King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1678 between a group of

indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands include Native American tribes and First Nation bands residing in or originating from a cultural area encompassing the northeastern and Midwest United States and southeastern Canada. It is part ...

against the English New England Colonies and their indigenous allies. The war is named for

Metacom Metacomet (c. 1638 in Massachusetts – August 12, 1676), also known as Pometacom, Metacom, and by his adopted English name King Philip,Pokanoket chief and

sachem Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Alg ...

of the

Wampanoag The Wampanoag, also rendered Wôpanâak, are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Northeastern Woodlands currently based in southeastern Massachusetts and forme ...

who had adopted the English name Philip because of the friendly relations between his father Massasoit and the

Plymouth Colony Plymouth Colony (sometimes spelled Plimouth) was the first permanent English colony in New England from 1620 and the third permanent English colony in America, after Newfoundland and the Jamestown Colony. It was settled by the passengers on t ...

. The war continued in the most northern reaches of New England until the signing of the Treaty of Casco Bay on April 12, 1678. Massasoit had maintained a long-standing agreement with the colonists and Metacom (), his younger son, became the tribal chief in 1662 after his father's death. Metacom, however, forsook his father's alliance between the Wampanoags and the colonists after repeated violations by the latter. The colonists insisted that the 1671 peace agreement should include the surrender of Native guns; then three Wampanoags were hanged in

in 1675 for the murder of another Wampanoag, which increased tensions. Native raiding parties attacked homesteads and villages throughout Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maine over the next six months, and the colonial militia retaliated. The colonies assembled the largest army that New England had yet mustered, consisting of 1,000 militia and 150 Native allies. Governor Josiah Winslow marshaled them to attack the Narragansetts in November 1675. They attacked and burned Native villages throughout Rhode Island territory, culminating with the attack on the Narragansetts' main fort in the Great Swamp Fight. An estimated 600 Narragansetts were killed, and their coalition was taken over by Narragansett sachem Canonchet. They pushed back the borders of the

Massachusetts Bay Massachusetts Bay is a bay on the Gulf of Maine that forms part of the central coastline of Massachusetts. Description The bay extends from Cape Ann on the north to Plymouth Harbor on the south, a distance of about . Its northern and sout ...

, Plymouth, and

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

colonies, burning towns as they went, including Providence in March 1676. However, the colonial militia overwhelmed the Native coalition. By the end of the war, the Wampanoags and their Narragansett allies were almost completely destroyed. On August 12, 1676, Metacom fled to Mount Hope where he was killed by the militia. The war was the greatest calamity in seventeenth-century New England and is considered by many to be the deadliest war in Colonial American history. In the space of little more than a year, 12 of the region's towns were destroyed and many more were damaged, the economy of the Plymouth and Rhode Island Colonies was ruined and their population was decimated, losing one-tenth of all men available for military service. More than half of New England's towns were involved in the conflict. Hundreds of Wampanoags and their allies were publicly executed or enslaved, and the Wampanoags were left effectively landless. King Philip's War was the Native last-ditch effort to eliminate British colonization. Instead, it turned out to be the beginning of the development of an independent American identity. The New England colonists faced their enemies without support from any European government or military, and this began to give them a group identity separate and distinct from Britain.

Historical context

The early

claimed preemptive rights to the entirety of Wampanoag country through early alliances with some Native leaders, like Squanto (Tisquantam) and Massasoit (Ousamequin). However, English claim to the land relied entirely on misinterpretations of Native leadership, which viewed Ousamequin as the Native "king" of the land, despite the existence of other territorial claims under local leaders like Namumpum ( Weetamoo). Subsequent colonists founded Salem,

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, and many small towns around Massachusetts Bay between 1628 and 1640, during a time of increased English immigration. The colonists progressively expanded throughout the territories of the several Algonquian-speaking tribes in the region. Prior to King Philip's War, tensions fluctuated between Native tribes and the colonists. The Narragansetts fought alongside the English colonists in the

Pequot War The Pequot War was an armed conflict that took place in 1636 and ended in 1638 in New England, between the Pequot nation and an alliance of the colonists from the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies and their allies from the Na ...

and participated in the Mystic massacre but were horrified afterwards. With the defeat of the Pequots, Narragansett leader Miantonomoh gathered groups of Algonquians together in the 1640s in the hope that they could face the colonists together. He was captured by colonists in Connecticut and executed by Mohegan sachem Uncas, shattering the coalition. The

, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay,

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

, and

New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...

colonies each developed separate relations with the

Nipmuc The Nipmuc or Nipmuck people are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who historically spoke an Eastern Algonquian languages, Eastern Algonquian language, probably the Loup language. Their historic territory Nippenet, meaning 'the f ...

s, Narragansetts, Mohegans, Pequots, and other tribes of New England, whose territories historically had differing boundaries. Many of the neighboring tribes had been traditional competitors and enemies. As the colonial population increased, the New Englanders expanded their settlements along the region's coastal plain and up the

Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges into Long Isl ...

valley. By 1675, they had established a few small towns in the interior between Boston and the Connecticut River settlements. Meanwhile, with the death of Ousamequin, Native diplomacy with the settlers fell apart, as colonists tried negotiating with Wamsutta in the same role they did with Ousamequin, but slighted female Native rulers ( saunkswkas) of the land and erroneously claimed Sakonnet and Pocasset land as freely given. This created further tension between colonists and Natives, as colonial Puritan beliefs did not recognize female leaders as legitimate, despite the great power they held within Native societies. On one such occasion of land dispute, saunkswkas Weetamoo and Awashonks appeared in a colonial court to protest illegitimate deeds signed by Wamsutta that gave colonists lands that were not his to give. This conflict strengthened complaints among natives while simultaneously bolstering Plymouth claims to the land and served as an omen for conflict that was yet to come. Eventually, the

tribe under Metacomet's leadership entered into an agreement with the Plymouth Colony and believed that they could rely on the colony for protection. However, in the decades preceding the war, it became clear to them that the treaty did not mean that the Colonists were not allowed to settle in new territories.

Failure of diplomacy

Metacom became sachem of the Pokanoket and Grand Sachem of the

Confederacy in 1662 after the death of his older brother Grand Sachem Wamsutta (called "Alexander" by the colonists), who had succeeded their father Massasoit (d. 1661) as chief. Metacom was well known to the colonists before his ascension as paramount chief to the Wampanoags. But, he ultimately distrusted the colonists. Conflict increased between the Wampanoags and settlers due to the continual intrusion of settlers' livestock onto Wampanoag farms and food stores, with few colonists taking more than half-hearted steps to prevent this in spite of regular complaints by the Wampanoags. Another grievance held by many Wampanoags was the attempts by colonial missionaries to convert them to Christianity; among those who expressed such grievances was Metacom himself, who declared that he and other Wampanoag leaders possessed a great fear that any of their people "should be called or forced to be Christian Indians". Metacom began negotiating with the other Algonquian tribes against the Plymouth Colony in the winter of 1674–1675, soon after the death of his father and, within a year, of his brother Wamsutta. However, conflict abounded, even amidst tribes and families. Two months before the outbreak of the war, Mammanuah, the son of Awashonks, leader of the Sakonnet, had signed a deed granting English colonizers the right to all the land from Pocasset Neck south to the sea, without first seeking his mother's approval. At the start of the planting season, conflict erupted when new settlers began to plant on lands tenured under the rule of Awashonks. Mammanuah was confronted by his mother and other members of his tribe. He was stripped of his title by his relatives but allowed to leave with his life. Mammanuah sought restitution at Plymouth, where his title was reinstated by colonial authorities who had noticeably ulterior motives for wanting the land deed to remain valid. Internal conflict between native tribes and their families was motivated by competing concepts of colonial patrilineal rule and the existing matrilineal rule of many native women. As conflict mounted, native tribes turned against other tribes as well as their own people, with families taking sides across different lines.

Population

The population of New England colonists totaled about 65,000 people. They lived in 110 towns, of which 64 were in the Massachusetts Bay colony, which then included the southwestern portion of Maine and southern

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

until 1679. The towns had about 16,000 men of military age who were almost all part of the militia, as universal training was prevalent in all colonial New England towns. Many towns had built strong garrison houses for defense, and others had stockades enclosing most of the houses. All of these were strengthened as the war progressed. Some poorly populated towns were abandoned if they did not have enough men to defend them. Each town had local militias based on all eligible men who had to supply their own arms. Only those who were too old, too young, disabled, or clergy were excused from military service. The militias were usually only minimally trained and initially did relatively poorly against the warring Natives, until more effective training and tactics could be devised. Joint forces of militia volunteers and volunteer indigenous allies were found to be the most effective. The indigenous allies of the colonists numbered about 1,000 from the Mohegans and Praying Indians, with about 200 warriors. By 1676, the regional indigenous population had decreased to about 10,000 (exact numbers are unavailable) largely because of epidemics. These included about 4,000 Narragansetts of western Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut, 2,400

s of central and western Massachusetts, and 2,400 combined in the Massachusett and Pawtucket tribes living around Massachusetts Bay and extending northwest to Maine. The Wampanoags and Pokanokets of Plymouth and eastern Rhode Island are thought to have numbered fewer than 1,000. About one in four were considered to be warriors. By then, the Natives had almost universally adopted steel knives, tomahawks, and

flintlock Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint-striking lock (firearm), ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism its ...

