Pequot War: Bloodiest Native American Massacre In American History

Unlike their Spanish and French counterparts, the New England colonists did not interact with or form good relations with their Native neighbors. They refused to intermarry, and regarded the American Indians as devil worshipping heathens. William Bradford wrote “(God) Who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to enclose their enemies into their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud, insulting, and blasphemous an enemy.” (Doc D). Written just after the colonists attack on the Praying town of Mystic, Bradford glorifies the murder of the Pequot Natives, despite the fact that they were trying to convert to Christianity. His words reflect the Puritan belief that the Natives were inherently enemies of god, and could have no standing within their society. This common and bigoted belief created a wedge between the New England colonists and the Natives that lead to additional conflicts, such as Powhatans war. Ultimately, Puritan faith and the value placed on education greatly impacted the social structure of the New England

The Pequot war was a bloody conflict that demonstrated the hatred and distrust between the the Puritans and the Pequot Tribe. Both sides were deeply suspicious of each other” (10). The Puritans viewed the Native Americans as “godless savages” (19) while the Native Americans viewed the Puritans as invaders. Rather than trying to coexist, the English firmly believed “there would be no assimilation of Indian culture” (24) which lead to even more tensions that eventually manifested in the form of the Pequot war.

Wounded Knee was a terrible event in US history. It showed how the US government didn't understand the Native Americans and treated them badly and unfairly.

May 26, 1637 was a fateful day in the history of America. The actions of Major John Mason and his Puritan men set a precedent for the next two hundred years of European and Indian relations. On that clear May night near the Mystic River of New England, hundreds of Pequot Indians were killed by the Europeans and their allies, most of the victims being the elderly, women, and children. This massacre was a massive turning point in the Pequot War, effectively ruining the tribe. Already weakened by disease and by competing native tribes, the Pequot were quickly routed and by September 21, 1638 the war ended with the Treaty of Hartford. The treaty

In New England, John Winthrop began conflicts early when he declared that the Indians had only a natural right to their land and no legal right. The Puritans and Pequot Indians lived side by side with relative peace until an attack was launched upon the Narraganset Indians. Not many people were killed and the Narragansets did not fight back, but when the Puritans attacked the Pequot Indians, they fought back. The Pequot War was one of large massacres, rather than battles, from both sides and had many deaths. "Mason proposed to avoid attacking Pequot warriors, which would have overtaxed his unseasoned, unreliable troops. Battle, as such, was not his purpose. Battle is only one of the ways to destroy an enemy's will to fight. Massacre can accomplish the same end with less risk, and Mason had determined that massacre would be his objective" (Jennings). The Europeans raided the Pequot village and burned all of

In exchange, the encomendero could force the Native Americans to pay tribute in forms of bullion and labor. Eventually, the native people began to die off from the harsh labor and foreign diseases that the Spanish brought from Spain. The Native Americans rejected Spanish control and returned to their customs. Angered by this, the Spanish captured 46 Pueblo leaders, which started the Pueblo Revolt. After years of fighting, the Spanish regained control. In New England, relationships with local Native Americans started out peaceful. The Native Americans and settlers of New England began to trade with each other. Native Americans, who were used to their elementary weapons, acquired better weapons from the Europeans. This once beneficiary exchange between the two cultures eventually grew tense. As years went on and more settlers came to America, conflicts arose. An agreement formed between Dutch settlers of New York and the English settlers of New England about the division of the Pequot lands. When no immediate decisions were reached of who would gain the land, New Englanders started to settle in the area without notice. The Pequot took this unplanned invasion as a form of attack, and fought back. After a series of attacks, New England called for reinforcements from allies. By joining forces with Plymouth and the Narragansett people, the English gained control

