Ashbel Woodward

“ The old soldier's breast glowed with honest pride, as he recounted to his young braves the exploits of their sires, or exhibited the proud tokens of submission forced from some ancient enemy, and most of all when he came to dwell upon scenes conspicuous for his own valor and reddened by his blood. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The pre-historic inhabitants of the Mississippi valley were also evidently acquainted with their manufacture, as remains of shell beads have been found in many of the mounds which survive as the only memorials of that mysterious people.
These Indian beads were known under a variety of names among the early colonists, and were called, wampum, wampom-peage, or wampeage, frequently peage or peake only, and in some localities sewan or zewand. But generally sewan prevailed among the Dutch, and wampum among the English. These names were applied without distinction to all varieties of beads. ”

“ Similar gifts were often made to the great discoverer, whenever the natives sought to win his favor or wished to assure him of their own good will. These shell beads were afterwards found to be in general use among the tribes of the Atlantic coast. At the close of the sixteenth century the English colonists found them in Virginia, as did the Dutch at the commencement of the following century in New York, the English in New England and the [8] French in Canada. ”

“ The belts received at treaties, councils and other assemblies were entrusted for presentation to the care of one individual, usually the sachem, who was expected to keep in mind the occasion and purport of each, which he could readily do by the aid of the devices emblematic of the event it signalized that were traced upon each. [17] Thus a belt presented to Sir Wm. Johnson by the Six Nations, had wrought upon it the sun, the emblem of light, and symbols of the Six Nations. ”

“ When Columbus, on his second voyage to the New World, landed upon Cape Cabron, Cuba, the cacique of the adjacent country meeting him upon the shore offered him a string of beads made of the hard parts of shells as an assurance of welcome. ”

“ Probably but little was produced north of the Narragansetts [Rhode Island] , as the necessary shells were scarce beyond Cape Cod. The Narragansetts were themselves great producers, and tradition claimed for their tribe the honor of the invention of wampum. But the Long Island Indians were by far the greatest producers along our northern coast. Their sandy flats and marshes teemed with sea life, and, when the Dutch first came to New Amsterdam, [17] their island went by the name of sewan hacky, or the "land of the sewan shell," so numerous were the sewan manufactories upon it. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The barbarian, dwelling in independent isolation, satisfies the majority of his wants by direct effort and not by an interchange of services, nor till civilization has considerably advanced can we look for any general system of exchanges with the mutual dependence and mutual benefits which such a system involves. ”

“ The inland tribes were of course unable to produce their own wampum, and depended for their supply upon the coast tribes. A brisk trade thus arose between the coast and interior. Hides and furs were brought down to clothe the denser population of the shore, and wampum carried [19] back in exchange. [10] Often, however, the inland tribes were able to pounce down and wring this precious material from its carriers in the form of tribute.
Wampum is often spoken of as "Indian money." ”

“ The idea of gaudiness is apt to associate itself in our minds with Indian trappings, but we must confess that the simple grace and force of these rustic adornments would put to shame many a glittering article of more modern wear. ”

“ 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 [39] 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. ”

“ The ancient Peruvians dwelt amid mountains of gold, but the idea of a circulating medium never dawned upon them. In like manner, the Indian had never learned that use of his golden wampum which was the first to suggest itself to the white man. ”

“ 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, [57] 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. ”

“ It seems almost incredible that the Indian could produce so clever an article with his rude implements. Some have conjectured that the specimens produced before the natives obtained awl blades from the colonists were very inferior to their later productions. One writer [5] even goes so far as to suggest, that, before the advent of Europeans, Indian beads consisted mostly of small pieces of wood, stained white or black. ”

“ The belt was thirteen rows wide to represent the United States, and had upon it a cross indicating France, and several white figures denoting the different Indian villages. [18] The Indian like other young languages drew closer to nature than the dusty abstractions of civilization. It was highly figurative and the majority of its words referred directly to familiar external sights. The tribes of each nation of the Iroquois were known respectively as the Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Turtle, Deer, Snipe, Heron and Hawk. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In the forest, likewise, it now circulated as money, for [53] 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. ”

“ 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 12d., at the rate of six beads for a penny. ”

“ 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, [51] 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. ”

“ 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 [60] remained an important article in commerce. ”

“ 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 [58] three black should pass for a stiver ”

“ 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 [54] 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. ”