USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I > Part 8
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DEATH OF MIANTONOMAH-Allies for the time being in a common enterprise against the Pequots, hostile to both, the Narragansetts and Mohicans soon found occasion for renewing ancient animosities in a quarrel over the division of Pequots taken captive in the war. To quiet this conflict commissioners of the colonies summoned Miantonomah and Uncas to a conference at Hartford, and on September 21, 1638, a treaty to outlaw war was negotiated, which included provisions for arbitration of Indian quarrels by the English, in the following terms: "If there fall out injuries and wrongs, each to the other or their men, they shall not presently revenge it, but they are to appeal to the English, and they are to decide the same, and if one or the other shall refuse to do it, it shall be lawful for the English to compel him and take part if they see cause against the obstinate or refusing party." Uncas continued to plot. Miantonomah in 1640 was accused of conspiring with the Mohawks, and in 1642 of planning a general Indian uprising against the settlers; of both charges he was acquitted by the Massachusetts magistrates, who appear not to have been deceived by Uncas. When, however, in 1642-1643 Miantonomah and Canonicus sold land at Shawomet to Samuel Gor- ton, they incurred the displeasure of Massachusetts. Pomham and Soconoco, local sachems, disclaimed the right of Canonicus and Miantonomah to sell Shawomet, themselves sold Shaw- omet to Benedict Arnold and others, and with Arnold and his company submitted themselves to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, which then was seeking a seaport on Narragansett Bay .* Massachusetts sustained the claims of Pomham and Soconoco. Returning home from Boston,
*For further discussion see Chapter V.
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Miantonomah learned that Sequassen, a Narragansett, had been set upon by Uncas and sev- eral of his followers killed. Miantonomah, as required by the terms of the Hartford treaty, complained to Connecticut and was repulsed with the answer that "the English had no hand in it." Massachusetts also turned a deaf ear to his complaint, giving Miantonomah leave "to take his own course." Miantonomah marched against Uncas, and the Narragansetts and Mohicans faced each other in battle array near the present town of Norwich, Connecticut. Uncas in parley with Miantonomah, who commanded a superior force, proposed a personal combat, and when this was refused, treacherously dropped to the ground, a prearranged sig- nal, while his warriors fired over his body and charged upon Miantonomah and the Narra- gansetts. Miantonomah's life was saved from the Mohican arrows by a coat of mail which he wore, but in the flight precipitated by the unexpected onslaught of the Mohicans the same coat of mail so hampered his movements that he was taken prisoner. Uncas hesitated to slay Miantonomah, according to the Indian practice, and carried his prisoner to Hartford. On appeal, the commissioners of the colonies found that the Narragansetts had violated the treaty, though both Connecticut and Massachusetts had waived aside Miantonomah's com- plaints before he had undertaken hostilities. Caught in a dilemma, hesitating to incur the enmity of Uncas by releasing Miantonomah, which could be justified by the treachery of the former, or to incur the hatred of the Narragansetts by condemning him, the commissioners referred the matter to a convocation of ministers assembled at Boston. On the advice of the synod Miantonomah was turned over to Uncas, in September, 1643, and tomahawked by Mohican warriors in the presence of English witnesses sent for the purpose. Once more the civil authority in Massachusetts had submitted to the church authority. The execution of Miantonomah has been condemned by unbiased historians as clerico-judicial murder, and the motives for it are found in the greed of Massachusetts to obtain a seaport on Narragansett Bay, hatred for Samuel Gorton, and the fact that Miantonomah was friendly to Gorton and had sold land to Gorton. Roger Williams was in England at the time; it is rather doubtful, however, that his influence, always potent with the Indians, would have prevailed to the extent of rescuing Miantonomah. The friendship of the Narragansetts had been flaunted, in spite of the truth of the remark of Roger Williams, "I cannot learn that ever it pleased the Lord to let the Narragansetts stain their hands with any English blood."
