COURSE THEME: MIGRATION and SETTLEMENT  

Explain how free and forced migration to and within different parts of North America caused regional development, cultural diversity and blending, and political and social conflicts through the 19th century.

 

 

 

 

Growth of the New England Colonies 

 

Colonies are flourishing  - WHY?

1.. Rapid population growth, high birth rate (7-8 children)
2. Low infant mortality rate

3. Healthy environment

4. Benefitted from migrating as families and settling in towns

 

Between 1600-1675, New England's Native American population fell  from 140,000 to 10,000, while the English population grew to 50,000.

Meanwhile, the New England Puritans launched a campaign to convert the Indians to Protestantism. One leading missionary

convinced about 2000 Indians to live in "praying towns," where they were expected to adopt white customs

 

Relations with Native Americans  1630 to 1670  Stable WHY?

1. Mutually beneficial trade agreements (mostly in fur trade)

2. Settler population still relatively small, Disputes over land are rare
3. White encroachment leads to occasion flare ups (Pequot War 1636)

4. Relative peace until 1675. New England has about 70,000 residents clustered into about 100 towns

 

 Rising Tensions Complex relations between Natives and Settlers

1.  White Encroachment leads to rising anger among SOME of the Indian tribes

- some tribes had Peace Accords and reciprocal trade agreements

- They was intertribal rivalries

 

2. Native Americans resent whites and the impact their presence had on their lives

 

THE BIG ISSUE IS LAND!!

Only 20% of the land in good for farming – Why is this a problem?

#1 All the children that are born in the 1630s and 1640s are coming of age in the 1660’s and 1670’s and they want land to farm

#2  Natives are facing economic problems of their own

Fur trade had dried up; The Indians are hemmed in on all sides in Plymouth (other tribes have access out)

 

 

 

 

Introducing King Phillip (Metacom) 

King Phillip  emerges into this troubling situation as  the Wampanoag Sachem  

BIO: Son of  Massasoit The Sachem who had befriended the Pilgrims in 1621
Born in 1638 right in the middle of the complex web of rivalries and relationships between settlers and Natives

 

Massasoit  dies in 1661, son Alexander replaces him. Alexander dies mysteriously in 1662 after meeting with the English (murder?)

King Phillip (Metacom) becomes Sachem at age 24

Proud and haughty leader who thought he was equivalent to English King Charles II

Becomes the leader of a tribe in crisis.

Facing severe economic hardship  in 1660 -  Their one remaining resource is land

The tribe begins selling land to the English in late 1666. English buyers take advantage of the desperate situation driving the price down and encouraging Native Americans to take loans which they can not easily payback

 

1671 - Tensions mount 

Rumors begin to spread about King Phillip staging an attack/revolt

English disarm King Phillip and ask him to pay an annual fee of 100 lbs as a subject of the English crown

King Phillip reacts

He begins to rearm  - How? By selling their only valuable resource  - land 

By 1673 nearly all of the arable land had been sold and King Phillip uses the money to purchase weapons!

Simultaneously he looks to set up alliances with local tribes. 

 

 

 

 

 

The Spark that ignites the war -  The death  of John Sassamon 

Had assimilated into English society and converted to Christianity. Became English and attended Harvard.

In the 1660's Sassamon serves as King Phillip's interpreter.

Mid January 1675 informs leaders of Plymouth Colony

Sassamon is soon murdered (Revenge killing?)

 

English arrest 3 Wampanoag Indians including one of King Phillips key advisors - charged-tried-convicted and executed in June 1675

Retaliation from  Wampanoag's villages are attacked and word starts to spread through Plymouth and the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

 

King Phillips Mt. Hope settlement is destroyed by the English and the conflict escalates as  Nipmuck and Narragansett's join

Built up resentment leads to rapid escalation by Wampanoag's  - last chance to drive out English and save their homeland

Increased attacks by Native Americans increase white settlers panic

 

 

Metacom’s siege of the village of Swansea on June 20, 1675, was the first battle

of King Philip’s War.

 

 

 

 

In 1675 700 Innocent Christina Indians living near Boston were rounded up and dumped on Bear Island in Boston Harbor. Many died of disease, starvation and exposure.

 

The Narragansett's to the South in Rhode Island (rivals to the Wampanoag's) remained neutral the first part of the conflict now join forces with the English. 

 

By mid 1675  ALL INDIANS ARE CONSIDERED ENEMY COMBATANTS

Narragansett's refuse to turn over fugitive  Wampanoag's and English burn their villages and drive them out

Connecticut and Massachusetts  set fire to Narragansett villages killing at least 300 - worst slaughter since the Pequot War of 1637

War has now spread through New England

 

Indians taunt English during battles "where is your god now?"  They tear up their bibles and destroy their churches

 

What turned the tide of war for the English? 

 

The English militia becomes a more effective fighting unit. They have advantages. They  are more numerous, better armed and more ruthless

August 1676 - Captain Benjamin Church captures King Phillips Wife and son.

