Dr. David Weed, Coordinator of the Sowams Heritage Area Project, was invited to give a talk at the Old Colony History Museum in Taunton on November 16, 2023. Weed described the development of the Project that provides details of the 17th century history of Sowams, the home of the Massasoit Ousamequin who welcomed the Pilgrims in 1621. Click here for the one-hour recording of his talk.

Community Programming Coordinator Saria Sweeney introduced Dr. Weed for one of the OCHM Talks that features various aspects of history in the area. The Museum houses a number of items from the 17th century, including a whetstone once owned by Myles Standish.

Weed began by pointing out that the Massasoit Ousamequin led the Pokanokets, not the Wampanoags, a term that wasn’t used during his lifetime. He then went onto talk about the first European explorers who came to the area, beginning with the Vikings in the eleventh century.

Later in the presentation, he described Edward Winslow’s visits to Sowams, the role that Taunton played in the start of King Philip’s War, and ended with the possibility of establishing a new National Heritage Area in the nine communities that today define the Sowams Heritage Area.