"The savage soul of Uncas," wrote Stephen Hopkins a century later, "doubted whether he ought to take away the life of a great king, who had fallen into his hands by misfortune; and to resolve this doubt he appealed to the Christian commissioners of the four united colonies, who met at Hartford in September, 1643. They were less scrupulous, and ordered Uncas to carry Miantonomah out of their jurisdiction and slay him; but kindly added that he should not be tortured. They sent some persons to see execution done, who had the satisfac- tion to see the captive king murdered in cold blood. This was the end of Miantonomah, the most potent Indian prince the people of New England ever had any concern with; and this was the reward he received for assisting them seven years before in their wars with the Pequots. Surely a Rhode Island man may be permitted to mourn his unhappy fate, and drop a tear on the ashes of Miantonomah, who, with his uncle, Canonicus, were the best friends the colony ever had; they kindly received, fed and protected the first settlers of it when they were in distress and were strangers and exiles, and all mankind elsewhere their enemies ; and by their kindness to them drew upon themselves the resentment of the neigh- boring colonies, and hastened the untimely end of the old king."
The reference in preceding paragraphs to the commissioners of the colonies is to the New England confederation under the title "United Colonies of New England," which was organized on May 19, 1643. The confederation included Plymouth, Connecticut, New Haven and Massachusetts Bay. Maine's application for membership was rejected, and an applica- tion from Rhode Island met "utter refusal" unless they would "absolutely and without reser-
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vation submit" themselves to Plymouth or Massachusetts .* The confederation was organized for concerted action, particularly with reference to the Indians. Uncas received, along with the privilege of murdering Miantonomah, an assurance of assistance from the colonies in the event of reprisals by Canonicus and the Narragansetts. The latter had raised and paid an enormous ransom for Miantonomah, which was retained in spite of the murder. To the grief of his followers was added the economic loss of the ransom. The spirit of the Narra- gansetts was bitter, and both Canonicus and Pessacus, brother of Miantonomah, who had become the new Sachem, brooded and plotted. In October, 1643, and again in March of the following year Pessacus sent presents to Massachusetts, seeking colonial neutrality in a war to be waged on Uncas. The presents were rejected, and Pessacus was advised that the colonies would stand by Uncas.
On April 19, 1644, Pessacus, as Chief Sachem ; Canonicus, as guardian of Miantonomah ; and Mixan, son and heir of Canonicus, submitted themselves to the sovereignty of the King of England, and placed themselves under the King's protection. Samuel Gorton is credited with having obtained this submission; the Indians were persuaded to it by the better treat- ment accorded Gorton in England than in America. Canonicus and Pessacus refused to attend a session of the court in Massachusetts, to which they had been summoned. Their letter of refusal recited their submission to the King, and contained this significant observa- tion on justice as administered by the colonies: "So that if any small thing of difference should fall out betwixt us, only the sending of a message may bring it to rights again ; but if any great matter should fall (which we hope and desire will not nor may not) then neither yourselves nor we are to be judges, but both of us are to have recourse and repair unto that honorable and just government." Samuel Gorton had taken his appeal to England against the injustice of the Massachusetts authorities,t who experienced no embarrassment in assum- ing the dual office of accusers and judges. Massachusetts at once sent messengers to the Narragansetts. Canonicus received them sullenly and referred them to Pessacus, whose answers "were witty and full to the questions." Pessacus very plainly told the messengers that he intended to go to war with Uncas, "but not after the manner that Miantonomah did with a great army, but by sending out small parties to catch his men, and prevent them getting a livelihood." The Indians excelled in this type of guerilla warfare. Pessacus was true to his promise, and harassed Uncas so successfully that the commissioners from New England intervened on behalf of the latter, and negotiated a truce until after the next planting time. In 1645 the colonies ordered an army raised, and with this as a threat a treaty was negotiated and concluded on August 27. Under the terms of this treaty both Narragansetts and Mohi- cans made mutual reparations, and both paid indemnities to the English. Subsequently the Narragansetts, and the Niantics, who were also parties to the treaty, claimed misrepresenta- tion and misunderstanding of the treaty's provisions. The collection of indemnities occa- sioned further quarrelling between the Indians and the colonies. Canonicus died on June 4, 1647, and for some time following the almost continuous warfare between the Indians was the work of petty sachems of much less ability than the great sachems of the preceding period. It was internecine and destructive; and the Indian power was disintegrating rapidly.
