Block Island

Geographic position

41.1697° N, 71.5800° W

Sources

http://www.providenceri.com/narragansettbay/the_islands.html.http://www.biconservancy.org/history-bi.html. "Block Island." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 22 Sep. 2014. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/69564/Block-Island. Livermore, Samuel. A History of Block Island: From Its Discovery in 1514 to the Present Time. 1876. Geo coordinates from https://www.google.com/#q=geographic+coordinates+of+Block+Island.

General note

Block Island, roughly 10 square miles in area and composed primarily of beaches, cliffs, and grasslands, is nine miles south of mainland Rhode Island and 18 miles north of Montauk on the eastern edge of Long Island. The Narragansett Indians, Block Island’s original inhabitants, called the island Manisses, meaning “Island of the Little God.” Perhaps because of this, the Narragansetts who occupied Block Island are sometimes referred to as Manissean Indians. The island derives its current name from Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, who sighted it in 1614. In 1636, an Englishman, Captain John Oldham, was murdered while trying to establish trade with the Narragansetts on Block Island. Henry Vane, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, used Oldham’s murder as justification to seize the land. The English slaughtered 14 Narragansett warriors and burned nearly all the crops and wigwams they found on the island. From then on, the island’s Narragansetts were outnumbered by the English settlers and subject to colonial rule. Possession of Block Island passed to several private families in 1658 before being incorporated into Rhode Island as the town of New Shoreham in 1672. By 1700, the Indian population of Block Island had been reduced to about 300. During his preaching tours of New England, Occom interacted with inhabitants from Block Island, though these interactions occurred on the mainland.Although Occom’s early residence in Montauk was not far from Block Island by water, no evidence indicates that he ever visited there.