Epenow (also spelled Epanow) was a Nauset man from Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts who was kidnapped by sailors from an English merchant ship and taken to England in the 17th century. Being put on public display in London, Epenow eventually returned to New England by tricking his captors into thinking that he knew the location of a gold mine. Once he was back in New England, Epenow led Indian resistance to Pilgrim settlement of the region.
By 1610, Native Americans on display in Europe was such a common event that Shakespeare made a joke of it in The Tempest . [lower-alpha 1] The following year Shakespeare's friend, Henry Wriothesley, who had already cosponsored George Weymouth's expedition in 1605, underwrote another one under Captain Edward Harlow, although it was ostensibly to discover an island around Cape Cod.
Harlow abducted three Native American men from Monhegan Island, Maine: Pechmo, Monopet, and Pekenimne. Pechmo, leapt overboard and escaped. He brought back friends who set up a hail of arrows while they cut away a boat from the stern of the vessel. Three sailors onboard Harlow's ship were wounded by arrows. When they anchored at the Ile of Nohono (Nantucket), Harlow kidnapped Sakaweston (who was to live for many years in European and eventually fought in the Thirty Years' War.) Natives in canoes again attacked Harlow's ship until they were driven off with guns. Hawlow then ordered his crew to proceed to Capawe (Capawack or Martha's Vineyard) where they abducted two more Native Americans, including the sachem Epenow. [1] Altogether, there were said to be twenty-nine Native Americans aboard Harlow's ship when it arrived in England. [2]
The captives had been brought to London by Harlow to sell as slaves in Spain, however Harlow found that the Spanish considered Native American slaves to be "unapt for their uses." So instead, Epenow became a "wonder", a spectacle on constant public display in London. Sir Ferdinando Gorges wrote that when he met him, Epenow "had learned so much English as to bid those that wondered him 'Welcome! Welcome!'" [3]
Epenow's display in London is said to be the inspiration for the "strange Indian" mentioned by Shakespeare in Henry VIII: [4] [5]
"What should you do, but knock 'em down by the dozens? Is this Moorfields to muster in? or have we some strange Indian with the great tool come to court, the women so besiege us? Bless me, what a fry of fornication is at door! On my Christian conscience, this one christening will beget a thousand; here will be father, godfather, and all together."
Gorges wrote that he obtained Epenow from Captain Henry Harley, [lower-alpha 2] although he denied knowing how Harley got him, except that Gorges was told that "he had been shewed in London for a wonder." [7] Gorges described Epenow as both "of a goodly stature, strong and well proportioned" as well as "a goodly man, of a brave aspect, stout, sober in his demeanor." [8]
Acquired by Gorges, Epenow was housed with another Native American captive, Assacumet, who had been abducted by Captain George Weymouth in 1605 in Maine, and with whom he could communicate with some initial difficulty. With Assacumet's help, Epenow eventually became quite fluent in English. [9]
Gorges seems to have thought that his failure to obtain the loyalty of the Natives kidnapped by Weymouth was owing to not having kept them in his custody long enough. Epenow he kept for three years.
Hatching an escape plot, Epenow convinced his captors of the existence a gold mine on Martha’s Vineyard. In 1614, Gorges consulted with Wriothesley, and made up his mind to send Epenow back with Captain Hobson, who had been with Harlow in 1611 when Epenow was kidnapped. Believing Epenow's fabrication, Gorges commissioned a voyage to Martha's Vineyard in 1614 under Captain Nicholas Hobson, accompanied by Epenow as a guide, translator, and pilot. He persuaded Hobson to stake £100 of his own money on the adventure. Gorges also sent two additional Natives he had in captivity, Assacomet (from Weymouth's expedition) and Wanape, who was from southern New England (and sent to Gorges via the Isle of Wight).
Wanape died soon after arriving in the New World. Upon arriving to Epenow's native island, the ship was peacefully greeted by a company of Wampanoags, including some of Epenow's brothers and cousins. The principal inhabitants (including relatives of Epenow) came on board. Captain Hobson entertained the visitors to his ship, and invited them to return the next morning with trade goods. They promised to come again in the morning to trade. Not trusting Epenow, Hobson made sure he was accompanied at all times by three guards, and clothed him with long garments that could be easily grabbed. [10] But Epenow had secretly let them know that he was held captive, and the next morning they came with twenty canoes.