PURITAN MEDDLING-Rhode Island and Plymouth had been vastly more successful in dealing with the Indians than had the aggressive Puritans of Massachusetts Bay. Neither of the former had committed a blunder so egregious as the unprovoked attack by Endicott which had precipitated the Pequot War; both remained at peace with the sachems and their fol- lowers. Even Connecticut and New Haven found ways of dealing with the wily and always treacherous Uncas that tended to maintain peace between them and him. To a considerable extent the prolonged conflict between the Narragansett Indians and Massachusetts was due
*Chapter V.
+ Chapter V.
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to the Puritans' habit of meddlesome interference and to their unabated greed for land and for the extension of their own power. The prize at stake was the territory of the Narragan- sett Indians, embracing first all of Rhode Island west of Narragansett Bay, but reduced by cession to settlers to Washington County and part of Kent County; and with the land access to the harbors of Narragansett Bay. The policy pursued eventually convinced the Indians of the injustice of the Massachusetts Puritans, and induced the former to submit themselves to the sovereignty and protection of the King of England. The submission was not without effect upon definition of boundaries in the Rhode Island Charter of 1663, which included the Narragansett territory, and also clauses in the Charter that affected the Indians positively and directly. It is fair to assume that so much of the Charter as referred to the Indians was intended by John Clarke to bring to an end the conflict between the Narragansetts and Mas- sachusetts, and thus to restore peace within Rhode Island. Between the people of Rhode Island and the Indians there had been and was no quarrel; the Charter might tend to deter Massachusetts from meddling in Rhode Island. The Charter referred to the Narragansett Indians as "the most potent princes and people of all that country," and recited that the Rhode Island settlers had "by near neighborhood to and friendly society with the great body of the Narragansett Indians given them encouragement of their own accord to subject them- selves, their people and lands, unto us; whereby, as is hoped, there may, in time, by the bless- ing of God upon their endeavors be laid a sure foundation of happiness to all America." It authorized the colony to "direct, rule, order and dispose of all other matters and things, and particularly that which relates to the making of purchases of the native Indians, as to them shall seem meet; whereby our said people and inhabitants in the said plantations may be so religiously, peaceably and civilly governed as that by their good life and orderly conversation they may win and invite the native Indians of the country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Savior of mankind." The Charter conferred ample war powers on the people of Rhode Island, including the power "upon just causes to invade and destroy the native Indians, or other enemies of said colony," with these prohibitions: "Nevertheless, our will and pleasure is, and we do hereby declare to the rest of our colonies in New England, that it shall not be lawful for this our said Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Planta- tions, in America, in New England, to invade the natives inhabiting within the bounds and limits of their said colonies, without the knowledge and consent of said other colonies. And it is hereby declared that it shall not be lawful to or for the rest of the colonies to invade or molest the native Indians or any other inhabitants inhabiting within the bounds and limits (Rhode Island) hereafter mentioned (they having subjected themselves unto us, and being by us taken into our special protection), without the knowledge and consent of the Governor and Company of our Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations." In spite of these very definite restrictions, intended to reduce the Indian problem in Rhode Island to issues between the people of Rhode Island and the Narragansett Indians, the military forces of the united colonies did not hesitate to invade Rhode Island during King Philip's War, for which the stage was being prepared even as the Charter of 1663 was written.
KING PHILIP'S WAR -- Except Uncas the old New England sachems were dead by 1665. Canonicus, who died in 1647, had survived the murder of Miantonomah by only four years. Though Pessacus, brother of Miantonomah, who succeeded the latter immediately, was still alive, Canonchet, Miantonomah's son, was soon to be Chief Sachem of the main body of the Narragansett Indians, and Ninigret was Chief Sachem of the Niantics, a related tribe. Mas- sasoit died in the winter of 1660-1661, leaving two sons, Wamsutta, whom the English called Alexander, and Metacom, who was also named Philip, and better known as King Philip. Tradition records that Metacom and Wamsutta had asked for English names, and were called, respectively, Philip for Philip of Macedonia, and Alexander for Alexander the Great, son of Philip, both of whom died in the fourth century before the Christian era! Wamsutta
.
