Quinsigamond

Quinsigamond was a Nipmuc village in the inland country of New England, near the lake of the same name. The name has been interpreted as “pickerel fishing place.” Nipmuc communities combined cultivation of maize, beans and squash with hunting, fishing and gathering, moving between places as the seasons changed and making dugout canoes for travel on the lake.

English colonists entered the area in 1637 and used the name Quinsigamond for their own settlement. Missionaries established praying towns, while colonial laws threatened Indigenous title to land. King Philip's War devastated the region; afterward, some Nipmuc survivors were confined on Deer Island in Boston Harbor, where they suffered shortages of food, clothing and shelter. The English settlement, later called Worcester, was abandoned in 1702 and reoccupied in 1713.