Summary
Chapter 1 discusses how colonization in seventeenth-century North America brought people from widely disparate cultures and societies into close proximity. In a few cases, colonial and native groups coexisted peacefully and adapted to one another, establishing mutually beneficial relationships. In other cases, competition over land and trade fueled violence. It was in these instances that two different cultures met, interacted, and fought. Indians married Western technology to their traditional low-intensity combat, while European colonists from England, France, Spain, and the Netherlands were stymied by native tactics, leading them to build fortifications, use indigenous allies, and pursue operations that wreaked destruction unheard of in indigenous warfare.
Over the course of the seventeenth century, as settlers and Indians further interacted, and fought both against and with each other, their military styles altered. Colonists developed tactics and operations to fight a foe that did not engage in European-style pitched battles, often doing so by employing native allies. Indian tactical and operational practices did not change as much, but became married to Western technology, particularly muskets. Assisted by such weapons, warriors at times inflicted levels of killing and destruction beyond what had been typical for native warfare, spurred in part by settlers’ examples.
After giving some consideration to examples involving non-English settlement, as well as the Beaver Wars, this chapter will focus on military experiences and conflict in the Chesapeake and New England during the seventeenth century. By examining these areas, students will learn about Native American and European approaches to warfare prior to colonization, and demonstrate how military practices changed as a result of cross-cultural contact.
Glossary
bastion- A projection on trace italienne fortresses that enabled defenders to fire into the flanks of approaching soldiers.
enfilade fire- The type of fire directed against attacking soldiers, specifically when using a bastion that allows defenders to fire down the length of fortress defenses into the flank of the enemy.
Anglo-Dutch Wars- A series of three commercial conflicts in the seventeenth century (1652-54, 1664-67, and 1672-74), between the English and Dutch. Mostly naval conflicts, the second war saw the English take the Dutch colony of New Netherland, becoming New York under English rule.
commissions- An English method of raising military forces. In times of need the Crown issued commissions to individuals who would then recruit volunteers from towns and the countryside, usually with the commission holder becoming the commander of the new unit.
trainbands- A sixteenth-century English militia unit. These trained bands formed the basis of the defense forces in the American colonies, with the adult male population membership in the militia more widespread than in England.
Virginia Company of London- Founders of Jamestown in 1607, the first English settlement in America. As a commercial enterprise, the Virginia Company expected the settlers of Jamestown to find riches and lucrative trade resources.
Powhatan Confederacy- Native American bands and groups of about 14,000 in the Chesapeake region headed by Chief Powhatan. The confederacy interacted with the English settlers of Jamestown peacefully at first, trading with them, but relations soured in 1609 with the First Anglo-Powhatan War.
First Anglo-Powhatan War- (1610-1614), fighting between English settlers from the Jamestown area and Chief Powhatan’s Confederacy, initiated when colonists began treating Native Americans harshly. Most notably, natives besieged Jamestown from November 1609 to May 1610, known as the “starving time.” Disease and famine cut the colonist population in half.
Jamestown- Site of the first English settlement in 1607 by the Virginia Company of London.
starving time- (November 1609--May 1610). As part of the First Anglo-Powhatan War, Native Americans of the Powhatan Confederacy besieged the English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, ultimately causing the death of half of the English settlers from famine and disease.
feedfights- A colonial American tactic during the seventeenth-century that either took or destroyed Indian food sources, thus denying unfriendly Native Americans crucial supplies.
Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiale- The strict and coercive legal codes of English settlers at Jamestown, Virginia. Resembling martial standards in Europe, the rules outlined harsh punishment for various crimes, including insubordination, fraternization and provocation of natives, and insufficient hygiene standards.
Opechancanough- (1554-1646), Brother and successor of Native American Chief Powhatan, organizer of the 1622 Massacre that killed more than 300 English settlers throughout Virginia.
1622 Massacre- The killing of over 300 English settlers throughout Virginia on March 22, 1622, including women and children. Masterminded by Chief Opechancanough in a bid to force the settlers out of the region, the massacre claimed more than 25% of the colony’s population and saw the survivors flee to settlements along the James River that were similarly harassed.
Sir William Berkeley- (1605-1677), Governor of the English colony of Virginia from 1641 to 1652 and again from 1660 to 1677. His policy of emphasizing defensive rather than offensive measures against Native Americans in large measure led to Bacon’s Rebellion.
