350 Years Ago: The Beginning of the End of the Natives of New England

350 years ago today, several Pokanoket warriors attacked homesteads in the vicinity of Swansea, located in what was then the Plymouth Colony (now Massachusetts). This was the start of King Philip’s War, which lasted two and a half years, and ultimately finished the native tribes of New England as a dominant force in the region.

We have previously written about this topic here, and about a play about the native leader Metacom, or King Philip, here. The Pokanokets were retaliating for the execution of three Wampanoags by the English 12 days earlier. Those three men had been convicted of killing John Sassamon, a Harvard educated native of the Massachusett tribe [sic — this is the name of the tribe, not the place that was named after the tribe], who acted as an interpreter and advisor to both the whites and the natives. Trouble had been brewing for a long time — 55 years to be exact, ever since the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth. Longer, if you include the various European trappers and traders who preceded the Pilgrims. The fighting lasted until a treaty was signed in Spring 1678.

June 20 happens to be World Refugee Day, and there could be no more sobering hour to contemplate America’s long but imperfect history as a welcoming destination for those fleeing oppression elsewhere in the world. We have been better than most nations, and never tire of patting ourselves on the back about it, but there have been times (like right now) when we have failed the newcomers. It is interesting, and ought to be instructive, and humbling, to recall a time when the ENGLISH were the refugees. For in New England at least in the beginning, in contrast with the Jamestown colony, which existed primarily for commerce, the majority of the colonists were literal refugees who had been persecuted in England for their religious beliefs. Granted, they proved hypocritical on this score, only too willing to persecute others who didn’t follow their own beliefs. And their quarrel with the First Nations in time snowballed to genocidal proportions. But there was once a historical moment when they themselves had fled persecution only to find themselves at the mercy of sometimes hostile hosts. Then the table was turned, and the cycle repeated. Remember how it felt to be the vulnerable one? I guess not.