King Philip’s War
In 1675, the Algonquian Indians rose up in fury against the Puritan Colonists, sparking a violent conflict that engulfed all of Southern New England. From this conflict ensued the most merciless and blood stricken war in American history, tearing flesh from the Puritan doctrine, revealing deep down the bright and incisive fact that anger and violence brings man to a Godless level when faced with the threat of pain and total destruction. In the summer of 1676, as the violence dispersed and a clearing between the hatred and torment was visible, thousands were dead.(Lepore xxi) Indian and English men, women, and children, along with many of the young villages of New England were no more; casualties of a conflict that
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Concurrently, as the Puritans intended on maintaining their way of life within the New World, a key goal of theirs was to avoid bringing great harm to the natives they would encounter. The English had witnessed the abuse of natives during the Spanish conquests and the harsh religious demands placed among non-Catholics in the Spanish Inquisition. The torture and destruction of the native of life had been incredibly embarrassing upon the Spanish people, and in all obviousness, phenomenally painful and paralyzing to the natives themselves. These “Spanish Cruelties” were not only in great opposition to the Puritan beliefs, but as one knows, the last thing the Puritans wished to do would be to embarrass the great mother country of England.
The Indians had an identity all their own, and were in many ways reluctant to open up to the English settlers, fearing the effects of their highly controversial way of life. Regardless, despite the devastating bouts with foreign disease that accompanied the settlers, and issues regarding the land the colonists claimed in the name of the king, the Indians were still relatively accepting and hospitable to the setting Puritans. (Drake 3) They traded openly, worked together in establishing villages, and notoriously, the Indians aided the Puritans in teaching them the ways of the land, and in guiding them through the difficult New England winters. Over several years, the two cultures began to mesh, and the bits and pieces
Erikson explains that to most English people of the 16th century, Puritans became an annoying sect of rebels. Overbearing and unrelenting, many detested the exaggeration of conventional values that the Puritans displayed. Feeling restricted by the formalities of the Church, Puritans quickly became deviant in the eyes of society. By moving to Massachusetts Bay, Puritans hoped to create their own ideas of what is “right” and “wrong”, much like any community attempting to set boundaries. However, problems arose when laws were to be mandated in a Biblical sense. God could not sit at a pulpit in a courtroom, so then how would a strictly religious group maintain itself? As Erikson states, “one of the surest ways to confirm an identity, for communities as well as individuals, is to find some way of measuring what one is not”. From this, they developed a keen sense of Devil distinction – that is, ways in which the Devil presented himself through the behaviors of individuals.
Puritans and reformers of seventeenth century England have been given a bad name for their part in history. This is primarily because they were working against the grain and trying to create change in world that saw change as a threat. The time period was turbulent and there was bound to be resistance in a world that was dominated by Catholics and those that had reformed to abide by their King’s law. The puritans of the time were considered extreme and rubbed people the wrong way because they wanted a world that abided by their morals and ethical codes. For this, they took the blame for the misery that many suffered during this age, but as we see in Fire from Heaven, this is not a fair assessment. The Puritans of this time wanted to improve the lives of the people and society as a whole through morality and purity.
The argument placed in Mandell’s book is stated in the Prologue. It states “...King Philip's War was ultimately a war of sovereignty as well as land,”(3). The supporting points are separated throughout the book. Mandell includes multiple primary resources, such as Mary Rowlandson’s account of being captured; hopefully, showing the English that the Natives were serious about their land. Not only does Mandell use Rowlandson’s account, he also refers to many of the colonists journals and publications afterwards.
The relationship between the English and the Native Americans in 1600 to 1700 is one of the most fluctuating and the most profound relationships in American history. On the one side of the picture, the harmony between Wampanoag and Puritans even inspires them to celebrate “first Thanksgiving”; while, by contrast, the conflicts between the Pequots and the English urge them to antagonize each other, and even wage a war. In addition, the mystery of why the European settlers, including English, become the dominant power in American world, instead of the indigenous people, or Indians, can be solved from the examination of the relationship. In a variety of ways, the relationship drastically alters how people think about and relate to the aborigines. Politically, the relationship changes to establish the supremacy of the English; the English intends to obtain the land and rules over it. Socially, the relationship changes to present the majority of the English settlers; the dominating population is mostly the English settlers. Economically, the relationship changes to obtain the benefit of the English settlers; they gain profit from the massive resource in America. Therefore, the relationship does, in fact, change to foreshadow the discordance of the two groups of people.
One of the bloodiest conflicts in U.S history that occurred in the 17th century was Metacom's war (also known as King Philip's War). In Proportion to the population, it is also recognized as the deadliest war in American history. By the end of the war, the English population of New England had declined by thirty percent and the Native Americans population declined more than twice the percent as the English. The dreadful war was a violent and destructive conflict, which was triggered by the devotion of maintaining cultural identity and preserving authority and power, both in religious and society capacities in which one believed to be his land. As a result, this crisis has impacted Americans and the culture of themselves for many years. This essay will analyze the history of Metacom's war chronology from June 1675-August 1676 informing the readers with knowledge about King Philip, the cause and effects of the conflict, and the impact it has made towards Americans.
