Massaco

Massaco was a native settlement in Connecticut, United States, near the present-day towns of Simsbury and Canton along the banks of the Farmington River.

[1] The small, local Algonquian-speaking Indians who lived there in the 17th and early 18th centuries belonged to the Tunxis,[2] a Wappinger people.

[citation needed] The area known as Massaco was transferred to European settlers, when a local Native man, Manahanoose, burnt a large quantity of tar belonging to John Griffin.

The local Indians did not possess that vast quantity of wampum, so the coithe sachem, or political leader, of the native community deeded the land to Griffin to avoid the initial alternative penalty determined by the General Court of the colony of Connecticut, which would have been to serve Griffin or be exchanged for Black slaves.

[3] The "Massaco Division" included the lands around the towns of Canton and Simsbury, as well as parts of Granby, Connecticut.