Description:

Native American

“Indian” Attacks by Liberty Men in Maine

 

Broadstreet Wiggin, Autograph Letter Signed, to Richard Rust Wiggin, June 15, 1808, Palermo, Massachusetts [Maine]. 1 p. with separate address panel, 7.75" x 12". Expected folds; interior patch repairs to tears on folds and holes; tear from opening seal affecting three words.

 

In this fascinating letter, Broadstreet Wiggin writes to his brother about recent assaults by white settlers (“Liberty Men”) disguised as Native Americans in Kennebec County, [Maine]. Many of the settlers had lived there for up to twenty years but had not obtained titles to the land. The Kennebec Proprietors, a coalition of investors mostly from Boston, held the title to much of the land in the Kennebec River valley, and they began suing to eject these squatters from their property. In response, Liberty Men gathered together and disguised themselves as Native Americans to confront not only sheriffs and deputy sheriffs attempting to serve writs on them, but also surveyors hired by the Proprietors.

 

When one sheriff called out a military force to suppress the insurrection, the Governor disbanded the troops and censured the sheriff. However, in June 1808, a court convicted leader Nathan Barlow (1776-1816) of assaulting Constable Moses Robinson and sentenced Barlow to two years at hard labor at the state prison in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

 

Wiggins’s reassurances in this letter to his brother were premature, as a month later, armed “White Indians” obstructed Wiggins’s attempt to survey northern Palermo for the Kennebec Proprietors.

 

What became known as the Malta War reached its peak in 1808 and 1809. In the latter year some Liberty Men, disguised as Native Americans, murdered 22-year-old survey chainman Paul Chadwick near Malta [now Windsor]. Authorities arrested seven of the squatters and held them in the jail in Augusta. Seventy men surrounded the jail, but Massachusetts Governor Levi Lincoln Sr. sent several companies of militia from nearby towns to defend the jail and its prisoners. Six weeks later, a jury found the defendants not guilty, and the war ended.

 

Ultimately the Liberty Men’s efforts ended in failure. By 1810, a civil settlement of land deeds restored ownership to the Proprietors and required payment from squatters for their acreage. Many of the Liberty Men migrated out of central Maine, even as Maine became a separate state in 1820.

 

Excerpts:

“I am greatly obliged to you for your good will concerning some money But I am like to make out without coming there after it I have taken a job of surveying that will neat me perhaps one hundred and fifty dollars and may Be more I have a verry fine crop of corn and grain growing my grass is verry stout the surveying will Be ready cash and my affairs at this moment appear more prosperous than they ever did Before give my respects to mr Winthrop and his wife tell him the Indian caper is pretty much Broken up their captain is sent to the states prison five others have quit their country and sought a protection in the Kingsforest at nova scotia and some of my Neighbors stand trembling in their shoes for fear it will Be their turn next”

 

Broadstreet Wiggin (1770-1814) was born in New Hampshire. He became a surveyor in Maine. In July 1800, someone wounded him while he was surveying in Hancock County, Massachusetts [Maine]. He died in Freedom, Maine, a town he had surveyed in 1810.

 

Richard Rust Wiggin (1786-1857) settled in Meredith, New Hampshire.

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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