 1: present day Rhode Island, where he founded a settlement that
Speaker 1: he named Providence. Williams was fascinated by indigenous culture and
Speaker 1: enjoyed close relationships with many native people. He advocated for
Speaker 1: fair dealings with the tribes and learned to speak a
Speaker 1: number of Algonquin dialects, including Narragansett. But Williams also owned
Speaker 1: a Pequot slave, a child called will and he could
Speaker 1: be brusque and temperamental. When the Narragansett party informed Williams
Speaker 1: about the men in the woods, he sent a messenger
Speaker 1: with food and an invitation to visit him. The messenger
Speaker 1: returned with the news that the men preferred to get
Speaker 1: some sleep. The Peach gang must have realized that it
Speaker 1: would look suspicious to turn Williams down indefinitely. Early the
Speaker 1: next morning, they set off for Providence. Williams welcomed them
Speaker 1: into his home, offering them food and water. Learning that
Speaker 1: they were bound for Connecticut, he asked them to deliver
Speaker 1: some letters for him. They agreed, and Williams arranged for
Speaker 1: some narrogant guides to accompany them so they didn't get
Speaker 1: lost again. Around the time that the Peach gang arrived
Speaker 1: in Providence, a group of Narragansett hunters stumbled across Penawa Yanquists.
Speaker 1: Sometime in the night, the wounded man had mustered the
Speaker 1: strength to pull himself onto a path. The hunters immediately
Speaker 1: sent word to Roger Williams that a nipmuck trader had
Speaker 1: been attacked by a party of Englishmen. By the time
Speaker 1: the message arrived, the Peach gang had already left. Williams
Speaker 1: summoned two physicians, John Green and Thomas James, and set
Speaker 1: off to find the Penawa Yanquist. Before leaving, Williams sent
Speaker 1: a messenger to surreptitiously warn the Narraganset guide that their
Speaker 1: traveling companions might actually be fugitives. Williams hoped the messenger
Speaker 1: could catch up with them in time. Penawa Yankuis's strength
Speaker 1: rapidly faded as his rescuers carried him towards Providence. It
Speaker 1: was incredible that he had even lived this long, long
Speaker 1: enough to tell his story, but his grasp on life
Speaker 1: was slipping. Exactly when he died is unknown. None of
Speaker 1: the written records we have contained an account of his death,
Speaker 1: and Williams, for one, did not witness it. Miles away,
Speaker 1: Arthur Peach knew that his time was running out. At
Speaker 1: some point, he had learned that Penawa Yanquist had survived
Speaker 1: and identified his assailants. Desperate, Peach abandoned his pretense of
Speaker 1: going to Connecticut and told the guides that he needed
Speaker 1: to stop at a Quidneck Island in Narragansett Bay. A
Speaker 1: Quidneck had recently been settled by a group of religious
Speaker 1: exiles from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Peach hoped that
Speaker 1: these people would shelter him. He pushed his group to hurry,
Speaker 1: and they'd eventually made it to Narragansett Bay. All that
Speaker 1: was between the gang and freedom was a canoe ride.
Speaker 1: As the boats pushed off from shore, Arthur Peach must
Speaker 1: have sighed in relief when he reached a Quidnick. The
Speaker 1: settlers there welcomed him. He had made it well, not quite.
Speaker 1: Arthur Peach didn't know it, but a trap was closing
Speaker 1: in on him. Miraculously, Williams's messenger had managed to track
Speaker 1: the party down and secretly notify the Narraganset guides of
Speaker 1: the gang's true nature. The guides, knowing that they were
Speaker 1: outnumbered by the Englishmen, had maintained their composure and betrayed
Speaker 1: nothing of their knowledge. They had bided their time until
Speaker 1: they arrived at a Quidneck. Then, while the Peach Gang rested,
Speaker 1: they told the settlers there about the crime. A Quidneck
Speaker 1: Islanders didn't like the colonial authorities, but they didn't like
Speaker 1: murderers either. Working with the Narragansetts, they took the Peach
Speaker 1: Gang by surprise and arrested them. Unfortunately, the island had
Speaker 1: no place to hold the captives. Daniel Cross, member of
Speaker 1: the Beach Gang, took advantage of this. He managed to
Speaker 1: loose his bindings and slip away, stealing a canoe and
Speaker 1: heading for land. Once there, he traveled some one hundred
Speaker 1: miles north to the settlement of Piscataqua, near present day Portsmouth,
Speaker 1: New Hampshire. Piscataqua had a reputation for welcoming misfits. John Winthrop,
Speaker 1: governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, wrote contemptuously of Piscataquans,
Speaker 1: that it was their usual manner, some of them, to
Speaker 1: countenance all such lewd persons as fled from us to them.
