Congratulations to Benjamin Shallop on his book
The Founding of Salem: City of Peace (2022) about the founding of his home city and
East Budleigh-born Roger Conant’s part in it. Below is a series of questions and
answers with dates, put together as an online interview that I conducted with
the author.
13 February
2023
Q: No book has
been written about Roger since 1945. Why do you think that is?
I think there are several reasons
for that. First and foremost he is not an easy guy to research! It took me nearly
ten years to piece together what little I could of his story in my book, and
that is because sadly not much has survived and what has survived is not very
accessible.
The people who recorded much of the history of the
1620s in New England were mostly religious leaders with their own agendas, and
often were more interested in making themselves look good to people back in
England rather than acknowledging the actual work of people who they regarded
as ‘Strangers’ (a label created by the Pilgrims at Plymouth to describe anyone
who was not a separatist from the Church of England) such as Roger Conant.
The statue of William Bradford (c.1590-1657)
in Plymouth, Massachusetts Image credit: Wikipedia
Case in point is the First Governor of the Plymouth
Colony William Bradford. Bradford wrote a history of the Plymouth Colony in
1651 (called ‘Of Plymouth Plantation’) that has become the primary source for
much of America's understanding of the early settlement of New England, and in
that history Bradford very intentionally left Roger Conant's name out of it. He
only refers to Roger Conant derisively as ‘a Salter’ and makes several
disparaging and dismissive remarks about how some nameless salter knew nothing
of salt. Given the timeframe, that Salter could only be Roger Conant who was a
member of the Salters’ Company of London and was more working class than the
Pilgrim leadership.
‘Pilgrims Going to Church’, an 1867
portrait by the Anglo-American artist George Henry Boughton (1833-1905).
Image credit: Wikipedia
Part of the animosity that Bradford had towards
Conant seems to have stemmed from Conant's support of a minister of the Church
of England who performed the sacraments at Plymouth for ‘Strangers’, but I also
think part of that animosity also stemmed from simple classism. Roger Conant
was a worker and he was a leader of people who did the work that supported the
early New England Colonies financially, not one of the educated religious
radicals that we remember today as ‘The Pilgrims’. Working people like Roger Conant of that era
were all too often left out of the history books by the elites like Governor
Bradford. I honestly think that the fact that ANYTHING survived of Roger
Conant's efforts in New England is the greatest testament to how remarkable of
a man he was.
The other reason I think not much
is written about him is that he was not the normal sort of hero that people
write about. Roger Conant never fought any wars, made any lasting speeches, or
ever owned very much of anything. Roger's legacy is using the art of Compromise
to settle disputes (which he excelled at), of stopping unnecessary conflict
before it began, and of laying the foundations of our government in New England
(New England Town Meetings, checks on the power of the governor, even the right
to vote all owe a debt to Roger Conant). Roger Conant was always the one who
did the real grunt work of building a community, and he was essential to the
success of early New England, but he never was considered a ‘Great Man’ by the
political and religious leadership of his time (despite being a leader
himself.)
21 February 2023
Q: What do we know of Roger Conant’s relationship
with Native Americans?
The Indian village of Secoton; bird's-eye
view of village with huts, lake or river, fire, fields and ceremony. Watercolour
by the Elizabethan artist John White (c.1539-c.1593) © The Trustees of the British Museum
Roger Conant developed a very
close relationship with the Massachusett People at Naumkeag (the Algonquin name
for what would become Salem) and the woman who led them.
Sadly, that woman’s name has been lost to history.
She is only recorded as ‘Squaw Sachem’. ‘Squaw’ is a derogatory term for native
women that is either derived from a French corruption of an Iroquoian word for
women’s genitalia, or a French corruption of an Algonquin word for ‘women’s work’.
Either way, it was a term that by the
17th century was being used broadly by the English and the French to refer to native
women, and was not really a term native women would have used for themselves. ‘Sachem’
is Algonquin for chief.
It’s unfortunate that her name has been lost. She
was undoubtedly a remarkable woman who led her people through an incredibly
difficult time, and we should at least know her name.
When Roger Conant moved the settlement from Cape
Ann to Naumkeag, he worked very closely with the Massachusett People there.
