The Walking Purchase
Posted: Monday, January 10, 2011
by Jack H. Schick
Walking Purchase was a 1737 agreement between the Lenape (Delaware) Indians and the Province of Pennsylvania. At that time the Lenape had been subordinates to the Iroquois Nations for nearly 100 years. Pennsylvania was under the Proprietary of Thomas and John Penn. There was little argument over the ‘purchase’ until almost twenty years later. Most historical information on this agreement stems from a political quarrel between the proprietors and their ‘enemies’ at the out break of the French and Indian War in 1754.
Penn’s purchases from the Indians were narrow strips along the Delaware River that extended inland “two day’s travel by horse;” or, “as far as a man could go in a day and a half or two days.” The purpose of this distance, which was measured in 1685, at about seventy miles, was to acquire access to the Susquehanna River and trading routes to the Iroquois Nations of New York and central Pennsylvania.
There was contention over the boundaries of Penn’s grant. Maryland claimed the southern tier of present day Pennsylvania. New York claimed the western bank of the Delaware north of The Forks (Lehigh/Delaware Rivers), and began settlement there. Connecticut claimed the northern third of what is now Pennsylvania, and sent settlers and militia to the Wyoming Valley, which led to several brutal wars between the two colonies. These conflicting claims came before the Crown and all were decided in the Penn family’s favor.
After William Penn died in 1718, his personal secretary, James Logan, had the Indian purchases, most of which were verbal agreements between the Chiefs and Penn himself, confirmed by a deed from Lenape Chief Sasoonan and other leaders descendent from those who had signed the original deals. This deed did not include all the lands William Penn had purchased, but included as much as Logan believed was needed by settlers. It extended to the “Lehigh Hills” and from the Delaware River to the lower Susquehanna.
New Yorkers and New Englanders continued to settle along the upper Schuykill and Delaware Rivers outside the limits of that 1718 deed. In 1727, William Penn’s sons became Proprietors upon the death of Hannah Penn, their father's second wife. Logan sent agents to the areas on which the settlers had trespassed, but negotiations were unsuccessful. He requested that the Proprietors come to America to meet with the Indians and make new purchases that would cover the lands in question.
Thomas Penn arrived in Philadelphia in August of 1732. His brother, John, followed two years later. In September of 1732, Sasoonan and other Lenape leaders agreed to sell the upper Schuykill lands. Land along the upper Delaware proved much more troublesome to acquire. Other Lenape “bands” now occupied the Forks area. Negotiations continued for five years.
Chief Nutimus’ band had originally lived in New Jersey. They moved to the Forks a few years previously. They had not participated in the original purchases. They insisted that the Penns buy the land again. Nutimus met with Thomas Penn in June of 1733. They exchanged gifts. Both expressed hope that the peace established by William Penn would continue. Nutimus, however, showed no inclination to sell his claim. The two met at Durham in Bucks County a year later. No progress was made.
There was a surge of German immigrants to Pennsylvania during this period. The Penns needed more land to sell to these new settlers. They began to press the issue with Chief Nutimus. At Pennsbury Manor in May 1735, they presented him with “evidence” that the Forks country had been sold to William Penn in 1686, long before his band had settled there. They said the agreement was to land “beginning at the place which is now Wrightstown, Bucks County, extending back as far as a man could go in a day and a half.” The distance was assumed to be about fifty miles. Only part of this territory had been included in the 1718 deed.
Nutimus argued that he knew nothing of the agreement. Since he had been living in New Jersey at the time of the original purchases and had no legitimate claim to the land, the Proprietors assumed he was no real obstacle to occupation of the area between Blue and South Mountains. Some areas of the Forks were surveyed for sale and opened to settlers. Easton soon became a thriving river port trading post at the juncture of the two rivers. The Penns established a 6,500 acre “Indian Tract Manor” on which Nutimus and his band could continue to live. They arranged for the 'day-and-a-half ‘walk’ to be measured to satisfy the purchase agreement.
Nutimus refused to relinquish his claims to the land. Logan heard that he was going to ask the Iroquois Nations for help in the dispute. Logan took steps to prevent this alliance. When the Iroquois came to Philadelphia in 1736 to sell their lands on the lower Susquehanna, Logan also presented them with a second deed in which the Indians relinquished their claims to all lands in southeast Pennsylvania. It was signed by both parties on October 25th. Since the Lenape were subject to Iroquois rule, the Forks band of Nutmius came to terms as well. On August 25, 1737, a deed confirming the original sale of 1686 was signed by Lenape leaders Manawkyhikon, Lappawinzoe, Teeshacomin and Nutimus. The matter was believed to be permanently settled.