Fort Piscataway- An English fort on the Potomac River.
Bacon’s Rebellion- A clash between colonists and the colonial government of Virginia in 1676. Beginning as a series of unauthorized military expeditions by Virginia colonists in 1676 led by Nathaniel Bacon, fellow colonists shared his frustration over the colonial government’s seemingly unwillingness to protect settlements from Indian attack. Colonial governor Sir William Berkeley led a series of military actions against Bacon and his army that caused the rebellion’s collapse in 1677.
Nathaniel Bacon- (1647-1676), The leader of Bacon’s Rebellion, a series of unauthorized military actions against Native Americans in the colony of Virginia in 1676 that led to confrontation between Bacon’s men and the colonial government.
Massasoit- (1581-1661), Native American leader of the Wampanoag nation and ally of the English colonists at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Wampanoags- a Native American group against whom English colonists fought King Philip’s War from 1675 to 1678.
Massachusetts Bay- The location of a largely Puritan English colony beginning in 1628.
Narragansetts- One of the two largest groups of Native Americans in southern New England. Tensions between the Narragansetts, rival tribes like the Pequots, and European colonists erupted into on-and-off again fighting throughout the seventeenth century.
Pequots- A Native American tribe from what is now southeastern Connecticut. Puritan English insecurities about whether the Pequots were friendly or not, largely the result of the killing of an English sea captain on the Connecticut River, led to the Pequot War of 1636-37.
John Endecott- (1601-1664), The first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company. An expedition of 90 men led by Endecott in August 1636 led to the destructive Pequot War.
Pequot War- (1636-1637) A war between the Pequot tribe and Puritan English colonists in New England. The result of English assumptions about perceived Pequot hostility, vicious extirpative warfare nearly essentially destroyed the Pequots.
Connecticut River/Connecticut colony- The sight of Massachusetts Bay settlements founded by English colonists beginning in 1636. Indian raids on the colony as part of the Pequot War led colonists to respond with offensive war in May 1637 that resulted in the massacre of an Indian settlement on the Mystic River.
John Mason- (ca.1600-1672), The leader of an armed force of ninety Puritan English settlers who, along with Indian allies, attacked a Pequot settlement on May 26, 1637 on the Mystic River in southeast Connecticut and massacred a few hundred Pequots, including men, women, and children.
Uncas- (ca. 1588- ca.1683), Native American leader of the Mohegan tribe who allied with Puritan English colonists in Connecticut, namely during the Mystic campaign of May 1637.
Mohegans- Native American tribe from present-day Connecticut who allied with English colonists in New England. Fighting alongside the Englishmen against rival Indian groups, the Mohegans also acted as guides and provided reconnaissance, developing close relations with Puritans.
Mystic- Sight of the May 1637 massacre of a few hundred Native Americans from the Pequot Tribe of present-day Connecticut. Led by John Mason, an armed force of ninety Puritan English settlers alongside Mohegan allies surrounded the Pequot settlement and massacred almost all the inhabitants.
Treaty of Hartford- A 1638 document that stipulated Pequot refugees displaced after the devastating Pequot War would adopt their hosts’ identity rather than identify any longer as Pequot.
praying towns- Seventeenth-century English missionary settlements in New England. As a way to convert Native Americans to Christianity, colonists offered property to natives who would adopt Western lifestyles, methods, and religion.
Metacom/King Philip- (ca. 1639-1676), Leader of the Wampanoag tribe of New England during the late seventeenth-century.
King Philip’s War- (1675-75), A war between Puritan English colonists and the Wampanoag tribe, and one of the most devastating conflicts in New England’s history. The fighting left a dozen English villages destroyed, 800 to 1,000 colonists killed, and one-quarter of the Indian population dead and others sold into slavery. Notably, the degree of violence inflicted by Indian warriors was greater than previous conflicts, and their ferocity resembled a more European approach.
garrison houses- Homes built by New England colonists in the seventeenth-century with thick walls and gun ports to protect against Indian attacks.
Great Swamp Fight- A 1675 Puritan English winter campaign in New England during King Philip’s War. Colonial militia along with Indian allies targeted Narragansett homes and fortifications, leaving upwards of 1,000 men, women, and children without shelter or supplies at the cost of 200 colonial casualties.
