The date of
May 26, 1637, a mere 17 years after the settlement of Plymouth, the tensions
between the Puritans and the Native Americans had become strained. The very people who they stole the corn from
on their landing and who showed them how to plant corn and other crops. as well
as how to fish and hunt, were being exterminated by the English and Puritans
who had now flocked to the shores of New England.
The most
militant of the Native tribes the Pequot has started warring against the white
settlers who were pushing them off of their land. So Militia and English troops set up and
ambush on May 26, 1637. The surrounded
the Pequot settlement and using surprise burned the native fort to the
ground. The women, children, sick and
elderly hid in their teepees and thus were burned alive.
Governor
Bradford is quoted as saying: “It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying
in the fire and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the
stink there of: but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the
praise there of to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to
enclose their enemies in their hands and give them such a speedy victory!’
The history
Channel named this as one of the 10 days that unexpectedly changed history, for
the attitude of removal or cleansing would be our policy. We regarded all those Native Americans who
would not become civilized - near white as Devils who must be killed or driven
out.
The
Wampanoag’s and their famous Chief Massasoit, who were friends with Bradford
and the Plymouth settlement, began to complain about the white settlers freely
taking the crops and invading their land. In 1622 a militia Captain killed 8
friendly natives and impaled their sachem’s head on a pole in Plymouth. Hostilities had begun and as the colony
encroached more and more on their land, New England became a battleground. The Wampanoag’s thought they could coexist
with the whites but by the 1670’s Massasoit’s grandson Metacom, known to the
English as King Phillip, began what would become known as King Phillip’s War.
Metacom noted
that The Wampanoag “had bine the first in doing good to the English and the English the
first in doing rong.”
Metacom
claimed that phony contracts were used to take large tracts of land from Indians
who had been made drunk.
When a praying
Indian who helped set up the Praying Indian Village of Natick was found
murdered, three of Metacom’s followers were accused, found guilty and
executed. King Philips war was
on…settlements, major towns and villages were burned and sacked until finally
on August 12, 1676 he was killed…thus ending the King Phillip’s War.
*It is noted that in
Plymouth for that Thanksgiving they bought his head back and paraded it around
town. They Puritans thought it a sign from
God of their righteous ownership of this new land...they the chosen people!
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