The relations between the colonists and the Indians were threefold:
they traded with the Indians, they fought with them, and they
preached the gospel to them. The early settlers carried on trade with
the natives, because it was profitable, and because it was often
necessary, in keeping the colonists from starvation. They sought from
pure and honest motives to convert the red men to Christianity.
The people of Massachusetts were foremost in this laudable ambition.
The Reverend John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians, labored for many
years to give them the gospel, and translated the Bible into their
language. Eliot was assisted by many others, and many of the dusky
inhabitants of the forest learned to bow down to the Christian’s God.
Nevertheless, conflict between the white men and the Indians was at
times inevitable. The Indian could not understand the perpetual
obligations of a treaty, nor could he discriminate between the honest
settler who sought only to do him good, and the conscienceless trader
who defrauded him. Hence the two races were embroiled in wars from
time to time, until the stronger race finally triumphed over the
weaker, and took sole possession of the land. No other result,
indeed, was possible. The two races were so unlike in their
aspirations and their capacity for civilization that they could not
dwell together, and barbarism fell before the onmarch of civilization.
Philip was the son of Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags, who had
made a treaty of friendship with the Pilgrims of Plymouth soon after
their landing. This treaty had been faithfully kept for fifty years,
but soon after the death of the aged chief, Philip and his tribe
became estranged from the white settlers and began to prepare for
war. No particular cause for the war that ensued is known. It was
apparently a spontaneous outburst, rather than the result of a
conspiracy of the Indians. It is supposed that the Indians, seeing
the gradual encroachment of the white men upon the lands of their
fathers, determined to drive the intruders from the country.
The war began with an Indian attack on the town of Swansea, in which
several men, women, and children were killed. The cry of alarm
instantly spread throughout the colonies and the effect was
immediate. Three hours after the messenger had reached Boston a body
of men was on the march from that city toward the Indian country.
Other towns responded with equal vigor, and for many days the New
England forest rang with the crack of the musket and the war whoop of
the Indian. Had the Indians met their foe in open battle they would
soon have been annihilated; but their method was to attack the lonely
farmhouse, the unprotected settlement, or to creep by stealth at dead
of night upon the sleeping hamlet and with fiendish yells to fall
upon their victims with the tomahawk.
Philip was a bold and powerful leader. He succeeded in enlisting the
aid of the Narragansetts; but many of the Indians, especially those
converted by Eliot, assisted the colonies. In the summer of 1675 the
towns of Brookfield, Deerfield, and Northfield were burned by the
Indians, and many of the inhabitants perished. A band of soldiers led
by Captain Beers was ambushed near Deerfield and almost all were
killed. The Indians then attacked Hadley, and while the villagers
were fighting desperately it is said that an aged man with flowing
white hair and beard appeared and took command of the battle, and the
Indians were soon driven off. Many thought him an angel sent from
heaven for their deliverance. It proved to be a man named Goffe, the
regicide, who had long been hiding in the town.
The following winter a thousand of the best men of New England
marched against the enemy; they surprised the Narragansett fort and
put to death probably seven hundred people in a night. By the spring
of 1676 the Indians were on the defensive. Philip became a fugitive
and escaped his pursuers from place to place. At length he was
overtaken in a swamp in Rhode Island by Captain Ben Church of
Plymouth and was shot dead by one of his own race.
The war soon ended; the Indians had lost three thousand men, their
power was utterly broken, and never again was there a war of the
races in southern New England. But the cost to the colonies was
terrible. Thirteen towns had been laid in ashes; the wilderness was
marked on every side with desolate farms and ruined homes. A thousand
of the brave young men had fallen, and there was scarcely a fireside
that was not a place of mourning. The public debt had risen to an
enormous figure, falling most heavily on Plymouth, in proportion to
population. In this colony alone the debt reached was £15,000,
more, it was said, than the entire property valuation of the colony
— but this debt was paid to the last shilling.
Source: “History of the United States of America,” by Henry
William Elson, The MacMillan Company, New York, 1904. Transcribed by
Kathy Leigh.
