Culture
9. King Philip and His War
In Episode 9 of Season 2 of American History Revealed, the podcast delves into King Philip's War, a pivotal conflict between Native American tribes and English settlers in 1675. The episode explo...
9. King Philip and His War
Culture •
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Interactive Transcript
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His name is Richard Ives.
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Welcome to Episode 9 of Season 2 of American History Revealed, a series of podcasted deals
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with neglected figures and neglected events in the history of our great nation.
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From the very earliest days of European settlement in New England, the notion that God had granted
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the settlers the land on, which they built their homes and made lives for themselves and
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their children, was a given.
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Year after year the ministers repeated the idea that it was Almighty God who had guided the
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settlers to the American shore and that it was in response to His will that they had
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brought civilization to that untamed wilderness and the redeeming word of the Lord to the
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rude savages who inhabited it.
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But not every settler viewed the situation in that light.
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Minister Roger Williams, for example, made no secret of his belief that in seizing the
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land of the indigenous tribesmen, the colonists had engaged in a gigantic fraud, and that no
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amount of good will on their part could possibly make it right.
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Although his opinions were the matter of controversial, there was every reason to believe that his
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views, the views of a man with a bad conscience, were shared by some of his fellow settlers.
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But most of the settlers sided with ministers, and their view God had given them the land
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so that they might create a Christian utopia in the new world and they intended to keep it.
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For them the Pequot Ward bin a perhaps inevitable corrective that cemented God's authority
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and by extension their own to the land on which they had settled.
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That was all very well, but it was an opinion not free of anxiety.
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Some more thoughtful settlers believed or at least feared that one day the dispossessed
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Native Americans would discover the means to band together rise up, kill as many English
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men, women, and children as they could, and drive the survivors into the sea.
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And it wasn't response to this lingering for the most part unspoken sense of disquiet,
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that in 1671, 33 years after the end of the Pequot War, that the leaders of Plymouth
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colony insisted that the Wampanoag, a loose confederation of tribes under the leadership
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of chief Metacom or Metacomit, turn over most of their guns and ammunition.
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Despite these precautions, the idea that one day the Indians would find the means to form an
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alliance and make war against the colonists remained a minority view. Most New Englanders believed
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or chose to believe that the Native peoples were simply incapable of conceiving much less caring
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out such a plan. Perhaps it is merely an idle fancy on my part, but I fear that one day
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the savages will rise up and cut our throats as we sleep. You forgive me for saying so, John,
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but I believe that any such notions patently proposterous. If a savage lacks the ability to run a
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shop and a nine out of ten of them are mentally incapable of doing so, how do you suppose that any one
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of them might possess the ability to ferment a rebellion? Well, I certainly hope that you're right.
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The truth of the matter, the truth that most of the colonists failed or refused to recognize was that
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most Native Americans were intensely bitter, about the manner in which the colonists had
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appropriated their land and all but destroyed their culture, a notion they passed down to their
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children and grandchildren. For two generations that bitterness simmered out of sight,
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but it was no less real for that, and when it last that cauldron of hatred and resentment overflowed,
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it created a flood that could not be stopped.
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The first sign of the approaching disaster came in January 1675 when a Wampanoa Christian
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Convert named John Sassamon paid a visit to Josiah Winslow, Governor of Plymouth Colony.
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A graduate of Harvard College employed as an interpreter and schoolteacher and one of missionary
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John L.H. 14 praying towns which sheltered about 1,000 Christianized tribesmen, Sassamon was
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intelligent, well-educated, and very articulate. Winslow's great surprise Sassamon claimed that
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his associate Metacom or Metacomit, known by his Christian name Philip, was deeply engaged in
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discussions with the leaders of other tribes and the hope of persuading them to join a vast
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conspiracy, the aim of which was to attack English settlements and kill every man, woman, and
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child they could lay their hands on. Philip, the man John Sassamon was accusing, was no ordinary person.
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He was in fact the second son of the great Satchamor chief in Massasot, who in the spring of 1621
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had taught the Plymouth settlers how to plant corn and fertilize the kernels with fish,
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and in so doing guaranteed the survival of that deeply distressed community.
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After the death of his father in 1661 and that of his older brother in the year of following,
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Philip had become a chief of the Polkanokit and grand Satcham of the Wampanoag Confederacy.
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One might assume that Governor Winslow would take John Sassamon's accusation seriously,
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but he did not.
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Now listen to me John Sassamon. I have known Philip for many years and I know him to be an
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honest Christian man. What is the tractors hoped to gain by spreading this sort of gossip is beyond
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the end, as for the John to be very careful, very careful indeed about spreading rumors of this kind,
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less than some unhappy fashion they come back to haunt thee.
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Soon after the meeting between John Sassamon and Governor Winslow occurred, Sassamon went missing.
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One day he simply vanished and none of his kinsmen or fellow tribesmen could explain it.
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Then several weeks later someone walking past Asawamsut pond and Roger Williams'
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Rhode Island settlement happened to notice something under the ice.