Speaker 1: As for the other three prisoners, there would be no reprieve.
Speaker 1: After a conversation between leaders from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Providence,
Speaker 1: Aquinnock Island, and Plymouth, it was determined that Arthur Peach,
Speaker 1: Thomas Jackson, and Richard Stinnings would stand trial in Plymouth.
Speaker 1: After barely a week on the run, the Peach gang
Speaker 1: was headed right back to where they'd started. What did
Speaker 1: the law look like in Plymouth Colony? Unlike the neighboring
Speaker 1: Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony had not been granted a
Speaker 1: Royal Charter by the King of England. Charters defined the
Speaker 1: laws in a colony and gave the colonies leader authority
Speaker 1: to enforce set laws. Without a charter, it was up
Speaker 1: to Plymouth's residents to define their own government. In late
Speaker 1: sixteen twenty forty, one of the settlers signed a document
Speaker 1: declaring themselves quote a civil body politic with the power
Speaker 1: to create laws for quote the general good of the colony,
Speaker 1: unto which promise all due submission and obedience. In sixteen
Speaker 1: thirty six, two years before Penawa Yanquis's murder, Plymouth produced
Speaker 1: its first written set of laws. Enforcement of the laws
Speaker 1: would be managed in part by the colony's General Court,
Speaker 1: a part judicial and part legislative body led by the
Speaker 1: colony's elected governor. The laws in this code were shaped
Speaker 1: by the English in law, but there were some key differences. Too.
Speaker 1: Many Plymouth residents had experienced or been witnessed to grave
Speaker 1: injustices perpetrated by the English legal system. Religious dissenters were
Speaker 1: frequently punished for criticizing the Church of England and the King.
Speaker 1: Punishments could include whippings, brandings, and having one's ears chopped off.
Speaker 1: The colonists did not eliminate corporal or capital punishments from
Speaker 1: their legal code, but they greatly reduced the number of
Speaker 1: crimes that could receive such penalties, and they tried to
Speaker 1: ensure that the punishments were not arbitrarily applied, as they
Speaker 1: so often had been in England by the infamous Star Chamber.
Speaker 1: In sixteen twenty three, Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford declared
Speaker 1: that all criminal trials must be heard by quote a
Speaker 1: jury upon their oaths, so the Peach Gang would receive
Speaker 1: a jury trial. The jury selection process in sixteen thirty
Speaker 1: eight looked quite different than it does today. To begin
Speaker 1: with that very few people were eligible for jury service.
Speaker 1: Plymouth at this time had only five hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: residents from that pool. Women, children, the elderly, and of
Speaker 1: the sick were automatically excluded, so were indentured servants, who
Speaker 1: made up around a fifth of the population. Coawnee officials
Speaker 1: and religious leaders were also exempt. That didn't leave many options,
Speaker 1: so instead of summoning a random jury pool like we
Speaker 1: do now, Plymouth leaders carefully hand selected jurors for this trial.
Speaker 1: Twelve men served on the jury. Two additional men served
Speaker 1: as grand jurors, which meant in this time that they
Speaker 1: served as watchdogs over the jury and the trial to
Speaker 1: make sure no laws were broken. On September fourth, sixteen
Speaker 1: thirty eight, the trial began at the Plymouth Meetinghouse, a
Speaker 1: thick walled building made of rough planks. The meetinghouse loomed
Speaker 1: over the town from its spot atop a hill. The
Speaker 1: meeting house served many purposes. Originally built as a fort,
Speaker 1: the second floor sported six cannons, while the first floor
Speaker 1: hosted church services. On this day, the meeting house would
Speaker 1: be a courthouse. It was dark and hot in the
Speaker 1: meeting house. The only windows were thin, defensive slits for
Speaker 1: firing guns out of on the second floor. The colony's
Speaker 1: military commander, Myles Standish, had provided a disturbing decoration for
Speaker 1: the occasion. The severed head of an Indian named Wittawomet,
Speaker 1: whose standish had killed years earlier. The skull grinned down
Speaker 1: at the convicts, a grim reminder of their possible fate.
