Petition of Abraham Cooper and Other Gayhead Indians to the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
To His Excellency Elbridge Gerry, Esq. Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts1
We, the subscribers proprietors, with others, of the land called Gay Head, humbly shew that we are accidentally told that several petitions were lately pending in the General Court respecting us, our land, property, liberty, and privileges, of which petitions we have not had proper notice. We are also accidentally told that Your Excellency has been requested to appoint over us Guardians,2 mostly, we apprehend, men whose property would be enlarged if3 we should be deprived of ours.4 We are alarmed at these things and constrained to mention that neither the Town of Chilmark, which lies contiguous and next adjoining Gay Head nor any other corporate body, has given instructions to have private petitions formed and exhibited against us, contrary to the true spirit of Republicanism.
We have acted as proprietors nearly twenty years successively, supported our own poor and schools, and have not been chargeable to any town.
And during ten years last past we have acted as Republicans in defending our landed property at a considerable expense, have built a meeting house, and otherwise increased the value of our real property not less than ten thousand dollars. We have a clerk and a treasurer of respectability.
There is no tribe or People of Colour in the Commonwealth that live so well as we do.
We submit to Your Excellency’s own wisdom, humbly praying that you would interpose in our behalf and suspend the appointment of Guardians until January next that we may have a meeting of all the proprietors and choose some gentleman of integrity to acquaint both Your Excellency and the General Court with our circumstances. We beg for mercy and, like Mordecai the Jew, wait in sackcloth.
And with all possible respect are Your Excellency’s to command,
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Notation:
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I certify that there is a meeting of the proprietors of Gayhead to be holden by adjournment on the first Monday of December 18th, at which time a number of the proprietors, now absent, will be at home. Joel Rogers, Moderator
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Notation:
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His Excellency Governor Gerry
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Sir,
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I have collected of the People of Color, proprietors of Gay Head, who attend on my instructions in religion seven dollars, and, by their desire, have enclosed the same for your disposal towards relieving the sufferers by the late fire at Newburyport.6
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And am your servant,
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Thomas Jeffers, Elder and Pastor of the Baptist Church at Gay Head
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Gay Head, July 23, 1811
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The seven dollars sent enclosed to Honorable Mr. Story of Salem
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Legislative Action: |
Dukes County, Gay Head. Petition from a number of its inhabitants regard to the new appointment over them of Guardians. July 13, 1811 / Indians / In Council, August 20, 1811. Read and referred to Honorable Mr. Kinsley and Mr. Fowler. Committee reported verbally that this petition be filed until the next session of the Legislature. August 21, 1811. In Council, January 23, 1812. Recommitted to the Honorable Mr. Kinsley and Mr. Fowler |
- 1. In May 1811, the Congregational minister at Gay Head, Zachariah Howwaswee, submitted a petition to the General Court, advocating for the reinstitution of the community's guardianship. (See the Petition of Zachariah Howwaswee, 1811.05.00.01.) The Massachusetts Legislature's answer to the petition was to pass a Guardian Act intended to "better regulate" the Indian proprietors. However, the local lighthouse keeper, Ebenezer Skiff, who sometimes advised the Gay Head community, thought Howwaswee's complaint was "fallacious" and the Legislature's action done without consultation of the greater body of the tribe. Cooper's petition below is their response. BIA, Evidence for Proposed Finding (Wampanoag Gay Head, June 25, 1985), 23.
- 2. See the Petition of Zachariah Howwaswee, 1811.05.00.01.
- 3. Deleted Text: were
- 4. Such was the case with Zachariah Mayhew, who received hundred of Gay Head land as payment for his services. See Mandell, Tribe, Race, History, 87.
- 5. Deleted Text: and wife
- 6. On night of May 31, 1811, a fire that started in a stable spread wildly through the town, eventually consuming close to 250 buildings. An Account of the Great Fire, 2nd ed.,(Newburyport, MA: W. & J. Gilman, 1811).