Jessica Crabtree

August 12, 1676: Death of Metacomet (also known as King Philip) at the end of a desperate conflict against English encroachment

What You Don’t Hear at Thanksgiving

So we all know the story. The Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock, meet Squanto who saves them from starvation, and eventually celebrate a successful harvest with their good friends the Wampanoag in the first Thanksgiving. They live happily ever after.

Think again. Few ever stop to think what happened after Thanksgiving (hint: it wan’t Christmas). Maybe that’s because it was one of the bloodiest and most treacherous episodes in American history. What began as a close alliance between Wampanoag leader Massasoit and the Pilgrim settlers quickly eroded as English families began immigrating into the region by the shipload – often thousands in a year – importing diseases, devouring scarce resources, and naturally, disregarding treaty agreements.

An outstanding documentary on the background of King Philip's War - Watch it online here

For years, Massasoit retained Pilgrim friendship at the price of massive land cessions to placate the swelling population of settlers and their growing irritation with Native presence. Several notable conflicts developed during the remainder of Massasoit’s ilfe, most notably the Pequot War, in which the English decimated Pequot villages, killing hundreds of men, women, and children, in response to petty disputes. After over 40 years of tenuous friendship with Plymouth, Massasoit died at the age of 81, leaving two sons to carry on his role as sachem of the Wampanoag Confederacy.

Unlike Massasoit – who raised his sons to secure Wampanoag livelihood and maintain good relations with the English – the Pilgrims were possibly some of the world’s worst parents. The younger generation at Plymouth (including Governor Josiah Winslow – son of Edward Winslow) immediately seized on Massasoit’s death as a chance to exploit the Wampanoag and drive their weakened society the edge of existence. After the suspicious death of Massasoit’s elder son (in which the Plymouth leaders were seriously implicated) the burden on leadership fell on his younger son Metacomet, whom the English called “King Philip.” After several years of increasingly aggressive English behavior – which included relentless missionary activity, land extortion, and forced disarmament – tensions finally erupted into open conflict. Over the course of the next year nearly every major settlement in New England was attacked or destroyed, as tribes living as far north as Maine joined the Wampanoag cause. As the conflict spread, the English resorted to more insidious tactics, resulting in some of the most harrowing atrocities of modern warfare. On a per capita basis, King Philip’s War, as it became known, remains the deadliest war ever fought on American soil.

After a devastating winter that depleted both Indian supplies and numbers, the tide turned in favor of the English. The Wampanoag were hunted down by colonial militia and brutally killed or sold into slavery – a fate that befell most of Metacomet’s family. The broken-hearted sachem returned to what is today Rhode Island, where Plymouth volunteers had staked out his former family home. In the early morning hours of August 12, 1676, they attacked the sleeping camp and shot Metacomet in the back, brought him to Plymouth where he was drawn and quartered, and paraded his head on a pike in a thanksgiving festival. As the volunteer colonial militia celebrated,  their solidarity ironically foreshadowed an event that was to take place almost exactly 100 years later – the ratification of the Declaration of Independence.

King Philip’s War was a terrible chapter in American history that nearly led to the complete extermination of the Wampanoag and set the stage for future relations between settlers and Indians.