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

by Emily SneffApril 23, 2019

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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 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?