They even shared fields together in common, and sheltered together when the
Massachusett feared raids from a people they called the Tarrantines (Algonquin
for ‘Eastern Men’ and likely referred to the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia).
In 1614 John Smith visited Naumkeag and estimated
that the population of Massachusett people there was around 4,000. By 1626,
when Conant arrived, there were only a few dozen survivors left. A plague had
killed more than 90% of them, some time between 1614-1620, and then raids from
the Tarrantines killed more (including the husband of the woman Sachem whom I
mentioned earlier), and then they got embroiled in a brief war with the
Plymouth Colony.
Given all of those hardships, it is likely that
the Massachusett at Naumkeag were looking for new allies in the area. They
definitely welcomed Roger Conant and his party with open arms.
Monument to Miles Standish (c.1584-1656),
Pilgrim and founder of Duxbury, Massachusetts. Image credit: Wikipedia
It’s also my belief that at least part of the
reason the Massachusett were so welcoming of Conant was that they must have
witnessed him standing up to Miles Standish and his armed musketeers at Cape
Ann a year earlier. Miles Standish was the military commander of the Plymouth
Colony (and by all accounts a bit of a brash bully) and had fought with the
Massachusett before at what is now Weymouth, Massachusetts, and possibly
Ipswich, Massachusetts. Seeing Roger stand up to him, and seeing Miles back
down rather than picking a fight must have greatly impressed the Massachusett.
I should also mention for clarification that Algonquin
is the language spoken by the First Nation’s Peoples of New England. Iroquoian
is the language spoken by the Huadenosuanee and Huran peoples of the Saint
Lawrence valley and Great Lakes
The Massachusett were a nation whose territory
roughly extended from just north of Salem to just south of Boston. They fished
and farmed on the coastal areas in the summer, and then moved inland in the
winter to avoid the awful coastal storms that often hit this region during that
time. That nation is gone today, but some descendants are now members of other
First Nations that survive today.
Naumkeag is Algonquin for ‘Good Fishing Place’. Roger Conant always preferred that name to
Salem as he thought it more descriptive and respectful of the Massachusett
people than renaming it Salem. We still have excellent seafood here today!
10 March 2023:
Q: You work indirectly with the film industry.
Would the subject of Roger Conant make a good film? Which plot elements would
you include? For example the unproven meeting between Roger Conant and Sir
Walter Raleigh – who may have been on a return visit to East Budleigh – with
artistic licence, would make for an interesting moment.
I do work in film, but I’m a
Union Rep for SAG-AFTRA and not really involved in the creative process beyond
the contracts of actors and the financial aspects of filming in New England.
That said, I do have my opinions like any other history fanatic….though my
favorite movies nearly always flop.
‘Blessed are the Peacemakers’ by Budleigh artist
John Washington. The painting, which depicts the 1625 confrontation between
Roger Conant and Myles Standish, is on display in All Saints Church, East
Budleigh © John Washington
I think it would be hard to contain the story of
Roger Conant in a movie, but I think a good series might work well. I think the
most captivating part to his story is the stand off with Miles Standish at Cape
Ann.
To really understand the friction between Roger Conant and the Plymouth
Colony, you would have to go all the way back to the expulsion of Rev Lyford
and John Oldham from the Plymouth Colony. To understand that then a series
would need to explore the relationship between the ‘Strangers’ (settlers at
Plymouth who were working class adherents to the Church of England) and the ‘Pilgrims’
(religious zealots and separatists from the Church of England who were the
political, economic, and social elite of the Plymouth Colony).
The time Roger
Conant spent in Plymouth could be one season, his time at Cape Ann could be
another, and his move to Naumkeag/Salem and the arrival of the Puritans under Endecott
(where again Roger Conant handled friction between the working fishermen he led
and the religious authorities of the Puritans admirably) could be a third
season.
Q: What about the tragic episode of King Philip's
War - the savage conflict between indigenous peoples and the European settlers
in New England? Perhaps you've read Jeff Conant's vividly written 'longish
piece of fiction' inspired by the events - see
https://jeffconant.com/2023/01/05/1466/ Roger Conant lived long enough to have
perhaps played a part in the events.
