Strout Stories
Massasoit statue at Plymouth, MA, completed in 1921 on the 300th anniversary of his extension of friendship to the Pilgrims
In 1680, inhabitants of Eastham “prohibited the Nauset Wampanoags from gathering pine knots and tar and cutting wood on the town commons - a Wampanoag tradition. Around this time, a young and newly married Christopher Strout settled down in Truro, a town of Eastham that had, until a few years prior, been the home of the Nauset people for nearly 10,000 years.[xxv]
After his 1680 wedding, the next time Christopher appears in surviving records is 1710, when he and his eldest, George, are listed as some of Truro’s only cattle owners. The same year, Eastham residents further prohibited Wampanoag access to “some particular swamps for peeling of bark, to which the Nausets responded in writing, “we are distressed, despised people.”[xxvi]
This is why we must start our journey here; not just because it is where our family’s record begins but because it was also where so many families’ records were ended.
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Join us soon for Origins Pt. 2 – Cape Cod, a look at nautical life for the first Strouts in Eastham, the astounding business moves of his and Sarah’s seaworthy children, and what may have led his four sons and a widowed Sarah to start over and reestablish the Strout family once again as early settlers – this time in Cape Elizabeth, Maine
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The USET Sovereignty Protection Fund (USET SPF), a 501(c)(4) organization, provides assertive and honest diplomacy and advocacy on the two pillars of federal Indian law and policy: (1) Tribal Nations are inherently sovereign, self-governing political entities that predate the existence of the United States; and (2) the United States has assumed trust and treaty obligations by taking their lands and resources and restricting the exercise of their sovereignty.
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[Strouts.org is an advocate for, not an affiliate of, USET or USET SPF][i] Torrey, C. A., Bentley, E. P. (1985). New England marriages prior to 1700. United States: Genealogical Publishing Company.
[ii] Miller, G. J. (2013). Ye Olde Middlesex Courts: The Establishment of an Early Court System in One of the Original Counties of New Jersey. United States: Heritage Books.
[iii] Vorse, M. H. (1991). Time and the Town: A Provincetown Chronicle. United States: Rutgers University Press.
[iv] Bushnell, D. (1953). The Treatment of the Indians in Plymouth Colony. New England Quarterly, 193-218.
[v] Turner, J. G. (2020). The Yoke of Bondage: Slavery in Plymouth Colony. The New England Quarterly, 93(4), 634-654.
[vi] Jennings, F. (1971). Virgin land and savage people. American Quarterly, 23(4), 519-541.
[vii] LaVeist TA, Fullilove M, Fullilove R. 400 Years of Inequality Since Jamestown of 1619. Am J Public Health. 2019 Jan;109(1):83-84.
[viii] Bradford, W. (1912). History of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647. United States: Massachusetts Historical Society.
[ix] Silverman, D. J. (2019). This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving. India: Bloomsbury Publishing.
[x] Turner, J. G. (2020). The Yoke of Bondage: Slavery in Plymouth Colony. The New England Quarterly, 93(4), 634-654.
[xi] Bradford, W. (1912). History of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647. United States: Massachusetts Historical Society.
[xii] Mayo, C. (1976). Reluctant Pilgrims. American Studies International, 15(2), 52-62.
[xiii] Silverman, D. J. (2019). This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving. India: Bloomsbury Publishing.
[xiv] ibid
[xv] Karr, R. D. (1998). " Why should you be so furious?": The violence of the Pequot War. The Journal of American History, 85(3), 876-909.
[xvi] Silverman, D. J. (2019). This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving. India: Bloomsbury Publishing.
[xvii] Salisbury, N. (1974). Red Puritans: The “Praying Indians” of Massachusetts Bay and John Eliot. The William and Mary Quarterly, 31(1), 27–54. https://doi.org/10.2307/1918981
[xviii] Silverman, D. J. (2019). This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving. India: Bloomsbury Publishing.
[xix] Sainsbury, J. A. (1975). Indian labor in early Rhode Island. New England Quarterly, 378-393.
[xx] Cogley, R. W. (1999). John Eliot’s mission to the Indians before King Philip’s War. Harvard University Press.
[xxi] Mather, I. (1862). The History of King Philip's War; Also, A History of the Same War. United States: editor.
[xxii] Silverman, D. J. (2019). This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving. India: Bloomsbury Publishing.
[xxiii] ibid
[xxiv] Ricky, D. B. (1999). Indians of Maryland. United States: Somerset.
[xxv] Swanton, J. R. (2003). The Indian Tribes of North America (No. 145). Genealogical Publishing Com.
[xxvi] Silverman, D. J. (2019). This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving. India: Bloomsbury Publishing.