King Philip's War

From 1675 to 1678, New England became the setting for a brutal armed struggle known as King Philip's War, though it also carries the names First Indian War, Metacom's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, and Metacom's Rebellion. On one side stood several Indian tribes native to the Northeastern Woodlands; on the other, the English colonies of New England joined by their own Native allies. The conflict takes its name from Metacom, also called Metacomet, who lived roughly from 1638 to 1676 and served as Pokanoket chief and sachem of the Wampanoag. He had taken the English name Philip, a gesture reflecting the cordial relationship his father Massasoit once shared with Plymouth Colony. Fighting persisted in New England's farthest northern territories until the Treaty of Casco Bay brought closure on April 12, 1678.

Massasoit had forged and upheld a lasting arrangement with the colonists during his lifetime. Following his father's death in 1662, his younger son Metacom, born around 1638 and living until 1676, rose to become tribal chief. Yet Metacom eventually abandoned the alliance his father had built with the colonists, driven by their repeated breaches of trust. Tensions escalated further when colonial authorities demanded that Native peoples surrender their firearms as part of a 1671 peace settlement, and matters worsened in 1675 when Plymouth Colony executed three Wampanoag men by hanging for killing a fellow Wampanoag. Over the following six months, Native war parties struck settlements and villages across Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maine, prompting colonial militias to strike back. In response, the colonies gathered the largest fighting force New England had ever assembled, some 1,000 militiamen bolstered by 150 Native allies. Governor Josiah Winslow led this force against the Narragansetts starting in November 1675. Native settlements throughout Rhode Island fell to fire and attack, reaching a climax at the Narragansetts' principal stronghold during the Great Swamp Fight. Roughly 600 Narragansetts perished in that clash, and leadership of their coalition passed to sachem Canonchet. The coalition then drove back the frontiers of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Rhode Island, torching towns in their path, Providence among them in March 1676. Eventually, though, colonial forces gained the upper hand once the Mohawk chose to join the colonial side. By war's end, both the Wampanoags and their Narragansett allies had suffered near total devastation. Metacom sought refuge at Mount Hope, only to be killed there by militia forces on August 12, 1676. Even so, the Abenaki carried on fighting along the borderlands separating New England from Acadia.

Historians regard this conflict as the worst disaster to strike seventeenth-century New England, and many consider it the bloodiest war in the entirety of Colonial American history. Within just over a year, twelve towns across the region lay in ruins, with many others suffering serious damage. The economies of Plymouth and Rhode Island collapsed, their populations gutted by losses amounting to one tenth of all men fit for military duty. Wampanoag people and their allies faced execution or enslavement by the hundreds, and the Wampanoag nation found itself stripped of nearly all its land. More than half of New England's towns found themselves drawn into the fighting, and colonists would not reclaim their prewar boundaries until as late as 1700.

This war represented Native tribes' final major attempt to drive colonists out of New England altogether. Paradoxically, it instead marked the origin point for a distinctly American sense of identity. Left to confront their adversaries without assistance from any European government or armed force, the colonists began forming a collective identity that set them apart from England itself.

Historical context

Plymouth's founders asserted that they held first rights to all Wampanoag territory, a claim built on early partnerships with Native figures such as Squanto (Tisquantam) and Massasoit (Ousamequin). Yet this English assertion rested on a fundamental misreading of how Native leadership actually functioned, since colonists treated Ousamequin as though he were a sovereign "king" over the land, ignoring the legitimate authority that other local figures, including Namumpum (Weetamoo), held over their own territories.

Between 1628 and 1640, waves of English immigrants arrived and established Salem, Boston, and numerous smaller settlements throughout the Massachusetts Bay area. Settlement after settlement pushed outward into lands belonging to the various Algonquian-speaking peoples of the region.

In the years leading up to King Philip's War, relations between colonists and Native nations shifted unpredictably. During the Pequot War, the Narragansetts had stood alongside English forces and taken part in the Mystic massacre, only to feel deep horror at what they had helped accomplish. After the Pequots fell, the Narragansett sachem Miantonomoh spent the 1640s trying to unite Algonquian groups against the growing colonial threat. Connecticut colonists captured him, however, and Mohegan sachem Uncas put him to death, breaking apart the alliance he had worked to build.

Five separate colonies, Rhode Island, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New Haven, each forged their own distinct arrangements with the Wampanoags, Nipmucs, Narragansetts, Mohegans, Pequots, and other regional tribes, whose lands had never shared uniform boundaries. Many of these Native groups had long histories of rivalry among themselves. As more colonists arrived, English settlements crept along the coast and stretched up the Connecticut River valley, and by 1675 a scattering of small in

Failure of diplomacy

When his elder brother Wamsutta, whom the English called "Alexander," died, Metacom rose to become sachem of the Pokanoket and Grand Sachem over the whole Wampanoag Confederacy. This happened in 1662, following the line of succession from their father Massasoit, who had passed away in 1661 and had ruled as chief before them. The colonists already knew Metacom quite well by the time he took on this role of paramount leadership, yet at his core he harbored deep suspicion toward them.

Tensions between the Wampanoag people and the newcomers kept building, largely because pigs and cattle brought over from Europe wandered freely onto native farmland, ruined stored food, and disrupted hunting territory. Despite the Wampanoags voicing this problem again and again, most settlers made only feeble attempts to keep their animals contained. Adding to the friction, colonial authorities demanded compensation whenever Wampanoag hunters killed livestock, whether by weapon or trap. Christian missionary efforts aimed at converting native people created still more resentment; Metacom himself gave voice to this anxiety, stating that he and fellow Wampanoag leaders dreaded the prospect of their people being pressured or compelled into becoming Christian Indians. By the winter spanning 1674 into 1675, Metacom had begun reaching out to other Algonquian groups in hopes of forming a coalition against Plymouth Colony.

Strife was not limited to relations between natives and settlers, though; it also tore through native communities and families themselves. Roughly two months before fighting broke out, Mammanuah, son of the Sakonnet leader Awashonks, put his signature on a deed handing English settlers claim to all territory stretching from Pocasset Neck down to the coast, doing so without ever consulting his mother for her consent.

As planting season arrived, trouble flared when incoming settlers started cultivating land that fell under Awashonks's authority. Mammanuah's mother, along with others from the tribe, confronted him directly. His relatives responded by removing him from his position of leadership, though they spared his life and let him depart. Seeking justice, he traveled to Plymouth, where colonial officials restored his title, motivated in no small part by their own interest in keeping the disputed land deed enforceable.

Beneath much of this discord lay a clash between two very different systems of authority: the patrilineal structure favored by the colonists and the matrilineal traditions long practiced among many native women. As hostilities escalated, this friction pushed tribes into conflict not only with rival groups but with members of their own communities, splitting families along opposing loyalties.

Written by Aubrey Research from King Philip's War on Wikipedia, cited as a reference and not reproduced.

Where these engagements were fought

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Notable engagements

Plus 84 further documented engagements in the King Philip's War record.

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Engagements and locations are compiled from published sources: Wikipedia (text rewritten and cited as a reference, CC BY-SA 4.0); Sylvester, Indian Wars of New England (1910) (public domain); Bodge, Soldiers in King Philip's War (1906) (public domain).