AP US History 2.5-2.6: Native American Relations and Slavery

King Philip's War

A war in New England from 1675 to 1678 in which a coalition of Algonquian peoples fought the New England colonies and their Indigenous allies. It was the most destructive conflict in seventeenth-century New England.

Why is the conflict called King Philip's War?

“King Philip” was the English name for Metacom, the Wampanoag sachem who led the principal Indigenous campaign against the colonists. The war is also called Metacom's War or the First Indian War.

What were the major opposing alliances in King Philip's War?

The Indigenous coalition included Wampanoags, Nipmucks, Narragansetts, Pocomtucs, Podunks, Nashaways, and Wabanakis. The colonial side consisted of the New England Confederation, Mohegans, Pequots, Christian Indigenous allies, and later the Mohawks.

What was the New England Confederation during King Philip's War?

It was an alliance of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut colonies. It coordinated military action against Indigenous opponents after declaring war in September 1675.

Metacom

The Wampanoag sachem also known by the English name King Philip. He became grand sachem in 1662 after the deaths of his father, Massasoit, and older brother Wamsutta, and led the major Indigenous resistance to English expansion.

How did Massasoit's diplomacy differ from Metacom's policy toward the colonists?

Massasoit maintained an alliance with the colonists, but Metacom increasingly rejected it after repeated colonial violations and territorial expansion. Under Metacom, diplomacy gave way to efforts to unite neighboring Algonquian peoples against the colonies.

What long-term conditions increased tensions between Native peoples and New England colonists?

Colonial settlement expanded into Indigenous territories, while colonists used treaties and land deeds based on misunderstandings of Native political authority. Conflicts also arose over livestock damage, colonial punishments, missionary activity, and competing systems of land ownership and leadership.

How did colonial ideas about Indigenous political authority contribute to conflict?

Colonists often treated a single sachem as if that person controlled all land in a European-style hierarchy. They frequently ignored the authority of other leaders, including powerful female leaders in matrilineal societies, and accepted land deeds that those leaders considered illegitimate.

What grievances did Wampanoags have concerning European livestock?

Unfenced European cattle and swine damaged Wampanoag farms, food stores, and hunting areas. Colonists often failed to prevent the damage but sought punishment when Wampanoag hunters killed livestock or caught it in traps.

How did Christian missionary efforts contribute to tensions before King Philip's War?

Some Wampanoags feared that missionaries would pressure or force their people to become Christian. This cultural and religious intrusion became one of Metacom's complaints against colonial rule.

John Sassamon

A Christian Indigenous convert, translator, adviser, and cultural mediator who had ties to both colonists and Native communities. His report that Metacom was planning attacks and his subsequent murder became a major trigger for the war.

What happened in the trial of the Wampanoags accused of killing John Sassamon?

Plymouth authorities arrested three Wampanoags after Sassamon's body was found. Despite limited evidence, a jury of twelve colonists and six Indigenous elders convicted them, and they were hanged on June 8, 1675.

Why did the execution of Sassamon's alleged killers intensify the crisis?

The executions convinced many Wampanoags that colonial courts threatened their autonomy and leaders. The case also occurred amid a disputed land claim near Nemasket, where colonial authorities pressured Indigenous people to surrender land rights.

What immediate event marked the beginning of open fighting in King Philip's War?

Pokanokets attacked isolated homesteads around Swansea in June 1675, and colonial retaliation followed. A shooting on June 23 and a larger Pokanoket attack on June 24 rapidly escalated the conflict.

How did the war spread after the attacks on Swansea?

Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay sent a punitive expedition that destroyed the Wampanoag settlement at Mount Hope. Fighting then spread to the Podunks and Nipmucks and to settlements across Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maine.

What was the significance of the Siege of Brookfield?

Nipmucks ambushed a colonial force under Thomas Wheeler and Edward Hutchinson on August 2, 1675, killing eight men. They then besieged the remaining settlers for two days until Major Simon Willard arrived with colonial reinforcements.

Battle of Bloody Brook

A September 12, 1675, Nipmuc ambush led by Muttawmp against Massachusetts militia and teamsters transporting a harvest from Deerfield to Hadley. At least 40 militia members and 17 teamsters were killed.

Why were supply and harvest expeditions important targets during the war?