All that remained to satisfy the 1686 agreement was to measure off the “day and a half” travel. It occurred to the Penns that, if measured “correctly,” due to the bends in the Delaware River, the purchase could include not only the Forks area, but would extend well up river to encompass the lands “squatted on” by New Yorkers and New Englanders. Logan hired men to scout the route and prepare a trail. He assigned Solomon Jennings, James Yeates and Edward Marshall to do the “walk.”
The men set out from Wrightstown, Bucks County on September 19, 1737. They maintained a very brisk pace, which brought protests from the Indians who accompanied them. The Indians had difficulty keeping pace, as did the “walkers” themselves. Jennings made it only 18 miles. The first night they camped near present day Northampton. The following morning Yeates dropped out, too. Marshall pressed on and covered sixty-five miles in eighteen hours. He finished the “walk” east of present day Jim Thorpe.
The limits of the “purchase” were marked by a line that ran at a right angle to the line of the “walk.” The “walk” went northwest from Wrightstown into Northampton County and continued into the “wilderness area” north of Blue Mountain. The right angle line went northeast intersecting the Delaware at the present location of Lackawaxen. This included much of the area settled by the other colonies and all of the Forks country.
Despite the Indian’s complaints: “You run, that’s not fair, you was to walk,” the Natives did not say much about the “purchase.” The distance was well within the previously established “day and a half” range. On November 3, 1738, Nutimus visited Philadelphia and exchanged gifts with the Governor in a ceremony celebrating the agreement. It was not until two years later that he presented letters to Pennsylvania officials complaining about unfairness. The letters were obviously written for him by educated “white men.” The Governor suspected the New Yorkers. Nutimus threatened to get help from neighboring tribes to defend and re-take the land at the Forks.
James Logan quickly called on the Iroquois to stand by the agreement they had signed. Nutimus was subject to the Six Nations overlords. The parties met in Philadelphia in 1742. Canasatego, Onondaga leader and spokesman for the Six Nations, delivered a long chastising speech to his recalcitrant subordinate, Nutimus and the other “Forks Indians” who were present. While holding a Belt of Wampum in his hand he said:
"Cousins: Let this Belt of Wampum serve to chastise you; you ought to be taken by the hair of the head and shaken severely till you recover your senses and become sober; you don’t know what ground you stand on, nor what you are doing. Our Brother Onas’ (Thomas Penn’s), case is very just and plain, and his intentions to preserve friendship; on the other hand your cause is bad, your heart far from being upright, and you are maliciously bent to break the chain of friendship with your Brother Onas. We have see with our eyes a deed signed by nine of your ancestors above fifty years ago for this very land, and a release signed not many years since by some of yourselves and chiefs now living to the number of 15 or upwards. But how came you to take upon yourselves to sell land at all? We conquered you, we made women of you, you know you are women, and can no more sell land than women. Nor is it fit you should have the power of selling lands since you would abuse it. This land that you claim is gone through your guts. You have been furnished with cloths and meat and drink by the goods paid you for it, and now you want it again like children as you are. But what makes you sell land in the dark? Did you ever tell us that you had sold this land? Did we ever receive any part, even the value of a pipe shank, from you for it? ...for all these reasons we charge you to remove instantly. We don’t give you the liberty to think about it. You are women; take advice of a wise man and remove immediately. You may return to the other side of the Delaware where you came from, but we don’t know whether, considering how you have demeaned yourselves, you will be permitted to live there, or whether you have not swallowed that land down your throats, as well as the land on this side. We therefore, assign you two places to go—either to Wyoming or Shamokin. You may go either of these places, and then we shall have you more under our eye, and shall see how you behave. Don’t deliberate, but remove away and take this belt of wampum." (Canasatego’s Speech to the Delaware, 1742)
The Walking Purchase was considered valid by the Iroquois Nations who were the power in the region since they had conquered the Lenape over a century before. Iroquois leaders had agreed to and signed the deed in 1736 and by the Delaware chiefs in 1737. The resistant Delaware, who were trying to sell the land a third time, were removed west of the Blue Mountain by their overlords. The original deeds were honored and reinforced by Canasatego, who had authority to speak for the Iroguois Nations. The “Indian Tract Manor” at the Forks was not relinquished. Logan and the Penns insisted that it remain deeded to the Delaware as a sign of a continued desire to maintain good relations.
