A Declaration of Mercy

On June 19, 1676, the Massachusetts Bay Colony issued a Declaration of Amnesty (also called a Declaration of Mercy), calling for the surrender of the Indigenous people of the colony. According to the Native Northeast Portal, this declaration “offered amnesty to any Indian, except for those who had taken or conspired to take English lives, [and] who surrendered to [the colonial officials’] authority.”

Though it was extending a proverbial olive branch, this Declaration of Amnesty identified any person of Indigenous descent as being a political enemy merely for being Indigenous. A later petition on behalf of William Wannuckhow, Joseph Wannuckhow, and John Appamatahqueen from September 1676 described the way in which the men had “begged mercy” as they had not acted against any Englishmen or community personally, and that “it was our unhappy portion to be with the enemies.” Claiming to be under the impression that, legally, “depredations and slaughters in war [were] not chargeable upon particular persons,” they sought pardon. (1)

Ultimately, those who surrendered were often the starving, the ill, the Christian Indians, and those who had previously allied with the English. Though pardoned for their perceived political offenses, those who surrendered were forcibly interned on Deer Island or, for many, sold into slavery throughout New England and the Caribbean.

1. Native Northeast Portal, Petition of William and Joseph Wannuckhow, and John Appamatahqueen to the Court of Assistants. September 5, 1676. This petition by William and Joseph Wannuckhow and John Appamathqueen reads that “it was a time of war when this mischief [the burning of Goodman Gaines’s home] was done, and though it was our unhappy portion to be with the [ blot ] enemies, yet we conceive that depredations and slaughters in war are not chargeable upon particular persons, especially such as have submitted themselves to Your Honours upon promise of life as we have done.”