Native Americans introduced tobacco to Europeans. They used, and still use it in social, ceremonial, and political settings and in New England, it is often mixed with other plants such as bearberry, sweet fern, and lobelia. This tobacco bag was a gift to the Reverend Stephen Williams from his Kanien’kehaka (Mohawk) brother-in-law, Arosen. During the 1704 raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts, by the French and their Indigenous allies, ten-year-old Stephen and his seven-year-old sister Eunice were part of a large group who were captured and marched to Canada. Stephen was eventually redeemed and returned to Massachusetts, but Eunice chose to remain with her adopted family and married Arosen. She never returned permanently, but did visit several times, and at least once with her husband. He gave the tobacco bag and several other gifts to Stephen during one of those visits.
Unidentified. Painted Tobacco Bag. ca. 1720. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/ir-a-25/. Accessed on November 21, 2024.
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