The captain, his invitations ignored, called for Epenow to come out from the forecastle to translate. Epenow called out in English for his friends to come aboard, but then lunged to jump overboard. Hobson's men managed to grab him, but Epenow, being "a strong and heavy man", managed to dive overboard under cover of arrows being shot from the canoes. Both parties sustained heavy casualties; Hobson's crew killed and wounded many Indians, though they themselves suffered numerous casualties in the confrontation (Epenow escaped under a hail of arrows which wounded Hobson and some of the crew). They returned to England empty handed. [11] [12] Gorges ends the tale by lamenting the incompetence of Hobson's men. [13]
When the Pilgrims arrived to New England six years later, Epenow emerged as a leader of Indian resistance to Pilgrim colonial settlement, [14] and there is evidence that he became a sachem. [15] [16]
Epenow met with visiting Captain Thomas Dermer in 1619 in a peaceful meeting on Martha's Vineyard, and laughed as he told the story of his escape from captivity. But on Dermer's second visit in 1620, shortly before the arrival of the Mayflower , Epenow's warriors attacked the captain and his men, and took captive his traveling companion, the celebrated Squanto, before turning him over to Massasoit (the leading Wampanoag sachem). Some of Epenow's company were slain, but all but one of Dermer's crew were killed, and Dermer, severely wounded with fourteen wounds, escaped to Virginia where he died soon afterward. [17] [18] [19] [20]
Native Canadian actor Eric Schweig portrayed Epenow in Disney's 1994 live action adventure drama film Squanto: A Warrior's Tale . [21]
Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, lying just south of Cape Cod. It is known for being a popular, affluent summer colony, and includes the smaller peninsula Chappaquiddick Island. It is the 58th largest island in the U.S., with a land area of about 96 square miles (250 km2), and the third-largest on the East Coast, after Long Island and Mount Desert Island. Martha's Vineyard constitutes the bulk of Dukes County, Massachusetts, which also includes the Elizabeth Islands and the island of Nomans Land.
Edgartown is a town on the island of Martha's Vineyard in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States, for which it is the county seat. The town's population was 5,168 at the 2020 census.
Tisquantum, more commonly known as Squanto, was a member of the Wampanoag Patuxet tribe best known for being an early liaison between the Native American population in Southern New England and the Mayflower Pilgrims who made their settlement at the site of Tisquantum's former summer village, now Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Patuxet tribe had lived on the western coast of Cape Cod Bay, but an epidemic infection wiped them out, likely brought by previous European explorers.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges was a naval and military commander and governor of the important port of Plymouth in England. He was involved in Essex's Rebellion against the Queen, but escaped punishment by testifying against the main conspirators. His early involvement in English trade with and settlement of North America as well as his efforts in founding the Province of Maine in 1622 earned him the title of the "Father of English Colonization in North America," even though Gorges himself never set foot in the New World.
The Wampanoag, also rendered Wôpanâak, are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands currently based in southeastern Massachusetts and formerly parts of eastern Rhode Island. Their historical territory includes the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
Captain John Mason (1586–1635) was an English sailor and colonist who was instrumental to the establishment of various settlements in colonial America and is considered to be the 'Founder of New Hampshire'.
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Thomas Dermer was a 17th-century navigator and explorer. Thomas Dermer explored the eastern coastline of America from 1614 to 1620. He was associated with Captain John Smith, The Newfoundland Company, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Jamestown, The Plymouth Company, and The Merchant Adventurers. Dermer, working side by side with Squanto, is credited with starting to normalize the relations between the Native Americans and Europeans. He was known to the Pilgrims from copies of his letters, that they had obtained. The Pilgrim colony directly benefited from the diplomatic ground work of Dermer and Squanto.
George Weymouth (Waymouth) was an English explorer and colonist of the area now occupied by the state of Maine. George Weymouth was a native of Cockington, Devon, who spent his youth studying shipbuilding and mathematics. His travels are among the early recorded contacts between Wabanaki nations and people of Northern Europe.
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Wessagusset Colony was a short-lived English trading colony in New England located in Weymouth, Massachusetts. It was settled in August 1622 by between 50 and 60 colonists who were ill-prepared for colonial life. The colony was settled without adequate provisions, and was dissolved in late March 1623 after harming relations with local Indians. Surviving colonists joined Plymouth Colony or returned to England. It was the second settlement in Massachusetts, predating the Massachusetts Bay Colony by six years.
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Helen Jernegan was an American woman and wife of a whaler. She began her career as a teacher in 1859 and then married a whaling captain. As he missed his wife, he sent for her to join him and she met him in Honolulu, Kingdom of Hawai'i. The two sailed back to New Bedford aboard the Oriole arriving in 1866. Two years later, she went aboard ship with her husband and children, and lived in Honolulu and aboard his ship the Roman until 1871. She sailed twice around Cape Horn and was possibly the first white woman on Tahuata in the Marquesas Islands. After a mutiny on their second voyage, she returned to live on Martha's Vineyard. One of the accounts was written by her young daughter, Laura Jernegan Spear.