The Pequot War started in 1634 when the Pequot attacked English trade ships on the coast. The Pequot’s plundered the ships and killed nine traders. Because of this action, the Pequot were forced to sign a treaty stating that they would turnover the killers and were fined forty beaver pelts and thirty otter pelts.
The Pequot did not pay however. Leaders had not turned over the killers of the English traders and the tribe had not paid their pelts to the English.
In 1636 a small party of Indians raided another group of English traders in the Narragansett Bay area, killing one trader and capturing a store of goods. Massachusetts Bay authorities blamed the Narragansett Indians for the raid; the accused Indians fled to the Pequot country” (The American Indian, Gibson, pg 188).
The origins of the Pequot war are still in question. “For reasons that contemporaries and historians since have pondered, a series of relatively minor incidents beginnings in 1634 became the excuse to punish the mint masters and extract wampum payments. In one case there was the death of a Dutch trader who had ransomed a Pequot sachem, Tatobem, for Wampum, then killed him despite payment” (The Pequots in Southern New England, Hauptman and Wherry).
However, wampum was then declared as legal tender and war was declared on the Pequots for money owed by them. The Pequots owed the English thousands of wampum for fines and damages. The Pequots did not want to pay and the English retaliated. “Within two months 1,500 Pequots had been driven out of their settlements or slain, according to a report by the English Captain John Underhill indicated that four hundred Pequot souls were burned or shot within a half hour. To charges that the attack was too furious and unmerciful, Underhill cited scripture and the word of God as justification for killing non- Christians” (The Pequots in Southern New England, Hauptman and Wherry)
It is ironic to see that the Pequot War was all about money. The defeat of the Pequots did open up Connecticut for settlements and the English and the Dutch settled the conquered land rapidly. The remaining Pequots were shipped into the slave trade with the Narragansett. They were also confined on small reservations. This is much the case of the King Phillips War that occurred later in New England.
Much like the Pequot War, King Phillip’s War was also about fines and legal representation. Metacom (King Phillip) fought the English settlements on Hog Island and the area surrounding about rights to allow his swine to roam.
Although the Hog Island episode may seem unrelated to the subsequent horrors of King Phillip’s War, the Two events were in fact linked. Philip resorted to violence in 1675 because of mounting frustrations with colonists, and no problem vexed relations between settlers and Indians more frequently in the years before the war than control of livestock” (The American Indian, King Philip’s Herds, Anderson)
Moreover, adding to the tension Gibson states: ” Expanding English settlements meant extending English jurisdiction; Indians were becoming oppressed by the chocking net of puritan ‘blue laws’ and the accompanying decline of their personal freedom. Word of the plight of coastal Indians spread to the frontier, and puritan missionaries found western Indians reluctant to receive the Gospel and take up the new life on reservations”( The American Indian, Gibson).
It is surprising to see that King Philip at first took the peaceful stance against the English settlers. King Philip lead peaceful protests against the English legislation against his people. However; “In 1671 Puritan authorities arrested and fined Philip for his demonstrations of protest, and they disarmed his followers. Thereupon Philip increased his public protests, stressing how puritans had destroyed Indian dignity and independence” (The American Indian, Gibson).
The settlers in New England acted very differently to King Philip’s War than with the Pequot War. The settlers acted with fear. Colonists demanded that all local Indians be concentrated on reservations, that they be guarded in compounds.
King Philip appealed to other Indian tribes. The Nipmucks and Narragansetts joined the Wampanoags in their war. However, in 1676 King Philip was defeated and slain. His wife and children were sold into slavery. Many of his men were also sold into slavery.
King Philip’s War changed the mind set of many colonists. No longer were the Indians viewed as ignorant souls that needed to be saved, but as savages. “Colonial attitudes towards Indians had been changing for some time, and the insurrection solidified negative views. Fewer Englishmen thought that Indians should or could be converted or civilized, and they renounced assimilation and intermarriage with the Indians. Increasingly Indians were regarded as members of an abandoned and threatening race” (The American Indian, Gibson).
Comparing the Pequot War and King Philip’s War it is evident that this was the beginning of the English’s quest for land. There were peaceful solutions to Indian situation, but they were drawn into war. King Philip even tried to use the English judicial system to no avail. The English viewed the Indians as members of a dying race even before King Philip’s war. If the English didn’t have this view and really wanted to cooperate with the Wampanoags, they wouldn’t have imposed such strict fines. At the end of the two wars the Pequots dissolved into small reservations and the Wampanoags were sent to western Massachusetts and some of them even wondered to Kansas and Wisconsin.
Contrasting these two wars, the Pequot even though they were extremely war like, did not get the winning edge. The Pequot did not do a surprise attack as the Wampanoags did. The Pequots were attacked by the British at Fort Mystic and destroyed. The Wampanoags scared the English more than the Pequots did, this was due to the damage that King Philip and his men did. Also both wars were over different circumstances; The Pequot War was about the attack on trade ships and their refusal to pay fines, The King Philip’s War was about livestock and land issues. Moreover, both tribes did not get fair representation and both were fined unfairly.
Also factors in both wars were the cooperation of neighboring tribes. During the Pequot war the Mohegan’s and the Narragansett’s aided the English on the Pequot Fort in Mystic Connecticut. During King Philip’s War the Wampanoag were able to get the support of the Narragansett and the Penobscot Indians.
It was clear that the Indians would never get a fair chance in English courts. The English would always show prejudice against the Indians. This helped develop the English’s views of the Indians; the way Indians would be treated in future encounters, and foreshadowed the way the English dealt with Indian treaties.
It is hard to get an accurate picture of the causes of King Philip’s War. Nichols states that the war was due to livestock regulations and unfair representation in court. Britannica states that the war was due “When three Wampanoags were executed (June 1675) for the murder of an informer, John Sassamon, King Philip could no longer hold his young warriors in check, and bloodshed erupted before either side could coordinate campaign plans.” Much like all historical research the truth is somewhere in the middle.
