King Philip’s War 5: Enter the Narragansetts

The History of the Americans

Maps of New England during King Philip’s War

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It is the fall of 1675, and “King Philip’s War” rages on. The English colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Connecticut have been at war with the Wampanoag nation and its powerful allies, the Nipmucs, since late June. The Indians are beating the English everywhere, in part because the English cannot easily distinguish friendly and neutral Indians from enemies.

The still neutral Narragansetts were the most powerful nation in the region. Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth did not, however, believe that the Narragansetts were in fact neutral, in part because some of their young fighters had gone rogue and joined with Nipmucs and also because the Narragansetts would not turn over Wampanoag refugees who had taken shelter in their lands. Paranoic fear of the Narragansetts would lead the New English to the most catastrophic diplomatic and military blunder in the history of European settlement up to that time. This is that story.

And don’t miss the “trees of death”!

Errata: In this episode I describe a possible friendly fire incident late in the Great Swamp Fight in which a group of Indians emerged outside the fort and colonial militia fired upon them. A sergeant had yelled out that they were friendlies, but after hesitating Benjamin Church concluded that they weren’t and had his men shoot at them, during which exchange Church himself was wounded. I speculated that Church might have been correct, insofar as I had not read that there were Indian allies along with the thousand or so English involved in that campaign against the Narragansetts. Within a day of posting the episode, however, I read in James Drake’s excellent book from 1999, King Philip’s War: Civil War in New England, 1675-1676, that in there were, in fact, 150 Mohegans and Pequots there with the Connecticut Regiment. It still isn’t certain that Church was wrong and the sergeant was correct, but the presence of those friendlies with Connecticut’s soldiers obviously tips the balance against Church’s judgment.

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Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website)

Matthew J. Tuininga, The Wars of the Lord: The Puritan Conquest of America’s First People

Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War

Thomas Church, The History of Philip’s War: Commonly Called the Great Indian War, of 1675 and 1676

The Great Swamp Fight (Wikipedia)