The Pequot War was the first brutal war on the North American continent, and the first war fought between the Native Americans and the English settlers. The whole war began, because the Englishmen, like always, became greedy and wanted more land and more profitable trade. The homeland of the Pequot tribe, was modern day Connecticut. The tribe had an estimated population of 2,200 members, and they based their everyday lives off of maize, hunting, and even fishing (Pequot, 2012). For a period of time, the English settlers and the Native American tribe lived peacefully with a fair-trading system and they helped each other, but that did not last long. One reason for the Englishmen coming to the North American continent, was to spread the faith of Christianity. Believing that God had given the English settlers the right to settle in the new-found land, they saw great opportunities to convert the “savages” to their Christian ways (Pequot, 2012). The English settlers began invading the Pequot’s territory, and almost completely pushed them off of their land. “There were disputes over property, livestock damaging Indian crops, hunting, the selling of alcohol to Indians, and dishonest traders” (1636- The Pequot War, n.d.). Not only did the Pequot’s have issues with the English settlers, they were always on bad terms with the Narragansett tribe as well. The tribe separated into two parts, the “pro-English and pro-Dutch” (Colonialwarsct.org). This event made the Indians very weak,

What is the Pequot war? How did it begin and what was the aftermath? The Pequot War could have also been known as a massacre. The Pequot war was on May 26, 1637. The Pequot war was a war between the Europeans and the Pequot Indians. The English Puritan settlements had begun expanding into the Connecticut River Valley. The only major problem with expanding the settlement was the Pequot Indians. Though, the feud had also involved other Indian tribes including the Mohegans; the Mohegans, however, shared close relation to the Pequot Indians because they were once apart of their tribe and had later split off. The Pequots and the Indians had disputes involving property, livestock damaging Indian crops, hunting, the selling of alcohol to Indians,

Praying towns were towns created to convert Natives and make them live by a Puritan Code. In exchange for converting they were promised security and eternal life. John Eliot, a puritan minister, established the first Praying town in 1651. By the 1650’s the Native people were weakened by disease and saw how Pilgrims were now powerful enough to no longer need the Native people’s help. The Pequot war proved how vicious the pilgrims could be in expanding their colonization. With disease and the growing population of the English. Many Native people saw no other choice but to go to these praying towns and convert and survive. The Wompanoag had lost much of their land and Massasoit did not want missionaries in their territory. The protection promised

During the time of 1763-1775, one of the occurrences that happened to affect the colonists’ perception of the British was the French and Indian War. The war itself was not the main reason the colonists’ had trouble with the British, but the time after the war was the actual cause of eventual trouble. During the war, the British fought with France around the Ohio valley for the control of land. The Ohio valley was very important to both of the empires, because of the land value and the strategic location it held in the years to come. Both had their struggles especially with the Native Americans that called this area their home. Most of the Native Americans sided with either the British or the French because they thought that if they had sided with

In 1637, warfare started to erupt between a group of English colonists and an Indian tribe named Pequot. The English settlers along with a

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

The resulting white, indian conflicts often took a particularly brutal turn and ultimately resulted in the near -de- struction of the indigenous peoples.Warfare between Europeans and Indians was common in the seventeenth century.In 1622 the Powhatan confederacy nearly wiped out the struggling Jamestown colony.In New England Puritan forces annihilated the Pequot’s in 1636-1637, a campaign whose intensity seemed to foreshadowing the future.

At dawn on November 29th, 1864 the Civil War began between the United States Army and the Cheyenne Indians. The Sand Creek Massacre, where the humans who lived in times of trouble and tribulations against one another. The Sand Creek Massacre took many lives of children, women, and men. The United States Army went to war with the Cheyenne Indians with no warning. The Cheyenne Indians were surprised at what was happening, but there had been hostility among them since the Indians and Americans had signed the treaty. The brutality that happened was horrible.

In the Pequot war, “About 1,000 – 1,500 Pequots are thought to have been killed in the subsequent year of war”. (P.234) Mason wrote “The Pequots, were utterly destroyed, to the Number of six or seven hundred in just over one hour”. (P.231) The Pequot population was truly devastated at the end of 1638 it was estimated that “fewer than 500 Pequot males had survived, and only 1,500 – 2,000 women and children had survived”. (P.234) The English spared no one killing any and every Pequot they could. In terms of quantity the Romans left a more deadly aftermath following their policy of “extreme violence” (P.51) This caused “The population of 200,000 to 400,000 citizens, at least 145,000 Carthaginians were killed and 55,000 taken as slaves”.