‘Indians
Attacking a Garrison House’, from an old wood engraving. This is probably a
depiction of the attack on the Haynes Garrison, Sudbury, Massachusetts on 21 April,
1676. Image credit: Wikipedia
Roger Conant was in his 80s when King Phillip’s War
broke out (and it was an awful war and truly a tragedy) so I doubt he took much
part in it. While Salem and Beverly did send troops to fight in that conflict,
the battles of that war all took place far from Salem. However, Roger Conant
was only in his mid 40s when the Pequot War broke out in the 1630s and may have
taken part in it.
However, if he did I don't know of any record. As
a salter and leader of the working class fishermen he may have been considered
essential for the fishing industry and exempted from serving in the militia
away from Salem. In 1636 the first muster of militia in America took place on
Salem Common before going off to fight in the Pequot War.
Today the Massachusetts National Guard consider
that First Muster to be their founding event.
It must be noted though that the Pequot War did
result in the first true act of genocide by English colonists against native
peoples when the Massachusetts and Plymouth Colonial forces and their
Narragansett allies surrounded the Pequot settlement at what's now Mystic
Connecticut and burned it to the ground, killing every Pequot man woman and
child there. Shortly after that, the remaining Pequot were either sold into
slavery to English colonists in Barbados (where most died horribly) or forced
to renounce their nation and language and submit themselves to the
Narragansett. Remarkably however, there are still people alive today who can
trace their ancestry to the Pequot Nation.
15 March 2023
Q: The word ‘stern’ has been used by historians to
describe both the statue of Roger Conant in Salem, above left, and the 19th
century statue ‘The Puritan’ in Springfield, Massachusetts, by Augustus St
Gaudens. It’s an echo of American author Nathaniel Hawthorne’s imagining of his
Puritan ancestors as ‘stern and blackbrowed’. Hawthorne describes them as members
of ‘the most intolerant brood that ever lived’. In the light of those comments
how do you feel about Roger Conant’s statue in Salem?
I have a lot of love for the statue of Roger
Conant on Salem Common, but I don't think it's a very accurate depiction of him
nor do I think it really does a good job of either teaching his history or
honoring the man. The prologue of my book, The Founding of Salem: City of
Peace, discusses common misconceptions that arise about Roger Conant
because of that statue.
Statues are always more about the people who
erected them than they are about the people they depict. When Roger Conant's
statue was first erected in the early 20th Century it was a time when America
was really trying to emerge as a real world power and people of that time were
looking to their history as inspiration for the development of an American
Origin Story that was often not quite accurate. In some ways many Americans of
the turn of the 19th-20th century were beginning to look upon their ancestors
more like pseudo mythic Arthurian heroes doing great noble deeds than actual historical
humans who had the fortune (or misfortune) of living through ‘Interesting Times’
and doing the best they could.
The statue of Roger Conant in Salem. Image credit: Kate Fox
Roger Conant's statue reflects that early 20th
Century America's idealized Puritan quite well: stern faced, lots of buckles,
pointy hat, stepping forward and gazing upon the Town Common of the city he
founded. The problem with that depiction though is that Roger Conant was
probably not a Puritan, there's no reason to think he was stern faced, he
probably had few buckles (buckles could get expensive in the 17th century and
he was not a wealthy man), and probably had a markedly less pointy hat.
The First Church in Salem
Image credit: www.firstchurchinsalem.org
While Roger Conant did later join the thoroughly
Puritan First Church of Salem (now a Unitarian Universalist Congregation, and I
am a member) and founded First Parish in Beverly, there is no real indication
that he was a Puritan. During his time in Plymouth he became pretty closely
associated with Rev Lyford who was quite clearly not a Puritan.
He was also a leader among the ‘Strangers’ in the
Plymouth Colony (those working class settlers who were not members of the
Leyden Congregation that became the Pilgrims), and later in life he sent his
son to England to be trained as clergy at a time when the Puritans were out of
favor.
He also stayed out of the religious quarrelling so
common among Puritans at that time. For example: his argument for founding
First Parish in Beverly was that it was difficult to cross the North River in
winter to attend services at the First Church of Salem and had nothing to do with
theology.
