Linford Fisher, Associate Professor of History and principal researcher for Stolen Relations – a digital archive of hundreds of stories about Indigenous enslavement, servitude, and resilience – recently published a book, Stealing America: The Hidden Story of Indigenous Slavery in U.S. History. The book begins in 1492 with Christopher Columbus and ends in 1978, following the passing of the Indian Child Welfare Act, illuminating the heavy history of Indigenous populations in America.

Indigenous slavery in New England was widespread in the 17th century, with Native people captured during conflicts, separated from their communities, and sold both locally and across the Atlantic. Many were sent to places such as Bermuda, the Bahamas, Spain, and Portugal, where their identities were often erased through mislabeling and the loss of names, tribal affiliations, and cultural markers. Oral histories preserved by descendants later helped reconnect families separated for centuries, revealing ties between Native communities in the Northeast and island populations in Bermuda. Current tribal members and researchers continue to document this history through collaborative archival work, reconstructing the scale of Native enslavement and its long-term effects on displacement, identity, and cultural continuity. The reporting draws on research from Lin Fisher, a Stolen Relations Project Research Cluster Faculty Fellow at the Simmons Center, whose work documents the often overlooked history of Indigenous enslavement in New England and beyond.

Historians at Brown University and Tribal members from across New England are launching a project they hope will bring awareness to the historic enslavement of Indigenous people in North America.