King Philip's War of 1675-1676 (also known as Metacom's Rebellion) marked the last major effort by the Indians of southern New England to drive out the English settlers. Led by Metacom, the Pokunoket chief called "King Philip" by the English, the bands known today as Wampanoag Indians joined with the Nipmucks, Pocumtucks, and Narragansetts in a bloody uprising. It lasted fourteen months and destroyed twelve frontier towns.
Although the sequence of events leading to the outbreak of war is unclear, the Indians' resentment of the English had been building since the 1660s. They had become increasingly dependent on English goods, food, and weapons, and their bargaining power diminished as the fur trade dried up, tribal lands were sold, and Metacom and other leaders were forced by the colonists to recognize English sovereignty. Rather than accommodate further, some of the Indians took up arms. Others, including the Mohegan, Pequot, Massachusetts, and Nauset Indians, sided with the English.
The war ended in August 1676, shortly after Metacom was captured and beheaded. Some of his supporters escaped to Canada; those who surrendered were shipped off as slaves to the West Indies. The Puritans interpreted their victory as a sign of God's favor, as well as a symbolic purge of their spiritual community. The Indians who remained faced servitude, disease, cultural disruption, and the expropriation of their lands.
1639?-1676, Wampanoag tribal sachem. Philip (Indian name, Metacom or Metacomet) was the son of Massasoit (Ousamequin) and brother of Alexander (Wamsutta) whom Philip succeeded as sachem in the summer of 1662. He was promptly coerced by the Plymouth General Court into signing an agreement that he would sell no land without the court's consent. Philip understood his promise to be for seven years' duration, but the written document, which he could not read, made it perpetual.
Being allied to Plymouth, Philip was caught in that settlement's territorial ambitions, as well as those of Massachusetts Bay and Rhode Island, whose new charter included within its bounds his homeland of Pokanoket (Bristol). Massachusetts's missionary John Eliot sent the "praying Indian" John Sassamon as ostensible secretary to Philip, but Philip caught Sassamon in forgery and chased him away.
In 1667, Plymouth founded the town of Swansea on land also claimed by Rhode Island, and in 1671 Philip sold land to Rhode Islanders, apparently believing that the seven years of his promise to Plymouth had expired. Plymouth in retaliation forced him to submit, ending his status as a "free" sachem, and the Commissioners of the United (Puritan) Colonies of New England confirmed his subjection.
In January 1675, John Sassamon emerged again to inform Plymouth's governor Josiah Winslow that Philip was preparing for war. Sassamon was murdered on his return journey. By questionable processes, a Plymouth jury convicted three of Philip's men of the murder, and Plymouth mobilized to "conform" the sachem (i.e., to subject him completely to Plymouth's control).
When an Indian was killed by encroaching Swansea settlers, Philip's Pokanokets retaliated by killing seven Swansea men. Plymouth then sent in an army, and the Pokanokets fled. They were joined by Nipmuck praying Indians of John Eliot's missions in assaults on Massachusetts towns. That colony in turn hired mercenaries who attacked any Indians they could reach, including the Narragansetts who were trying to stay neutral.
Philip sought refuge and aid among the upper Hudson River Mahicans. But New York's governor Sir Edmund Andros incited the Mohawks to attack them, whereupon Philip's band returned to Massachusetts where they conducted futile raids and were harried by Plymouth's Capt. Benjamin Church. After Philip executed a warrior for advocating peace, the victim's brother "Alderman" led Captain Church to Philip's hideout and killed him. Philip's head was exhibited on the fort at Plymouth town for twenty-five years.
Actually, Philip had become almost insignificant in the bloody war that bears his name. Troops from Connecticut and Massachusetts vied for "rights of conquest" over the territory of the large Narragansett tribe, which lay within a protesting Rhode Island's chartered bounds. Fire and massacre raged all over New England. The war produced the heaviest losses in proportion to population that the region has ever experienced. In addition to the loss of life, Massachusetts's charter was rescinded and the United Colonies of New England confederation dissolved.
Francis Jennings, The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest (1975); Douglas Edward Leach, Flintlock and Tomahawk: New England in King Philip's War (1958).
Francis Jennings