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It was Sassamon's body, well preserved by the very cold water in which it had been placed,
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when the body was pulled from the water its broken neck and the gaseous found on it clearly reveal
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that Sassamon had been murdered. Reports of the crime spread quickly through the settlements.
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Did you hear? Some fellow was just walking past that pond a few days back,
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having to look down and there he was. Eyes wide open, he would seem that that fellow had been
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stabbed several times and that his attackers finished him off by breaking his neck,
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a gruesome business to say to least.
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What the authorities failed to realize was that Philip was a changed man.
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For many years he had gotten along reasonably well with the whites,
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viewed from a certain perspective he had become one of them, but at some unknown point he endured
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a kind of revelation. Like a blind man whose sight has been miraculously restored,
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he saw for the first time the matter in which the sacred earth of his ancestors had been
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torn apart by the white men and the way in which his people were being systematically destroyed
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and he was not entirely mistaken in that view. In 1638 the year of Philip's birth the Indian
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population of New England had stood at over 100,000. By 1675 a mere 37 years later only about 10,000
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remained. Certain of the fact that his people were succumbing to genocide certain that the
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spirits of his ancestors were calling on him to act, Metacom in his mind Philip no more began
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to lay the groundwork for a vast conspiracy, the aim of which would be to kill or drive away
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every white person in British North America.
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On June 8, 1675 three Wampanoag men having been convicted of murdering John Sassamon were
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hanged. Several days after the executions and election was slated to occur in Plymouth,
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an event at which Philip, by way of ceremonial tribute, was expected to appear and hand over the
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heads of two wolves to Plymouth Governor Josiah Winslow but Philip did not appear and his
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failure to do so suggested to many of those present that trouble was on the way.
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On June 20, trouble arrived at the village of Swansea about 15 miles southeast of Providence
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Rhode Island, a party of Polkanoagat warriors ambushed a group of settlers on their way home
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from Sabbath meeting. But as the good book says if we live in the spirit let us also
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war and reach that but those in the minister pointed out this morning run run
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John
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no no
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two survivors ran to their lives but were shot dead near the garrison the raiders quarred six
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other settlers and killed them intent on making their overall intentions clear they cut off the
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ears and noses of their victims and gouged out their eyes when they finished their grills they
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worked they set fire to several houses and melted back into the woods. When a few days later the
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attackers realized that the village had been deserted they returned and burned it to the ground.
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King Philip's war which Philip and his followers regarded as a war of liberation had begun.
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On June 30, Militia Force of over 100 men under the command of Samuel Mosley a man known for his
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visceral hatred of the savages engaged in a series of clashes with Metacombe and his allies
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the resulted in fatalities on both sides determined to achieve a victory Mosley marched his men
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to Philip's village at Mount Hope only to find it deserted save for a souvenir of the bloody
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campaign the heads of eight white men staring blankly down at him from the tops of poles.
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Dear Lord in heaven these savages will pay for the evil they've done
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by God I will see their heads on poles on die in the effort.
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Outrage Mosley ordered the heads buried and the village burned.
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That same day a lieutenant oaks leading a militia from Rahoboth, Massachusetts,
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16 miles east of Providence encountered a party of Indians and a fierce,
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firefight ensued and several tribesmen are killed as if to advertise the notion that the English
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could equal the Indians and savagery oaks and his men scalp the dead and dispatch the trophies
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to the authorities in Boston. This work is unworthy of Christian people.
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I agree if we were dealing with Christians it would not be so that
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these savages are animals and the world would be a better place when all that remains of them is this.
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Over the next few weeks there were several attacks on white settlements. On July 9th the village
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of Namaskit present-day Middleboro Massachusetts was attacked by tribesmen and much of the
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village was burned to the ground. On the same day the frontier outpost at Dartmouth about 30 miles
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south of Middleboro was attacked and destroyed by an Indian force. Although Phillips' guerrilla
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style hit and run approach spread terror throughout New England for several weeks by mid-August colonial
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commanders having learned from their mistakes devised a strategy by which they hoped to entrap
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Philip and his warriors on their home ground. On August 1st at Nipsichuk near present-day Smithfield
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Rhode Island a force made up of white settlers and their Mohegan Confederates dispatched from
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Connecticut 265 men and all engaged Phillips' force. The encounter did not go well for Philip
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having lost 23 of his warriors including four of his best captains. Philip led the survivors to a
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nearby swamp. Understandably reluctant to follow Philip into an environment where he and his men
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had the advantage the settlers hesitated. So I believe that it would be foolish to follow him that
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he knows the terrain and we do not. I agree but he was slip away from us of that I have not the
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slightest doubt. And Philip and his men did just that.
