Part 2

Wampum played an important part in religious as well as civil ceremonies. On occasions of great public calamities, it formed the most acceptable sacrifice that could be offered to the terrible Hobbamocko, the author of evil, and it entered largely into the mystic rites of all those weird assemblies that gathered under the shades of the forest. When evil threatened or its farther progress was to be stayed, as also after great triumphs and abundant harvests, the Indians gathered from far and near to celebrate their mysteries. They danced for days, painted and clad in hideous guise, about a great fire, the throne of the divinity, and with wild and frantic yells cast from time to time into the flames furs and weapons, and that choicest of their treasures the costly wampum. Nay it was even whispered in the early time, that little children gaily adorned with wampum were led into the midst and thrust into the fiery embrace of the hissing god.[21] The practice of the Iroquois was less fearful, among whom a string of white wampum was hung around the neck of a white dog suspended to a pole and offered as a sacrifice to the mighty Haweuneyn. The wampum was a pledge of their sincerity, and white an emblem of purity and of faith. In the same nation, previous to "giving thanks to the Maple," and their other stated festivals, the people assembled for the mutual confession of their sins. "The meeting was opened by one of the 'keepers of the faith,' with an address upon the propriety and importance of acknowledging their evil deeds to strengthen their minds against future temptations. He then took a string of white wampum in his hand, and set the example by a confession of his own faults, after which he handed the string to the one nearest to him, who received it, made his confession in like manner, and passed it to another. In this way the wampum went around from hand to hand, and those who had confessions to make, stated wherein they had done wrong, and promised to do better in the future. Old and young, men, women and even children, all united in this public acknowledgment of their faults, and joined in the common resolution of amendment. On some occasions the string of wampum was placed in the centre of the room, and each one advanced in turn to perform the duty as the inclination seized him. A confession and promise without holding the wampum would be of no avail. It was the wampum which recorded their words and gave their pledge of sincerity. The object of the confession was future amendment."[22]

Wampum was the tribute paid by the vanquished in war, as also the means by which threatened wars were often averted. The Long Island Indians for many years paid an annual tribute to the Pequots, a powerful tribe dwelling in Eastern Connecticut.[23] It is commonly supposed that these tribes were also tributary to the Six Nations. To the same great power were subject the clans between the Hudson and the Connecticut, and every year two aged but haughty Mohawks might be seen going from village to village to collect the tribute that was their due. It is asserted that as late as 1756, a small tribe near Sugar Loaf Mountain made an annual payment to this nation of £20 in wampum. Individual as well as national obligations were similarly satisfied. Like the early German, the Indian set a marketable value on human life, and a suitable present of wampum on the part of the murderer, if accepted, freed him from the vengeance of the dead man's friends, for the wampum belt washed away all traces of the bloody stain.[24] Perhaps desire for another's wampum sometimes prompted him to such foul deeds, as it did the white man,[25] though happily the Indian seldom stooped to theft.

Thus in the rude civilization of the aborigine wampum filled a space accorded to no one article in our own. Through life it faithfully met all his varied wants, and when he came to die, his friends placed it about his dead body,[26] that it might befriend him on his journey to the spirit land, and on his arrival there gain for him admission to the realms of the god Kiehtan, the abode of the blessed.

The shrewd commercial instinct of the Dutch colonists was quick to profit by wampum in their dealings with the aborigines. Happily its most extensive producers dwelt at their very doors. They obtained from the Long Island tribes in return for knives, scissors, hatchets and the like, great quantities of this novel coinage, and then exchanged it with the Indians of the mainland for hides and furs, often plunging far into the interior and drawing thence products which gold could never have won from their possessors. Did common trifles fail, wampum was the unfailing reserve whose charms the savage was powerless to resist. With such an adjutant trade became doubly flourishing and lucrative. Posts sprang up along the Hudson, in the valley of the Connecticut and as far south as the Schuylkill, through all of which ceaseless revenues poured into the coffers of the Dutch West India Company. Connecticut, alone, annually furnished to her traders ten thousand beaver skins.[27] In all this traffic wampum played a leading part, so much so in fact that fur trade and wampum trade became synonymous terms.

