"Purchase" of Yacocomico Village

In March 1634, the colony of Maryland was established by Leonard Calvert and the approximately 150 passengers who journeyed to the region from England aboard the Ark and Dove. Contrary to popular belief, the colonists did not simply sail up to the land and make camp, claiming it as their new colony. An accurate account of events in the early stages of colonization is much more complex. The land was already populated with an assortment of Indigenous tribes and nations. The Yacocomico people, an independent tribe allied with the Piscataway, were those from which the Maryland colonists acquired land and began their colonization.

The land that is now known as St. Mary’s City is part of the territory of the Yacocomico people. In March 1634, the English colonists were sailing along the Potomac River searching for a place to plant the roots of colonization. The colonists were informed that they should make their intentions known to the Piscataway Tayac, who was the dominant ruler of the region, to whom other tribes paid tribute, or were otherwise allied. During their visit with the Tayac, the colonists sought permission to settle on Piscataway land. Permission was essentially denied and the colonists were directed back down the Potomac to an area known to them as Yaocomico, where the Yacocomico people lived, separate in leadership from the Piscataway, but likely a tributary tribe. 

Leonard Calvert met with the Yacocomico werowance, allegedly under the watchful eye of an ancient mulberry tree (according to local legend), and came to an agreement. In exchange for an unknown number of axes, hoes, cloth, and hatchets, the Yacocomico werowance gave permission for Calvert to establish the Maryland colony on 30 miles of Yacocomico land. Within the bounds of this initial plot of land grew the town known as St. Mary’s City. It is important to note that the English viewed this agreement as a purchase of land, which from European culture was understood that the land belonged to the purchaser and that no one could use that land without their expressed approval from that moment on. Indigenous Peoples of the Chesapeake region did not share the same concept of ownership over the land; rather, land was available for use by all. Ownership generally applied to an individual's or family's crop, but did not extend to the land itself. This transaction, as it were, marked the first of many cultural misunderstandings between Chesapeake Indigenous Peoples and the Maryland colonists.

The land acquired by the colonists was the site of a Yacocomico village, in which members of the tribe lived. As part of the agreement, the Yacocomico allowed the colonists to live in close proximity with them until the next year. It is unclear whether they lived in the same village together or if the Yacocomico moved across the river to another Yacocomico village, as their people were established on both sides. In any case, crops had already been planted and it would not have been possible for them to abandon their village to the colonists and leave behind their food supply. As it needed tending, the Yacocomico remained in close proximity at least until the end of the harvest season. Throughout this time of shared occupancy, the Yacocomico played the part of gracious hosts, sharing their crops and doing the hunting for the colonists, providing them with means of sustenance. Their food supply consisted primarily of hominy (corn), wheat, peas, beans, deer, turkey, squirrel, fish, and oysters.

The Yacocomico lived on both sides of the St. Mary’s River, with the exact location of the werowance’s home being disputed. Many gave up their homes, called witchotts, to the colonists, either moving out of the village or moving in with other family or tribal members within the community. The recreations seen at the Woodland Indian Hamlet in present-day Historic St. Mary’s City are based on descriptions of Yacocomico witchotts detailed in Father Andrew White’s A Breife Relation of the Voyage Unto Maryland:

“their houses are built in an halfe ovall forme 20 foot long, and 9 or 10 foot high with a place open in the top, halfe a yard square, whereby they admit the light, and let forth the smoake, for they build their fire, after the manner of ancient halls of England, in the middle of the house, about which they lie to sleep vpon mats, spread on a low scaffold hafe a yard from ground” (White, pg. 22).

It is in these structures the colonists would have lived, until such a time that they were able to build homes in the English style of the day, as they were accustomed. 

In Father White’s account, he makes note of his impression of the so-called purchase of the Yacocomico village. He expresses

“Is not this miraculous that a nation a few daies before in generall armes against us, and our enterprise should like lambes yeeld themselves, glad of our company, giveing us houses land, and liveings for a trifle” (White, pg. 20-21).

The word choice here indicates a sort of resignation of the Yacocomico werowance. White notes previously that the Yacocomico have been subjected to attacks by the Susquehannocks who have been raiding the region from the north. There was likely a growing concern among his people for relief from the constant threat, and the idea of having the colonists there as a sort of buffer would have been appealing, despite knowledge of what had been happening for the past several years with the colonization of Powhatan land to the south by the Virginia English. There is a recognition of how disproportionately advantaged the colonists were in the agreement, acknowledging that the price was but a trifle for what was gained. It is this recognition of the vulnerability of the Yacocomico people that possibly hints at why they agreed to allow the colonization of their land.

White, Andrew. "A Briefe Relation of the Voyage Unto Maryland." Archives of Maryland. Vol. 552, pg. 19-21. Accessed August 20th, 2021. https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000552/html/am552--19.html.

Seib, Rebecca. Rountree, Helen C.. Indians of Southern Maryland. Maryland. The Maryland Historical Society, 2014.

Otis, James. "Calvert of Maryland." Heritage History. Accessed August 18th 2021. https://www.heritage-history.com/index.php?c=read&author=otis&book=maryland&story=village.