muskets as their weapons. The various tribes had no common government. They had distinct cultures and often warred among themselves, although they all spoke related languages from the Algonquian family.

The trial

John Sassamon was a Native convert to Christianity, commonly referred to as a " praying Indian". He played a key role as a cultural mediator, negotiating with both colonists and Natives while belonging to neither party. He was an early graduate of

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

and served as a translator and adviser to Metacomet. He reported to the governor of

that Metacomet planned to gather allies for Native attacks on widely dispersed colonial settlements. Metacomet was brought before a public court, where court officials admitted that they had no proof but warned that they would confiscate Wampanoag land and guns if they had any further reports that he was conspiring to start a war. Not long after, Sassamon's body was found in the ice-covered Assawompset Pond, and Plymouth Colony officials arrested three Wampanoags on the testimony of a Native witness, including one of Metacomet's counselors. The jury, which consisted of twelve colonists and six indigenous elders, convicted the men of Sassamon's murder, and they were executed by hanging on June 8, 1675 (O.S.) at Plymouth. Most importantly, the pond where Sassamon’s body was found in was at the center of a heated land claim, under which Plymouth men were attempting to purchase vast swaths of land at Nemasket. His death became the necessary pretext for Plymouth Colony’s arrest of a counselor tied to suppressing the purchasing of land around Nemasket. Under captivity, the counselor and block to the signing of a land grant for the Plymouth Colony, Tobias, and the other arrested men were forced to sign the rights away of all of their land at Nemasket. With Sassamon dead and the land deed signed, the land surrounding the pond became formally acknowledged as part of the town Middlebury and was open for English settlement. With the execution of the men convicted of Sassamon’s murder, the proverbial first shots of the war were fired.

Southern theater, 1675

Raid on Swansea

A band of Pokanokets attacked several isolated homesteads in the small Plymouth colony settlement of

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

on June 20, 1675, likely against Phillip's approval. They burned several homes. On June 23, a local boy saw a Pokanoket in front of his home and was instructed to fire, killing him. Pokanokets became enraged and on June 24 launched a full-scale attack on Swansea, killing three. On June 27, 1675, a full eclipse of the moon occurred in the New England area, and various tribes in New England thought it a good omen for attacking the colonists. Officials from the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies responded quickly to the attacks on Swansea; on June 28, they sent a punitive military expedition that destroyed the Wampanoag town at Mount Hope in

Bristol, Rhode Island Bristol is a town in Bristol County, Rhode Island, United States, as well as the county seat. The population of Bristol was 22,493 at the 2020 census. It is a deep water seaport named after Bristol, England. Major industries include boat buil ...

. The war quickly spread and soon involved the Podunk and

tribes. During the summer of 1675, the Natives attacked at Middleborough and

Dartmouth, Massachusetts Dartmouth (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ) is a coastal town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. Old Dartmouth was the first area of Southeastern Massachusetts to be settled by Europeans in 1652, primarily English. Dartmouth ...

(July 8), Mendon, Massachusetts (July 14), Brookfield, Massachusetts (August 2), and

Lancaster, Massachusetts Lancaster is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Incorporated in 1653, Lancaster is the oldest town in Worcester County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the town population ...

(August 9). In early September, they attacked Deerfield, Hadley, and

Northfield, Massachusetts Northfield is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. Northfield was first settled in 1673. The population was 2,866 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Connectic ...