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Justifiably fearing that the revolt against the English would spread across New England
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Massachusetts officials decided to attempt to truce with Phillips allies the Nipsichuk. They
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dispatched Captain Edward Hutchinson, son of Mistress Anne Hutchinson, several other men and about
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25 militia and native guides deep into Nipsichuk country to parlay with the Nipsich leaders. But the
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Nipsich were no mood to talk. It was then that Hutchinson made a faithful decision. If the Nipsich
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wanted war he would take it to their very doorstep. Hutchinson and his fellow leaders were aware
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of the peril involved but they foolishly decided to proceed. To reach the Nipsich village they would
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be compelled to mark single file across the stretch of swampy ground. They had made their way along
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the path in the more than about 400 yards when dozens of warriors came swarming out of the woods
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and attacked them with withering effect. In the first minute it would be fight eight settlers
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to hit some fatally, some morefully wounded. The survivors turned and attempted to flee only to
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find a group of Nipmuk warriors blocking their retreat. Hutchinson and Wheeler were both seriously
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wounded. One of the native guides was in command, pushed the Nipmuk tribesmen back and led the
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stunton confused force out of the swamp. With the Nipmuk warriors close on their heels the
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survivors retreated as fast as they could to Quabog, present day West Brookfield, Massachusetts,
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several miles away. As they approached Quabog they realized that it too was under attack from a
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force of Nipmuk who were raiding the houses of the village, setting them ablaze, killing and
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driving off cattle. Having gathered up their children and their guns, 80 inhabitants of the village
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were fighting their way toward the fortified home of John Ares. One of the settlers would fall
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under the ambush in the swamp. Not all of the settlers made it to the house. One was shocked
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dead and another was captured and swiftly decapitated. In the midst of the pillaging and burning the
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Nipmuk men amused themselves by kicking the man severed head about as if it were a football
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until they tarred of the sport and jandered a cop-a-shot pole. Against all the odds the men, women
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and children who survived the attack made their way into the Ares house. Once the air captain,
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Wheeler reasserting his command dispatched groups of men and women to guard various doors and windows.
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James or Jarvis to stay at that window and report to me everything they do observed.
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Hannah, I need you upstairs at the window across in the bed. If you see any of the savages
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to approach you must let me know immediately. Edward, your job is to reload where you're needed in
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this room. You do know how to reload, don't you? And do so. Over the next several hours the Nipmuk
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Satchim Mutom launched three attacks against the house. Time wads of burning tow, a beaten
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pflax used for spinning to their arrows, the attackers shot them onto the roof of the house and onto
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the walls in the hope of setting the house a light. But the strategy for the time being at least
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failed. Understanding that their only hope resided in getting word to the outside world,
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Wheeler asked for two volunteers to carry a message and two men stepped forward.
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Abraham, dust outfiel up to the task. I'm a good runner sir. I can run faster than any of
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those savages I have done so in the past. Your brave lad Abraham and you all of her,
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what thou prepared? I am sir. I shall run like the wind and never catch me.
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In a quiet moment they slipped out of the house around for the shelter of the woods,
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but they were seen. They only barely made it back to the safety of the house.
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By then it was almost midnight and the darkness the Nipmukks had managed to keep a pile of wood
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and cloth against the side of the house and set it a light. With covering fire from their
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fellow settlers a few brave men rushed outside and scattered the blaze and heated.
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One of the settlers ran outside to help extinguish the blaze and in the midst of the firing
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slipped off into the darkness and ran for help. Over the next 24 hours the siege continued
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taunting the trapped settlers Muthomp and his brave showered the house with dozens of flaming
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arrows. When it last some of the arrows set the roof a light the settlers cut a hole in it and
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with some difficulty douse the flames. The morning of the third day of the siege broke
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cool and gray. Knowing that time was running out and that sooner later a militia force would arrive
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Muthomp a clever and inventive leader opted for a different strategy. He ordered his men to fill one
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of the settlers' carts with brush straw and kindling, set it a blaze and using the burning cart
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for cover ram it against the side of the house. Once the flames set fire to the overhanging roof
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these settlers would flee and his warriors would kill them all. When the settlers caught
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side of the burning cart moving toward the house they prayed. Then in a manner that seemed like
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a story taken from scripture lightning flashed against the darkened sky thunder cracked and a hard
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rain began to fall. As attackers and settlers alike looked on the leaping flames emanating from
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the burning cart were quenched. What neither the settlers nor the nip muck attackers knew at that
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moment was that help was on the way. Some travelers passing near Kwa Borg had heard the furious
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firing of guns and got worked to Simon Willard at Lancaster some 40 miles to the northeast. Willard
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along with 48 mounted troops rode hard toward Kwa Borg. Sleeping into the settlement with guns blazing
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they cut through Muthomp's line of defense scoured his men and killed 80 shooting men in the back as
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they ran. Muthomp and the surviving members of his source melted away and vanished into the darkness
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of the forest. The battle at Kwa Borg had come to an end but the war with King Philip had not.
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To find out how that horrifying conflict was finally resolved you'll have to tune into our next
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episode. My name is Richard Lives thanks for joining us. American history revealed as a Zoe
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Limstone Ives production.