Colonial settlements depended on transporting crops and supplies between vulnerable towns. Attacking these parties could cause deaths while also threatening the colonies' ability to survive the coming winter.

What happened when Indigenous forces attacked Springfield in October 1675?

Nearly all of Springfield's buildings, including its grist mill, were burned. Many residents survived by sheltering in Miles Morgan's fortified blockhouse, and Major Samuel Appleton's troops eventually drove off the attackers.

What was the Narragansett position at the start of the war?

The Narragansetts initially sought neutrality and signed a neutrality treaty with Massachusetts Bay in October 1675. Colonists nevertheless distrusted them because they sheltered Wampanoag refugees and fighters and were suspected of aiding attacks.

Great Swamp Fight

A December 1675 colonial assault on the Narragansetts' fortified settlement in a Rhode Island swamp. Governor Josiah Winslow led combined Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Connecticut forces, which attacked after the Narragansetts had retreated into the fort.

Why was the Great Swamp Fight a turning point?

The attack inflicted severe losses on the Narragansetts and helped draw them fully into the war under Canonchet. It also demonstrated the colonists' willingness to attack Indigenous communities that had attempted to remain neutral.

Josiah Winslow

A colonial governor and military leader who commanded the combined New England force during the Great Swamp Fight. He later represented the organized military response of the New England Confederation.

Canonchet

A Narragansett sachem who assumed leadership of the Narragansett coalition after the Great Swamp Fight. He was one of the principal Indigenous leaders of the war and was later killed.

How did the Mohawk intervention affect the war?

The Mohawks sided with the colonial alliance, weakening the Indigenous coalition. Their intervention contributed to the eventual collapse of coordinated Native resistance in southern New England.

What military forces did the two sides generally mobilize?

The Indigenous side had approximately 2,000 warriors, while the colonial side had about 3,500 militia. The colonists also relied on roughly 1,000 Indigenous allies, including Mohegans and Christian Indians.

Why were colonial militias initially ineffective against Indigenous forces?

Militia members were often only minimally trained and were vulnerable to ambushes and unfamiliar conditions. The colonists became more effective as they developed better training, tactics, and combined operations with Indigenous allies.

What demographic changes affected Indigenous communities during the war?

The regional Indigenous population had already declined through epidemics and fell to roughly 10,000 by 1676, although exact figures are uncertain. About one-fifth of this population was estimated to be warriors.

What weapons were commonly used by Indigenous forces during King Philip's War?

Indigenous fighters had widely adopted steel knives, tomahawks, and flintlock muskets. These weapons allowed them to conduct mobile raids and ambushes against dispersed colonial settlements.

What was the outcome of King Philip's War in southern New England?

The New England Confederation defeated the Wampanoag and Narragansett coalition, and those groups were nearly destroyed as independent military powers. Metacom was killed at Mount Hope on August 12, 1676, although fighting continued farther north.

How did the war end in northern New England?

Wabanaki resistance continued in the Maine-Acadia borderlands after Metacom's death and the collapse of the southern coalition. The northern phase ended with the Treaty of Casco Bay on April 12, 1678.

What were the major human and material costs of King Philip's War?

More than 5,000 Indigenous people and more than 2,500 colonists and their allies were estimated to have died. Twelve towns were destroyed, many others were damaged, and the population of the Plymouth and Rhode Island colonies was severely reduced.

How did the war affect colonial society and the New England economy?

More than half of New England's towns became involved, and the economies of Plymouth and Rhode Island were ruined. The colonies did not regain their prewar borders of settlement until about 1700.

What happened to many Wampanoags and their allies after the war?

Hundreds were publicly executed or enslaved, and the Wampanoags were left effectively landless. The destruction of their communities marked a major expansion of colonial control over southern New England.

Why is King Philip's War historically significant beyond its military outcome?

It was a last major attempt by southern New England Indigenous nations to expel the colonists. At the same time, the colonies' experience of fighting without direct European governmental or military support helped foster a distinct colonial identity separate from England.

Why did cooperation between some Indigenous groups and the New England colonies matter during King Philip's War?

Mohegans, Pequots, Christian Indigenous communities, and later Mohawks supported the colonial war effort. These alliances provided local knowledge and military assistance, helping the colonies counter Indigenous ambushes and weaken the broader resistance.