The Red King's Rebellion: Racial Politics in New England 1675-1678

298 Pages·1991·5.445 MB·English

by  Russell Bourne

THE
RED KING’S
REBELLION
ALSO BY RUSSELL BOURNE
The View from Front Street:
Travels through New England's Historic Fishing Communities (1989)
THE
RED KING’S
REBELLION
Racial Politics
in New England
1675-1678
Russell Bourne
Atheneum
NEW YORK 1990
Copyright © 1990 by Russell Bourne
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.
Atheneum
Macmillan Publishing Company
866 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022
Collier Macmillan Canada, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bourne, Russell.
The Red King’s rebellion : racial politics in New England,
1675-1678 I by Russell Bourne.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-689*12000*1
i. King Philip’s War, 1675-1676. 2. Wampanoag Indians—
Wars. 3. Mashpee Indians—Wars. 4. Indians of North
America—New England—Wars—1600-1750. 5. Indians of
North America—New England—Government relations—
To 1789. 6. New England—History—Colonial period, ca.
1600-1775. I. Title.
E83.67.B74 1990
973'.2'4—dc2o 89*17581
CIP
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to Mimi

Contents
Illustrations ix
Preface xi
I The Perceived Prince
Philip of Pokanoket i
2 The Battle That Shaped New England’s Mind
The Pequot War of 1637 41
3 “Until I Have No Country”
King Philip’s War in Southern New England 85
4 Frontier Rebels and the Narragansett Gamble
The War in Western New England and Rhode Island 125
§ Victory’s Trail to Defeat
The Bitter Death of King Philip 163
6 Dawnlanders and Down Easters
The Continuation of War Along the Coast 207
Acknowledgments 247
Bibliography 253
Index 261

Illustrations
On pages 14 through 17
Maps of certain New England Indian tribes, southern and northern,
circa 1620. Reprinted with permission of University of New England
Press from Indian New England Before the Mayflower, by Howard S.
Russell, copyright 1980.
Maps of recorded Indian trails and villages, southern and northern,
circa 1620. Reprinted with permission of University of New England
Press from Indian New England Before the Mayflower, by Howard S.
Russell, copyright 1980.
Between pages 146 and 147
Engraving, Philip, King of Mount Hope, by Paul Revere. Courtesy of
the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Oil portrait of King Philip by Thomas Hart Benton. Courtesy of Saint
Joseph College, West Hartford, Connecticut, The Reverend Andrew
J. Kelly Collection. Photograph by Joseph Szaszfai.
Woodcut Portrait of Philip from A Pictorial History of America, Good­
rich, 1846. Courtesy of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology at
Brown University.
Oil portrait of King Philip, artist unknown. Courtesy of the Haffen­
reffer Museum of Anthropology at Brown University.
Oil portrait of Ninigret II by Charles Osgood, copies from the original
by an unknown contemporary artist, about 1861. Courtesy of the
Massachusetts Historical Society.
“Princess Ninigret’s Haircomb and Bracelet” and “King Philip’s Belt.”
Courtesy of the Rhode Island Historical Society.
John Underhill’s diagram of Fort Mystic assault, 1637. Courtesy of
The Library Company of Philadelphia.
x • Illustrations
Oil portrait of Major Thomas Savage, attributed to Thomas Smith.
Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Indian Assault on Ayres’ Inn, August 4, 1675. Originally published in
G. M. Bodge’s Soldiers in King Philip’s War, 1906. Courtesy of the
Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology at Brown University.
Grandfontaine’s 1671 map of Pentagouet and northern New England.
Courtesy of the Public Archives of Canada, National Map Collec­
tion, and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Département des Cartes et
Plans, Paris.
William Hubbard’s map of King Philip’s War sites. Courtesy of the
John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.
Map of New England, 1675. Reprinted with permission of Charles
Scribner’s Sons, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing Company, from
Atlas of American History, edited by James Truslow Adams and R. V.
Coleman. Copyright 1943 by Charles Scribner’s Sons, renewed 1977.
Inset engraving by A. B. Durand after a drawing by James Eastbum of
“King Philip’s Seat,” courtesy of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthro­
pology at Brown University.