Siege of Brookfield

Wheeler's Surprise and the ensuing Siege of Brookfield were fought in August 1675, between

s under Muttawmp and the colonists of

under the command of Thomas Wheeler and Captain Edward Hutchinson. The battle consisted of an initial ambush on August 2, 1675 by the Nipmucs against Wheeler's unsuspecting party. Eight men from Wheeler's company died during the ambush: Zechariah Phillips of Boston, Timothy Farlow of Billerica, Edward Coleborn of Chelmsford, Samuel Smedly of Concord, Shadrach Hapgood of Sudbury, Sergeant Eyres, Sergeant Prichard, and Corporal Coy of Brookfield. Following the ambush was an attack on Brookfield, Massachusetts, and the consequent besieging of the remains of the colonial force. The Nipmucs harried the settlers for two days, until they were driven off by a newly arrived force of colonial soldiers under the command of Major Simon Willard. The siege took place at Ayers' Garrison in West Brookfield, but the location of the initial ambush was a subject of extensive controversy among historians in the late nineteenth century. The New England Confederation consisted of the

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around Massachusetts Bay, one of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of M ...

, New Haven Colony, and

Connecticut Colony The Connecticut Colony, originally known as the Connecticut River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became the state of Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636, as a settlement for a Puritans, Puritan congregation o ...

; they declared war on the Natives on September 9, 1675. The

Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was an English colony on the eastern coast of America, founded in 1636 by Puritan minister Roger Williams after his exile from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It became a haven for religious d ...

tried to remain neutral, but much of the war was fought on Rhode Island soil; Providence and Warwick suffered extensive damage from the Natives. The next colonial expedition was to recover crops from abandoned fields along the

for the coming winter and included almost 100 farmers and militia, plus teamsters to drive the wagons.

Battle of Bloody Brook

The Battle of Bloody Brook was fought on September 12, 1675, between militia from the

and a band of Natives led by

sachem Muttawmp. The Natives ambushed colonists escorting a train of wagons carrying the harvest from Deerfield to Hadley. They killed at least 40 militia men and 17 teamsters out of a company that included 79 militia.

Attack on Springfield

The Natives next attacked

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...

on October 5, 1675, the Connecticut River's largest settlement at the time. They burned to the ground nearly all of Springfield's buildings, including the town's grist mill. Most of the residents who escaped unharmed took cover at the house of Miles Morgan, a resident who had constructed one of the settlement's few fortified blockhouses. An indigenous servant who worked for Morgan managed to escape and alerted the Massachusetts Bay troops under the command of Major Samuel Appleton, who broke through to Springfield and drove off the attackers.

Great Swamp Massacre

The Narragansetts endeavored to remain neutral in the war, driven partly by their relationship with Roger Williams. They were not directly involved in the war, but they had sheltered many of the Wampanoag fighters, women, and children, and there were questions about some of their warriors participating in several Native attacks. In October 1675, Narraganset sachem Canonchet signed a "Treaty of Neutrality" with the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but the colonists' distrust remained. On November 2, Plymouth Colony Governor Josiah Winslow led a combined force of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Connecticut militia against the Narragansett tribe. The colonists distrusted the tribe and their various alliances. As the colonial forces went through Rhode Island, they found and burned several Native towns which had been abandoned by the Narragansetts, who had retreated to a massive fort in a frozen swamp. The cold weather in December froze the swamp so that it was relatively easy to traverse. The colonial force found the Narragansett fort on December 19, 1675 near

South Kingstown, Rhode Island South Kingstown is a town in, and the county seat of, Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 31,931 at the 2020 census. South Kingstown is the second largest town in Rhode Island by total geographic area, behind Ne ...

. About 1,000 troops attacked, including about 150

Pequot The Pequot ( ) are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of Connecticut. The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, four other state-recognized groups in Connecticut includin ...

and Mohegan allies. It is believed that the militia killed about 600 Narragansetts. They burned the fort (occupying over of land) and destroyed most of the tribe's winter stores. Most of the Narragansett warriors escaped into the frozen swamp. The colonists lost about 70 men killed and nearly 150 more wounded, including many of their officers. The surviving militia returned to their homes, lacking supplies for an extended campaign. The nearby towns in Rhode Island provided care for the wounded until they could return to their homes. In the spring of 1676, the Narragansetts counterattacked under Canonchet, assembling an army of 2,000 men. They burned Providence, including Roger William's house. The Narragansetts were finally defeated when Canonchet was captured and executed in April 1676; then female sachem Queen Quaiapen and approximately 138 supporters were killed in an ambush.

