The Red King's Rebellion Summary

Russell Bourne The Red King’s Rebellion Racial politics in New England 1675-1678
Macmillan publishing company The Red King's Rebellion fought more than three hundred years ago between the Algonquian peoples and New England settlers was in per-capita terms the bloodiest war in our nation's history. Before the conflict ended, over 9,000 people were dead (two-thirds of them Native Americans), and homelessness, starvation, and economic hardship plagued the descendants of both races for generations to come. In this fascinating book, Russell Bourne examines the epic struggle from both sides, seeking to explain how the biracial harmony that once reigned--when the Plymouth Colony's neighboring Wampanoag’s, under the stately Massasoit (King
Also tells how Wamsutta made an earnest request to change his and Metacom to Alexander and Philip of Pokanoket. Three events occurred before 1660 stand out as dramatic exceptions that seem pointers toward the split that preceded King Philip’s War. The first of these events occurred when one of Massasoit’s shifty subsachems allied himself with the Narrangansetts. The self-seeking translator was the cause of the second disruption. He tried to displaced Massasoit the pilgrims’ affections, to emerge, himself as the pilgrims most trusted facilitator. The third and most threatening event took place when a band of adventurers from England settled at Wessagusset and committed so many corn thefts and treacheries among neighboring Massachusetts that those natives sought revenge against Wessagusset and nearby Plymouth. Metacom had seen his brother Wamsutta, first in succession to Massasoit, die at the hands of the colonists, if not intentionally poisoned as the Indians believed, at least from disease contracted when Wamsutta was summoned before colonist officials for questioning. Alexander died on his way home to Sowams as his fever intensified. The body of the young Sachem was carried the rest of the way on the shoulders of his men, grim evidence of the dangers of undertaking any action against Plymouth. Philip the embittered and younger brother who arrived at stage center at a critical time in New
The war came on June 24, 1675. The Wampanoag attacked English settlers at Swansea in Plymouth, beginning King Philip's War. This war became one of the costliest confrontations in colonial history. It is believed that more than half of the 90 settlements in the region had been attacked and a dozen destroyed. Whole Indian villages were massacred and tribes decimated. When the Indian alliance began to disintegrate and food became scarce in August of 1676, King Philip, with most of his relatives killed and his wife and son taken captive, returned to his ancestral home at Mount Hope. He was betrayed by Alderman, a Wampanoag informer and killed in a final battle. He was beheaded and his head displayed on a pole for 25 years at Plymouth. He was about 38 years old. Washington Irving in the early nineteenth century penned Philip of Pokanoket. His description of Philip: "He was a patriot attached to his native soil, a prince true to his subjects and indignant of their wrongs, a soldier, daring in battle, firm in adversity, and ready to perish in the cause he had espoused. He was proud of heart and had an untamable love of natural liberty". Aftermath of War - Members of the Wampanoag, Nipmuc and Narragansett tribes were gathered and sold into slavery. Those who escaped fled from tribe to tribe as each in turn was