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died in 1662. His death was attributed to fever by the English; the Indians suspected poison. Because of rumors that he was unfriendly and conducting negotiations with the Narragansetts for an alliance, he had been summoned to Plymouth. Failing to appear promptly, for what appears to have been a good reason, he was seized by a posse and carried to Plymouth forcibly. Falling seriously sick, he was permitted to start for home, and died suddenly on the way. Metacom, or Philip, who succeeded his brother as Sachem, renewed the old treaty made by Massasoit with the Pilgrims more than forty years earlier, and though proud and haughty, remorseful because of the death of his brother, and keenly sensitive to the dangers to his people portended by the increase in the number of white settlers and their rapid preemption of available land, seemed disposed not to be hostile, though openly not so friendly as Massa- soit had been to the first Pilgrims. Nevertheless, stirred by rumors, some of which origi- nated with Uncas, who still was playing his role of disturber, the Plymouth Colony adopted a nagging policy in dealing with Philip, which eventually confirmed him as a conspirator, whether the plan was originally his own or was suggested by the frequent reiteration of it made by his accusers. Philip undertook negotiations with Canonchet and Ninigret and with other sachems, which had for their purpose a confederation of Indian tribes and the project of destroying the white power. In the Pequot War the Indians had fought with their own primitive weapons against the firearms of the settlers; in King Philip's War many of the Indians had muskets, and as marksmen rivalled, if they did not surpass, the colonists. The war opened in 1675, somewhat in advance of the completion of Philip's plans, and under cir- cumstances that make reasonably doubtful the actual accomplishment of a league between the Wampanoags and the Narragansetts. So far as the former were concerned hostilities were opened in the Plymouth Colony by the Indians; so far as the latter were concerned the initiative was taken by Massachusetts in an assault upon the Indians. Canonchet was forced to choose between abject submission and a desperate conflict for the preservation of his peo- ple. The noble Indian, last sachem of the Narragansetts, chose the latter.
A punitive expedition which invaded the Wampanoag country almost immediately after the opening attacks by Indians failed of its principal objectives-the capture of Philip and the suppression of the Indians. Both escaped, and a military movement, which, if executed skilfully and with promptness, vigor and thoroughness, might have ended the insurrection almost in the borning, broke down completely for want of coordination. As it was, the expe- dition, on failure to find the main body of Wampanoags, who had withdrawn from Mount Hope to the neighborhood of Tiverton and Fall River, retired after having done little more than make a gesture. Philip escaped and made his way to other Indians north and west, gradually extending the war, which soon was raging throughout much of New England. Through August, September and October of 1675 western Massachusetts was the seat of warfare, Brookfield, Hatfield, Hadley, Dudley, Northfield, and Springfield suffering. The Indians in the valley of the Connecticut River joined Philip; Uncas held the Mohicans steadily on the side of the colonies. In the winter of 1675 many of the Indians, discouraged by the strength of the Connecticut forces, withdrew and were received by the Narragansetts. Among these were young braves of the Narragansett tribe, some of whom returned home from the front wounded.