Speaker 1: Arthur Peach, Thomas Jackson, and Richard Stinnings were charged with
Speaker 1: wilful murder, one of the few crimes punishable by death
Speaker 1: under Plymouth laws. The men who had been jailed in
Speaker 1: the colonies since their capture a month earlier were malnourished
Speaker 1: and filthy. The fourth member of the gang, Daniel Cross,
Speaker 1: would not be in attendance. Pscataqua had refused Plymouth's requests
Speaker 1: to extradite the fugitive. Cross's ultimate fate is unknown. The
Speaker 1: meetinghouse was packed. English colonists and members of the Narragansett
Speaker 1: and Wampanog tribes filled the room. Those who could not
Speaker 1: squeeze in stayed outside, listening intently through the walls. Thomas Prince,
Speaker 1: the current governor of Plymouth Colony, presided over the trial.
Speaker 1: Prince was not only the judge, he was also Toby
Speaker 1: Pearl Writes quote both FactFinder and prosecutor, supervising the proceedings
Speaker 1: and interviewing witnesses and defendants alike. Four hundred years on
Speaker 1: from this trial. We can't accurately reconstruct a play by play,
Speaker 1: but we do know enough to sketch an outline. John Throckmorton,
Speaker 1: the Providence colonist who had encountered the Peat Gang in
Speaker 1: the woods, was on call to establish the gang's presence
Speaker 1: near the crime scene. The defendants unsurprisingly denied ever seeing Brockmorton.
Speaker 1: Next up was Roger Williams. Williams had been intimately involved
Speaker 1: in the story almost from its beginning and had interacted
Speaker 1: with both the Peachgang and Penawa Yanquist. He could repeat
Speaker 1: what Penawa Yanquist told him in his dying declaration that
Speaker 1: quote four English had slain him. He could describe the
Speaker 1: way the Peach Gang tried to escape, but Williams could
Speaker 1: not testify on the matter at the heart of the case.
Speaker 1: Had the Peach Gang truly killed Penawa Yanquist. No one
Speaker 1: had actually seen Penawa Yanquist die. We don't know why
Speaker 1: this is. Maybe realizing the end was near Penawa Yankuis
Speaker 1: had asked to be alone, and after his death his
Speaker 1: body had disappeared, perhaps because local indigenous people had cremated
Speaker 1: it in order to return his ashes to his family.
Speaker 1: So how could it be proved that this was really
Speaker 1: a murder. At the trial, both Roger Williams and doctor
Speaker 1: Thomas James swore an oath that Penawa Yanquist's quote wound
Speaker 1: was mortal. As a physician, Doctor James's testimony on this
Speaker 1: matter carried weight, but would it be enough? So much
Speaker 1: doubt still existed. Two men arrived in the courtroom to
Speaker 1: try to settle the matter. It had not been an
Speaker 1: easy decision for these men to testify. There was considerable
Speaker 1: danger involved. These men were two of the naraganst hunters
Speaker 1: who had discovered Penawa Yanquists and fetched help. It was
Speaker 1: only with quote much difficulty that they were procured to
Speaker 1: come to trial John winthroprote, for they still feared that
Speaker 1: the English were conspiring to kill all the Indians. But
Speaker 1: despite the dangers, the Narragansetts were here. They were willing
Speaker 1: to risk their lives to see justice done, and they
Speaker 1: told the court as much. Neither of these men had
Speaker 1: seen Penawa Yanquist die, but in court they both swore
Speaker 1: that quote, if he were not dead of that wound,
Speaker 1: then they would suffer death. With four men all taking
Speaker 1: oaths that Penawa Yankuist must be dead. The matter of
Speaker 1: whether or not this was murder was likely settled, but
Speaker 1: that didn't mean that a guilty verdict was guaranteed. There
Speaker 1: were a number of complicated factors at play for the jurors,
Speaker 1: who now began their deliberations on the second floor of
Speaker 1: the meetinghouse. As we've discussed before, no court room is
Speaker 1: a vacuum, the outside world inevitably leaks in. In this case,
Speaker 1: the jurors couldn't have helped but to be aware of
Speaker 1: the heightened pensions between colonists and indigenous tribes. Roger Williams
Speaker 1: had promised the naragainst its justice. It was only this
Speaker 1: promise that had kept the narrogainst from quote rising in arms.
Speaker 1: A guilty verdict might satisfy the tribe and stave off
Speaker 1: a war. A guilty verdict could also serve as a
Speaker 1: deterrent for other indentured servants who were considering running off.
