April is a month of milestones for the United States. On April 1, 1621 the Plymouth Pilgrims signed the first peace treaty with the Wampanoag Indian tribe.
Upon initial settling on the land, altercations occurred between the natives and the settlers which usually resulted in deaths on both sides.
Realizing the settling of America was about starting new lives and not destroying them, John Carver, William Bradford and Massasoit met and began to talk peace. The treaty was not very long or confusing. It set minimum agreements between the two cultures. The treaty contained four laws. First, Indians and Pilgrims agreed to refrain from injuring each other. Second, if an altercation occurred the leader of the offending group would surrender the instigator to the other for punishment.
Third, Indians and Pilgrims agreed not to steal from each other. Finally, if either party got into an unjust war, the other party would give them aid. All the Wampanoag tribes were required to honor the peace treaty. By simply following these laws, the settlers and natives were able to live in peace for many years.
Despite its simplicity and basic humanity, the treaty took a long time to complete. Many lives were lost during this time and battles were fought. There were positive interactions as well. The Pilgrims did not arrive in Plymouth until November of 1620. Not knowing what to eat, how to grow food or even survive, the future looked bleak until two men came about and helped the Pilgrims survive.
These men were Samoset and Squanto. They were later joined by Hobbamock and the local chief, Massasoit. They helped teach the settlers how to fish, what plants were safe to eat and how to maintain flourishing crops in the short New England summers. This effort put forth by the Natives and Pilgrims created trust and friendship between the two very different groups.
The Peace Treaty of 1621 was extremely effective. While other tribes and settlers throughout the colonies were often in conflict, the New England region would last almost thirty years with no major issues.
Bradford and Carver understood the natives and realized they needed each other to survive. The settlers agreed to keep English ways out of native life.
This peace lasted until Massasoit and Bradford’s deaths. The English Puritans then decided to ignore the treaty and make the Wampanoag submit to English law and accept Christianity. These acts would eventually lead to the bloody King Philip’s War.
Besides being the month of Indian and settler conflict, April also is the time of British and colonist unrest. On April 5, 1764 the Sugar Act was passed. The Sugar Act put a tax on many items that the colonies’ economy depended on. The act allowed British goods to have a monopoly, forcing the colonies to purchase only British goods or face a tax of sixpence. The Sugar Act was one of the earlier examples of British influence over the colonists. British prices were generally cheaper than competitors, but it still greatly affected the colonial economy.
The Sugar Act was the result of British debt at the end of the French and Indian war. the British were forced to deal with a considerable amount of debt. The Sugar Act forced the colonies to pay sixpence per gallon on non-British molasses and sugar.
Many other items were added to the list to be taxed including many non-British wines, clothes, foods and especially, rum. All of these items had impact on the economy but none so much as rum.
During this time period rum was a cheap drink and was very popular amongst colonists. Because of the taxation the only molasses available was from India. This created a shortage of molasses in the colonies. The decrease in molasses meant less rum to be produced, which greatly affected the economy.
Many colonists found their way around the tax by smuggling their goods. Because of this, ports were closely monitored by the British, which increased the pressure of the British influence. The colonists were in uproar over the act, not only because of the increased tax but because it showed that the British could monopolize their economy and have control over them. The Sugar Act was an important document in history – it brought the colonists that much closer to a revolution.
In 1688, John Winslow came to Boston and told the colonists that King James II of England had been forced from his throne. The king was replaced by his daughter, Mary, and her husband, William of Orange, in an act was called the Glorious Revolution.
James II had created the Dominion of New England in 1686, which placed Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Plymouth, New York, New Jersey, and New Hampshire under one government. He had named Sir Edmund Andros the governor of all the colonies within the Dominion. Andros quickly put laws into effect that made him very unpopular with the colonists. He abolished elective assemblies, restrained the liberty of the press, collected unapproved taxes and enforced the Navigation Acts so strictly that it caused an economic depression.
The people of Boston decided to follow the example set by the English and on April 18, 1689, Boston had its own Glorious Revolution. The colonists captured and imprisoned governor Andros. Andros had virtually no supporters to help him and he was jailed peacefully without a single shot having been fired.
After a year in prison, Andros was sent back to England. Charges were filed against him by colonists, but he was never tried. He later returned to America and from 1692 until 1698 he was the governor of Virginia and helped to found the College of William and Mary. After a short stint as governor of New Jersey, Andros moved back to England and died on February 24, 1714 in London.