Living on a narrow strip of land along the Pacific coast that runs from present-day southern Alaska to northern California, the Natives of the Northwest Coast developed one of the most materially rich cultures in North America, in part because they lived in a land of abundance. The climate of the Northwest Coast is mild, yet high in precipitation. The heavy rainfall—sometimes up to 100 inches per year—and the constant mist from the ocean created dense, verdant coniferous forests. Added to this are waters that melt off the mountain snow packs and feed the region’s numerous nvers.
Northwest Coast peoples developed a materially rich culture by exploiting the naturally abundant EOOD resources of their environment. Fish, particularly salmon, constituted the staple food of their diet. Whaling, game animals, and edibles from wild plants supplemented this. Other than the cultivation of small amounts of TOBACCO for ceremonial purposes, these peoples did not engage in agriculture. They generally lived in villages composed of extended kinship groups. They usually divided their year into two parts. They spent winters in villages constructed of roomy plank houses, where they occupied themselves with ceremonial and trade activities. During the summer, however, they lived at EISHING camps, catching and preserving their catch.
Northwest Indians evolved a highly complex society that stressed first accumulating, then giving away material goods. This usually took the form of the potlatch, in which a wealthy man would provide a feast for his neighbors and kin during which he would disperse clothing, food, blankets, and other goods. By providing generously for others in the community, the individual acquired increased status. Trade was important, with copper plates, blankets, wood and horn utensils, and dugout canoes being exchanged. The Chinook, located on the Columbia River, served as intermediaries for much of the trade in the Northwest.
Compared with Indians on the East Coast, Northwest Natives encountered Europeans far later and had fewer interactions. While Europeans conducted sporadic explorations of the northern Pacific coast in the 16th and 17th centuries, they did not interact with the Native peoples. In the northern part of the region, the Tlingit had their first contacts with Russian fur traders in the 1740s. Farther south, the Spanish ship Santiago traded with Hadia in 1774. In 1778 Captain James Cook traded furs with the Nookta during his circumnavigation of the globe. When word spread of the rich furs available in the area, American, English, and Russian fur trading companies began competing in the region in the 1790s and continued to do so throughout the first half of the 19th century.
—Roger Carpenter
Nurse, Rebecca (1621-1692) Salem witch hunt victim
On March 13, 1692, Ann Putnam claimed to have been visited by the apparition of Rebecca Nurse, an elderly woman living in Salem Village, MASSACHUSETTS. Soon, other accusers stepped forward and described spectral visitations during which Rebecca physically attacked them and attempted to recruit the victims to join in league with the devil. Ten days after the first complaints, Nurse was arrested and faced trial in the notorious Salem witchcraft trials. Born in England in 1621, Nurse moved to New England in 1640 and married Francis Nurse in 1645. By the time she faced trial in June 1692, Nurse was one of the most unlikely suspects of the witch hunt. At 71 years old, a mother of eight, and with a reputation for piety, Nurse seemed to be unassailable. Indeed, after a public trial the jury initially returned with a verdict of not guilty, despite the testimony of expert witnesses who claimed to have examined Nurse’s body and discovered physical evidence of bewitchment. After her alleged victims loudly protested and the judge asked the jury to reconsider their decision, Nurse was convicted and sentenced to death. On
July 19 Nurse stood with four other convicted women at the town gallows. While Sarah Good loudly denounced the men and women responsible for the trials, Nurse reportedly went to her death quietly, a silent rebuke to the community that had once embraced her as a role model only to turn against her in the fear and confusion of the witch hunt craze. Nurse’s hanging provoked an outcry in Salem, causing many residents to question the legitimacy of the process. After 19 executions, including that of Nurse’s sister Mary Esty, the trials came to an end in October 1692. In 1711 the government compensated the Nurse family for what it finally acknowledged was a wrongful death.
Further reading: Carol F. Karlsen, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England (New York: Norton, 1987).
—Melanie Perreault
Oglethorpe, James Edward (1696-1785) colonial governor of Georgia
James Oglethorpe was a central figure behind the founding of Georgia in 1733. Born on December 22, 1696, the youngest of seven children of a former Jacobite family, Oglethorpe had a privileged upbringing, being educated at Eton and Oxford. At age 21 Oglethorpe gained military experience in the army of Prince Eugene of Savoy before becoming a Tory member of Parliament for Haselmere in Surrey in 1722. Gradually, Oglethorpe became concerned with the social and moral reform of the nation. As chairman of the Parliamentary Gaols Committee, Oglethorpe had observed the plight of the poor firsthand, and he agreed with those who believed that a new American colony in the disputed borderlands south of South Carolina would provide an excellent opportunity for the “worthy poor.” Subsequently, Oglethorpe became one of the founder trustees for the new colony of Georgia and personally accompanied the first shipload of settlers to the colony.
Once in Georgia, Oglethorpe assumed the position of benevolent paternalist, resolving disputes and dispensing justice and supplies, although he lacked any official jurisdiction. While he officially reported to the trustees, Oglethorpe, in effect, ruled Georgia. On several occasions he ignored or overrode his colleagues to suit his personal whim or when circumstances demanded. For example, a shipload of 40 Jews who arrived in Georgia in 1733 should have been sent back across the Atlantic, per the instructions of the other trustees. However, Oglethorpe believed these settlers could be a valuable addition to the colony, especially Jacob Nunez, a doctor, the only one in Georgia. Ultimately, Oglethorpe’s view prevailed, and Savannah eventually became home to one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in British America.
During his three visits to Georgia, Oglethorpe made essential alliances with local Native Americans that ensured the survival of the infant colony, and he was intimately involved in designing Georgia’s first settlements, including Savannah, Augusta, Federica, Ebenezer, and Darien. He was also at the forefront of the defense of the “Georgia plan,” especially the prohibition of slavery, from the attacks of so-called malcontents. He not only wrote repeated letters to his fellow trustees urging
A statue of James Oglethorpe, founder of the Georgia colony (Library of Congress)
Them to stand firm, he also persuaded certain groups of settlers such as the Scottish Highlanders in Darien and the Salzburgers in Ebenezer to support him. While his defense of the ban was ultimately in vain, Oglethorpe formulated some of the first antislavery sentiments heard in the American colonies.
In addition to his other roles, Oglethorpe took personal charge of Georgia’s defense against the Spanish in Florida and the French in the Mississippi Valley. On his final visit to Georgia between 1738 and 1743, Oglethorpe was almost entirely concerned with military matters—partly because his fellow trustees had appointed William Stephens to run the civil government of the colony. Oglethorpe supervised the construction of a network of defensive FORTS and staffed them with the Georgia regiment, the first garrison permanently stationed in America. He led the regiment, together with local militias, in a failed attempt to capture St. Augustine in Florida in 1740, but he successfully defeated a Spanish invasion in the Battle of Bloody Marsh in 1742.
After his final return from Georgia in 1743, Oglethorpe gradually lost interest in the colony. In 1745 he was detailed to repel the invasion of England from Scotland, but his half-hearted pursuit of the rebels, together with his family’s own sympathies with the rebels, earned Oglethorpe a court-martial, although ultimately he was acquitted.
Oglethorpe’s last 35 years were not as star-studded as his first 50. He lost his parliamentary seat in 1752, and although he returned to military service incognito for the king of Prussia for a short time, Oglethorpe eventually became a renowned London literary figure and a friend of Samuel Johnson and James Boswell. He died in July 1785 at the venerable age of 88.
Further reading: Phinizy Spalding and Harvey H. Jackson, eds., Oglethorpe in Perspective: Georgia's Founder after Two Hundred Years (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1989).
—Timothy James Lockley
World History