Mohawk intervention

In December 1675, Metacomet established a winter camp in Schaghticoke, New York. His reason for moving into New York has been attributed to a desire to enlist Mohawk aid in the conflict. New York was a non-belligerent, but Governor Edmund Andros was nonetheless concerned at the arrival of the Wampanoag sachem. Either with Andros' sanction, or of their own accord, the Mohawk—traditional rivals of the Algonquian people—launched a surprise assault against a 500-warrior band under Metacomet's command the following February. The ''

coup de main A ''coup de main'' (, : , ) is a swift attack that relies on speed and surprise to accomplish its objectives in a single blow. Definition The United States Department of Defense defines it as "An offensive operation that capitalizes on surprise ...

'' resulted in the death of between 70 and 460 of the Wampanoags. Metacomet withdrew to New England, pursued by Mohawk forces who attacked Algonquian settlements and ambushed their supply parties. Over the next several months, fear of Mohawk attack led some Wampanoags to surrender to the colonists, and one historian described the decision of the Mohawks to engage Metacomet's forces as "the blow that lost the war for Philip".

Native campaign

Natives attacked and destroyed more settlements throughout the winter of 1675–1676 in their effort to annihilate the colonists. They attacked homes in Andover, Bridgewater,

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...

, Groton, Lancaster, Marlborough, Medfield, Medford, Portland, Providence, Rehoboth, Scituate, Seekonk, Simsbury, Sudbury, Suffield,

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...

, Weymouth, and Wrentham, including

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

and Plainville. In the first months of the war, Wampanoags employed the strategy of tactical retreat. As English colonists marched through Native settlements, many Natives sought safety by hiding in the swamps surrounding Nemasket. Led by Weetamoo, mothers and their children were marched silently away from encapments and sought protection in the thickest part of the swamps. In their wake, settled along the outskirts of emptied Native villages, Wampanoag protectors ambushed English troops as they marched through Rhode Island. Utlizing kinship networks, the Wampanoags and their allied tribes spread word of English locations, encampments, and attacks in order to warn other resisting Native Americans. Weetamoo later formed an alliance at Narragansett with the Nipmuc in order to create a larger Native cause. The account written and published by Mary Rowlandson after the war gives a colonial captive's perspective on the conflict. Rowlandson was captured by Nipmucs and led miles through surrounding wilderness, keeping her captured through her lack of knowledge of the land. Rowlandson was 'gifted' to Weetamoo and her husband Quinnapin following their wedding, as a gift for their role in securing Native alliances and allies in the war. Rowlandson’s captivity narrative and the following explosion of the Puritan captivity narrative genre, is largely where historical information regarding the inner workings of Native society comes from, as primary sources from white colonial entrepreneurs in the New World. In fact, Rowlandson’s captivity narrative is largely the basis of many understandings about Weetamoo’s role in the war.

Southern theater, 1676

Lancaster raid

The Lancaster raid in February 1676 was a Native attack on the community of

. Philip led a force of 1,500

, and Narragansett men in a dawn attack on the isolated village, which then included the neighboring communities of

Bolton Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...

and Clinton. They attacked five fortified houses. They set fire to the house of Rev. Joseph Rowlandson and slaughtered most of its occupants—more than 30 people. Rowlandson's wife Mary was taken prisoner, and afterward wrote a best-selling narrative of her experiences. Many of the community's other houses were destroyed before the Natives retreated northward.

Plymouth Plantation Campaign

The spring of 1676 marked the high point for the combined tribes when they attacked Plymouth Plantation on March 12. The town withstood the assault, but the Natives had demonstrated their ability to penetrate deep into colonial territory. They attacked three more settlements; Longmeadow (near Springfield), Marlborough, and Simsbury were attacked two weeks later. They killed Captain Pierce and a company of Massachusetts soldiers between Pawtucket and the Blackstone's settlement. They tortured several colonial men to death and buried them at Nine Men's Misery in

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

as part of their ritual torture of enemies. They also burned the settlement of Providence to the ground on March 29. At the same time, a small band of Natives infiltrated and burned part of Springfield while the militia was away. Early American Conflict

The settlements within the Colony of Rhode Island became a literal island colony for a time as the settlements at Providence and

were sacked and burned, and the residents were driven to Newport and

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

. The Connecticut River towns had thousands of acres of cultivated crop land known as the bread basket of New England, but they had to limit their plantings and work in large armed groups for self-protection. Towns such as Springfield, Hatfield, Hadley, and

Northampton, Massachusetts The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence, Massachusetts, Florence and ...

fortified themselves, reinforced their militias, and held their ground, though attacked several times. The small towns of Northfield, Deerfield, and several others were abandoned as the surviving settlers retreated to the larger towns. The towns of the Connecticut colony were largely unharmed in the war, although more than 100 Connecticut militia died in their support of the other colonies.