Toward the close of September, 1627, Isaac de Rasieres was dispatched from New Amsterdam on an embassy to the English colony at New Plymouth. Being of a trading turn, he carried with him in his vessel among other merchandise about £50 in wampum which he managed to dispose of there.[28] Wampum was as yet comparatively unknown in Massachusetts Bay, and the colonists were ignorant of its uses. This purchase made with great reluctance, they sent to their trading house at Kennebeck, where "when the inland Indians came to know it, they could scarce procure enough for many years together." Everywhere in New England, as in the Dutch provinces, wampum soon became a leading article in the Indian trade, and added greatly to its profits. Seven years after its introduction to Kennebeck, Mr. Winslow carried thence into England about twenty hogsheads of beaver, "the greater part whereof was traded for wampampeage" during the year. By 1636 this trade had grown to such proportions in Massachusetts colony that the standing colony were authorized to farm it out for the increase of the public revenues, and to establish the severest penalties for any infringement of the privileges thus granted. The traders of New England were now ranging the forests in all directions and often plunged into them for hundreds of miles to the great alarm of the Dutch who feared that the English would monopolize all the profits of the trade, and that "they should be obliged to eat oats out of English hands."[29] From the north the French descended in great numbers, eager to share in the gains of this traffic, and often encroached upon the domains of other nations. The solitudes of the wilderness thus resounded every where to the tread of the adventurous white man, who, lured on by the hope of gain, thought not of the dangers that beset his path. It doubtless afforded the Indian no little satisfaction to welcome the haughty foreigner to his wigwam, and while dictating his own terms, to receive in payment the honored currency of his fathers. When he took his pay, he measured it off after his own fashion, the unit being the distance from the elbow to the end of the little finger. According to one authority it made no difference whether a short or tall man measured it.[30] Adrian Van Tiedhoven, clerk of the court at the South river, however tells a different story, complaining bitterly "because the Indians always take the largest and tallest among them to trade with us."

But hides and furs were not the only articles which wampum purchased from the natives. It was a frequent consideration in early Indian deeds. In the records of Windsor, Conn., is preserved a deed, which conveys territory lying between the Podunk and Scantic rivers, and extending a day's march into the country, the price paid for which was fifteen fathoms of wampum and twenty cloth coats. Most of the present towns of Warwick and Coventry in Rhode Island, were purchased of Miantinomi, sachem of the Narragansetts, for one hundred and forty-four fathoms of wampum.[31]

In New England the limits of the trade were considerably extended by the quantities of wampum tribute which poured into the hands of the colonial authorities. Wampum was the commodity in which tribute was universally paid, and the stern justice of our fathers imposed this with no sparing hand upon their weak and erring neighbors. In 1634, the Pequots were fined 400 fathoms of wampum, and two years afterwards 600 fathoms more.[32] After 1637, the Long Island Indians paid a large yearly tribute to the united commissioners,[33] as did also the Block Islanders. It is often difficult, as in the present case, to see the justice of such exactions. These Indians had been guilty of no unfriendly act, and the utmost urged in extenuation of the imposition was the flimsy pretence that but for an alleged protection the same sums would have gone in fealty to their red brethren. In 1644, the Narragansetts were fined 2000 fathoms, and doomed to pay yearly thereafter a fathom for every Pequot man, half a fathom for every youth and a hand breadth for every child in the tribe. As late as 1658,[34] the Pequots were fined ten fathoms a man, and one of their number imprisoned for offering refuse wampum in part payment.[35] This tribe had suffered so many and severe exactions that they were obliged to search in all directions for the material out of which to manufacture their wampum, and occasionally crossed over to Long Island for this purpose. The Montauk sachem fearing that his shores would be exhausted of their shelly wealth, opposed these visits, until the Pequots succeeded in securing the interposition of the united commissioners in their behalf.[36] In 1663, the assessment upon this tribe was fixed at 80 fathoms. Such are a few of the many instances to be found in the records, showing the enormous amount of wampum paid as tribute by the natives to the early authorities of New England.

