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05/07/2019 04:27 PMMoms who love history might like to follow their Mother’s Day brunches with a free Old Saybrook Historical Society program about recent research into the local history of Saybrook Fort and the Pequot War, which took place from 1636 to 1637 in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York.
The program, Siege and Battles of Saybrook Fort and the Pequot War, will take place at 2 p.m. on Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 12, at the Pavilion at Saybrook Point, which was known to Native Americans as Pasbeshauke. The program will offer an overview of the archaeological and historical research that has, among other findings, determined the location of the original Saybrook Fort. The discussion will be followed by a guided walking tour of the area to point out important sites related to the fort and the Pequot War.
“This project has its roots in longtime concern and interest in this community in knowing more about Saybrook Fort, which was the first home as well as a fort for the English settlers,” said Tedd Levy, who is managing the project for the historical society.
In the 1980s, a Connecticut College professor of anthropology by the name of Harold Juli oversaw an archaeological dig of the area, Levy said.
“He discovered that a lot of changes over time made it very difficult to locate the first fort, the one [erected] in 1636,” Levy said.
Today, a 1930 statue of Saybrook Fort commander Lion Gardiner stands at the point, along with a commemoration of the fort that, it turns out, marks the location of a second fort. The original burned down in 1647, destroying nearly all traces of its location, according to Levy.
“Between the burning of that fort and the changes over almost 400 years now, finding out where its exact location was and what it was really like—the shape and design of the structure—is extremely, extremely difficult because not too much evidence remains,” Levy said.
The fort served as the English settlers’ headquarters for war and was under constant siege by the Pequots, according to Levy.
Uncovering New Information
In fall 2012, researchers from the Mashantucket Pequot Museum began archaeological work at Saybrook Point. The museum had previously begun work in the Groton area to unearth information about the Battle of Mistick Fort, another important episode in the Pequot War.
“They spent five years doing archaeological work at Saybrook Point and also doing historical research—documentary research—here in Connecticut and New England and also went to England and to the Netherlands to see some of the original documents,” Levy explained.
The historical society itself applied for and received a grant from the American Battlefields Protection Program, an initiative of the National Park Service; the funds allowed the organization to hire consultants and work further with the Mashantucket Pequot Museum to conduct research and prepare educational materials for the public as well as for school curricula.
“This seems to be a small war, but its implications for our history are phenomenal because it really started the total breakdown between the natives and the colonists,” said Marie McFarlin, historical society president. “The whole tenor of trying to work together...it changed.”
“Some have described it as a war of genocide,” added Levy. “The English settlers tried to wipe out the Pequots. As part of the treaty that ended the war, no natives were to refer to the Pequots anymore, the name Pequot was to be eliminated, the survivors of the war were sold off as slaves into the West Indies and to wealthy Englishmen in Boston and in Hartford. But a small number of Pequots did survive and they lived among other Indian nations [and] tribes, at that time and they also had a small reservation close to where they are today.
“The pattern of trying to eliminate the Indians when they were in the way was followed for the next 350 years,” Levy continued. “As settlers moved into new areas, if they could not work out unfair agreements with the Indians—take their land—they eventually eliminated [them] in one way or another. Ultimately, in the early 1800s, they put them on reservations and then if they discovered oil or gold on the reservations, they kicked them off. It’s a long, unpleasant story.”
While long and unpleasant, it’s part of our nation’s history, and McFarlin and Levy want people—especially local residents—to be informed.
“We as a historical society thought it was extremely important that we get involved in supporting the Pequots,” Levy said. “And then eventually an opportunity became available where we could get funds to do some of our own work...to increase awareness and understanding.”
One of the products of their efforts is a brochure with bicycle or walking tours of the area, designating important sites of interest. Six sites soon will have interpretive markers providing details about the event that occurred in that place, archaeological work conducted there, and photographs of artifacts found there, Levy said.
An exhibition will open this summer at the General William Hart House on Main Street titled The Struggle for Survival: Saybrook Fort and the Pequot War 1636–’37. Materials from that exhibit will then be used for further educational purposes, McFarlin said.
“Knowledge has power and we want to make sure that as many people as possible, young and old, know what occurred right in our own background,” said Levy. “Ultimately, we want people to understand and appreciate what’s happened. It’s human experiences in the past and we can all learn from those.”
The program Siege and Battles of Saybrook Fort and the Pequot War will take place on Sunday, May 12 at 2 p.m. at the Vicki Duffy Pavilion at Saybrook Point. For more information, contact the Old Saybrook Historical Society at 860-388-2622.