News Release

"Landscapes of Indenture" Program

News Release Date: May 9, 2023 Saugus Iron Works News Release
For Immediate Release: May 9, 2023
Contact: Emily A. Murphy, Ph. D., Curator, National Park Service, [e-mail]

Landscapes of Indenture Project: How Scottish Prisoners of War Shaped New England

SAUGUS, MA — Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site invites you to a forum on May 21^st at 1:00pm at the park, 244 Central Street, Saugus, MA to share your ideas to help shape the future of an exciting research project. New research conducted by an international team of archaeologists and historians is unearthing the fascinating story of some of the workers at the Saugus Ironworks.

Landscapes of Indenture is an international investigation of the lives of the Scots, and the environmental impact they and other laborers had on the New England frontier. National Park Service is a partner in the project along with Salem State University, the University of New Hampshire, Old Berwick Historical Society, Durham University in England, and the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. The team of archaeologists, historians and paleoecologists are currently conducting fieldwork on sites associated with the Scots.

The story of 400 Scottish soldiers taken prisoner at the Battles of Dunbar (1650) and Worcester (1651) and shipped to New England as forced labor is one of the most compelling immigrant stories in early American history. Many Scots served their five-to-seven-year indentures at the Saugus Ironworks, and the rest worked in other hard and dangerous jobs in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.

About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America’s 424 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov, and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.