#99 Fathoms of Wampum: Trade in New England and New Netherland in the 1620s-30s
The History of the Americans
Jack Henneman
4.9 • 632 Ratings
🗓️ 21 December 2022
⏱️ 32 minutes
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Summary
This episode is about the trading between the Dutch of New Netherland, the English first of Plymouth and then of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the Algonquian and Iroquoian tribes in the region during the 1620s and 1630s. These relationships were important, both to the profitability of settlement for the Dutch and the English, and because they so destabilized the balance of power among the tribes and the Europeans that they would eventually lead to the very ugly Pequot War of 1636-38. The indigenous ceremonial currency, wampum, sat at the center of this trade, and we take a first look at its monetization by the Dutch and then the English.
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Selected references for this episode
Mark Meuwese, “The Dutch Connection: New Netherland, the Pequots, and the Puritans in Southern New England, 1620—1638,” Early American Studies, Spring 2011.
Paul Otto, “Henry Hudson, the Munsees, and the Wampum Revolution,” published in The Worlds of the Seventeenth-Century Hudson Valley, ed. Jaap Jacobs and Lou Roper. Albany: SUNY Press, 2014
D. I. Bushnell, Jr., “The Origin of Wampum,” The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Jan – Jun 1906.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the History of the Americans podcast episode 99. |
| 0:10.6 | Like red balloons, only different. |
| 0:14.4 | I'm your host, Jack Henneman, and I'm recording this episode on December 20th, 2022, in Austin, Texas. |
| 0:21.5 | We are telling the history of the lands now encompassed by the United States from the |
| 0:26.2 | beginning without presentism. |
| 0:29.4 | Well, it's been a very busy couple of weeks, almost none of which has to do with this podcast, |
| 0:34.5 | unfortunately. |
| 0:36.6 | There's been lots of the struggle for the legal |
| 0:39.4 | tender and attendant travel, plus a fairly hideous, although short-lived bout of norovirus. |
| 0:46.7 | I'll spare you the particulars, which you can easily look up on the CDC website. |
| 0:52.7 | The result was an unplanned week off on the podcast. |
| 0:56.6 | Fortunately, I have a nice run of time in the next few weeks and expect to keep the |
| 1:01.1 | content flowing, including perhaps our first interview episode. |
| 1:05.8 | I found a great guest, a fellow history podcaster, and I believe I've also figured |
| 1:09.8 | out how to record two tracks at the same time. |
| 1:13.4 | We shall see if our conversation's any good. It probably won't be because nothing's very good the first time one tries it, but everybody has to start somewhere. |
| 1:23.5 | Of course, the next episode will also be Episode 100, which presumably calls for some sort of |
| 1:29.4 | celebration. Keep your expectations low, but it may be the first interview episode, at least. |
| 1:36.7 | This episode is about the trading between the Dutch of New Netherland, the English first of |
| 1:42.2 | Plymouth and then of Massachusetts Bay Colony, |
| 1:45.5 | and the Algonquin and Iroquoian tribes in the region during the 1620s and 1630s. |
| 1:52.1 | These relationships were important, both to the profitability of settlement for the Dutch and the English, |
... |
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