When you think about the American Revolution, do you think of “taxation without representation,” the Boston Tea Party, and the Boston Massacre as the principal reasons behind the war? They are, of course, the primary factors behind the revolution that we are taught in school, but a deeply rooted unrest among the colonists would grow and branch out during the years that preceded the war.
There is a whole lot more to the story, says Rochester Historical Society President Mack Phinney.
Once upon a time, the landscape in which we now dwell was once dominated by ancient, towering Eastern White Pines. As the tallest pine species in North America, the Eastern White Pine has been called the “Sequoia of the northeast”, with some that once stood at 250 feet tall and five feet wide after 400 hundred years of growth.
To the Native Americans, the White Pine was sacred. To the colonists, the White Pine was vital in the economic development of New England’s original Massachusetts Bay Colony. With its length and girth and, of course, its abundance, the White Pine was unlike anything the explorers to the New World had ever seen.
“The explorers from Europe, especially England,” said Phinney. “They noticed all the pines and were excited about it.”
The reason they were excited by the pines, said Phinney, is because the British Royal Navy had cut down nearly every single tree on the British Isles to build ships. The British Royal Navy had to import trees from Norway, but its main enemy of the time, the French, would often intercept the ships and claim the precious resource for its own use.
According to Phinney, one Captain George Weymouth saw the trees and wrote about them, “And when he went back to England, he went to the king… and the king got all excited about it.”
This, Phinney said, is part of the reason why the Pilgrims and early colonists were supported in their intent to colonize the New World.
“A lot of investors saw these resources here and they wanted them, so they… set up the colony so they could get the resources and make money off of it. It was all about the resources and all the money they could make.”
And when there is money involved, there is inevitably contention.
The Eastern White Pine, known as the Weymouth Pine in the United Kingdom, was needed badly by the British to keep their thousands of naval ships in working order with tall masts that needed changing every five years.
“White pines made the best masts of all the trees,” Phinney said. “They were tall, straight, flexible – had to be flexible in the wind… They were relatively lightweight…”
Lightweight you might ask? Thirty tons is considered lightweight? It is when compared to the weight of an oak. After the White Pine was cut, dried, and processed, it dropped to a weight of a mere 10 tons. And you couldn’t find oaks that were tall and straight enough to make into a sufficient mast. The pines became known as “mast pines.”
The colonists cut, processed, and, after dragging the masts down wide, long roads miles long (Think Mast Road in Plymouth), they then loaded the pines onto long, cumbersome ships and sailed them to England, where the navy built ships from them.
The contention began in 1689 when King George decided that he wanted his cut in the economic bounty the White Pine offered.
“This didn’t sit well with the colonists,” said Phinney. “King George became very unpopular with the colonists because he would claim everything was his – he would make money off of everything.”
Phinney read a snippet from the 1669 Charter of the Massachusetts Bay, in which King George ordered every tree with a diameter of 24 inches within 10 miles of the coast marked with the “King’s Broad Arrow” – a vertical line topped with an upside-down ‘V’ – with an ax and reserved as the sole property of the British Royal Navy. Anyone found felling a mast tree without a license would be punished.
Surveyors were sent from England to mark the trees and enforce this new order by seeing that only licensed colonists were felling the trees for the importation to England for naval shipbuilding.
“The colonists were cutting trees, preparing them to be shipped – they got paid not a lot,” said Phinney. “And if (the trees) weren’t accepted, no money.”
Phinney said one 24-inch wide, 27 –yard long mast pine was worth 35 British pounds, “And that’s pretty good money back then.”
Felling, dragging, and processing the mast pines was hard work, said Phinney. There was no exchange of money until the product reached the shores of England where, sometimes, the lumber would be rejected if it failed the inspection of the Royal Navy. Adding to that, the colonists were no longer permitted to use the trees for their own use.
“I find it hard to believe that lumbermen from Maine, New Hampshire, or Massachusetts… appreciated the king coming into what they considered their land, marking their trees, telling them they couldn’t cut them, and then shipping them off to the navy.”
So what did they do?
“They started cutting them,” said Phinney. “And they probably enjoyed it.”
The colonists were often dressed as Indians when they fell the pines, Phinney said. “The king wasn’t happy with it.”
There were a number of skirmishes between colonists and British deputy surveyors there to hunt down violators of the king’s charter, ultimately leading to what is known as “The White Pine War” that started in Weare, New Hampshire.
“The White Pine tree played a great role in the Revolutionary War, before and after,” said Phinney.
Many flags and state seals featured the White Pine, and even coins dating back to 1652 featured the White Pine.
“They were very important to these people,” said Phinney.
Phinney gave a talk titled “Pine Wars” during the October 16 meeting of the Rochester Historical Society. Find out about future RHS events when published in The Wanderer and by visiting its Facebook page “Rochester, MA Historical Society”.
By Jean Perry