Part 749

"Events in England had now [1640] reached a crisis, and the Puritan party, rising rapidly into power, no longer looked to America for a refuge. The great tide of emigration ceased to flow; but the government of Massachusetts went on wisely and strongly under the alternating rule of Winthrop, Dudley, and Bellingham. The English troubles crippled the holders of the Mason and Gorges grants, and the settlements in New Hampshire—whither Wheelwright had gone, and where turbulence had reigned—were gradually added to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. In domestic matters everything went smoothly. There was some trouble with Bellingham, and Winthrop was again made Governor [1642]. The oath of allegiance to the King taken by the magistrates was abandoned, because Charles violated the privileges of Parliament, and the last vestige of dependence vanished. Massachusetts was divided into counties; and out of a ludicrous contest about a stray pig, in which deputies and magistrates took different sides, grew a very important controversy as to the powers of deputies and assistants, which resulted [1644] in the division of the legislature into two branches, and a consequent improvement in the symmetry and solidity of the political system."

_H. C. Lodge, Short History of the English Colonies, chapter 18._

See, also, TOWNSHIP AND TOWN-MEETING.

NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1640-1655. Colonizing enterprises of New Haven on the Delaware.

See NEW JERSEY: A. D. 1640-1655.

NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1643. The confederation of the colonies.

In May, 1643, "a confederacy, to be known as the United Colonies of New England, was entered into at Boston, between delegates from Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven on the one hand, and the General Court of Massachusetts on the other. Supposed dangers from the Indians, and their quarrels with the Dutch of Manhattan, had induced the people of Connecticut to withdraw their formal objections to this measure. Two commissioners from each colony were to meet annually, or oftener, if necessary; the sessions to be held alternately at Boston, Hartford, New Haven, and Plymouth; but Boston was to have two sessions for one at each of the other places. The commissioners, all of whom must be church members, were to choose a president from among themselves, and everything was to be decided by six voices out of the eight. No war was to be declared by either colony without the consent of the commissioners, to whose province Indian affairs and foreign relations were especially assigned. The sustentation of the 'truth and liberties of the Gospel' was declared to be one great object of this alliance. All war expenses were to be a common charge, to be apportioned according to the number or male inhabitants in each colony. Runaway servants and fugitive criminals were to be delivered up, a provision afterward introduced into the Constitution of the United States; and the commissioners soon recommended, what remained ever after the practice of New England, and ultimately became, also, a provision of the United States Constitution, that judgments of courts of law and probates of wills in each colony should have full faith and credit in all the others. {2310} The commissioners from Massachusetts, as representing by far the most powerful colony of the alliance, claimed an honorary precedence, which the others readily conceded. Plymouth, though far outgrown by Massachusetts, and even by Connecticut, had made, however, some progress. It now contained seven towns, and had lately adopted a representative system. But the old town of Plymouth was in decay, the people being drawn off to the new settlements. Bradford had remained governor, except for four years, during two of which he had been relieved by Edward Winslow, and the other two by Thomas Prince. New Haven was, perhaps, the weakest member of the alliance. Besides that town, the inhabitants of which were principally given to commerce, there were two others, Milford and Guilford, agricultural settlements; Southold, at the eastern extremity of Long Island, also acknowledged the jurisdiction of New Haven, and a new settlement had recently been established at Stamford. … The colony of Connecticut, not limited to the towns on the river, to which several new ones had already been added, included also Stratford and Fairfield, on the coast of the Sound, west of New Haven. … The town of Southampton, on Long Island, acknowledged also the jurisdiction of Connecticut. Fort Saybrook, at the mouth of the river, was still an independent settlement, and Fenwick, as the head of it, became a party to the articles of confederation. But the next year he sold out his interest to Connecticut, and into that colony Saybrook was absorbed. … Gorges's province of Maine was not received into the New England alliance, 'because the people there ran a different course both in their ministry and civil administration.' The same objection applied with still greater force to Aquiday and Providence."

_R. Hildreth, History of the United States, chapter 10 (volume 1)._

ALSO IN: _J. S. Barry, History of Massachusetts, volume 1, chapter 1._

_G. P. Fisher, The Colonial Era, chapter 8._

NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1644. The chartering of Providence Plantation, and the Rhode Island Union.

See RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1638-1647.

NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1649-1651. Under Cromwell and the Commonwealth.

See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1649-1651.

NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1650. Adjustment of Connecticut boundaries with the Dutch.

See NEW YORK: A. D. 1650.

NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1651-1660. The disputed jurisdiction in Maine. The claims of Massachusetts made good.