Roger Conant seems to be someone who was a church
goer, and valued the church, but didn't have strong opinions on doctrine or
dogma like the Puritans and Pilgrims that were his contemporaries and valued
the more traditional aspects of Church of England services rather than having
more radical Protestant views on the subject.... which is in keeping with how
most early fishermen and working class ‘strangers’ in New England at this time
practiced their faith.
Image credit: Kate Fox
The other issue with the statue is that the old
church that it was originally erected in front of is now the Salem Witch Museum.
So there is a big yellow sign that says "SALEM WITCH MUSEUM" right
behind him. The result is that most tourists who visit Salem assume that Roger
Conant had something to do with the Salem Witch Trials, which of course is
nonsense (thankfully Roger Conant passed away decades before that tragic year).
If I rolled my eyes every time I heard a tourist
proclaim "ooooh, that must be the Head Witch! Or maybe a Witch
Hunter!" I'd have a detached cornea by now.
For the record: The Salem Witch Museum is a really
wonderful site and really does a remarkable job of teaching that history.
All that being said, while I
think it does a horrible job of teaching history and gives all sorts of false
impressions, I do like the statue. I walk by it a few times a week at least and
always say hi to old Roger when I pass. It's a part of my community and in many
ways it has become one of the iconic symbols of the community I love so dearly
and I cherish it for that reason.
18 March 2023
Q: Here in Roger Conant’s homeland, some
individuals have questioned the ethics of praising this Devonian for his
achievements. They tell us that they are unwilling to celebrate such pioneers,
and that institutions throughout the UK ‘are reevaluating their associations with
the colonial past’. For example, Oxfam, the British-founded charity for
alleviating global poverty has just issued a guide which describes English as ‘the
language of a colonizing nation’. What is your view on this vexed issue?
As a New Englander, I must admit to being a tad
out of the loop when it comes to the debate around re-evaluating the UK’s
history. That said, I do have some strong thoughts on what is going on in the United
States these days on re-evaluating our own history, and if that perspective can
be insightful or helpful to you I’m happy to share it.
Overall I have a lot of sympathy for those who
seek to re-examine and re-evaluate what we as a society choose to celebrate
with monuments and memorials. The History of History is a fascinating subject,
and the sad and harsh reality is that for most of the history of the United
States from about 1878 (the election of Rutherford B Hayes) until the 1990s a
mythic American Exceptionalism was actively promoted alongside of what’s come
to be known as ‘The Lost Cause’ myth that sought to square perceived American
ideals of Liberty and Equality while embracing the legacy of the Confederacy.
The Confederacy was a truly awful institution, and
its successor terrorist spin offs (like the Ku Klux Klan, White Citizens
Councils, etc) that flourished through much of the 20th Century were arguably
worse.
The early 20th century was for many Americans
(most notably African Americans, but also immigrants and white Trade Unionists
like me) a time of lynchings and other extreme violence perpetrated by those
who wanted to maintain the old racial and class order that existed under
slavery, while an organization called ‘The United Daughters of the Confederacy’
(basically the civic arm of the KKK for all intents and purposes) went to great
efforts to both erect monuments to the Confederacy and make sure that the
official histories taught in American schools and universities were sympathetic
to the Confederate cause by actively engaging in politics around education and
local school boards (our local governing body for local schools).
The result was a very cherry picked narrative
rather than an actual history that often left out whole populations of
Americans.
For example: During the time period of the
American Revolution, if you were a person of color in New England, chances were
you sided with the Revolutionaries. 20% of the New England forces that besieged
the British Army in Boston in 1775 were free people of color, and the first
person to die for American Independence was a black man named Crispus Attucks.
Conversely, if you were a person of color in Virginia you probably flocked to
British forces for freedom, enlisted in the Ethiopian Regiment (a unit of
liberated slaves who fought with the British Army) and waged a very righteous
war for your own Liberty against these American Revolutionaries.
None of this nuanced history made it into American
popular history or monuments or classrooms due to a concerted effort by the
United Daughter of the Confederacy, because the notion that slaves were not
content to be slaves and would fight for their freedom was just as problematic
to the myth they were trying to foster as was the notion that black people in New
England were actively engaged as citizens in the fight for independence.