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, news of three indented servants
Speaker 1: being executed might not exactly be great marketing material for
Speaker 1: a colony desperate to entice more indentured servants. And that
Speaker 1: wasn't the only reason to consider a not guilty verdict.
Speaker 1: Arthur Peach had valuable fighting skills that the colony afford
Speaker 1: to lose a soldier, especially as the Pequot War had
Speaker 1: not yet ended. There were also more philosophical reasons to
Speaker 1: let the Peach gang off. Many colonial leaders believed in
Speaker 1: a lenient application of the law. In the infancy of plantations,
Speaker 1: John Winthrop wrote justice should be administered with more lenity
Speaker 1: than in a settled state, because people are more apt
Speaker 1: than to transgress. Partly out of opposition, many colonists in
Speaker 1: New England had been escaping the tyranny of the English
Speaker 1: crown and courts. They might have been more inclined to
Speaker 1: give defendants the benefit of the doubt. This inclination is
Speaker 1: reflected in conviction rates during the colonial era. Toby Pearl rites,
Speaker 1: nearly half of defendants were acquitted. Of those who faced
Speaker 1: preliminary grand jury, many were not indicted. This meant that
Speaker 1: approximately two thirds of accused criminals avoided conviction. What's more,
Speaker 1: Arthur Peach was English, the man he had killed was not.
Speaker 1: William Bradford noted that quote. Some of the rude and
Speaker 1: ignorant sort murmured that an English should not be put
Speaker 1: to death for the Indians, though Roger Williams exhorted his
Speaker 1: fellow colonists to quote, boast not proud English of thy
Speaker 1: birth and blood. Thy brother Indian is by birth as good.
Speaker 1: Not everyone in Plymouth had the same beliefs. Many colonists
Speaker 1: simply valued Arthur Peach's life more than they valued Penawan Yanquish's.
Speaker 1: So what would the jury do? At the trial's start,
Speaker 1: Thomas Prince had asked them to swear an oath to
Speaker 1: quote give a true verdict according to law and evidence.
Speaker 1: But the evidence in this case was not necessarily rock solid.
Speaker 1: Everyone knew Penawa Yanquist was dead, but the absence of
Speaker 1: a body left the jurors just enough wiggle room to
Speaker 1: justify either verdict. By the day's end, the jury had
Speaker 1: reached a conclusion. Returning to the meetinghouse's first floor, they
Speaker 1: announced their verdict to the crowd on the charge of
Speaker 1: wilful murder for the death of Penawa Yanquist. The defendants
Speaker 1: Arthur Peach, Thomas Jackson, and Richard Stinnings were found guilty.
Speaker 1: With their fate sealed, the convicted men saw no point
Speaker 1: in further denying their actions. They all confessed to attacking
Speaker 1: Penawa Yanquists to quote get his wompum. The confession did
Speaker 1: nothing to change their sentence. There was only one punishment
Speaker 1: in Plymouth, for wilful murder death. They did not have
Speaker 1: to wait long for the end. The three convicts were
Speaker 1: taken by cart to the gallows. All the fight had
Speaker 1: gone out of them, or at least out of two
Speaker 1: of them, who, according to John Winthrop quote, died very penitently.
Speaker 1: We don't know if it was Stinnings or Jackson who
Speaker 1: refused to repent, but Arthur Peach at least expressed remorse.
Speaker 1: John Winthrop called him quote especially penitent, and subsequently gave Peach,
Speaker 1: despite his crimes, a fine obituary, describing him as quote
Speaker 1: a young man of good parentage and fair conditioned, and
Speaker 1: who had done very good service against the Peaquots. A
Speaker 1: reputation for good service and for murder wouldn't be Arthur
Speaker 1: Peach's only legacy in Plymouth Colony. Sitting in the shadows
Speaker 1: at his trial and perhaps in attendance at his execution,
Speaker 1: was Dorothy Temple, Peach's twenty three year old lover. She
Speaker 1: was pregnant with Arthur Peach's child. Her employer, Stephen Hopkins,
Speaker 1: the town libertine, who made money from gambling and liquor sales,
Speaker 1: apparently drew a line at pregnancy. Out of wedlock, Temple
Speaker 1: gave birth to a son in early February sixteen thirty nine.