The idea that the Walking Purchase was a land swindle perpetrated by the Penns or Logan became established almost two decades after the event. When the French and Indian War broke out in 1754, Indian raiding parties attacked settlers in the Wyoming Valley. Groups opposed to the Quaker-lead Pennsylvania government, especially Scotch-Irishmen from the frontier areas, claimed that the hostility was a result of the Walking Purchase “swindle.” Quaker politicians were blamed for not providing protection for the settlers. Many Quaker legislators had refused to vote for war at the beginning of the hostilities. In turn, the Friends blamed William Penn’s heirs for abandoning Quaker principles. There was a power struggle for control of the colony. In 1753, the Quakers finally lost majority in the Provincial Assembly and gradually faded from prominence in Pennsylvania's government which turned out to be very detrimental for the Indians.
The ensuing argument between the Quakers and the rest of the population inspired much speculation and insinuation. The debate and legacy of the Walking Purchase totally ignores the fact that the French had inspired the Indians to attack English settlers. It also ignores the fact that James Logan, a devout Friend, was reputed for fair dealing in all his negotiations with the Native Americans. He, for the most part, was an honorable representative of his benefactor, William Penn, and tried to adhere to his vision long after Penn’s death.
To further embarrass and diminish the Penns, political enemies solicited the help of one of Nutimus’ followers, Teedyucung. Teedyucung was notoriously unstable and had an 'over fondness' for rum. He accused the Penns of fraud in the details of the Walking Purchase. His complaint was reported to the English King who ordered an investigation of the situation. The investigation and negotiations dragged on for years. During the time, Teedyucung, showing complete ignorance of English Propriatory land ownership, tried to sell the Indian Tract Manor to settlers. When the matter came to a hearing in 1762, Teedyucung withdrew his charges and the Crown permitted the situation to stand as originally decided by Logan and Canasatego in 1742.
These political squabbles, twenty years after the fact, produced the familiar accounts of the Walking Purchase. Biased and conflicting views of the event were published. When viewed against the majority of colonial dealings with the Indians, the Walking Purchase compares favorably. The concern about its fairness is a tribute to the high standards that William Penn had established, and James Logan continued in the relations between Pennsylvania and the Natives Americans.
With the Quakers out of power, the next few decades were not good ones for the Indians of Pennsylvania. In 1763, the “Paxton Boys” mob perpetrated massacres at Conestoga Manor and Lancaster, then marched on Philadelphia intent on killing all Indians under government protection. At the conclusion of the French and Indian War and the subsequent Pontiac’s War, the Delaware were removed completely from the eastern regions and given land (temporarily), in the Ohio Valley.
The Walking Purchase, the subsequent rulings by the English Crown, and Iroquois Nation validation, alleviated the Indian claims problem in the Lehigh and Schuylkill Valleys. The re-evaluation of the agreement twenty years later helped to eliminate the “troublesome” Quaker control of the Pennsylvania Assembly. The problem between Pennsylvania and Connecticut over the occupation of the northern third of what was William Penn's grant persisted for nearly seventy years after the ‘purchase’ was made. In 1769 and 1774, vicious wars broke out between the two colonies over the territory. In 1784 the two States again went to war over the same grievances. Ultimately, in 1796, the United States federal government settled the argument over the Wyoming Valley and the northern tier in favor of Pennsylvania.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)That's quite a work. Tremendous detail and well written stories. The very idea of a "Walk" seems full of potential for a lack of clarity and deceit and uncertainty. Great work.Thanks. I did it quite a while ago as part of my History of Richland Friends (Quaker), Meeting for our 300th anniversary celebration.You are obviously a practicing Quaker. Most Americans knowledge is limited to Oats and a bit of PA history. Here's to you guys!
Very well wrote. and a story that breaks my heart. I am of the munsee delaware , muncey of the thames band(fathers side). I have been doing research on the family history back to the logan and white familys in elgin , st Thomas Ontario Canada. I am wondering if anyone has any info that might help me research the family trail back as far as possible ? also my last name is not from my fathers real(blood) father but from his step father , I'm not sure how I can find anything on his real father when the only info I have is his name was charlie or Charles he was in detroit with my dads mom(Ireta logan then) oct,nov,1943 , maybe luck with someone on his side that knew about this and posted it somewhere.
Peace Be With YouThanks for reading and commenting. I have very little information but local lore. There are Leanpe and other tribe sites online you may try.Thank you for your reply . I am looking for any info on the Delawares crossing of lake Erie from New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio also the crossing from Detroit and any info would be great. I have been trying to "detail the trail" of my ancestors but it looks like it's getting harder to accomplish (no records or not being kept). Well back on my hunt.
Thanks, J
White Hawk
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