The Dutch supply was augmented in a different manner. They soon found the native manufactories inadequate to the demand and erected mints of their own, and by introducing steel drills and polishing lathes won a great advantage over the original wearisome hand processes. The French sought a still greater advantage by substituting porcelain for shells, but the Indians were not to be thus easily imposed upon, and the manufacture of earthen money was soon given up.[37] It is sometimes asserted that the English engaged in making wampum, though the statement appeared to be without foundation. The Dutch, however, produced it in large quantities, and were thereby enabled to enlarge the circle of their own posts; and also to furnish liberal supplies to the traders, north and south, who ranged over the entire Atlantic coast from the St. Lawrence to the gulf. In Virginia, the Carolinas, and later in Georgia, wampum was the chief medium employed in the fur trade.

The poverty of the early settlers, added to that short sighted and now obsolete policy of Europe in the seventeenth century, which jealously sought to keep all specie within her borders, produced a general dearth of the precious metals in the currency of the New World, and all kinds of shifts were made to eke out the scanty supply. Corn, wheat, oats, peas, poultry and the like sufficed to satisfy any obligation. But then, though answering well in cases of barter, where two mutual desires met, were far too bulky and unwieldy for general use. Naturally then recourse was had to an article in extensive use among the traders, and possessing in a measure the portability of gold and silver, and _wampum_ became a constituent part of the currency. In one feature at least, the old civilization held its own beside the new. As early as 1637, wampum was made a legal tender in Massachusetts for any sum under 12_d._, at the rate of six beads for a penny.[38] The same year it became a legal tender in Connecticut for any amount. The general court declaring it receivable for taxes "at fousen (4) a penny."[39]

But coin grew scarcer in Massachusetts and shell money increased in value, till in 1640, the authorities were compelled to adopt the valuation of Connecticut, ordering that the white pass at four and the "bleuse" at two a penny, "and not above 12_d._ at a time except the receiver desire more."[40] The public needs soon required another change, and the legality of shell currency rose to £10.[41] This novel coinage, thus regulated from time to time, answered well for money throughout the colonies, till after a while trouble arose from an unexpected source. The enormous demand at length brought upon the market beads of stone or unallowed shells, as also many rough, ill-strung specimens of the genuine article. The disorder was aggravated, because the Indians, who best understood the qualities of their wampum, would take only the genuine from the traders, while the refuse was thrown back into the circulation of the colonies. The commissioners of the United Colonies being appealed to for a remedy recommended to the separate governments to suppress this poor "peage" by law. Accordingly in 1648, the general courte of Connecticut ordered "that no peage, white or black, be paid or received, but what is strung and in some measure strung suitably, and not small and great, uncomely and disorderly mixt, as formerly it hath beene."[42] A similar order was passed in Massachusetts, where it was further enacted to prepare this Indian money for ready use, that it be "suitably strung in eight known parcells, 1_d._ 3_s._ 12_d._ 5_s._ in white; 2_d._ 6_s._ 6_d._ and 10_s._ in blacke."[43] Another favorite length was the fathom, containing 360 beads and current at about 10_s._ Thus during these years shell money was current throughout New-England, and constituted, doubtless, the best and most convenient portion of the currency. The government received it for taxes, the farmer for his produce, the merchant for his wares, and the laborer for his hire. It formed a frequent item in the inventories of deceased colonists, being often the only cash mentioned. It even found its way into the coffers of Harvard college, for we read that the lease of the wampum trade in Massachusetts was attended with the obligation to take from the college the wampum which it might have on hand from time to time.[44] In the forest, likewise, it now circulated as money, for the Indian was quick to copy the white man's use of his beads.

