The Pequot War
The Pequot War, which was carried on by Connecticut with a few men from
Massachusetts and a number of Mohegan allies, ended in the complete
overthrow of the Pequot nation and the extermination of nearly all its
fighting force. It began in June, 1637, with the successful attack by
Captain John Mason on the Pequot fort near Groton, and was brought to an
end by the battle of Fairfield Swamp, July 13, where the surviving Pequots
made their last stand. Sassacus, the Pequot chieftain, was murdered by the
Mohawks, among whom he had sought refuge; and during the year that
followed wandering members of the tribe, whenever found, were slain by
their enemies, the Mohegans and Narragansetts. An entire Indian people was
wiped out of existence, an achievement difficult to justify on any ground
save that of the extreme necessity of either slaying or being slain. The
relentless pursuit of the scattered and dispirited remnants of these
tribes admits of little defense.
The overthrow of the Pequots opened to settlement the region from
Saybrook to Mystic and led to a treaty in 1638 with the Mohegans and
Narragansetts, according to which harmony was to prevail and peace was to
reign. But the outcome of this impracticable treaty was a five years'
struggle between the Mohegan chieftain, Uncas, actively allied with the
colony of Connecticut, and Miantonomo, sachem of the Narragansetts, which
involved Connecticut in a tortuous and often dishonorable policy of
attempting to divide the Indians in order to rule them — a policy which
led to many embarrassing negotiations and bloody conflicts and ended in
the murder of Miantonomo in 1643, by the Mohegans, at the instigation of
the commissioners of the United Colonies. This alliance between Uncas and
the colony lasted for more than forty years. It placed upon Connecticut
the burden of supporting a treacherous and grasping Indian chief; it
created a great deal of confusion in land titles in the eastern part of
the colony because of indiscriminate Indian grants; it started the famous
Mohegan controversy which agitated the colony and England also, and was
not finally settled until 1773, one hundred and thirty years later; and it
was, in part at least, a cause of King Philip's War, because of the
colony's support of the Mohegans against their traditional enemies, the
Narragansetts and Niantics.
The presence of the Indians in and near the colonies rendered
frequent dealings with them a matter of necessity. The English settlers
generally purchased their lands from the Indians, paying in such goods or
implements or trinkets as satisfied savage need and desire. In so doing
they acquired, as they supposed, a clear title of ownership, though there
can be no doubt that what the Indian thought he sold was not the actual
soil but only the right to occupy the land in common with himself. As the
years wore on, the problems of reservations, trade, and the sale of
firearms and liquor engaged the attention of the authorities and led to
the passage of many laws. The conversion of the Indians to Christianity
became the object of many pious efforts, and in Massachusetts and Plymouth
resulted in communities of "Praying Indians," estimated in 1675 at about
four thousand individuals. In contact with the white man the Indian tended
to deteriorate. He frequented the settlements often to the annoyance of
the men and the dread of the women and children; he got into debt, was
incurably slothful and idle, and developed an uncontrollable desire to
drink and steal. Where the Indians were not a menace, they were a
nuisance, and the colonies passed many laws concerning the Indians which
were designed to meet the one condition as well as the other.
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