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King Philip's War is the name of the uprising of the New England Indians against the Puritan colonists from England in 1675-76. King Philip was Metacomet of the Wampanoag Indians. He was called a king by the English because they saw his responsibilities very similar to English kings. His brother petitioned the Plymouth Court for English names for his brother and him upon the death of their father, Massasoit. Until the 1800's this war was called the Indian War.

Because of diseases, the native population was severely reduced while the English population kept increasing. All of the new colonists demanded land. The Wampanoags were ultimately enclosed on the Mt. Hope Peninsula surrounded by colonists living on land that they had bought or taken from the Wampanoags. Philip tried to convince other New England nations to join him in a push to drive the English from their land. Eventually, most of the natives in the area fought the English, but because the War started before they were organized and because they could not stay on their land to raise crops and therefore suffered from extreme cold and starvation, the natives lost the 14 month struggle even though they almost succeeded in their purpose.

The Puritans punished the natives thus: all who were known to have participated in attacks on the colonists were executed. All other men and boys (14 and older) were sent into slavery to the West Indies. The women and children became indentured servants. In effect, this was the end of the New England Indians. (4% of the number of natives in 1600 were there at the end of the War.) The only ones given amnesty were the Christian Indians and the Indians who fought on the English side.

One further consequence of the War was that the English King James II created the Dominion of New England with strict royal oversight of the area from then on until the Revolutionary War one hundred years later.

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16y ago

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