WAMPANOAG POLITICAL ACTIVITY

David Walker’s pamphlet is considered one of the most influential documents of the 19th Century. Walker was a prominent Black activist in Boston, and his Appeal, offered in three installments, called for the immediate emancipation of all enslaved people. A devout Christian, Walker admonished fellow white Christians who supported slavery, and balked at the hypocrisy of a nation and fought for freedom from Great Britain and founding fathers who declared that “all men are created equal”, but, in turn, enslaved millions.

Having arrived in office intent on displacing tribes occupying valuable land in the South, Andrew Jackson was instrumental in the passing of the Indian Removal Act. The Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations were to be moved to Federal lands west of the Mississippi River (no matter that Indigenous people already inhabited that land). Some tribes, like the Seminole, joined by fugitive slaves, took up arms, others petitioned the government, and still others chose to avoid conflict and leave. Small pockets of tribal peoples managed to stay on their homelands, but by 1837, 46,000 Indigenous people had been forced west, and 132,000-167,000 had died defending their homelands or as a result of the brutal conditions of the removal.

The Liberator newspaper was an abolitionist newspaper published between 1831–1865 by WIlliam Lloyd Garrison, co-founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and, for a period, Isaac Knaap, the co-founder of the New England Anti-Slavery Society. The Liberator gained notoriety as a staunch advocate for the immediate emancipation of all enslaved peoples. The weekly publication included news from anti-slavery conventions, petitions, profiles and other news relevant to the abolitionist movement. It also served an early advocate for women’s rights, declaring in 1838 the objective "to redeem woman as well as man from a servile to an equal condition." Reprints of Wampanoag petitions and retellings of Wampanoag underground railroad activity appeared in its pages, indicating the likelihood of subscribers within the community.

The deadliest slave revolt in the United States took place in Southampton County Virginia, led by Nat Turner. Turner was a deeply religious enslaved man who believed that revolutionary violence would make white enslavers aware of the brutality of slavery. The rebellion lasted just a few days, with Turner managing to hide for about a month longer, but the impact was felt far and wide. Fears of similar events occurring lingered and inspired brutally violent attacks on Black peoples across the south, and racial tensions in some corners grew in the North. Many white citizens remained blind to the root cause of the rebellion—seeing only their interests—and instead used their fear as an excuse to defend and further entrench their oppressive ways.

The American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), founded in 1833 by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan, was the first and largest grassroots movement in the United States. Its membership is estimated to have reached 200,000 at its height, constituting some 2,000 auxiliary groups. Members believed that slavery should be immediately abolished, distinguishing them from other anti-slavery groups who supported gradual emancipation or even relocation of the Black population to colonies outside of the country. When Mashpee fought for independence in 1833, they made sure to publish their petition in the pages of The Liberator. William Lloyd Garrison himself was known to engage in issues concerning the Wampanoag, speaking in favor of their independence and equal treatment.

When the preacher William Apes arrived in Mashpee, he met with the tribe to hear their grievances, including a system in which white overseers allowed locals to steal from Mashpee land. By the end of the meeting, Apes had been adopted into the tribe, and the Mashpee had declared their right to self-govern. When local whites tested the resolution by attempting to steal lumber from their woods, protesting Mashpee, including Apes, were arrested. After a lengthy legal battle and multiple petitions, the state government dismissed the overseers and recognized Mashpee as a self-governing community.
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In the 1830s, temperance activists founded societies, published pamphlets, and offered public addresses railing against the harms of alcohol, and religious leaders spread the message of temperance in their congregations. In 1833, Rev. William Apes founded the Mashpee Temperance Society, which quickly grew to 61 members.
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Calling for the immediate freedom of enslaved peoples was considered radical in the 1830s, and opposition in the North was palpable. Anti-abolitionist riots took place across New England, including Boston in 1835. A violent mob unsuccessful in tracking down the British abolitionist George Thompson in town to speak, instead, broke up a meeting of the Female Anti-Slavery Society and managed to grab William Lloyd Garrison, the renowned leader within the American Anti-Slavery Society and publisher of the Liberator newspaper. Garrison was dragged through the streets at the end of a rope, until he was finally saved by the Mayor and held in protective custody overnight. To ensure his safety, he was forced to leave town until things cooled off.

Over 100 years before Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus, a heated fight to desegregate transportation took place in Massachusetts. Passenger railroads, introduced in the state in 1836, required free people of color to ride in what was called the “dirt car” and “Jim Crow car.” Spurred by a series of incidents in which anti-slavery activists were forcibly removed from “white” railway cars, Wampanoags in both Mashpee and Nantucket joined a petition campaign of more than 60 communities across the state calling for action from the Massachusetts legislature to desegregate railways.
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In 1836, responding to an avalanche of anti-slavery petitions (130,000 between 1837–1838), the Democratic controlled Congress passed the “Gag Rule,” tabling all such petitions without hearing them. The rule remained in place until 1844, when John Quincy Adams’ strategies to rescind the rule were finally supported by more Northern congressmen. By this time, anti-slavery sentiment had grown dramatically, and Adams' argument that denying citizen’s right to petition was fundamentally wrong. While the “Gag Rule” was in place, anti-slavery activists shifted their focus to encouraging state representatives to stifle and eventually destroy slavery, including some signed by Wampanoags on Nantucket.