Uncas at the very beginning of the war, anxious as he always had been to cast suspicion on his ancient enemies, alleged that the Wampanoag braves had sent their squaws and chil- dren to the Rhode Island Indians. News of Philip's conspiracy had been revealed by renegade Indians before the outbreak. While little of preparation to avert it or meet it was made in Plymouth, commissioners were sent to the Narragansett Indians in June, 1675, who were joined by Roger Williams on half an hour's notice as they passed through Providence. The commissioners were received courteously by Pessacus, Canonchet and Ninigret, and departed with what they thought were promises of neutrality. Roger Williams believed otherwise and
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warned the Massachusetts authorities that the friendly answers of the Indians were "words of falsehood and treachery." When the outbreak in Plymouth occurred, renewing its former policy of interference, Massachusetts committed exactly the blunder that would drive the Narragansetts into the war as allies of Philip. Troops were sent into Rhode Island, in viola- tion of the Charter and without the consent of the Governor and Company, with instructions to "go make peace with a sword in their hands." One detachment proceeded overland, through Providence, while another, which was joined by Roger Williams, sailed to Wickford. Connecticut troops and a contingent of Mohicans moved from the west. The Narragansett villages were found deserted, the Indians having withdrawn into the swamps. At Pettaquam- scott, in South Kingstown, on July 15, 1675, four aged Indians were compelled, "as coun- selors and attorneys to Canonicus, Ninigret and Pomham," to sign a treaty on behalf of the tribe of Narragansetts, binding the latter to hostility to the Wampanoags and to deliver up the latter, alive or dead. The treaty promised a bounty for every Wampanoag surrendered. Roger Williams warned the Massachusetts magistrates of the futility of this procedure. It aroused bitter resentment among the Narragansetts, who did not, of course, deliver up the Wampanoags and other fugitive Indians who reached their villages. Not even Roger Wil- liams, had he been so disposed, could persuade the Rhode Island Indians otherwise. To a request for the surrender of the fugitives Canonchet answered: "Not a Wampanoag, nor the paring of a Wampanoag's nail, shall be delivered up." The united colonies began prepara- tions in November of 1675 to send an army to attack the Narragansetts in winter quarters, thus to prevent the anticipated union with Philip in the spring of 1676. The colony of Rhode Island thus far had taken no part in the war; it was at peace with the Indians. As earlier in the year, no notice of the prohibition in the Charter was taken by Massachusetts.
The expedition into Rhode Island was undertaken jointly by Connecticut, Massachu- setts and Plymouth, each of which furnished a quota to make the 1000 soldiers called for by the united colonies. The Massachusetts contingent assembled at Dedham, marched to and spent one night at Attleboro, and proceeded to Seekonk (now East Providence). At See- konk the party divided, one division sailing to Wickford, the other marching overland with the Plymouth contingent through Providence and Warwick. Volunteer recruits from Rhode Island towns joined the expedition. The Connecticut troops and 150 Mohicans and Pequots marched eastward over Indian trails to Pettaquamscott, only to find the buildings burned and the inhabitants butchered. On December 18, the army was completely assembled, and spent the night under the stars near Pettaquamscott. At dawn on the morning of Sunday, Decem- ber 19, the march for the Indian fort, located in the great swamp southwest of what is now the village of West Kingston, was undertaken, and, guided by renegade Indians, continued until one o'clock in the afternoon. The Indians occupied an island in the swamp which was admirably fortified after the Indian fashion with palisades, supplemented by impenetrable abattis, and logs and stones used as breastworks. Except when the swamp was frozen in winter the single approach was by a tree trunk over water, and this narrow passageway was enfiladed by a blockhouse. Precautions against winter attack had been taken, and the first assaults of the colonists were repulsed with losses. Eventually an unfinished place in the stockade was found, and stormed in the face of murderous fire from the Indians. The fight- ing was fierce, and the losses by both colonists and Indians were heavy. While the issue of battle hung in the balance, the Indian wigwams caught fire or were set on fire by the colonists, as had been the wigwams in the finish fight with the Pequots near the Mystic River nearly forty years previously. Then followed a massacre of Indians, men, women and children indiscriminately roasting to death in the flames or rushing to death at the hands of the sol- diers. The battle continued through the afternoon of the short winter day, and was ended by the light of the burning wigwams. A remnant of the Narragansetts, including Canonchet, broke through the lines and escaped into the woods, from which they still fired on the colonists.
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The colonists were in a precarious position. They had marched steadily from day- break, and had entered the battle without food. They were eighteen miles from their base of supplies. Six captains and more than twenty soldiers were dead, and 150 wounded men must be cared for. To the intensity of cold was added a howling December snowstorm, as the march back to communications was undertaken on the advice of those who feared the consequences should the Indians rally and attack in the morning. Twenty-two of the wounded died during the retreat to Wickford, which was reached at two o'clock the next morning. The list of dead from wounds or exposure was increased during the days that followed. The estimates of Indian losses vary from 14,000 down to "forty fighting men, one sachem, and 300 old men, women and children, burned in the wigwams." The Narragansetts were stunned for the moment, but not beaten. Their provisions for the winter had been destroyed in large part in the fire, but the fighting braves were soon reorganized and active in obtaining other provisions in Indian camps or by raiding farmers' barns.
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