King Philip's War

In 1675 war broke out between the English settlers of Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, eastern Connecticut, and Rhode Island and the Wampanoag, Nipmucks, Narragansett Indians. It came to be called King Philip’s War. Was it inevitable? Was it a revolt? Was it a civil war? Or a war between two separate cultures? Or among seven or eight cultures?

Some historians see this war as a turning point in Indian-American relations? For the Indians it was a disaster. By the spring of 1676, the English puritans had begun to starve out the Indians in hiding. For the praying Indian, English allies, starvation had already killed many confined to Deer Island. Of the 52,000 Indians living in what we call New England, thousands were killed in warfare, died of exposure, were executed as traitors or sold into slavery in the Caribbean.

For the English it was only little less destructive. In the previous fifty years of Puritan settlement, New England had flourished and prospered. Some economic historian suggest that King Philip’s War was so destructive to the New England economy that it took almost seventy years to regain its vigor. Of the men of military age, one in eleven lost his life. Men women and children all suffered in captivity. One in eleven houses was destroyed. Along the Connecticut River, villages were abandoned, fields unplanted. Massachusetts Bay Colony was saddled with a heavy war debt. Money had been paid to ransom wives and children. Every New England family was affected by this war.

If you are a genealogist, you probably know at least one ancestor who fought in King Philip’s War, or of one town
attacked, or of a tale about a captive.

In the last ten years, three important books have been written about King Philip’s War. In 1999, James Drake published King Philip’s War: Civil War in New England, 1675-1676. Jill Lepore’s interest in language and metaphor lead her to publish The Name of War. Russell Bourne’s work The Red King’s Rebellion, Racial Politics in New England, 1675-1678 retells the events in a lively way.

Many of these historians admit that their works are influenced by a major modern American experience-- the Vietnam War. You might wonder what influence that event has on how a historian views a conflict that occurred over three hundred years ago. No longer do all American historians see American history as a progress towards a more perfect and prosperous democracy. An awareness of the diversity of this culture leads some to attempt to look at King Philip’s War from the diverse perspective of various Indians-- the Wampanoags, the praying Indians of the Reverend Mr. Eliot, and the Indian printer John Printer.

Many historians have learned to distrust traditional accounts of war reported by the military. Our historians have learned to look at a war from the perspective of the defeated as well as the victors.

Today all our news is spun. Each party has paid political consultants who are hired to spin every event. What is the significance of Jessie Helm’s retirement? We even have a TV show called "Spin Doctors."

In 1675, there were spin doctors. The Reverend Increase Mather was a spin doctor for the Puritans. Benjamin Thompson wrote a rather bad epic poem that attempted to spin King Philip’s War as surely as Virgil spun the founding of Rome in The Aeneid.

Quaker’s in Rhode Island tried to spin the war, presenting it as a sign of God’s Wrath upon the Puritans for their persecution of dissenters.

Captain Mosely, a brutal and cruel ex-pirate from the Caribbean, spun his role into the colony’s military savior to exorcise his cruelty. And Captain Church, some years later, spun his role into one of the more delightful tales about Indian warfare. Finally, the Reverend John Eliot was silenced, fearing to speak out what his conscience told him must be said, that the praying Indians had remained loyal to their God and to the English. The class on King Philip’s War will look at these issues. You will return home with a time line of the most significant raids and events. We will look at contemporary accounts and discover where you can study them in the Seattle area. We will look at the principal genealogical study of the war, Bodge’s Soldiers in King Philip’s War. Another book that lists all important genealogical sources for military records in the colonial period will be reviewed. The resources at the Massachusetts Archive will also be examined.

Karl Kumm

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