Toward the middle of the century wampum reached its highest value in New-England. Thereafter the increasing prosperity of the colonies, the domestic coinage of silver, and perhaps the too extensive manufacture of the shell money, gradually diminishing its value, drove it from circulation. In 1650, it was refused in payment of country rates in Massachusetts.[45] This action of the government naturally created distrust among the people, to counteract which it was ordered that "peage" should still "remagne pawable from man to man, according to the law in force." Close upon this followed another decree, limiting it as a legal tender to 40 shillings.[46] These laws continued in force till 1661, when wampum was declared to be no longer a legal tender in Massachusetts.[47] Rhode Island passed a similar decree the next year[48] and Connecticut, probably, soon afterwards. But though wampum now ceased to be legally current, it lingered among the people for years and constituted in great part the small change of the community. As late as 1704, it was a common mode of payment in country places.[49]

Shell money was used extensively and for a long time in the Dutch colonies. Here for a while absolutely no coin was in circulation, and wampum being the feasible substitute was universally adopted. So great was the popular demand, that even the unstrung wampum, prohibited in the eastern colonies, passed at but a trifling discount.[50] For many years the easy-going government at New Amsterdam does not seem to have regulated the currency by law, as did its more thorough neighbors, and the amount of wampum requisite to make a stiver, was left to be determined by the parties concerned. Such a course was fraught with inconvenience to the public, and frequent petitions were made for the establishment of some uniform rate.[51]

The rate, however, which obtained by common consent, was four of the strung and six of the loose beads for a stiver.[52] But in 1641, there came from foreign parts an inundation of "nasty, rough" sewan, which drove the better sort out of circulation, "nay," so runs the record, "threatened the ruin of the country," and legislation was imperatively demanded. This inferior article was therefore condemned to pass five for a stiver during the following month, and afterwards six, at which rate the loose, unstringed wampum, which served the community as change, subsequently circulated.[53] The importance of wampum during these years is well illustrated by the fact that the opulent West India Company in 1664, sought to negotiate a loan of five or six thousand guilders in it, wherewith to pay the laboring people, the obligation to be satisfied with _good negroes_ or other goods.[54] The Dutch succumbed to superior force, but wampum still held its own. It continued to be the chief currency not only in New York, but in the many settlements to the west and south, which were then under the control of the authorities at New York. In 1672, the inhabitants of Hoanskill and New Castle on the Delaware, having been plundered by Dutch privateers were permitted by the government at New York to lay an impost of four guilders, in wampum, upon each anker of strong rum imported or sold there.[55] A guilder, which was about six pence currency or four pence sterling, consisted of twenty stivers, and eight beads were reckoned equal to one stiver. As heretofore there was little or no certain coin in circulation and wampum passed for current payment in all cases. Indeed the country was so drained of even this currency by the Indian trade, that there was difficulty in obtaining a sufficiency. To remedy this state of affairs, the governor and council of New York were in 1673 constrained to issue their proclamation which was published at Albany, Esopus, Delaware, Long Island and the adjacent parts, commanding that "instead of eight white and four black (beads), six white and three black should pass for a stiver; and three times so much the value of silver."[56]

The contributions in the churches were for many years made in wampum, and the first church on the Jersey shore was built with funds contributed in this way from Sabbath to Sabbath. As late as 1683, "the schoolmaster in Flatbush was paid his salary in wheat, wampum value: He was bound to provide a basin of water for the purpose of baptism, for which he received from the parents or sponsors twelve stivers in wampum."[57] Nor ten years later had the money of the aborigines become wholly supplanted by gold and silver, for we learn that "in 1693, the ferriage of each single person from New York to Brooklyn was eight stivers in wampum, or a silver two-pence."[58] Further than this we are unable to trace, though we have good reason to believe that it circulated, to a limited extent, for some time thereafter.

