Surviving Slavery: The Sale of Indigenous People in King Philip’s War (In-Person + Livestream)

Surviving Slavery: The Sale of Indigenous People in King Philip’s War is a hybrid public history talk
with historian Linford D. Fisher (Brown University) examining the deliberate campaign to enslave Native
peoples during the War for New England (King Philip’s War).

Content note: This program includes discussion of war, captivity, forced labor, family separation, and trafficking.

Event Details

• Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2026
• Time: 6:00–7:30 PM (Eastern Time)
• Tickets: Free (registration required)
• Format: In-person + livestreamed online
• In-person location: Colonial Society of Massachusetts (Beacon Hill)
  87 Mount Vernon Street, Boston, MA 02108

Important Registration Note

In-person capacity is limited to 50 seats. Please only select an in-person ticket if you are certain you can attend.
If you are unsure, we strongly encourage you to choose virtual attendance so in-person seats can remain available
to those who can use them.

About the Talk

One of the lesser-known realities of King Philip’s War was the systematic effort to enslave Native people. Indigenous men,
women, and children—including non-combatants—could be captured and forced into servitude. Colonial authorities sometimes offered
clemency to those who surrendered, yet still shipped people out of the region or placed them into English households for years
of coerced labor.

In this presentation, Fisher traces the lived realities of Native families and communities through captivity, forced separation,
and trafficking—sometimes to destinations as far as the Caribbean and North Africa. He also explores how these losses were used
to justify further land seizure, even as Native communities persisted and continued pressing for sovereignty.

Speaker

Linford D. Fisher is an Associate Professor of History at Brown University and the principal investigator of
Stolen Relations: Recovering Stories of Indigenous Enslavement in the Americas, a community-centered,
tribal-collaborative digital project documenting Indigenous experiences of slavery and servitude.

Related Book & Resources

• Stolen Relations (project):
  www.stolenrelations.org
• Stealing America: The Hidden Story of Indigenous Slavery in U.S. History (Liveright/Norton, 2026):
  Publisher page

Copies may be available for purchase at the event. Please follow on-site instructions for payment options.

Support Public History

The Partnership of Historic Bostons is an all-volunteer organization. While events are free, donations help make programs like
this possible.