Cape Cod: Articles: History -- post an article

They Lived Dangerously

The early settlers of Massachusetts lived in great tension. They lived dangerously, like people in a state of war.

They might be raided at any time, not by an airplane with deadly bombs, but by Indians with tomahawks and arrows. A plane arrives with warning, but Indians arrived like fog on a dark night, silently, stealthily, craftily, and murderously.

Hence it is not surprising that Hutchinson’s History of Massachusetts (vol. ii, p. 67) informs us that:

In every frontier settlement there were more or less garison houses, some with a flankart at two opposite angles, others at each corner of the house; some houses surrounded with palisades; others, which were smaller, built with square timber, one piece laid horizontally upon another, and loopholes at every side of the house; and besides these, generally in any more considerable plantation there was one garrison house capable of containing soldiers sent for the defense of the plantation, and the families near, whose houses were not so fortified. It was thought justifiable and necessary, whatever the general rule of law might be, to erect such forts, castles, or bulwarks as these upon a man’s own ground, without commission or special license therefor.

• tell-a-friend • link to this post •