Sudbury Fight

The Sudbury Fight took place in Sudbury, Massachusetts on April 21, 1676. The town was surprised by Native raiders at dawn, who besieged a local garrison house and burned several unoccupied homes and farms. Reinforcements that arrived from nearby towns were drawn into ambushes by the Natives; Captain Samuel Wadsworth lost his life and half of a 70-man militia in such an ambush. It was the last major victory by the indigenous coalition of the war.

Peskeompscut-Wissantinnewag Massacre

On May 19, 1676, Captain William Turner of the Massachusetts Militia and about 150 militia volunteers (mostly minimally trained farmers) attacked a Native fishing camp at Peskeopscut on the

now called Turners Falls, Massachusetts. The colonists killed approximately 200 Natives. The warriors were camped upstream at Smeads Island. Turner and nearly 40 of the militia were killed during the return from the falls. The colonists defeated an attack at Hadley on June 12, 1676 with the help of their Mohegan allies, scattering most of the survivors into

and farther north. Later that month, a force of 250 Natives was routed near

Marlborough, Massachusetts Marlborough is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 41,793 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Marlborough became a prosperous industrial town in the 19th century and made the transition to high ...

. Combined forces of colonial volunteers and their indigenous allies continued to attack, kill, capture, or disperse bands of Narragansetts, Nipmucs, and Wampanoags as they tried to plant crops or return to their traditional locations. The colonists granted amnesty to those who surrendered or who were captured and showed that they had not participated in the conflict. Captives who had participated in attacks on the many settlements were hanged, enslaved, or put to indentured servitude, depending upon the colony involved.

Second Battle of Nipsachuck

The Second Battle of Nipsachuck occurred on July 2, 1676 and included a rare use of a cavalry charge by the English colonists. In the summer of 1676, a band of over 100 Narragansetts led by female sachem Quaiapen returned to northern Rhode Island, apparently seeking to recover cached seed corn for planting. They were attacked by a force of 400, composed of 300 Connecticut colonial militia and about 100 Mohegan and Pequot warriors, and Quaiapen was killed along with the leaders as they sought refuge in Mattekonnit (Mattity) Swamp in North Smithfield, while the remainder of the survivors were sold into slavery.

Capture at Mount Hope

Metacomet's allies began to desert him, and more than 400 had surrendered to the colonists by early July. Metacomet took refuge back at Assawompset Pond, the Wampanoag settlement near which John Sassamon had been found dead before the outset of the war, but the colonists formed raiding parties with indigenous allies, and he retreated southwest towards

. Metacomet was killed by one of these teams when Captain Benjamin Church and Captain Josiah Standish of the Plymouth Colony militia tracked him to Mount Hope in

. He was shot and killed by an Indian named John Alderman on August 12, 1676. Metacomet's corpse was beheaded then chopped into pieces. His head was displayed in Plymouth for a generation, which was commonly done in Britain to traitors; Wampanaog memory holds that the skull was later taken by tribal members and secretly buried. Captain Church and his soldiers captured Pocasset war chief Anawan on August 28, 1676, at Anawan Rock in Rehoboth, Massachusetts. He was an old man at the time, though a chief captain of Metacomet. His capture marked the final event in King Philip's War, as he was also beheaded.

Northern Theater (Maine and Acadia)

Before the outbreak of war, English settlers in Maine and New Hampshire lived peaceably with their Wabanaki neighbors. Colonists engaged in fishing, harvesting timber, and trade with the Natives. By 1657, English towns and trading posts stretched along the coast eastward to the Kennebec River. These communities were scattered and lacked fortifications. The defenseless posture of English settlements reflected the amicable relationship between Wabanakis and colonists up to that time. Upon hearing news of the Wampanoag attack on Swansea, colonists in York marched up the Kennebec River in June 1675 and demanded that Wabanakis turn over their guns and ammunition as a sign of goodwill. The Wabanakis began raiding trading posts and attacking settlers. The Wabanakis decimate the colonial settlements east of the Saco River under the leadership of Androscoggin sagamore Mogg Hegon and Penobscot sagamore Madockawando. The Indians made three major attacks in

1675 Events January–March * January 5 – Franco-Dutch War – Battle of Turckheim: The French defeat Austria and Brandenburg. * January 29 – John Sassamon, an English-educated Native American Christian, dies at Assaw ...

