The first permanent colony in New England was Plymouth (1620 – 1691).  Plymouth was also North America’s second permanent English colony (after the Jamestown Colony).  The settlement area, previously surveyed by Captain John Smith, became the capital of the Plymouth colony and later developed as the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts.  Within a few years, Plymouth occupied most of the southeastern portion of present-day Massachusetts.

Until 1534, England was a Roman Catholic country.  That was the year King Henry VIII declared himself head of the Church of England, repudiating the Catholic Church and requiring all subjects to renounce their Catholicism in favor of Anglicanism.  By the king’s decree, it was illegal for anyone to belong to a church other than the Church of England.  The people who settled at Plymouth were protestants who rejected both Catholicism and Anglicanism.  They believed that Church liturgy was too complicated and that it had lost touch with early Christian practices — they wanted to return to a simpler (less structured) form of worship.  Because they wanted to “purify” the Church, they became known as Puritans and separatists — and it was a dangerous path to walk.

When Elizabeth became queen, she changed some things that made the Anglican Church different from Roman Catholicism.  Some churches still retained Catholic-like rites — at least enough to force the Puritans to find other places to live and worship as they chose.  The longer this continued, the louder the separatists complained, and those loud voices focused the government’s attention on their movement.  Harassed, fined, and, in some cases, sent to jail, and this caused separatist groups to flee to the Dutch Netherlands, where they could practice their religion without fear of persecution.

Living in the Netherlands did give the Puritans religious freedom.  Still, it was not easy living in a foreign land where no one could speak the language and could not financially support themselves.  After initially settling in Amsterdam, they later moved to Leiden, where they remained for around twelve years.  Most found work in the cloth trade, while others worked as carpenters, tailors, painters, and printers.  Even young children worked in these occupations, and in this situation, the children began to assimilate into Dutch culture.  Their parents, fearful that the kids were losing their identity as Englishmen, decided to relocate again — this time, to North America.

Initially, the congregation decided to travel to the Virginia colony and establish farming villages.  At that time, Virginia extended from Jamestown in the south to the mouth of the Hudson River in the north.  The Puritans planned to settle in the area of present-day New York City.  The plan was to live as Englishmen but worship God as they saw fit.

One problem was that the Puritans lacked sufficient money to establish their village, so they entered into an agreement with financial investors — a joint stock arrangement.  The company would provide them with tools, clothing, and other supplies.  In return, the colonists would work for the company, sending natural resources (fish, timber, and furs) back to England.  The total of all assets would be shared equally between colonists and investors.

The entire congregation could not travel to the New World simultaneously, so those who could settle their affairs in Leiden departed first, and the greater number (including their pastor, John Robinson) remained behind.  The congregation purchased a ship, Speedwell, intended to be used in America for fishing and transferring cargo.  At Southampton, the Puritans were joined by another migrant group.  This second group leased another ship called the Mayflower — both ships departed for America together.

On two occasions, the ships turned back due to severe Atlantic storms.  Speedwell, leaking like a sieve, was deemed unfit to transport passengers.  Those people would have to transfer to a different ship, some of which ended up on the Mayflower.  Mayflower finally departed Southampton on September 6, 1620.  She carried 102 passengers, arriving in New England on November 11.  Initially, the ship was destined for a location along the Hudson River in New York, but dangerous shoals and wind anomalies forced the ship to seek shelter at Cape Cod.  The landing at Cape Cod was problematic for two reasons: first, it was late in the year, and second, the seas would not facilitate a safe disembarkation of the passengers.  Passengers were offloaded in Plymouth Harbor.

Mayflower arrived in Plymouth Harbor on December 16, 1620.  Colonists immediately began looking for a place to call home.  While cabins were under construction, the Puritans continued to live aboard the ship.  Shipboard life was, at best, unhealthy, and it wasn’t long before passengers became ill.  Historians believe they were suffering from scurvy and pneumonia — the result of constant cold and a poor (sea) diet.  During the first two months, two or three people died every day.  At the end of the first year, there were only 52 survivors in Plymouth.  When Mayflower departed for England in April 1621, she went to sea with only half her regular crew.