Thus while the Indian declined in power his simple coinage passed from hand to hand, among his conquerors, in the haunts where unnumbered generations of his ancestors had trafficked it in rude barter, or offered it with solemn ceremonial, their costliest offering, to their country's gods. It was for about a quarter of a century a legal tender in New England, while among the Dutch it was during half a century often the only circulating medium, and among both Dutch and English it filled a more or less important part in the currency for nearly an entire century.

When at length the increasing wealth of the people drove wampum out of common use, it still remained an important article in commerce. It was manufactured at New York until the commencement of the present century to be used in traffic with the Indians, for whom it had lost none of its charms, and to be carried by our whalers into the northern seas.

Treaties and compacts between the different tribes and the states, and later the general government, continued to be ratified by the interchange of wampum belts. The records of the eighteenth century abound with instances of this character. The last occasion of the kind is believed to have been at Prairie du Chien in 1825.[59]

Among the Indians of the present day wampum is unknown. The name still remains, but the trifles to which it is applied bear no resemblance to the ancient article. The glass beads now current as wampum and the original wampum are not less unlike, than the squalid Blackfoot of our western plains, and the proud and imperious Mohawk, beside his native stream.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Trumbull in his notes in the Narragansett Club Reprint of Roger Williams's _Key_, says: "_Wom pam_ was the name of the white beads collectively; when strung or wrought in girdles they constituted _wanôm-peg_ [Roger Williams], the _wampon-peage_ of Wood and other early writers."

_Peage_ or _peake_ signified simply "strung beads," and _wampom-peage_ accordingly signified "strings of white beads."

The English were doubtless led to consider _wampum_ a generic word, because they heard it oftenest used, _wampum_ being much more abundant than _suckáuhock_. Their error has however long since received the sanction of usage. But as far as our own knowledge extends there was no comprehensive word for all shell beads in use among the Indians. _Sewan_ had perhaps very nearly such a use in certain localities, but the real meaning of the word _sewan_ appears from the following note in the Narragansett Club Reprint of Roger Williams's _Key_:--"_Seahwhóog_, 'they are scattered' [Elliot]. From this word the Dutch traders gave the name of _sewared_ or _zeewand_ [the participle, _seahwhóun_, 'scattered,' 'loose'], to _all_ shell money just as the English called all _peage_, or string beads, by the name of the white or _wampom_."

[2] Sometimes from the _Buccinum undulatum_ [Möll], found from Nantucket to Labrador, and occasionally perhaps from the _Natica heros_ [Say] found from New York to Labrador, and the _Natica duplicata_ found from Florida to Massachusetts Bay.

In this connection the writer would acknowledge his indebtedness to Hon. J. Hammond Trumbull, a gentleman who has given much time and talent to the investigation of matters of Indian history.

[3] Many writers have asserted that wampum was worked out of the inside of the Great Conque shell. This view is evidently erroneous, as the Great Conque, _Strombus gigas_ [Linn.], is not found on the Atlantic coast, north of Florida and the West Indies, except in the fossil state.

The assertion that wampum is an Iroquois word, meaning a "muscle," is doubtless equally unfounded.

Roger Williams [_Key_, chap. xxiv], who certainly had fine opportunities for observation, and our other most trustworthy authorities, state that the _Suckáuhock_ was made from the clam shell, and the _wampum_ from the shells of the Periwinkle, and such was unquestionably the case.

[4] Roger Williams's _Key_, chap. xxiv.

[5] Gordon, _Hist. of Penn._, Appendix F.

[6] See Schoolcraft's report on the Grove Creek Mound in vol. I, of _Transactions of the Am. Ethnological Soc._

[7] _League of the Iroquois_, p. 120.

[8] The otekóa of the Iroquois was the only exception of which we know.

[9] Roger Williams's _Key_, chap. xxiv.

[10] Roger Williams's _Key_, chap. xxiv.