So, with all that said, I am a firm believer that
often it is not only appropriate to challenge the established narrative, but
that it is also respectful to the actual history to do so.
So what’s this all have to do with First Nations
Peoples and Roger Conant?
Throughout the American South and Mississippi
Valley there exists truly massive and astonishing mounds built by the civilizations
that came before us here. Most Americans have no idea they exist, but many are
just as remarkable as Stonehenge or the Pyramids of Giza (one such mound is actually
larger than the Pyramids of Giza in square footage).
Archaeologists today refer to these people as the
Mississippian and Hopewell Cultures and they were nearly completely wiped out
in the 15th-16th Century (mostly due to disease introduced by Europeans…but
also due to the conscious efforts of Ponce De Leon). It’s hard to fathom the
extent of the genocide that occurred in North America during the colonial era
without seeing these sites for yourself.
What’s worse is that many Europeans after encountering
the shattered remains of these First Nations peoples concluded that it was
impossible for Native Americans to have constructed such monuments and
concocted all sorts of nonsense tales of biblical giants, lost European
pre-Columbus contact, and (more recently) ancient Aliens being responsible for
it. Thus a cultural genocide actively compounded a physical one here in America…and
that is doubly awful.
Roger Conant did play a role in all of this. His
efforts did lead to the establishment of a successful colony here in America and
a political body that is still with us today: The Commonwealth of
Massachusetts. However Roger Conant himself does appear to be that rare
colonial figure who isn’t very problematic: he maintained good relationships
with the Native People he encountered, he was a leader of marginalized people
within the Plymouth and later Massachusetts Bay Colonies (namely the working
folks who were not necessarily puritans), he succeeded through peaceful means
and compromise, and more. He is a man that I think any generation can celebrate
for all of that.
But, that said, it must be remembered that the
other person who was so essential to the success of the founding of
Naumkeag/Salem and the Massachusetts Bay Colony is someone whose name has been
completely lost to history: the woman who led the Massachusett People at
Naumkeag, who was recorded by the English chroniclers of her time as just ‘Squaw
Sachem’.
‘Sachem’ is an Algonquin word for leader or chief,
but ‘Squaw’ is either a French corruption of an Iroquoian word for women’s
genitalia or a French corruption of a derogatory Algonquin word for ‘women’s
work’. Squaw was certainly not a name she used for herself or her people
referred to her as…but it was what the English of the 17th century (following
the practice of French Fur trappers) used to label all native women.
I mention all of this, and especially the woman
known as ‘Squaw Sachem’, to point out that there is a huge blank void in our
history when it comes to the experiences of people of color. I cannot deny that
my own early fascination with history developed because as a white man I saw
myself reflected in the history that was popularly taught.
We need to do a lot more to promote the
contributions and stories of women and people of color if we want history to be
valued in the future. That’s something I actively try and promote here in
Salem, and soon we will be erecting a monument here to a remarkable black woman
named Charlotte Forten who was our first black school teacher and a devoted
Abolitionist, and recently we commissioned a painting in city hall to depict
the woman described above who led the Massachusett during Conant’s time.
So yes, I am sympathetic to those that question
whether figures like Roger Conant should be honored and celebrated. But after
thoroughly researching and exploring the history I also think that it’s totally
right and appropriate to celebrate Roger Conant in his home town so long as we
make a conscious effort to elevate the stories of people like the woman
recorded as ‘Squaw Sachem’ who’s actual name has been lost to us (and
acknowledge that it’s pretty messed up that no one of that time bothered to record
her actual name)
And if upon learning more we discover that maybe
something we once cherished is something that perhaps we need to have a more
frank discussion about how we honor it then we should embrace that conversation
and any potential consequences of it. (…)
Thank you Michael Downes for
asking such a sensitive question. I think these conversations are extremely
important to have and ones we shouldn’t shy away from if we truly value history
and want to understand our ancestors, their legacy, our children’s future, and
our current place in the never ending story of humanity.
Benjamin’s book, The Founding of Salem, City of
Peace, was published in 2022 by The History Press
ISBN: 9781467152136
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