The colonists at Plymouth occasionally caught glimpses of native Americans, but it wasn’t until four months after their arrival that they met and established communications with local tribal members.  In March 1621, Puritans arranged with the Pokanoket Wampanoag leader, Ousamequin (also known as Massasoit).  It was a simple enough arrangement.  Both groups promised not to harm each other.  If anything were stolen, it would be returned, and the thief would be punished by their people.  No one would bring weapons to council meetings.  Both sides would become allies when threatened by outside sources.  An Indian named Squanto (previously kidnapped and sold into slavery in Europe), who could speak the English language, went to live with the Englishmen at Plymouth.

By 1627, the Plymouth colony was stable and productive, and around 160 people lived there.

About Squanto

His actual name was Tisquantum (with spelling variations).  William Bradford nicknamed him Squanto, and he is generally credited with helping the Plymouth colonists survive their first year in North America.  Sometime before 1621, Tisquantum (as a Patuxet Indian) lived along the western coast of Cape Cod Bay.  An epidemic destroyed his village, which Historians suggest was likely brought to North America by Europeans.  An English explorer named Thomas Hunt kidnapped Tisquantum and trafficked him to the slave market in Malaga.  Fortunately, Tisquantum was among several slaves ransomed by local clergy, who focused on education and evangelization.  He eventually traveled to England and returned to North America in 1619.  As the last of his people, he went to live with a nearby Wampanoag Tribe, also called Pokanoket.

The Pokanoket chief, whose name was Ousamequin, was curious about the foreigners who arrived in the large boat.  He noted that these people were dying in large numbers.  He called on Tisquantum to go to the colony, learn what he could about them, and keep him informed.  Indian language and names, in particular, proved difficult for the colonists.  In the Indian language, Massasoit Sachem meant Great Chief.  The colonists thought Massasoit was his name, so he is often called Massasoit.

Good relations with local Indians were extremely important to the settlers for several reasons, but chief among them was the fact that the European population kept increasing and the settlement expanded.  Essentially, this land was taken to support settlers, leaving less land for the Indians.  Englishmen established additional settlements at Salem, Boston and began interacting with a broader range of Algonquin people within the region — which, over time, increased tensions.

Here, it is essential to realize that the relationship between newly arrived Europeans and their American Indian neighbors was complicated.  This is understandable because the relationship between Indian groups was also quite complex.  Indian alliances shifted according to perceived self-interest.  When it benefitted tribes to form alliances, they did.  When it benefitted tribes to break those alliances, they did that, too.  In terms of making and breaking alliances, the arrival of Europeans did nothing to change Indian behavior — it only expanded their opportunities for more alliances.

The Pokanoket

The term “Neighboring Indians” may give the wrong impression.  When the Puritans arrived at Plymouth, the Pokanoket Indians controlled most of present-day southeastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island.  Ousamequin (1581 – 1661) lived in Sowams (near present-day Warren, Rhode Island).  Recall that Ousamequin was the Great Chief.  He had three sons: Wamsutta (1621 – 1662), Pometecomet (also called Metacom) (1638 – 1676), and Sonkanuchoo (1642- 1675).   

At one time, Ousamequin asked the settlers to return Squanto to his village.  Because Squanto was so helpful to the colonists, they refused, creating tension between Ousamequin and the settlement.  Moreover, Ousamequin believed that Squanto had betrayed him.  In 1623, Ousamequin became gravely ill, and Edward Winslow nursed him back to health.  From then on, Ousamequin became a devoted friend to the colonists and pledged his support for them for as long as he lived.  Historians believe he was 81 when he died in 1661.  Still, as colonists expanded their settlements, tensions with American Indians increased.