Beginning in the Sixteenth Century, Europeans sought to escape religious and class persecution by engaging on a journey to the New World. However, they were unaware that this “New World” was already inhabited by many groups of Native Americans, who had been established on the continent for thousands of years. At first, the two ethnic groups lived in relative peace. The colonists of Jamestown survived due to Powhatan’s tribe teaching them how to cultivate the land. However, things took a twisted turn as the colonists grew greedy. Due to cultural differences, there was stark tension between the Indian groups and European settlers in New England prior to 1750, which tremendously influenced early political means, social life, and the economy.
In the trial of Anne Hutchinson, we meet a well intentioned yet lost people described and labelled as the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Company. These self governing Puritans, once a people who sought God to set them on their way, settled only to be found as a people who simply lost their way. This journey to lost began when first motivated by a desire for religious reform and separation from the liturgy, ceremonies and practices of the Church of England. Once they banned together, they set on their way and traveled in groups to the New World. With the Word of God as their ultimate authority and the desire for a personal relationship with God, these people landed in Boston in 1630 united to self govern the newly founded Massachussets Bay Colony. Unfortunatly, this self rule resulted in a government of intolerance, fear and a liturgy not much different from what was once found in the Church of England. A system designed to set apart outward morality, or sanctification, to strengthen the authority of the Church only worked to neglect the place of true piety purposed to strengthen the spiritual lives of the people it served.
The article begins by stating that the puritans came to America to set a model for the Anglican Church. In order to accomplish this, the puritans had to have many laws that were supposed to be met with harsh punishment. Among these laws were many
The social interactions that the New England and Chesapeake colonies had between Indians and their own people were very different due to alternate motives. Documents A and H each show the steps taken in order to achieve social unity. It is obvious that the two colonies didn’t have the best relationship with the Indians, but both colonies had different approaches when it came to mending relationships. Bacon’s Rebellion was a revolt against Governor Berkeley of Virginia in 1676 that started due to Berkeley's resistance of not fighting against the Indians because of the fur trade. This showed that the Chesapeake colony would rather take a better economy as opposed to stable social interactions,
Despite the fact that both Puritans and Quakers are Protestant Christians, the Quakers were unwelcome in the Puritan society of New England. A University of California at Los Angeles Ph. D. candidate in the Department of History, Carla Gardina Pestana provides an explanation as to why these Christians were frowned upon in the society. In her article “The City upon a Hill under Siege: The Puritan Perception of the Quaker Threat to Massachusetts Bay, 1656-1661”, Pestana gives a detailed analysis of why the Quakers beliefs were seen as a threat to the Puritan society.
The 17th century Puritans were known to represent a religious group migrating from England to America in order to practice religious freedom. These groups were determined to “purify” churches of England from Catholic practices. Puritans are known for their religious, social, and political influences on early America. Edmund S. Morgan’s novel The Puritan Family highlights a part of history that many would tend to look over upon- that is, the complex structural life of Puritan Families in the 17th century.
The massacre at Mystic greatly influenced the relationship between English settlers and the Indians would have for many years to come. By demolishing the Pequot, a clear image was set that the Indians and whites would never “live with themselves, each other and the land” said one historian. King Phillips war, an extension of the Pequot war, ended all violent resistance by Indians to English colonization, eventually leading to the continued growth of the Puritan population and expansion of land. As the Puritans spread out, they not only took the natives land, but took the very freedom they had come from England to attain; freedom from religious persecution. Indians were taught to reject their Indian identities and become “civilized” in “praying
These examples have proven that Puritans were indeed ethnocentric in their worldview. Rowlandson continually shows a form of contempt toward the Indians and compares the Indians and the Puritans to show the Puritans superiority over the Indians. The comparison of food that the Indians eat, their manner of celebration, and the faces that they've had since they were born, uncovered the Puritans idea of primacy. The fact that the Puritans despise them for their different custom and identity is a clear sign of ethnocentric
In the early 1600’s, when the European settlers arrived in Jamestown, there were already around 15,000-25,000 Indians living around the area. The leader of the most prominent tribe in the area, Powhatan, stayed in a neutral relationship with the English in the area for the first couple of years after Jamestown following the start of the colony. During the time the Indians
The settlers encountered “savage barbarians” and “hideous and desolate wilderness”, disappointed that this was prize of a gruesome and long journey. In the first few seasons here, they had much difficulty acclimating to the new land and what it had to offer. There was a period of time where they faced starvation, and yet, “with abundance of toil and hazard of their own health, fetched them wood, made them fires, dressed them meat, made their beds, washed their loathsome clothes, clothed and unclothed them”. Members of their community did what they could to help one another, doing “all the homely and necessary offices for them which dainty and queasy stomachs cannot endure to hear named; and all this willingly and cheerfully, without any grudging in the least, showing herein their true love unto their friends and brethren”. This script is appealing to various readers due to its easy and understandable composition. While this gives the readers a look into the simplistic nature of the life of a Puritan settler, it also emphasized the importance of pure kindness and friendship. The description of the first Thanksgiving tells of an event in which the Puritans used a simple meal to forge friendship with others unlike them, displaying their belief in divine mission. The plainness of the Puritans is even more so enhanced in its early settlers due to the fact that they lacked many resources. Rather than testing their faith, the simplistic lifestyle they led brought them closer to one another, the Native Americans, and