1676 Events January–March * January 29 – Feodor III of Russia, Feodor III becomes Tsar of Russia. * January 31 – Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, the oldest institution of higher education in Central America, is f ...

, and 1677, most of which led to a massive colonial response. Richard Waldron and Charles Frost led the colonial forces in the northern region. Waldron sent forces that attacked the

Mi'kmaq The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Mi'kmaw'' or ''Mi'gmaw''; ; , and formerly Micmac) are an Indigenous group of people of the Northeastern Woodlands, native to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces, primarily Nova Scotia, New Bru ...

Acadia Acadia (; ) was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the The Maritimes, Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River. The population of Acadia included the various ...

. Mogg Hegon repeatedly attacked towns such as Black Point (

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

), Wells, and Damariscove, building a flotilla out of the approximately 40 sloops and a dozen 30-ton ships previously armed by militia. Maine's fishing industry was completely destroyed by the Wabanaki flotilla. Records from Salem record 20 ketches stolen and destroyed in one raid in Maine. The Wabanakis sued for peace in 1677, and the fighting ended with the Treaty of Casco (1678). The treaty allowed settlers to return to Maine if each English family paid the Wabanakis a peck of corn each year. By the end of the war, approximately 400 settlers died, Maine's fishing economy was devastated, and the Natives maintained power in eastern and northern Maine. There is not an accurate account of the number of Natives who died, but it is thought to be between 100 and 300.

Dedham as a center of colonial operations

During the war, men from Dedham went off to fight and several died. They included Robert Hinsdale, his four sons, and Jonathan Plympton who died at the Battle of Bloody Brook. John Plympton was burned at the stake after being marched to Canada with Quentin Stockwell. Zachariah Smith was passing through Dedham on April 12, 1671 when he stopped at the home of Caleb Church in the "sawmill settlement" on the banks of the Neponset River. The next morning, a group of praying Indians found him shot dead, and suspicion fell on a group on Nipmucs who were heading south to Providence. This was the "first actual outrage of King Phillip's War". One of the Nipmucs, a son of Matoonas, was found guilty and hanged on Boston Common, and his head was impaled on a pike at the end of the gallows. Dedham then readied its cannon in preparation for an attack that never came. After the raid on Swansea, the colony ordered the militias of several towns to have 100 soldiers ready to march out on an hour's notice. Captain Daniel Henchmen took command of the men and left Boston on June 26, 1675. They arrived in Dedham by nightfall and the troops became worried by an eclipse of the moon, which they took as a bad omen. Some claimed to see Indian bows in the moon. Dedham was largely spared from the fighting and was not attacked, but they did build a fortification and offered tax cuts to men who joined the cavalry. Plymouth Colony governor Josiah Winslow and Captain Benjamin Church rode from Boston to Dedham to take charge of the 465 soldiers and 275 cavalry assembling there and together departed on December 8, 1675 for the Great Swamp Fight. When the commanders arrived, they also found "a vast assortment of teamsters, volunteers, servants, service personnel, and hangers-on". Phillip's chief advisor Pumham was captured in Dedham on July 25, 1676. Several Christian Indians had seen his band in the woods, nearly starved to death. Captain Samuel Hunting led 36 men from Dedham and Medfield and joined 90 Indians on a hunt to find them. A total of 15 of the enemy were killed and 35 were captured. Pumham was so wounded that he could barely stand, but he grabbed hold of an English soldier and would have killed him had not one of the settler's compatriots come to his rescue.

Aftermath

Southern New England

The war in southern New England largely ended with Metacom's death. More than 1,000 colonists and 3,000 Natives had died. More than half of all New England towns were attacked by Native warriors, and many were completely destroyed. Hundreds of Native captives were enslaved. Some women and children were sold as indentured servants or slaves to the households of English settlers, but the majority, including Metacom's son and most adult men, were transported to slave markets in

