Maanexit (also spelled Manexit or Mayanexit) was a
Nipmuc village on the
Quinebaug River (
Maanexit River) and
Old Connecticut Path in
Connecticut. The town was located near what is now
Fabyan in
Thompson, Connecticut and
Woodstock, Connecticut. The name of the town means either "where the road lies" or "where we gather" which may have been "alluding to a settlement of Christian Indians in the immediate vicinity." The village became an Indian
praying town through the influence of
John Eliot and
Daniel Gookin.
Maanexit was located six miles north of
Quinnatisset
Quinnatisset (also spelled Quantisset, Quinnetusset, Quanatusset, Quantiske, Quantisset, Quatiske, or Quattissick) was a Nipmuc village in Connecticut which became a praying town through the influence of John Eliot and Daniel Gookin. The town was ...
, another praying town, and Maanexit had about one hundred residents prior to
King Philip's War. In September 1674 Rev.
John Eliot visited the village and preached about and then appointed a Native American pastor John Moqua as Maanexit's teaching pastor for the
Praying Indians there. After King Philip's War
Black James deeded some of the land making up the village to white settlers.
[Connole, ''The Indians of the Nipmuck Country in Southern New England,'' 111, 162, 164, 236]
References
{{reflist
Aboriginal title in the United States
Assimilation of indigenous peoples of North America
Christianization
History of New England
King Philip's War
Native American Christianity
Native American history
Native American history of Connecticut