American schoolchildren have long learned about Squanto, the welcoming Native who made the First Thanksgiving possible, but his story goes deeper than the holiday legend. Prize-winning historian Andrew Lipman explored the mysteries that still surround Squanto in a new book. Drawing from a wide range of evidence, Lipman reconstructed Squanto’s upbringing, his transatlantic odyssey, his career as an interpreter, his surprising downfall, and his enigmatic death. The result was a fresh look at an epic life that ended right when many Americans think their story begins. Click here for a 57-minute YouTube video of the author’s book talk.

(Above, left and center) Om a video, Dr. Kyle Roberts, Executive Director of the Congregational Library & Archives, introduces author Andrew Lipman who then talks about his new book, Squanto: A Native Odyssey (Above, right) Squanto shows English Separatists how to plant corn.

Born in the Native village of Patuxet in the late 1500s, Squanto was kidnapped in 1614 by Thomas Hunt, and taken to Spain. From there, Englishmen brought him to London and Newfoundland before sending him home in 1619, where Squanto discovered that most of Patuxet had died in an epidemic. (Click on maps above for a larger view.)

(Above) Accompanying Captain John Smith on his 1616 voyage that took him to New England, Captain Thomas Hunt abducted Tisquantum (later referred to as “Squanto”) and at least two dozen other Native men and took them to Malaga, Spain. Eventually, Squanto made it to the Cornhill section of London where he lived for three years with John Slany. In 1619, he arrived back in his deserted village where, a year later, the Mayflower colonists arrived and renamed it Plymouth.