Episode 235: Jenny Hale Pulsipher, A 17th-Century Native American Life

What does early America look like if we view it through Native American eyes?

Jenny Hale Pulsipher, an Associate Professor of History at Brigham Young University, is a scholar who enjoys investigating the many answers to this question. And today, she introduces us to a Nipmuc Indian named John Wompas and how he experienced a critical time in early American history, the period between the 1650s and 1680s.

About the Show

Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.

It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.

Each episode features a conversation with a historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history.

Ben Franklin’s World is a production of the Omohundro Institute.

Episode Summary

Jenny Hale Pulsipher, an Associate Professor of History at Brigham Young University and author of Swindler Sachem: The American Indian Who Sold His Birthright, Dropped Out of Harvard, and Conned the King of England, joins us to introduce us to a Nipmuc Indian named John Wompas and how he experienced a critical time in early American history, the period between the 1650s and 1680s.

As we explore and investigate the life of John Wompas, Jenny reveals who John Wompas was and details about the interesting life he led; The ways in which Wompas navigated both the Native and English worlds of seventeenth-century England and New England; And, why it’s important for us to explore early America through Native American perspectives.

What You’ll Discover

  • The “swindler sachem,” John Wompas
  • How scholars get at history through Native American viewpoints
  • John Wompas’ early life and childhood
  • Wompas’ English upbringing
  • John Wompas at Harvard College
  • John Wompas’ life at sea
  • Occupational opportunities for Native American men
  • Wompas’ life as a married man
  • Native and English ideas about law and land
  • John Wompas in England
  • How Wompas sought to overturn Massachusetts’ prohibition on Native land sales
  • Wompas’ meeting with King Charles II
  • Wompas’ return to Massachusetts
  • Why John Wompas began to embrace his Native American identity
  • Wompas’ claim that he was a Nipmuc sachem
  • Ways John Wompas serves as a window on to the early American past

 

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Time Warp PlainTime Warp Question

In your opinion, what might have happened if the Massachusetts Bay Colony had lost its charter in the 1660s instead of in 1684? How might the lives and opportunities available to New England Indians, including John Wompas, have been different?

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