In 1660, Wamsutta and Metacom appeared before the Plymouth court to request that the court assign them English names — a Wampanoag custom in which new names marked a significant moment.  In this case, the death of Ousamequin.  Wamsutta became Alexander; Metacom became Philip.  Some colonists began referring to these two Indian leaders as King Alexander and King Philip.

When Ousamequin died, his son Wamsutta (also known as Alexander Pokanoket) became Sachem Massasoit of the Wampanoag (Pokanoket).  Wamsutta agreed to keep the peace agreement brokered between his father and Edward Winslow.  When the fur trade collapsed, Wamsutta increased the wealth and prestige of the Pokanoket by selling land to colonists.  Then, not long after his father’s death, rumors surfaced suggesting that Wamsutta was conspiring with the Narragansett Indians to attack English settlers.  In 1662, the English “summoned” Wamsutta to answer questions about his relationship with the Narragansett.  After answering questions, Wamsutta fell ill and died.  The cause of his death is debated — and today, some historians claim that Wamsutta was tortured and then poisoned by Josiah Winslow, Edward Winslow’s son.

King Philip’s War

Peace with the Wampanoag lasted until 1675.  The main issue was the increase in European settlers.  It was an intrusion of the tenth magnitude on Indians who were trying to feed their families with limited food resources.  The Indians also profoundly resented the efforts of missionaries to convert them to Christianity.  Philip was the loudest complainer, and it was Philip who began organizing other Wampanoag bands against the Englishmen.

By this time, there were around 65,000 Plymouth settlers.  They lived in 110 towns.  Sixty-four of these towns were located within the Massachusetts Bay colony, which included southwestern Maine and southern New Hampshire.  Combined, the towns had around 16,000 men of military age, and nearly all of these were members of their local militia.  Many of these towns had constructed strong defensive garrisons; some had stockades enclosing most homes.  When hostilities began, settlers abandoned inadequately defended settlements.

In 1676, the regional population of Pokanoket Indians decreased to around 10,000 people (noting that there are no records to confirm the estimate).  There were about 4,000 Narragansett in western Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut, 2,400 Nipmucs in west and central Massachusetts, and 2,400 Massachusett and Pawtucket Indians in the area from Massachusetts Bay to Maine.  Of the Wampanoag of Plymouth, there were around 1,000 — of which 250 were classified as warriors.

John Sassamon was an Indian convert to Christianity.  He was called the Praying Indian.  He played a central role as a mediator and negotiator in the relationships between Indians and settlers while belonging to neither.  Sassamon was an early graduate of Harvard College and served as an advisor to Philip.  Sassamon reported Philip’s perfidy in organizing hostilities against the settlers, but when taken to court, no one could provide proof of Philip’s complicity.  Sometime later, Sossamon’s body was discovered in an ice-covered pond.  There was no proof of his murder, either.

On June 20, 1675, a war party assaulted the small town of Swansea.  Within a few days, the Indians had burned the town.  Several people died.  Seven days later, a total eclipse of the moon convinced the Indians that it was a good time to launch a full-scale assault on the white settlers.  Hostilities quickly spread throughout the area and soon involved nearly every Indian band.  Plymouth militia responded by destroying the Wampanoag town of Mount Hope (Bristol, Rhode Island).

The fighting lasted through early April 1678, ending when Philip was killed.  More than 1,000 colonists and 3,000 Indians died.  Hostile Indians targeted half the New England towns; many were utterly destroyed.  The English sold hundreds of Indian prisoners of war into slavery, including women and children and King Philip’s son.  Some Indian groups were eliminated from the Plymouth colony.

Sources:

1. Addison, A.C., The Romantic Story of the Mayflower Pilgrims and Its Place in the Life of Today.  Page & Company, 1911.
2. Demos, J.  A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony.  Oxford University Press, 1970.
3. Johnson, P.  A History of the American People.  Harper Collins, 1997.
4. Weinstein, A. and David Rubel.  The Story of America: Freedom and Crisis from Settlement to Superpower.  DK Publishing, 2002.