A SURVEY OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Unit 1: Colonialism and NationhoodPart 7: War in Colonial New England

THE PEQUOT WAR

• Lasted from 1634 to 1638, concurrent with the Antinomian Controversy and its aftermath.

• Colonial settlements worsened Native American tribal conflicts in the Connecticut River Valley. The Pequot tribe and the Mohegan tribe were longtime enemies. English settlers allied with the Mohegans while Dutch settlers allied with the Pequots.

• Because the Narragansett tribe had lost territory to the Pequots in 1622, Roger Williams was able to convince them to join the English-Mohegan alliance.

THE PEQUOT WAR

• In order to discourage the English from continuing to trade with the Pequot tribe, allies of the Narragansett tribe killed a well-respected English trader.

• The leaders of the Narragansett tribe convinced the English settlers that the Pequots were in fact sheltering the killers.

• Skirmishes and raids broke out between the English-Mohegan-Narragansett alliance and the Dutch-Pequot alliance, and the belligerents entered into a cycle of retaliatory violence.

THE PEQUOT WAR

• In 1637, the Pequot tribe planned an attack on the Hartford settlement in the Connecticut Colony, believing that the settlers were in Boston.

• While the Pequot warriors were heading to Hartford, the English-Mohegan-Narragansett alliance launched a surprise attack on the main Pequot fort at the village of Mystic.

• Out of about 700 Pequots, mostly women and children, there were only seven survivors.

THE PEQUOT WAR

• The Mohegan and Narragansett warriors were horrified by the violence of the English and left the site of the Mystic massacre.

• The Pequot warriors who had gone to Hartford were found at the village of Sasqua and most of them were slaughtered.

• The Pequot tribe was virtually wiped out by the English.

• The neighboring Wampanoag tribe, under the leadership of Chief Massasoit, remained neutral throughout the conflict.

INTERREGNUM AND RESTORATION

• In 1642, the English Civil War broke out. Royalist supporters of the English monarchy fought against Parliamentarian forces attempting to transform England into a republic.

• In 1649, the Parliamentarians executed King Charles I and sent his son into exile. They created the Commonwealth of England as a republican state.

• The Commonwealth lasted until 1653, when Oliver Cromwell made himself dictator of what he called the Protectorate.

INTERREGNUM AND RESTORATION

• Cromwell’s dictatorship lasted until King Charles II, the son of the previous king, returned to the throne in 1660.

• The period from the creation of the Commonwealth to the end of Cromwell’s dictatorship is known as the Interregnum.

• The end of the Protectorate and the return of King Charles II is known as the Restoration.

• Because the king is also Head of the Church of England, the Puritans intensely disliked him.

INTERREGNUM AND RESTORATION

• The end of the English monarchy resulted in a halt to Puritan migration to America, since English Puritans no longer saw a need to escape from a church they believed corrupt.

• The colonies of New England supported the Commonwealth of England because it abolished the English monarchy.

• Following the Restoration, the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay refused to recognize the authority of King Charles II.

KING PHILIP’S WAR

• Lasted from 1675 to 1677.

• Followed forty years of relative peace between the settlers of New England and the Wampanoag tribe under the leadership of Chief Massasoit.

• Massasoit died sometime between 1660 and 1662. At first he was succeeded by his son Wamsutta, also known as Alexander. But when Wamsutta also died in 1662, tribal leadership fell to Massasoit’s second son Metacomet, also known as Philip.

KING PHILIP’S WAR

• Colonial laws prohibited commercial activity between the settlers of New England and the Wampanoag tribe. Josiah Winslow, governor of the Plymouth Colony, had arrested Wamsutta for engaging in commerce with Roger Williams.

• Winslow appears to have poisoned Wamsutta.

• The suspicious circumstances of Wamsutta’s death led Metacomet to ally the other local Algonquian tribes against the settlers of New England.

KING PHILIP’S WAR

• The Narragansett tribe and several others allied with the Wampanoags under the leadership of Metacomet.

• The Mohegan tribe and the remnants of the Pequot tribe allied with the English settlers.

• Skirmishes and raids on colonial settlements turned into full-on attacks against the colonies. By 1676, Metacomet’s warriors had reached the coastal settlements including the settlement of Plymouth.

THE CAPTIVITY OF MARY ROWLANDSON

• Mary Rowlandson was a colonial woman captured by the Narragansetts and their allies.

• She was taken to meet Metacomet and she bore witness to acts of great brutality as well as great charity on the part of her captors.

• She recorded her experience of captivity in The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, which was probably edited by a man named Increase Mather.

KING PHILIP’S WAR

• Metacomet traveled to New York to seek an alliance with the Iroquois. When the Iroquois refused, Metacomet’s warriors killed some Mohawk men and attempted to blame their deaths on the English. But an eyewitness revealed the true perpetrators and, in response, the Iroquois began attacking Metacomet’s tribal allies.

• The Narragansett tribe was defeated soon afterwards.

• Metacomet lost his allies and was killed in August 1676.

KING PHILIP’S WAR

• King Philip’s War essentially ended with the death of Metacomet, although conflicts still broke out into 1677.

• The English settlers defended themselves without any support from the English Government.

• The conduct of the war showed that Native American tribes could inflict serious damage on settlers when they were united.

• The decisive defeat of the Wampanoag left most of New England open for settlement.

A SURVEY OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Unit 1: Colonialism and NationhoodPart 7: War in Colonial New England