The Causes of King Metacomet's War

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"But there was nothing which the rulers of the Indians

resented more persistently, nor complained of more

frequently, than the attempts of the Christians to con-

vert their people." http://bigelowsociety.com/rod/0philli2.htm

 

In 1675, hostilities broke out in the town of Swansea, and the war

spread as far north as New Hampshire, and as far southwest as

Connecticut. Not all Native People, however, sided with Philip. Most

Natives who had converted to Christianity fought with the English or

remained neutral. The English, however, did not always trust these

converts and interned many of them in camps on outlying islands.

Also, some Native communities on Cape Cod and the Islands did not

participate in the war. Native soldiers fighting on the side of the

colonists helped turn the tide of the war, which ended in 1676 when

Philip was killed by a Wampanoag fighting with Captain Benjamin

Church.

 

But the government of the Massachusets (to give it in their own

words) do declare these are the great evills for which God hath

given the heathen commission to rise against the: The wofull breach

of the 5th commandment, in contempt of their authority, which is a

sin highly provoking to the Lord: For men wearing long hair and

perewigs made of women's hair ; for women wearing borders of hair

and for cutting, curling and laying out the hair, and disguising

themselves by following strange fashions in their apparell: For

profaneness in the people not frequenting their meetings, and others

going away before the blessing be pronounced: For suffering the

Quakers to live amongst them and to set up their threshholds by Gods

thresholds, contrary to their old lawes and resolutions.

http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bdorsey1/41docs/45-ran.html

 

KING PHILIP'S WAR : THE EFFECTS

 

King Philip's War was one of the bloodiest and most costly in the

history of America. One in ten soldiers on both sides was injured or

killed. It took many years for Plymouth and the other colonies to

recover from damage to property

 

The outcome of King Philip's War was devastating to the traditional

way of life for Native People in New England. Hundreds of Natives

who fought with Philip were sold into slavery abroad. Others,

especially women and children, were forced to become servants

locally. As the traditional base of existence changed due to the

Colonists' victory, the Wampanoag and other local Native communities

had to adapt certain aspects of their culture in order to survive.

http://www.pilgrimhall.org/philipwar.htm

 

 

Edward Randolph's Description of King Philip's War (1685).

 

 

[Edward Randolph was an emissary of King James II, sent to colonies

to investigate the violations of the Crown's colonial laws (i.e.,

the Navigation Acts) and the overall state of colonial affairs,

especially in New England. The selection below is Randolph's account

of the war between the New England colonists and the American

Indians in that region, led by Metacom (or Metacomet, who was called

King Philip by the English).]

 

 

 

8th Enquiry. What hath been the original cause of the present war

with the natives. What are the advantages or disadvantages arising

thereby and will probably be the End?

 

Various are the reports and conjectures of the causes of the present

Indian war. Some impute it to an imprudent zeal in the magistrates

of Boston to christianize those heathen before they were civilized

and injoyning them the strict observation of their lawes, which, to

a people so rude and licentious, hath proved even intolerable, and

that the more, for that while the magistrates, for their profit, put

the lawes severely in execution against the Indians, the people, on

the other side, for lucre and gain, entice and provoke the Indians

to the breach thereof, especially to drunkenness, to which those

people are so generally addicted that they will strip themselves to

their skin to have their fill of rum and brandy, the Massachusets

having made a law that every Indian drunk should pay 10s. or be

whipped, according to the discretion of the magistrate. Many of

these poor people willingly offered their backs to the lash to save

their money; whereupon, the magistrates finding much trouble and no

profit to arise to the government by whipping, did change that

punishment into 10 days worke for such as could not or would not pay

the fine of 10s. which did highly incense the Indians.

 

But the government of the Massachusets (to give it in their own

words) do declare these are the great evills for which God hath

given the heathen commission to rise against the: The wofull breach

of the 5th commandment, in contempt of their authority, which is a

sin highly provoking to the Lord: For men wearing long hair and

perewigs made of women's hair ; for women wearing borders of hair

and for cutting, curling and laying out the hair, and disguising

themselves by following strange fashions in their apparell: For

profaneness in the people not frequenting their meetings, and others

going away before the blessing be pronounced: For suffering the

Quakers to live amongst them and to set up their threshholds by Gods

thresholds, contrary to their old lawes and resolutions.

http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bdorsey1/41docs/45-ran.html

 

It is proposed in this introductory chapter to give a brief account

of the war, following events in order as nearly as possible.

 

It will not be necessary to discuss the causes leading up to the

war. It is enough to say here, that the English had

assumed the government of the country, and followed

their course of settlement with small regard to the

rights of the natives. In some of the plantations, the

settlers purchased their lands of the Indians, as a

matter of precaution; partly that they might have that

show of title in case any other claim should be set up

in opposition to theirs, and partly to conciliate the

savages, whose hostility they feared, and whose friend-

ship was profitable in the way of trade, in furs and

other products of the hunt. The Indians were always

at disadvantage with the English, in all the arts of

civilized life. The English paid no heed to Indian laws

customs and religious ideas, with no apparent thought

of their intolerance and injustice. They made treaties

with the savages in the same terms which they would have

used had they been dealing with a civilized nation. They

made out deeds, in language which only the learned

framers themselves could understand. In brief, the

Pilgrims and Puritans mostly looked upon the Indians as

heathen, whose "inheritance" God meant to give to his

people, as of old he had dealt with Israel and their

heathen. There were some, however, who, with Rev. John

Eliot, believed that the Indians had immortal souls, and

that they were given to God's people to educate and save.

 

But there was nothing which the rulers of the Indians

resented more persistently, nor complained of more

frequently, than the attempts of the Christians to con-

vert their people.

 

Indirectly one of these converted Indians was the

immediate cause of the opening of hostilities. There

were many grievances of which the Indians complained;

but they had not the foresight to see the inevitable re-

sult of the constantly increasing power of the English,

in their acquisition of land, and multiplying of settle-

ments. It was only when they felt the pressure of

actual privation or persecution that they began to think

of opposition or revenge. Their chiefs had been summon-

ed frequently before the English courts to answer for

some breach of law by their subjects; several times

the English had demanded that whole tribes should give

up their arms because of the fault of one or a few.

The Indians lived mostly by hunting and fishing, and at

the time of the war used fire-arms almost wholly. They

had learned their use and bought the arms of the English

nearly always at exhorbitant prices. They were expert

in the use of their guns, and held them as the most

precious of their possessions. The order to give these

over to the English, with their stock of ammunitiion, was

regarded by them as robbery, as indeed in most cases it

was, as they seldom regained their arms when once given

up. We can now see that from their standpoint there

were grievances enough to drive them to rebellion. But

our forefathers seem to have been unable to see any but

their own side.

http://bigelowsociety.com/rod/0philli2.htm

 

"King Phillip's War was so named for the Wampanoag Chief Metacom,

who was known to his European contemporaries as "King Phillip". The

Wampanoag had been under constant pressure from the Plymouth Colony

to surrender land and conform to English dictates. The Puritans had

even imposed a tax on the tribe."

http://members.aol.com/Lynnash911/war.html

 

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/users/deetz/Plymouth/wampanoag.html