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, Spain, Portugal,

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

, and the

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

. Other survivors joined western and northern tribes and refugee communities as captives or tribal members. Some of the Native refugees returned to southern New England. The Narragansetts, Wampanoags, Podunks, Nipmucks suffered substantial losses, several smaller bands were virtually eliminated as organized bands. Around a thousand Christian Indians survived the war, and after being released from captivity on Deer Island resettled first Natick and then three other "Praying Towns". These groups ironically increased their autonomy and provincial laws barred the sale of their lands without permission of the General Court. Natick remained by far the largest, with about thirty families in 1699, compared with five to ten in Chabanakongkomun, Hassanamisco, and Punkapoag. But between 1720 and 1750, Natick rapidly became a white town, as the Indians invited the Anglo minister Oliver Peabody to take the pulpit, and he was followed by a growing tide of Anglo settlers who treated the Indians with contempt and abuse. The result was a native exodus, as their numbers in Natick dropped from 160 in 1754 to only 37 in 1764. But they did not go far: most if not all remained in the area between Worcester and Boston, and for generations remained in close contact with relatives in the region. The Colony of Rhode Island was devastated by the war, as its principal city Providence was destroyed. Nevertheless, the Rhode Island legislature issued a formal rebuke to Connecticut Governor John Winthrop on October 26, scarcely six months after the burning of the city—although Winthrop had died. The "official letter" places blame squarely on the United Colonies of New England for causing the war by provoking the Narragansetts. Sir Edmund Andros had been appointed governor of New York in 1674 by the

Duke of York Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of List of English monarchs, English (later List of British monarchs, British) monarchs ...

, who claimed that his authority extended as far north as Maine's northern boundary. He negotiated a treaty with some of the northern Native bands in Maine on April 12, 1678. Metacom's Pennacook allies had made a separate peace with the colonists as the result of early battles that are sometimes identified as part of King Philip's War. The tribe nevertheless lost members and eventually its identity as the result of the war.

Plymouth Colony

lost close to eight percent of its adult male population and a smaller percentage of women and children to Native attacks and other causes associated with the war. Indigenous losses were much greater, with about 2,000 men killed in the war, more than 3,000 dying of sickness or starvation. Various historians have estimated that several hundred to over one-thousand Native captives were sold into slavery. But many Natives and their communities survived the war, especially on Cape Cod where the war had few direct effects. After 1695, Plymouth’s incorporation into Massachusetts encouraged expansion and creation of English settlements, putting new pressures on Native resources and driving the consolidation of their villages. Clusters of Indian communities developed: Teticut and Assawompsett, near Pembroke and Middleborough in Plymouth County, around Dartmouth along Buzzard’s Bay in Bristol County, along the upper and middle Cape, with around 500 Indians in four villages in 1693, and at Herring Pond and Mashpee between Plymouth and the lower Cape, with around 500 people in 1698. During the first half of the eighteenth century, nearly all of the remaining Indians on the Cape would move to Mashpee, making it the largest community on the mainland, and the other three clusters would shrink to just a few families.

Northern New England

Conflict continued for decades in Maine, New Hampshire, and northern Massachusetts. There were six wars over the next 74 years between New France and New England, along with their respective indigenous allies, starting with King William's War in 1689. (See

French and Indian Wars The French and Indian Wars were a series of conflicts that occurred in North America between 1688 and 1763, some of which indirectly were related to the European dynastic wars. The title ''French and Indian War'' in the singular is used in the U ...

, Father Rale's War, and

Father Le Loutre's War Father Le Loutre's War (1749–1755), also known as the Indian War, the Mi'kmaq War and the Anglo-Mi'kmaq War, took place between King George's War and the French and Indian War in Acadia and Nova Scotia. On one side of the conflict, the Kingdo ...

.) The conflict in northern New England was largely over the border between New England and Acadia, which New France defined as the

Kennebec River The Kennebec River (Abenaki language, Abenaki: ''Kinəpékʷihtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed June 30, 2011 natural river within the U.S. state of Ma ...

in southern Maine. Many colonists from northeastern Maine and Massachusetts temporarily relocated to larger towns in Massachusetts and New Hampshire to avoid Wabanaki raids.

Explanatory notes

Citations

Works cited

* *

General bibliography

Primary sources

* * * – John Easton's account first published * * * * * * * *

Secondary sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

* Martin, Susan S. (ed.)
"Edward Randolph on the Causes of the King Philip's War (1685)"
New England Indians. *
Alt URL
* * {{Authority control 1670s conflicts 1670s in the Thirteen Colonies 1675 in the Thirteen Colonies 1676 in the Thirteen Colonies 1677 in the Thirteen Colonies 1678 in the Thirteen Colonies Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations Colonial American and Indian wars Connecticut Colony Colonial Massachusetts History of Providence, Rhode Island History of Springfield, Massachusetts Military history of the Thirteen Colonies Narragansett tribe Wampanoag Native American history of Connecticut Native American history of Massachusetts Native American history of Rhode Island