Primary
Resources
Documents using local American History sources.
Click here.
Primary Resources
Primary Sources Connected to Specific Workshops
This is a page designed to help you locate local Essex County resources. They are linked to lessons which were created especially for the Essex LINCs seminars. You can access the lesson plans on the Lesson Plans page. Primary Sources listed here were located by our museum educator, Rebecca Zimmerman. Please contact us if you have any comments or questions regarding these documents.
(All images link to .pdf files)
January and May, 2011 Workshop - Beverly Historical Society, Beverly, Mass.
Documents for the Native and First Settlers - A Comparison of Essex County Populations in the 1600s (.pdf) Lesson
Essex County in present day Massachusetts is an area rich in both Native American and colonial history. The buildings which still exist in places like Ipswich and Beverly, the furniture created by immigrants from England and the histories written to describe early settlements all stand in contrast to the native artifacts and descriptions which remain of those people who all but disappeared during the 1600s. By examining evidence of both cultures, students will have a richer understanding of each group. This lesson asks students to consider housing, clothing and possessions of those people – and to compare and contrast them.
In the 1600s, the Massachusett people were led by a great Sachem, Nanepashemet. He and his people were threatened by the Tarrantines of the North (Canada and parts of Maine). After the sickness that wiped out many of the tribe, Nanepashemet was killed by the Tarrantines and his wife the Squaw Sachem and her sons looked to the white settlers for protection even as the settlers looked to the natives to help them learn to survive in this new world. For a short time, all was peaceful. But that time did not last. European settlers were interested in clearing land and “civilizing” the native population. Contact between the English and the Massachusett was a complicated matter.
By contrast, European settlers came to the “new world” for many reasons; to gain land and natural resources (and thereby increase their wealth), to be able to promote and practice their religion, to “civilize” foreign inhabitants. Initially the area was first “discovered’ by Samuel De Champlain and John Smith as they separately explored the region. (see LINCs lesson on First Impressions of the Area) However both men chose not to promote settlement here. The first Europeans settled in Gloucester and Salem. Nevertheless many of the towns of Essex County were founded in the 1600s and there are still many buildings and artifacts evident of those days.
Primary Sources ...from copyright free sites
- Excerpts from the Journal of Samuel de Champlain - including a map of Beauport (1606)
- Samuel de Champlain explored much of the Atlantic coast during his travels. In the early 1600s, he visited the area known today as Cape Ann and Gloucester. He describes the natives and his encounters with them. He names the area "Beauport" and includes a map. Excerpts are included in a .pdf found here.
- Excerpts from John Smith's Description of New England including a map and transcript (1616)
- Smith describes present day Ipswich, Salem and Gloucester. He encounters native peoples and concludes that the area is too much inhabited by French traders. A map, excerpts from the publication and a transcript with explantory footnotes are included in a .pdf found here.
- Excerpt on "Indians" from A History of Andover, MA (1829)
- In the early 19th century, many New England towns published histories. This selection describes the native populations of the Andover area from that point of view. it is rich in description but from the point of view of European settlers.
Primary Sources ...from the American Antiquarian Museum, Worcester, MA
- Portraits of Endecott, Leverett, and Winthrop
- These images are actually copies from the early 1800s of 17thc portraits of governors of Essex County in Massachusetts. They can be accessed via the American Antiquarian Society's website (see link above) and the labels contain a great amount of biographical information. For the purposes of this lesson they illustrate dress of the upper classes of New England society. They provide a ready contrast to images of Native Americans from the same time.
Primary Sources ...from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY
- Room and Furniture from Ipswich and Salem, 1600s
- These images are taken from the Metropolitan Museum of Art site - web addresses on each image. They show the style of furnishings that Essex County residents had in the 1600s. Also of interest will be the Smithsonian exhibit on the house in Ipswich (see resources below).
Images of Primary Source Buildings...
- Images of First Period Houses in Essex County
- Photographs of buildings in Ipswich and Beverly - taken by Rebecca Zimmerman, 2009,
Essex County is known for having a number of First Period (1600s) houses. Many of them have remained virually unchanged for many years and can be used to compare the construction techniques that Europeans used as opposed to the more portable and easily erected homes that native Americans created.
See also the websites below for the Alexander Knight House in Ipswich, the Smithsonian exhibition which has an Ipswich house, and the link to Native American dwellings.
Documents ...from internet sites
- Map of New England (1677) from the Plymouth Colony Archive Site
- Created by William Hubbard & John Foster
"This bold woodcut map of New England, regarded by its makers and acknowledged as the first ever to be engraved and printed in America, appeared in William Hubbard's Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians in New-England, from the First Planting Thereof in the Year 1607, to the Present Year 1677." in New England Begins: The Seventeenth Century, by Jonathan Fairbanks and Robert Trent. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts (1982)
- Map of Native American Tribal Lands and Communities (1620)
- Composed by Sidney Perley - this map can be accessed through Rootsweb at ancestry.com - click on title above
Primary Sources ...from the Southern Essex County Document Center
- Black William Selling Nahant
- This 19thc imageshows a native American selling Nahant to Thomas Dexter in 1630 for a suit of clothes. It is not a native produced image and should be used with caution, however it does show both an Essex Co settler and native from the 1600s in the same image.
Images of Primary Sources ...from the Haverhill Historical Society, Haverhill, Mass.
- Images of Native American Artifacts
- Artifacts presently on display range in age from 8,000 years old to the present. These artifacts include a mortar and pestle, hammerstone, channel gouges, spear & dart points, plummets, mallet heads and stone scrapers. The originals can be found at the Haverhill Historical Society.
Images of Primary Sources ...from the Danvers Historical Society, Danvers, Mass.
- Images of Native American Artifacts
- Artifacts here show a range of tools useful to natives in their everyday lives. These artifacts include a plumb bob used to weight fishing lines, an axe head dating to 4,000 B.P. a polished stone mallet head, a gouge used to carve wood, and a mortar used for grinding. The Historical Society owns a large quatity of pottery shards as well.
Secondary Documents...
- Reference Sheets for Images of Native People
- Photographs of Native American interpreters from Plimoth Plantation - taken by Rebecca Zimmerman, 2009
...Web links for Related Subjects - Native American in Essex County (web links current as of March 2011)
...Web links for Related Subjects - Colonists in Essex County (web links current as of March 2011)
Click here to return to the Main Primary Resources page