Speaker 1: Hopkins tried to kick her out of his house, but
Speaker 1: the Plymouth General Court ruled that he was required to
Speaker 1: support Temple. Shortly after, John Holmes, a member of the
Speaker 1: jury at Arthur Beach's trial, bought Temple's in denture contract
Speaker 1: from Hopkins. Temple moved in with the Holmes family. In June,
Speaker 1: only four months after giving birth, she was sentenced to
Speaker 1: be whited twice four quote uncleanness and bringing forth a
Speaker 1: male bastard. She fainted during the first whipping, so the court,
Speaker 1: in its mercy, let her off without the second one.
Speaker 1: What became of Dorothy Temple and her son are unknown.
Speaker 1: What of penawon Yanquis's family, We don't know exactly who
Speaker 1: they were, but we can imagine how deeply his loss
Speaker 1: must have affected them. Besides the emotional devastation, penawa Yanquis's
Speaker 1: role as a trader made him valuable to his tribe.
Speaker 1: Financial restitution for crime was common in Plymouth, and at
Speaker 1: the close of the trial, Governor Prince had ordered that
Speaker 1: the Peach gang provide payment to the Nitmuk, but the
Speaker 1: men had declared that they had quote no lands or
Speaker 1: tenement goods or cattle's Penawa Yankuis's family would receive no
Speaker 1: compensation for their loss. At least the killers had been
Speaker 1: caught and convicted. We can hope that this gave some
Speaker 1: sort of peace to the Nitmuk. At the very least,
Speaker 1: the guilty verdict did help reduce tensions between the colonists
Speaker 1: and the tribes. No new conflicts arose, and old ones
Speaker 1: were settled. On September twenty first, sixteen thirty eight, a
Speaker 1: little more than two weeks after the trial, representatives of
Speaker 1: the English, the Narragansett, and the Mohegan signed the Treaty
Speaker 1: of Hartford, ending the Pequot War. The Pequots themselves had
Speaker 1: been nearly entirely wiped out. The treaties stripped the approximately
Speaker 1: two hundred survivors of their lands and identities. That this
Speaker 1: trial happened at all is remarkable. A colony with no
Speaker 1: officially sanctioned government managed to conduct a jury trial in
Speaker 1: a fort. As Toby Pearl writes, quote when juries made
Speaker 1: law in the colonies. They wrested control from centralized authorities
Speaker 1: and empowered local communities, a foundational principle for the fledgling nation.
Speaker 1: Average individuals, otherwise disenfranchised became surrogate lawmakers. They became world changers. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: these world changers would not always use their powers for good.
Speaker 1: But the sixteen fifties, writes Jennifer Altman in her study
Speaker 1: Native Americans in criminal cases of Plymouth Colony, quote, impatience
Speaker 1: with Native Americans resistance to adopting English custom and religion
Speaker 1: caused the court to show more leniency towards its own
Speaker 1: people and less toward Native Americans. This trend only intensified
Speaker 1: in the sixteen sixties as Plymouth colonies demands for land skyrocketed,
Speaker 1: leading to increased resistance from its native neighbors. The focus
Speaker 1: of the court, Altman says, became quote not restitution but
Speaker 1: retribution for crimes that white settlers were usually fined for.
Speaker 1: Indians were whipped. By the sixteen seventies, the Plymouth Court
Speaker 1: was selling Indians convicted of crimes into slavery in the Caribbean.
Speaker 1: The same legal system that had once convicted the killers
Speaker 1: of a Native man was now being used to tear
Speaker 1: Indigenous people from their lands and families. In both its
Speaker 1: victories and its failings, the Plymouth Colony legal system mirrors
Speaker 1: our own legal system. The outcomes are often inequitable and
Speaker 1: the process is often unfair, But in some cases we
Speaker 1: can transcend our biases, and, as Roger Williams once promised,
Speaker 1: see justice done. That's the story of Plymouth Colony VI.
Speaker 1: The Peach Gang. Stay with me after the break to
Speaker 1: learn more about the remarkable history of the Nitmucks. Today,
Speaker 1: many people in the town of Grafton, Massachusetts, commute to
Speaker 1: work in Worcester or Boston. Before Grafton was a commuter suburb,
Speaker 1: it was a mill town, and before it was a
Speaker 1: mill town, it was a hub for leather manufacturing. Before
Speaker 1: all of this, though, Grafton was hassen amiss It the
Speaker 1: place of small Stones, home to the Hassenamisco band of Nitmucks.
