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Posted on 11/18/2011 3:30:26 PM PST by Chuckmorse
King Phillips War 1675-1676 was a brief and extremely violent altercation between an alliance of Native American Tribes and the English colonists of southern New England. The war ended the relatively peaceful relations that were established over fifty years earlier by Squanto and the Wampanoag Sachem Massasoit with the Pilgrims in 1621, a peace that was exemplified by the First Thanksgiving of 1621.
After the death of Sachem Massasoit in 1661, his eldest son Wamsutta became Sachem but he died shortly afterward under mysterious circumstances after leaving the home of Plymouth Colony Governor Josiah Winslow. His brother Metacom, known as King Phillip, thus became Sachem in 1662. King Phillip hated the English colonists and spent several years forming alliances with native tribes in southern New England. At the time of the outbreak of the war, Phillip had almost three thousand warriors ready to fall upon the colonies where they planned to murder every colonist in New England.
There were many legitimate causes for Phillip’s anger, among them the simple pressures that naturally accompanied the development of new colonies on native lands.
The triggering event that led to the outbreak was when a Wampanoag native named John Sassamon, a Harvard graduate and a “praying Indian,” exposed King Phillips conspiracy to colonial government authorities. The term praying Indian was used to describe Natives living in the increasing number of Native communities who had converted to Christianity. Sassamon was subsequently murdered and three of King Phillip’s men were tried, convicted and hanged on July 8, 1675 for the murder. The jury was made up of natives and colonists of equal number but nevertheless the results triggered King Phillip to launch the war against the colonists.
At first the Native confederation under the command of King Phillip had the upper hand with a slaughter of colonists first in the Massachusetts settlement of Swansea and then in settlements across Plymouth Colony, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and western Massachusetts. Native forces attacked Plymouth were they were repulsed, burned Providence, Rhode Island to the ground, and entered Springfield, Mass. Then the Narragansett’s, members of the confederacy, were defeated in a fearful slaughter of natives called the great battle of the swamp.
After failing to secure aid from French Canada, and after failing to form an alliance with the Mohawk Tribe in New York State, King Phillip began to retreat in the winter of 1675-1687 in a war of attrition. The colonialists picked up steam with many native tribes joining their forces against Phillip and many natives began to scatter to points north and west. Colonial forces mercilessly massacred natives loyal to Phillip while granting amnesty to those who declared their neutrality. While Phillips allies deserted him, he made his last stand near where he started the war, south of Providence, Rhode Island. Phillip was shot by a Native named John Alderman on August 12, 1676. His head was displayed on a pole in Plymouth colony for the next twenty years. Except for a few skirmishes, mostly in Maine, the war was over. An estimated
600 colonists and 3,000 Natives had died in the terrible conflagration
history ping
Howdy, Chucky.
It looks like you can’t find anything on the internet worth posting but your own stuff:
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:chuckmorse/index?tab=articles
Are you a blogpimp?
I’d really like to know what’s up with that.
So ended our first experiment with multiculturalism.
Interesting read. At the least I learned where Massachusetts got its name if I read the story correctly.
ping
“600 colonists and 3,000 Natives had died in the terrible conflagration”
Must have been a big ass fire.
I have an ancestor that fought in that war.
Second. Opechancanough,Pochahantas’ uncle, almost wiped out all the Jamestown settlements in, I believe, 1622. He tried again, when he was about 90, in 1644.
I also have ancestors who fought in that war, and one who died in that war.
I had a relative (not an ancestor, obviously) who was murdered in his crib in Deerfield.
The radio show Spooky Southcoast had a show about the controversy on 3/27/2010 which is archived on their site.
I had an ancestor, Joseph Kellogg, who along with his father and sisters was captured at Deerfield.
Sarah Gunn Kellogg and her youngest son Joseph Kellogg (born 19 Sept 1676) were both killed on 19 Sept 1677 in Hatfield, MA.
I was wrong when I specified Deerfield in my original post.
My Joseph Kellogg is not your Joseph Kellogg, but there seems to be a chance that you and I are related.
Yes, it is the same family.
My ancestor, was Martin Kellogg (Joseph's father) born in Braintree in 1658, married Sarah Dickinson in 1690. So, yes, we are probably related. Howdy cuz!
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