Portsmouth River View

by Marcia Lee Jones

Title

Portsmouth River View

Artist

Marcia Lee Jones

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Native Americans of the Abenaki and other Algonquian languages-speaking nations, and their predecessors, inhabited the territory of coastal New Hampshire for thousands of years before European contact.
The first known European to explore and write about the area was Martin Pring in 1603. The Piscataqua River is a tidal estuary with a swift current, but forms a good natural harbor. The west bank of the harbor was settled by English colonists in 1630 and named Strawberry Bank, after the many wild strawberries growing there. Strategically located for trade between upstream industries and mercantile interests abroad, the port prospered. Fishing, lumber and shipbuilding were principal businesses of the region.[4] Enslaved Africans were imported as laborers as early as 1645 and were integral to building the city's prosperity.[5] Portsmouth was part of the Triangle Trade, which made significant profits from slavery.
At the town's incorporation in 1653, it was named Portsmouth in honor of the colony's founder, John Mason. He had been captain of the port of Portsmouth, England, in the county of Hampshire, for which New Hampshire is named. In 1679, Portsmouth became not only the colonial capital, but also a refuge for exiles from Puritan Massachusetts.[citation needed]
When Queen Anne's War ended in 1712, the town was selected by Governor Joseph Dudley to host negotiations for the 1713 Treaty of Portsmouth, which temporarily ended hostilities between the Abenaki Indians and English settlements of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire.[4]

Uploaded

August 22nd, 2013

Statistics

Viewed 1,296 Times  -  Last Visitor from New York, NY on 04/07/2024 at 4:40 PM

Colors

Embed

Share

Sales Sheet

Tags