In 1836, William Apes, the Indigenous activist, Methodist preacher, and author, took the stage at the Odeon Theater in Boston and delivered a fiery rebuke of white hypocrisy towards people of color. Apes framed his lecture as a eulogy of King Philip (Metacom), the Wampanoag leader who led his people in a violent resistance of colonial oppression over 160 years prior. Due to its popular reception, Apes delivered the lecture one additional time at the Odeon, and had it published the following year.
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In response to the flood of anti-slavery petitions arriving in D.C., Congress placed a complete ban on any discussion of slavery-related petitions from 1837-1844. In response to this “Gag Rule,” anti-slavery activists added additional emphasis to their work at the state level. Wampanoag anti-slavery activists participated in this work, petitioning their state representatives to vote against the annexation of Texas and Florida, and to take action to end slavery in the District of Columbia—the seat of national government.
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After a tribal vote, 57 men and women from the Aquinnah tribe on Martha’s Vineyard petitioned the Massachusetts legislature to request the enactment of laws to enforce temperance within their community. Although the Massachusetts legislation did not pass laws specific to Acquinnah, they did enact a law limiting the sale of liquor in quantities of less than 15 gallons statewide. However, it was repealed two years later.
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Frederick Bailey and his wife Anne escaped slavery and arrived at a known stop on the Underground Railroad: the home of Mary J. “Polly” Johnson, whose mother was part of the Fall River (Troy) Indian community, and her husband, Nathan Johnson. Moved by Johnson’s generosity, Frederick gave Nathan the honor of selecting his new name. Mr. Johnson suggested “Douglas;” Frederick changed the spelling, and became known as Frederick Douglass.
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Members of the Black and Indigenous community on Nantucket took part in a statewide petition campaign to end legal discrimination in the state of Massachusetts. Many of the signees from Nantucket appear on similar petition campaigns of the era, demonstrating the consistent and organized activism of the island's Anti-Slavery Society. Addressing the state legislature, the petition calls for the immediate repeal of all racially discriminatory laws.
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In 1840, Eunice Ross, a student of the York Street School on Nantucket, was denied access to the all-white high school on the island and was forced to discontinue her studies. Members of Nantucket’s Black and Indigenous community and their white supporters took action. After heated political struggles, including a lengthy boycott of the York Street School, they took their fight to the state capital, submitting a petition in January 1845. In March, Massachusetts responded by passing An Act Concerning Public Schools, stating that any child excluded from public school instruction had the right to sue for damages.
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In 1845, Massachusetts guaranteed citizens the right to education. Although this meant desegregation in places like Nantucket, where only one high school existed, it did not mean statewide desegregation. In 1847 a young girl named Sarah Roberts and her father sued the city of Boston, because she had to walk past five schools to attend an inferior racially segregated school. Roberts was represented by future Massachusetts senator, Charles Sumner, and Robert Morris, one of the first Black men to pass the bar in Massachusetts, but did not win. Impassioned by this, persistent political organizing by William C. Nell and others finally brought desegregated education to Massachusetts in 1855.

The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act strengthened the 1793 law that enabled slaveholders to retrieve their “property”–refugees from slavery who had escaped to freedom in the North. It was not uncommon for slavecatchers to be sent into the North to kidnap refugees back into bondage, and, at times, also grab individuals who had never been enslaved in the first place. Unlike the 1793 law, the act required federal and state officials to enforce it, and any citizen or law officer who failed to cooperate or assisted a fugitive was liable to heavy fines and even imprisonment. Commissioners presiding over trials of suspected refugees from slavery were awarded $10 if they ruled the individual should be returned to slavery, but just $5 if they deemed there to be insufficient evidence. The individual on trial was not allowed to testify and did not have the benefit of a jury.

When a sheriff came to Aquinnah looking for Edgar Jones, a formerly enslaved man who had escaped to freedom as a stowaway, the tribe refused to cooperate. Beulah Vanderhoop found Jones, dressed him in women’s clothing, and hid him in her garrett. When the sheriff returned with reinforcements, they found most of the Aquinnah armed with guns and shovels. As the sheriff left to procure a search warrant, Samuel Peters sailed Jones to the safety of New Bedford.
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By the time the Franklin landed on Martha’s Vineyard, its captain was ready to turn in Randall Burton, who had stowed away in Florida to escape slavery. With the help of the cook, also of color, Burton outwitted the captain and escaped to shore, where he hid in the swamps in Aquinnah for several days. He was discovered by Wampanoag women, who waded into the swamp to rescue him, then disguised him and hurried him to a boat that sailed him to the safety of New Bedford. The women’s role in the escape garnered national press coverage.
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