See MAINE: A. D. 1643-1677.

NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1656-1661. The persecution of Quakers.

See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1656-1661.

NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1657-1662. The Halfway Covenant.

See BOSTON: A. D. 1657-1669.

NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1660-1664. The protection of the Regicides.

See CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1660-1664.

NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1660-1665. Under the Restored Monarchy. The first collision of Massachusetts with the crown.

See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1660-1665.

NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1662. The Union of Connecticut and New Haven by Royal Charter.

See CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1662-1664.

NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1663. The Rhode Island charter, and beginning of boundary conflicts with Connecticut.

See RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1660-1663.

NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1674-1675. King Philip's War: Its causes and beginning.

"The Pokanokets had always rejected the Christian faith and Christian manners, and their chief had desired to insert in a treaty, what the Puritans always rejected, that the English should never attempt to convert the warriors of his tribe from the religion of their race. The aged Massassoit—he who had welcomed the pilgrims to the soil of New England, and had opened his cabin to shelter the founder of Rhode Island—now slept with his fathers, and Philip, his son, had succeeded him as head of the allied tribes. Repeated sales of land had narrowed their domains, and the English had artfully crowded them into the tongues of land, as 'most suitable and convenient for them,' and as more easily watched. The principal seats of the Pokanokets were the peninsulas which we now call Bristol and Tiverton. As the English villages drew nearer and nearer to them, their hunting-grounds were put under culture, their natural parks were turned into pastures, their best fields for planting corn were gradually alienated, their fisheries were impaired by more skilful methods, till they found themselves deprived of their broad acres, and, by their own legal contracts, driven, as it were, into the sea. Collisions and mutual distrust were the necessary consequence. There exists no evidence of a deliberate conspiracy on the part of all the tribes. The commencement of war was accidental; many of the Indians were in a maze, not knowing what to do, and disposed to stand for the English; sure proof of no ripened conspiracy. But they had the same complaints, recollections, and fears: and, when they met, they could not but grieve together at the alienation of the domains of their fathers. They spurned the English claim of jurisdiction over them, and were indignant that Indian chiefs or warriors should be arraigned before a jury. And, when the language of their anger and sorrow was reported to the men of Plymouth colony by an Indian tale-bearer, fear professed to discover in their unguarded words the evidence of an organized conspiracy. The haughty Philip, who had once before been compelled to surrender his 'English arms' and pay an onerous tribute, was, in 1674, summoned to submit to an examination, and could not escape suspicion. The wrath of his tribe was roused, and the informer was murdered. The murderers, in their turn, were identified, seized, tried by a jury, of which one half were Indians, and, in June, 1675, on conviction, were hanged. The young men of the tribe panted for revenge: without delay, eight or nine of the English were slain in or about Swansey, and the alarm of war spread through the colonies. Thus was Philip hurried into 'his rebellion;' and he is reported to have wept as he heard that a white man's blood had been shed. … What chances had he of success? The English were united; the Indians had no alliance, and half of them joined the English, or were quiet spectators of the fight: the English had guns enough; few of the Indians were well armed, and they could get no new supplies: the English had towns for their shelter and safe retreat; the miserable wigwams of the natives were defenceless: the English had sure supplies of food; the Indians might easily lose their precarious stores. They rose without hope, and they fought without mercy. {2311} For them as a nation there was no to-morrow. … At the first alarm, volunteers from Massachusetts joined the troops of Plymouth; on the twenty-ninth of June, within a week from the beginning of hostilities, the Pokanokets were driven from Mount Hope; and in less than a month Philip was a fugitive among the Nipmucks, the interior tribes of Massachusetts. The little army of the colonists then entered the territory of the Narragansetts, and from the reluctant tribe extorted a treaty of neutrality, with a promise to deliver up every hostile Indian. Victory seemed promptly assured. But it was only the commencement of horrors. Canonchet, the chief sachem of the Narragansetts, was the son of Miantonomoh; and could he forget his father's wrongs? Desolation extended along the whole frontier. Banished from his patrimony where the pilgrims found a friend, and from his cabin which had sheltered exiles, Philip and his warriors spread through the country, awakening their race to a warfare of extermination."

