Freetown

Geographic position

41.7728° N, 70.9578° W

Sources

Bacon, Leonard Woolsey. "Church History." A History of the Town of Freetown, Massachusetts with an Account of the Old Home Festival, July 30th, 1902. Fall River, MA: Press of J.H. Franklin & Company, 1902. 29-49. Web. Pierce, Palo Alto. "Ye Freemen's Purchase. 1659-1683." A History of the Town of Freetown, Massachusetts with an Account of the Old Home Festival, July 30th, 1902. Fall River, MA: Press of J.H. Franklin & Company, 1902. 3-10. Web.

General note

Freetown is located in southern Massachusetts. In 1659, pilgrims purchased a four-mile tract from the Wampanoag Indians Wamsitti and his squaw Tattapanum for “twenty coats, two rugs, two iron pots, two kettles and one little kettle, eight pair of shoes, six pair of stockings, one dozen of hoes, one dozen of hatchets, two yards of broadcloth,” and most likely alcohol (Pierce 3). This became known as the Freeman’s Purchase. The town was incorporated in 1683. In 1747, Pastor Silas Brett came to Freetown, hoping to engage with the religious revivals of The Great Awakening. He spent the next thirty years preaching among the Pocasset Indians, a mission that ultimately proved unsuccessful. In a 1777 journal entry, Occom describes his travels throughout Massachusetts as an itinerant preacher during which he came through Freetown and met a young preacher, Mr. Walcut, and together they went to “the Indian Place.”