Beaver Wars – A series of ongoing wars in the seventeenth century between the Iroquois Confederacy and other Native American peoples, later the Canadian French as well. Stemmed in part from efforts to control the fur trade in the St. Lawrence River region and into the Ohio River Valley, also saw the spread of firearms among native peoples.
Flashcards
Annotated Bibliography
Cave, Alfred A. The Pequot War. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1996.
Alfred Cave’s work examines social and cultural reasons for the Pequot War. The book argues that the threat the colonists saw in the Pequots reflected the Puritans’ own fears and misunderstandings of Native American culture, rather than any true danger. Such dread explains both the war’s origins and its brutality.
Gleach, Frederic W. Powhatan’s World and Colonial Virginia: A Conflict of Cultures. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
Using archeological, anthropological and ethnohistorical techniques, Frederic Gleach reconstructs the world views of both settlers and native peoples in early colonial Virginia. He argues that what has become known as the 1622 “massacre” was not an attempt to exterminate English colonists, but rather a means to correct the latter’s behavior to better accord with native values and conduct.
Leach, Douglas Edward. Flintlock and Tomahawk: New England in King Philip’s War. New York: Macmillan, 1958.
Though more than 50 years old, Flintlock and Tomahawk remains the most detailed narrative of King Philip’s War, touching upon the causes of the war, its campaigns, and consequences.
Malone, Patrick M. The Skulking Way of War: Technology and Tactics among the New England Indians. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.
The Skulking Way of War scrutinizes technological change and tactics of southern New England’s native peoples. Focusing on the seventeenth century, Malone argues Indians learned from the devastation wrought by colonists in the Pequot War, with warriors wreaking greater destruction in King Philips’ War than was traditional for in native conflicts.
Mandell, Daniel R. King Philip’s War: Colonial Expansion, Native Resistance, and the End of Indian Sovereignty. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.
This is a fairly recent, relatively short account of King Philip’s War. While not as detailed as Leach’s older work, it offers a better balance between native and English perspectives in its treatment of the causes and conduct of the war.
Parker, Geoffrey. The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, 1500-1800. Second Edition. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
The Military Revolution examines key innovations in early modern Europe that transformed land and sea warfare. Parker argues that technological innovations drove administrative, bureaucratic and logistical changes that enhanced the power of Western states and enabled them to project forces around the globe.
Richter, Daniel K. The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992.
Daniel Richer examines the “mourning war” traditionally practiced by the Five Nations of the Iroquois, in which the key objective was acquisition of captives. His seminal book examines how it was challenged by seventeenth-century developments such as epidemics, the spread of firearms, and other motivations for conflict, particularly to control trade.
Shea, William L. The Virginia Militia in the Seventeenth Century. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1983.
Beginning with its roots in the English tradition of communal defense, The Virginia Militia in the Seventeenth Century charts the development of the colony’s militia, examining its structural and institutional evolution, who served in it, and how it was used.
Steele, Ian K. Warpaths: Invasions of North America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Warpaths surveys the changing nature of warfare in North America from the sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth century, using some ethnohistorical research to help highlight the experiences of Indian peoples. Steele begins with the native-settler conflicts that erupted from the first European colonial ventures. He then addresses the extent to which combat changed with the emergence of imperial competition beginning in the late 1600s, culminating with the French and Indian War and Pontiac’s Rebellion (what Steele calls the Amerindian War).
Zelner, Kyle. A Rabble in Arms: Massachusetts Towns and Militiamen during King Philip's War. New York: New York University Press, 2009.
Focusing on Essex County, Massachusetts, Kyle Zelner examines militia and conscription during King Philip’s War. His book demonstrates how local factors and conditions affected who was sent to fight against New England’s native foes.
Expanded Bibliography
Chet, Guy. Conquering the American Wilderness: The Triumph of European Warfare in Colonial Northeast. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2003.
Drake, James David. King Philip's War: Civil War in New England, 1675–1676. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999.
Ferling, John E. A Wilderness of Miseries: War and Warriors in Early America. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980.
Struggle for a Continent: The Wars of Early America. Arlington Heights, IL: Harlan Davidson, 1993.
Higginbotham, Don. “The Early American Way of War: Reconnaissance and Appraisal.” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd. ser., 44, no. 2. (April, 1987): 230–273.