_G. Bancroft, History of the United States (author's last revision), part 2, chapter 5 (volume 1)._

"At this time, according to loose estimates, there may have been some 36,000 Indians and 60,000 whites in New England; 10,000 of the former fit for war, and 15,000 of the latter capable of bearing arms. … At the outset, the Narragansetts, numbering 2,000 warriors, did not actually second Philip's resistance. But Canonchet, their sachem, might well remember the death of his father Miantonomo [who, taken prisoner in a war with the Mohegans, and surrendered by them to the English, in 1643, with a request for permission to put him to death, was deliberately returned to his savage captors, on advice taken from the ministers at Boston—doomed to death without his knowledge]. … No efforts at conciliation seem to have been made by either party; for the whites felt their superiority (were they not 'the Lord's chosen people?'); and Philip knew the desperate nature of the struggle between united and well-armed whites, and divided uncontrolled savages; yet when the emergency came he met it, and never faltered or plead from that day forth."

_C. W. Elliott, The New England History, volume 1, chapter 40._

ALSO IN: _B. Church, History of King Philip's War, (Prince Society Publication 1867)._

_S. G. Drake, Aboriginal Races of North America, book 3._

NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1675 (July-September). King Philip's War: Savage successes of the Indian enemy. Increasing rage and terror among the colonists.

The Nipmucks, into whose country Philip retreated, "had already commenced hostilities by attacking Mendon. They waylaid and killed Captain Hutchinson, a son of the famous Mrs. Hutchinson, and 16 out of a party of 20 sent from Boston to Brookfield to parley with them. Attacking Brookfield itself, they burned it, except one fortified house. The inhabitants were saved by Major Willard, who, on information of their danger, came with a troop of horse from Lancaster, thirty miles through the woods, to their rescue. A body of troops presently arrived from the eastward, and were stationed for some time at Brookfield. The colonists now found that by driving Philip to extremity they had roused a host of unexpected enemies. The River Indians, anticipating an intended attack upon them, joined the assailants. Deerfield and Northfield, the northernmost towns on the Connecticut River, settled within a few years past, were attacked and several of the inhabitants killed and wounded. Captain Beers, sent from Hadley to their relief with a convoy of provisions, was surprised near Northfield and slain, with 20 of his men. Northfield was abandoned and burned by the Indians. … Driven to the necessity of defensive warfare, those in command on the river determined to establish a magazine and garrison at Hadley. Captain Lathrop, who had been dispatched from the eastward to the assistance of the river towns, was sent with 80 men, the flower of the youth of Essex county, to guard the wagons intended to convey to Hadley 3,000 bushels of unthreshed wheat, the produce of the fertile Deerfield meadows. Just before arriving at Deerfield, near a small stream still known as Bloody Brook, under the shadow of the abrupt conical Sugar Loaf, the southern termination of the Deerfield mountain, Lathrop fell into an ambush, and, after a brave resistance, perished there with all his company. Captain Moseley, stationed at Deerfield, marched to his assistance, but arrived too late to help him. That town, also, was abandoned, and burned by the Indians. Springfield, about the same time, was set on fire, but was partially saved by the arrival of Major Treat, with aid from Connecticut. Hatfield, now the frontier town on the north, was vigorously attacked, but the garrison succeeded in repelling the assailants. Meanwhile, hostilities were spreading; the Indians on the Merrimac began to attack the towns in their vicinity; and the whole of Massachusetts was soon in the utmost alarm. Except in the immediate neighborhood of Boston, the country still remained an immense forest, dotted by a few openings. The frontier settlements … were mostly broken up, and the inhabitants, retiring towards Boston, spread everywhere dread and intense hatred of 'the bloody heathen.' Even the praying Indians, and the small dependent and tributary tribes, became objects of suspicion and terror. … Not content with realities sufficiently frightful, superstition, as usual, added bugbears of her own. Indian bows were seen in the sky, and scalps in the moon. The northern lights became an object of terror. Phantom horsemen careered among the clouds, or were heard to gallop invisible through the air. The howling of wolves was turned into a terrible omen. The war was regarded as a special judgment in punishment of prevailing sins. … About the time of the first collision with Philip, the Tarenteens, or Eastern Indians, had attacked the settlements in Maine and New Hampshire, plundering and burning the houses, and massacring such of the inhabitants as fell into their hands. This sudden diffusion of hostilities and vigor of attack from opposite quarters, made, the colonists believe that Philip had long been plotting and had gradually matured an extensive conspiracy, into which most of the tribes had deliberately entered, for the extermination of the whites. This belief infuriated the colonists, and suggested some very questionable proceedings. … But there is no evidence of any deliberate concert; nor, in fact, were the Indians united. Had they been so, the war would have been far more serious. The Connecticut tribes proved faithful, and that colony remained untouched. Even the Narragansetts, the most powerful confederacy in New England, in spite of so many former provocations, had not yet taken up arms. But they were strongly suspected of intention to do so, and were accused, notwithstanding their recent assurances, of giving aid and shelter to the hostile tribes."

