Metacomet, younger son of Massasoit, was also known as King Philip. In 1662, he succeeded his brother Wamsutta as sachem or chief of the Wampanoag tribe. Metacomet earnestly attempted to maintain his father's peaceful policies with the Colonists, but the English pushed ever farther into Wampanoag lands, imposing their laws on the native people. Eventually, a reluctant Metacomet united the disparate tribes of the region and led an uprising later known as King Philip's War. The war that is known as King Philip's War ranged from the Mt. Hope peninsula in Rhode Island to the outermost colonial settlement of Northfield, Massachusetts. King Philip's War began with a massacre of colonists at Swansee, Plymouth, by a band of Indians. The war was started by King Philip after three of his people were executed by the English for murdering an Indian in English employ. Brookfield was attacked and destroyed by Indians and they were later forced to retreat under an assault led by Major Simon Willard. Deerfield was set aflame by attacking Indians. Lancaster was attacked by Indians led by King Phillip. The settlement was destroyed by fire after all the men were killed and the women and children taken prisoners. Soon, the Narragansetts joined Metacomet to form an army of three to five thousand men. For a time, his armies' guerrilla-style tactics confounded the enemy, but the British eventually prevailed. Colonial militia surrounded and killed some of the army. With the number of men growing smaller and smaller, Metcomet continued attacking villages. King Philip's War was ended when the Wampanoag leader was surprised and shot by an Indian in the service of Capt. Benjamin Church on August 12, 1676.Metacomet's head was on display in Plymouth for twenty years.
Tradition held that if a person placed his ear to the ground he could hear the sounds of Indian mounts trotting along their old hunting trails; see Joseph Everett Warner, Spirit of Liberty and Union, 1637–1939 (Taunton, Mass.
Ibid., 31, and personal communication with Paul Robinson (Rhode Island Historic Preservation Commission) and E. Pierre Morenon (Rhode Island College), 1991. 133. Personal communication with Paul Robinson, E. Pierre Morenon, Mary Soulsby ...
The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: with Related Documents, Neal Salisbury, ed. ... King Philip's War: The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict. ... 3rd Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.
Margaret M. Bruchac, “Earthshapers and Placemakers: Algonkian Indian Stories and the Landscape,” in Indigenous ... Morrison, The Solidarity of Kin: Ethnohistory, Religious Studies, and the Algonkian-French Religious Encounter (Albany, ...
Telling the story of what may have been the bitterest of American conflicts, and its reverberations over the centuries, Lepore has enabled us to see how the ways in which we remember past events are as important in their effect on our ...
2010 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine King Philip's War was the most devastating conflict between Europeans and Native Americans in the 1600s.
The period of the Indian war of 1676, known as King Philip's war, is one of the most interesting in the early history of the New England colonies.
The History of King Philip's War
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