Indian Nullification of the Unconstitutional Laws of Massachusetts Relative to the Marshpee Tribe - Or, the Pretended Riot Explained by William Apes
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page 23 of 185 (12%)
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vessel, bound for Boston, while I and my blind brother returned
thither by land. We all arrived safely, and soon after embarked for Barnstable, where we arrived on the eighteenth of June, and landed at a spot about twelve miles distant from the hospitable Indians. Here we found ourselves breathing a new atmosphere. The people were very little prepossessed in our favor, and we certainly owe them small thanks on the score of hospitality. We succeeded in obtaining the shelter of an old stable for two nights, by paying two dollars. We applied to one individual for accommodations during that time, for one of our party who was sick, but were refused. He said he had no room. If any white man should come to Marshpee and ask hospitality for a night or two, I do not believe that one of the whole tribe would turn him from his door, savages though they be. Does not he better deserve the name who took from us two dollars for sleeping in his stable? This usage made me think that in this part of New England prejudice was strong against the poor children of the woods, and that any aid we might receive must come from the more hospitable Indians, among whom we arrived on the twenty-first, and rested till the twenty-fifth. We regarded ourselves, in some sort, as a tribe of Israelites suffering under the rod of despotic Pharaohs; for thus far, our cries and remonstrances had been of no avail. We were compelled to make our bricks without straw. We now, in our synagogue, for the first time, concerted the form of a government, suited to the spirit and capacity of free born sons of the forest; after the pattern set us by our white brethren. There was but one exception, viz. that _all_ who dwelt in our precincts were to be held free and equal, _in truth_, as well as in letter. Several officers, twelve in all, were elected to give effect to this novelty of a government; the chief of whom were Daniel Amos, President, and |
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