_R. Hildreth, History of the United States, volume 1, chapter 14._

ALSO IN: _R. Markham, History of King Philip's War, chapters 7-8._

_G. H. Hollister, History of Connecticut, volume 1, chapter 12._

_M. A. Green, Springfield, 1636-1886, chapter 9._

{2312}

NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1675 (October-December). King Philip's War: The crushing of the Narragansetts.

"The attitude of the powerful Narragansett tribe was regarded with anxiety. It was known that, so far from keeping their compact to surrender such enemies of the English as should fall into their hands, they had harbored numbers of Philip's dispersed retainers and allies. While the Federal Commissioners were in session at Boston [October], Canonchet, sachem of the Narragansetts, came thither with other chiefs, and promised that the hostile Indians whom they acknowledged to be then under their protection should be surrendered within ten days. But probably the course of events on Connecticut River emboldened them. At all events, they did not keep their engagement. The day for the surrender came and went, and no Indians appeared. If that faithless tribe, the most powerful in New England, should assume active hostilities, a terrible desolation would ensue. The Commissioners moved promptly. The fifth day after the breach of the treaty found them reassembled after a short recess. They immediately determined to raise an additional force of 1,000 men for service in the Narragansett country. They appointed Governor Winslow, of Plymouth, to be commander-in-chief, and desired the colony of Connecticut to name his lieutenant. The General was to place himself at the head of his troops within six weeks, 'a solemn day of prayer and humiliation' being kept through all the colonies meanwhile. … Time was thus given to the Narragansetts to make their peace 'by actual performance of their covenants made with the Commissioners; as also making reparation for all damages sustained by their neglect hitherto, together with security for their further fidelity.' … It is not known whether Philip was among the Narragansetts at this time. Under whatever influence it was, whether from stupidity or from confidence, they made no further attempt at pacification. … The Massachusetts troops marched from Dedham to Attleborough on the day before that which had been appointed by the Commissioners for them to meet the Plymouth levy at the northeastern corner of the Narragansett country. The following day they reached Seekonk: A week earlier, the few English houses at Quinsigamond (Worcester) had been burned by a party of natives; and a few days later, the house of Jeremiah Bull, at Pettyquamscott, which had been designated as the place of general rendezvous for the English, was fired, and ten men and five women and children, who had taken refuge in it, were put to death. … The place where the Narragansetts were to be sought was in what is now the town of South Kingston, 18 miles distant, in a northwesterly direction, from Pettyquamscott, and a little further from that Pequot fort to the southwest, which had been destroyed by the force under Captain Mason forty years before. According to information afterwards received from a captive, the Indian warriors here collected were no fewer than 3,500. They were on their guard, and had fortified their hold to the best of their skill. It was on a solid piece of upland of five or six acres, wholly surrounded by a swamp. On the inner side of this natural defence they had driven rows of palisades, making a barrier nearly a rod in thickness; and the only entrance to the enclosure was over a rude bridge consisting of a felled tree, four or five feet from the ground, the bridge being protected by a block-house. The English [whose forces, after a considerable delay of the Connecticut troops, had been all assembled at Pettyquamscott on Saturday, December 18], breaking up their camp [on the morning of the 19th] while it was yet dark, arrived before the place at one o'clock after noon. Having passed, without shelter, a very cold night, they had made a march of 18 miles through deep snow, scarcely halting to refresh themselves with food. In this condition they immediately advanced to the attack. The Massachusetts troops were in the van of the storming column; next came the two Plymouth companies; and then the force from Connecticut. The foremost of the assailants were received with a well-directed fire," and seven of their captains were killed or mortally wounded. "Nothing discouraged by the fall of their leaders, the men pressed on, and a sharp conflict followed, which, with fluctuating success, lasted for two or three hours. Once the assailants were beaten out of the fort; but they presently rallied and regained their ground. There was nothing for either party but to conquer or die, enclosed together as they were. At length victory declared for the English, who finished their work by setting fire to the wigwams within the fort. They lost 70 men killed and 150 wounded. Of the Connecticut contingent alone, out of 300 men 40 were killed and as many wounded. The number of the enemy that perished is uncertain. … What is both certain and material is that on that day the military strength of the formidable Narragansett tribe was irreparably broken."

_J. G. Palfrey, Compendious History of New England, book 3, chapter 3 (volume 2)._

ALSO IN: _S. G. Arnold, History of Rhode Island, volume 1, chapter 10._

NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1676-1678. King Philip's War: The end of the conflict.