Lee, Wayne E. “Early American Ways of War: A New Reconnaissance, 1600–1815.” Historical Journal 44, no. 1 (2001): 269–289.
Lepore, Jill. The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.
McConnell, Michael N. Army and Empire: British Soldiers on the American Frontier, 1758–1775. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004.
Oliphant, John. Peace and War on the Anglo-Cherokee Frontier, 1756–63. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2001.
Richter, Daniel. Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992.
Salisbury, Neal. Manitou and Providence: Indians, Europeans, and the Making of New England, 1500–1643. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Selesky, Harold E. War and Society in Colonial Connecticut. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.
Webb, Stephen Saunders. 1676, The End of American Independence. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984.
Annotated Weblinks
Site: George Percy’s A Trewe Relacyon
URL: http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/winter07/jamestowndiary.cfm
Description: This site will take you to a transcript of George Percy’s recollections from his time as president of the Jamestown colony. Percy was in charge of the fledgling settlement when it endured the 1609-10 “Starving Time.” His writings broach the subjects of coping with the new environment, the difficulties of disease, and relations with Powhatan Indians.
Site: National Park Service, Historic Jamestowne
URL: http://www.nps.gov/jame/index.htm
Description: A very useful website from the National Park Service that can provide you an overview of Jamestown’s history and also tips for visiting the park.
Site: National Park Service’s A Study of Virginia Indians and Jamestown https://www.nps.gov/jame/learn/historyculture/a-short-history-of-jamestown.htm
This covers many areas of the history of Jamestown during the 17th Century
Site: Virtual Jamestown
URL: http://www.virtualjamestown.org/page2.html
Description: A collaboration between Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia, and the Virginia Center for Digital History at the University of Virginia, Virtual Jamestown is a useful resource for any student looking to learn about the settlement. Included in the website are original court records, labor contracts, public records, first-hand accounts, and historical essays.
Site: Pilgrim Hall Museum
URL: https://pilgrimhall.org/ap_king_philip_war.htm
Description: A website that, among many other things, presents King Philip’s War from the colonists' perspective, with quotes from settlers and analysis of the causes and consequences of the war.
Site: The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut
URL: http://colonialwarsct.org/index.htm
Description: The Society of Colonial Wars in the States of Connecticut has produced a very good website that offers its visitors an extraordinarily detailed look at the history of settlers and Native Americans in cooperation and conflict. The organization is part of a larger group, The Society of Colonial Wars, but the Connecticut chapter’s website has the most to offer students.
Site: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Electronic Texts in American Studies
URL: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/42/
Description: This is a first-hand account of the Pequot War, entitled A Brief History of the Pequot War, written by the commander of Connecticut’s forces in the conflict, Major John Mason. Almost fifty pages long, the account provides insight into the Pequot War from the perspective of a high-ranking officer.
Site: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Electronic Texts in American Studies
URL: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/37/
Description: This is a first-hand account of the Pequot War written in 1638 and fully titled Newes from America; Or, A New and Experimentall Discoverie of New England; Containing, A Trve Relation of Their War-like Proceedings These Two Yeares Last Past, with a Figure of the Indian Fort, or Palizado. The author was a man named John Underhill, one of the Massachusetts commanders in the expedition that destroyed the Pequot Village at Mystic in May 1637.
Site: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Electronic Texts in American Studies
URL: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience/33/
Description: This link will take you to a primary source e-copy of a book titled A Relation of the Indian War. Its author, John Easton, was deputy governor of Rhode Island when King Philip’s War began in 1675. Easton provides the Indian perspective of the origins of war as well as the colonies’ motives.
Site: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Electronic Texts in American Studies
URL: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/38/
Description: Visit this website if you are searching for another primary source from the Pequot Wars. Lion Gardener, an English military engineer, wrote his book Relation of the Pequot Warres in 1660. Gardener was hired to construct fortifications at the mouth of the Connecticut River and found himself in the middle of the Pequot War.
Site: Battlefields of the Pequot War
URL: http://pequotwar.org/
Description: Run by the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, Battlefields of the Pequot War is an attempt to identify and preserve the battlefields and historical sites of the organization’s namesake conflict. The website not only provides detailed information about the battlefields but also a general history of the war.