 

King Phillip killed by Indians under Benjamin Church's command. Church orders King Phillip beheaded, drawn, and quartered.

Church puts King Phillip's head on a pike

 

The War Ends

In an odd coincidence Captain Church arrives in Plymouth with King Phillips head on a pike on Thanksgiving Day, 1675

His father, Massasoit had forged critical political and personal ties with the colonial leaders, leading the neutrality during the Pequot War and the first Thanksgiving.

 

Significance of King Phillip's War

 

#1 The level of violence in brutal on both sides

#2 Most casualties on both sides were non combatants

 

King Philip’s War has been called United States’ most devastating conflict. One in 10 soldiers on both sides was killed, 1,200 colonists’ homes were burned, and vast stores of foodstuffs destroyed. The effects of the carnage and property damage were felt for years by colonists. The war’s ramifications for Native populations of southern New England included not only loss of life and, for some, enslavement but the continued erosion of sovereignty, land rights, and communities as well.

 

#3 Many stories of POW being tortured and killed

#4 Savage War justified by each side because they were invaded

 

All negative pre war trends were accelerated 

#1 English population continue to grow
#2 Native American population continues to decline
#3 Native Americans lose more land
#4 English continue to push Native Americans westward

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KING PHILLIP’s  WAR (1675)

By 1675, the European settlers in New England had lived in relative peace with the Native Americans for nearly . However, during this period, the settlers gradually encroached on native lands. Between 1600 and 1675, the Native American population of New England decreased from to , while the English population grew to . Some Englishmen worked to convert the remaining natives to Christianity, translating the bible into their languages and establishing so-called “praying towns” in which the Indians began to adopt a European way of life.

In 1675, and Indian sachem (chief) named Metacom united many tribes of the region into a military alliance, and a bloody war broke out between Indians and settlers. Metacom had been given the English name ‘Philip’ and the war became known to the settlers and to history as ‘King Philip’s War.’ The causes of the war are disputed. The following documents show two perspectives on why the war began.

 

DOCUMENT A  - King Philip’s Complaints – John Easton

Source: John Easton, Attorney General of the Rhode Island colony, met King Philip in June of 1675 in an effort to negotiate a settlement. Easton recorded Philip’s complaints. However, Easton was unable to prevent a war, and the fighting broke out the following month.

 

“ King Philip agreed to come to us; came himself unarmed, and about 40 of his men armed. Then 5 of us went over. We sat very friendly together. We told him our business. They said that was well; they had done no wrong, the English wronged them. We said that both sides thought the other side wronged them, but our desire was to avoid war. The Indians agreed that fighting was the worst way; then they asked how Right might take Place. We said, by negotiation. They said that they lost many square miles of land through negotiation.

They said they had been the first in doing Good to the English, and the English were the first in doing wrong. They said when the English first came, their King’s Father was as a great Man, he prevented other Indians from wronging the English, and gave them Corn and showed them how to plant, and let them have a 100 times more land than now the Indian King had for his own people.

And another grievance was, if 20 of their honest Indians testified that a Englishman had done them wrong, it was as nothing; and if but one of their worst Indians testified against any Indian, when it pleased the English it was sufficient.

Another Grievance was, the English made them drunk and then cheated them in Bargains; that now, they had no Hopes left to keep any Land.

Another Grievance, the English cattle and horses still increased and kept spoiling their corn. They thought when the English bought Land of them they would have kept their cattle upon their own Land, but the English didn’t use a fence. “

 

 

DOCUMENT B King Philip’s War – Edward Randolph

Source: The English government sent Edward Randolph to New England to report on the causes for the wars with the Native Americans. He wrote this report in 1685.

 

 “There are many different theories for what caused the present Indian war. Some blame the people of Boston for trying to Christianize the Indians before they were civilized and forcing them the strict observation of their laws, which, to a people so rude and uncivilized, has proved unbearable.

 

Some believe there have been Catholic priests, who have made it their business, for some years past, to turn the Indians against the English and to promise supplies from France.

 

Others blame the Indian leader, King Philip. Some English tried to get his land and brought him to court and sometimes imprisoned him, and always took another little piece of his land.

 

But the Puritan government of the Massachusetts thinks that God has allowed the Indians to rise against them. The Puritans believe it is punishment for men wearing long hair and wigs made of women’s hair; for women cutting, curling and laying out the hair. For people not going to town meetings.

 

The English have contributed much to their misfortunes, for they first taught the Indians the use of arms, and let them attend trainings, and showed them how to handle and fix their muskets.

 

The loss to the English in the several colonies, in their habitations and stock, is reckoned to amount to 150,000 pounds  . About 1,200 houses have been burned, 8000 head of cattle, great and small, killed, and many thousand bushels of wheat and other grain burned, and over 3,000 Indians, men, women, and children destroyed. ”

 

 

SOURCE LINK

 

 

 

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