Speaker 1: The Nitmuks who lived on this land planted corn and
Speaker 1: beans and squash, caught fish from the rivers, and hunted
Speaker 1: deer and rabbits. In sixteen fifty four, John Elliot, an
Speaker 1: English missionary, established a praying town at Hassenamissit, occupying eight
Speaker 1: thousand acres. Elliott had developed the Praying town model as
Speaker 1: a method of converting Indians to Christianity. Indigenous people living
Speaker 1: in these villages had to conform to English go customs
Speaker 1: and Christian dictates in exchange. Those who moved to these
Speaker 1: towns hoped to receive protection from rival tribes or establish
Speaker 1: better relationships with the English. But, writes Cheryl Tony Holley,
Speaker 1: the current Sansqua, or female leader of the Hassenamisco quote,
Speaker 1: while Hassenamissit was a safe harbor for nitmucks, it also
Speaker 1: meant publicly relinquishing nitmuck lifeways to stay, and a further
Speaker 1: blow to nitmuck society was looming. During King Philip's War
Speaker 1: in the late sixteen seventies, the nitmucks at Hassenamissit who
Speaker 1: had not moved into the Praying Town were driven off
Speaker 1: their land. After the war, the Praying Town itself was dissolved.
Speaker 1: Over the next six decades, some nitmuck families returned to
Speaker 1: the area, but in seventeen twenty eight, the colonial government
Speaker 1: decided to transfer most of the eight thousand acres used
Speaker 1: by the Praying town to English settlers. Twelve hundred of
Speaker 1: the acres were set aside for only seven Nitmuck families.
Speaker 1: Many Nitmuck families were not allocated anything. The Hassenamisco. Nitmuck
Speaker 1: were supposed to receive payment for this land, as the
Speaker 1: National Park Service records quote, a system was set up
Speaker 1: whereby non native trustees or guardians were responsible for investing
Speaker 1: the proceeds from the land transfer and protecting the remaining
Speaker 1: native lands from encroachment by English settlers. However, the system
Speaker 1: failed to protect either the principle from the sale or
Speaker 1: the lands of the Nipmuck families. Sheryl Tony hollywrites, quote.
Speaker 1: The twenty five hundred pounds paid by forty English proprietors
Speaker 1: was placed in trust by the guardians or trustees of
Speaker 1: the Hassanamisco. The Hassenamisco were to be paid the interest
Speaker 1: on the fund annually, but according to multiple petitions to
Speaker 1: the legislature, this only sometimes happened. Trustees also took it
Speaker 1: upon themselves to decrease the principle of the fund from
Speaker 1: time to time to pay their own debts. These stolen
Speaker 1: funds are still owed to the tribe today. The next
Speaker 1: century and a half, the remaining Hassenamiscow Nitmunks sold their
Speaker 1: land or lost it through rig deals with settlers. By
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty seven, all the land was gone, all the land,
Speaker 1: that is, except for three acres belonging to a Nitmuck
Speaker 1: woman named Sarah Arnold Cisco. Today, nearly four hundred years
Speaker 1: after Penawa Yankuis's death, the land still belongs to the Nitmuck.
Speaker 1: It is called the Hassenamisco Reservation, and it is the
Speaker 1: only plot of land in all of Massachusetts that has
Speaker 1: never left the hands of Native people. Thank you for
Speaker 1: listening to History on Trial. If you've enjoyed this episode,
Speaker 1: please consider leaving a rating or review. They can help
Speaker 1: new listeners find the show. My main sources for today's
Speaker 1: episode were Toby Pearl's book Terror to the Wicked, America's
Speaker 1: first trial by jury that ended a war and helped
Speaker 1: to form a nation, as well as the Plymouth Colonial
Speaker 1: Archive and various primary sources, including the writings of Roger Williams,
Speaker 1: William Bradford, and John Winprepp. Special thanks to Chief Peter
Speaker 1: Silva of the Hassinamisco Nitmuk tribe for his assistance. For
Speaker 1: a full bibliography, as well as a transcript of this
Speaker 1: episode with citations, please visit our website History on Trial
Speaker 1: podcast dot com. History on Trial is written and hosted
Speaker 1: by me Mira Hayward. The show is edited and produced
Speaker 1: by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer Trevor Young and executive
Speaker 1: producers Dana Schwartz, Alexander Williams, Matt Frederick, and Mira Hayward.
Speaker 1: Learn more about the show at History on Trial podcast
Speaker 1: dot com and follow us on Instagram at History on
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