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William Krouse Professor Kelton History 128 16 September 2009 The Sovereignty and Goodness of God From reading Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative and other English-language sources relating to Metacom’s or King Philip’s War, one can derive a fairly clear understanding of how English participants viewed the origins and outcomes of the conflict as well as how they wanted posterity to interpret the war. The English did not try to show the indigenous side, but a critical reading of the sources can give us some clues to understand the indigenous experience.
The Natives had contrasting cultural and psychological views from the European invaders that caused them to initiate and eventually lose King Philip’s War, leaving the participants either dead or captured. The major cultural differences between Settlers and the Natives is one important reason why King Philip’s War started. Conflicts with the Indians had begun since the Europeans arrived in America. Most of these disputes centered around land. The Natives believed that land could not be owned, and that the land was free to every man. On the other hand, the new English settlers had been used to owning land in Europe.
They believed it was necessary to own land to fence in their livestock. This was met by stiff opposition by the natives; who believed that land should not be fenced. Such disputes were minor and often non-violent in the beginning, but the increasing population of settlers wanted more. The pressure drove many Indians to equate English encroachment on their land with the death of their culture. [1] These cultural differences culminated in King Philip’s War. When the conflict began, it was evident to both sides that the Natives were at a significant disadvantage.
Diseases such as small pox and influenza had decimated Indian population in the New England region. Furthermore, the Natives lacked key supplies: guns and ammunition. The Indians did have one rather large advantage; they were fighting for their land. Land they knew much better then the invading British forces. Rowlandson hints at this when they cross the river, “I was so weak and feeble, that I reeled as I went along, and thought there I must end my days at last, after my bearing and getting through so many difficulties (from crossing the river); the Indians stood laughing to see me staggering along. The Indians easily crossed the river, while the British were unable to find a crossing to continue to chase the Native group. Another major advantage the Indian’s had was the use of guerilla tactics against the British. These tactics were foreign to British soldiers, causing them to be unable to defend themselves effectively against it. Guerilla warfare is simply, ambushing your opponent when they are least prepared, inflict as many casualties as possible, then retreat swiftly before the enemy can organize.
These tactics allowed their relatively small Native force to take on the much larger British army. In order to procure the proper supplies to fight the British, the Natives would raid small frontier towns and capture inhabitants to be ransomed later. This proved to be successful for the Natives in the beginning, but eventually, disease and lack of supplies ended the war. Ultimately, there is not one specific reason why the Natives lost the war. First, the British had a much larger, and well trained standing army then the Indians.
Second, the Indians had no steady stream of supplies, they were completely reliant on what they could scavenge from raids and encounters with the British soldiers. Third, the Natives were not unified under one banner to combat against the invading British. In reality the most significant reason the Natives were defeated was the outbreak of smallpox. The Indian population had plummeted to an estimated 16,000. [2] In the end; the Indians were defeated by something they had no control over.
For those few Natives that survived King Philip’s War, the future looked as grim as the past. Those that were not killed during the war were captured and sold into slavery. The male captives were sold to slave traders who took them to work on plantations in the West Indies, Bermuda, Virginia, and the Iberian Peninsula. While the women and children were generally retained as slaves within the colonies. [3] Those few who avoided capture, left the area and migrated to the Ohio River Valley region, where they would later be ressured to leave, again. From reading Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative, one can clearly understand the settlers’ view of the war, but in the text we also get small clues of what the Natives thought of the conflict. From these clues, one can surmise that the Natives had contrasting cultural and psychological views from the European invaders that caused them to initiate and eventually lose King Philip’s War, leaving the participants either dead or captured. ———————– [1] Salisbury, p. 2 [2] Henretta, p. 59 [3] Salisbury, p. 37