Charlestown

Variant name of place

Charles Town

Geographic position

41.3853° N, 71.6681° W

Sources

Narragansett Indian Tribe. "History." http://www.narragansett-tribe.org/. "Historical and Architectural Resources of Charlestown, Rhode Island: A Preliminary Report." www.preservation.ri.gov/pdfs_zips_downloads/survey_pdfs/charlestown.pdf. DeLoss Love, William. Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England. Boston: The Pilgrim Press, 1899, 189-96. Geo coordinates at https://www.google.com/#q=geographic+coordinates+of+charlestown+ri.

General note

Charlestown is located in Washington County in southwestern Rhode Island along the Block Island sound. For thousands of years before European settlement, the area was inhabited by Native Americans who lived by hunting, fishing and agriculture. When the English dissenter, Roger Williams, fled Massachusetts Bay in 1636 and stepped ashore in what would become the Plantation of Providence, he was welcomed by Canonicus, sachem of the Narragansett Indians. From Canonicus, Williams purchased a large tract of land that included the settlement of Misquamicut, which would become the site of an English settlement named Charlestown after King Charles II. It was incorporated in 1783. After the Great Swamp Fight in which the United Colonies massacred many Narragansetts — and hunted down and killed or enslaved those who escaped — 500 survivors (from a pre-war population of 5,000) signed a 1682 peace treaty and received permission to join with the Eastern Niantic tribe, which had remained neutral throughout the war and had a small reservation near Charlestown. Settlers continued to acquire land from the Naragansetts, and by 1880, the tribe ceased to exist as a legal entity. A portion of tribal lands were returned to Narragansett ownership in 1978 by the courts and state legislation, and the tribe was officially recognized in 1983. Charlestown is the present-day headquarters of the Narragansett Tribe and the location of their reservation.