Between June 1675 and August 1676, the fourteen months of the conflict now colloquially known as King Philip’s War, an estimated 10% of English settlers and 50% or more of the Indigenous population of Southern New England were killed. (1) As depicted in the many posts between June 2025 and August 2026 on this account, these fourteen months remain one of the bloodiest periods of American history. With thousands taken captive or killed and more than half of the English colonial settlements destroyed (and easily as many Indigenous villages disturbed or abandoned), King Philip’s War was more than bloody - it was utter devastation. While much of history limits the effect of this war to the months of active fighting, it was so much more than a dispute over land ownership and usage rights. Author Jill Lepore said it best: “In a sense, King Philip’s War never ended. In other times, in other places, its painful wounds would be reopened, its vicious words spoken again.” (2) More than any other war since, foreign or domestic, King Philip’s War profoundly reshaped the landscape and culture of two civilizations and led us towards the nation we are today.
Despite popular belief, the war did not immediately end with the execution of Metacom on August 12, 1676. Instead, the violence continued through the month of September 1676, if not longer. Historical records indicate that, after Metacom’s death, there continued to be a number of engagements instigated by both the English and Indigenous peoples, which led to additional deaths in both populations. Attacks were made against trading posts and Indigenous encampments spreading from Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth to what is now Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. (3) The war itself did not officially conclude until August 12, 1678 - two years later - when Governor Edmund Andros, then the colonial governor of the Dominion of New England, negotiated the Treaty of Casco. (4)
In the time between Metacom’s execution and the Treaty of Casco, a multitude of events - in addition to the continued attacks and raids - kept open hostilities alive. Among these were the capture and execution of many of Metacom’s allies and other Indigenous men of power. On August 13, 1676, the Narragansett sachem Quinnapin and his brother, Sunkeejunasuc, were captured and taken to Rhode Island. Two weeks later, on August 25, the brothers were executed in Newport. On September 6, Metacom’s brother-in-law Tispaquin surrendered to Benjamin Church after many of his followers had been captured the day before at Sippican (modern Marion, Massachusetts). Despite promises made by Benjamin Church to the contrary, Tispaquin was executed, and his wife and son were sold into slavery. On September 26, Monaco and Sagamore Sam - amongst other leaders - were executed via hanging on the Boston Common.
On August 17, amidst these executions, Plymouth observed a Day of Thanksgiving by hosting a parade, fast, and day of prayer. This event was a celebration of victory as opposed to the day of unity depicted in the First Thanksgiving and, during the parade, colonists walked through the village with Metacom’s head on a pike as a symbol of their victory.
In addition to the capture and execution of Indigenous war leaders, the months following the technical end of the war in 1676 were full of the continued capture and sale of Indigenous men, women, and children into slavery and indentured servitude. As described in previous posts, those sold in the Caribbean - largely the West Indies and Barbados - include the family of Tispaquin and Metacom, as well as hundreds, if not thousands, of others. In September 1676 alone, a reputed several hundred people were sold into slavery or executed as suspected allies. So many were sold that in 1676, Barbados placed a ban on the further import of Indigenous captives from King Philip’s War. (5)
One event, “Walderne’s Deception” [sic], reveals the extent of the effort to capture and sell Indigenous individuals that occurred in the wake of the war. Engaging with a number of local Indigenous people seeking peace, among them the Penacook, Major Richard Waldron orchestrated the seizure of an estimated 400 Indigenous people by members of the English military. Of the 400, half were sent to Boston where they were either killed or sold into slavery. (6) The capture and enslavement of Indigenous people in Southern New England as an immediate result of King Philip’s War continued through December 1676.
In a recent talk that she gave on Quakers and King Philip’s War, historian Elizabeth Cazden stated that “The best way to get an approximation [of the truth] is to read multiple accounts and piece them together.” (7) When addressing a history such as that of King Philip’s War (the First Indian War, Metacom’s War, Metacom’s Resistance), it is crucial to understand that there has been and always will be multiple perspectives and experiences. Historically, these perspectives and experiences, as recorded, have prioritized the voices of the victors of the war - the English. With this in mind, the preceding posts represent only a fraction of the history, pieced together from multiple accounts but nowhere near the complete truth. Bearing in mind that 350 years has passed since the war and given the historical absence of the Indigenous voice and experience, it is unlikely that there will ever be a 100% published truth. Yet, history is ever evolving, growing and changing with the introduction of new sources, analyzes, and interpretations. One can only hope that as it evolves, the history of King Philip’s War/Metacom’s Resistance becomes more inclusive and, as such, more truthful.
These statistics are conservative and are the ones most often cited. However, there is no way to know the exact number of individuals taken captive or killed over the course of King Philip’s War and during its immediate aftermath.
Jill Lepore, The Name of War: King Philip’s War and the Origins of American Identity, xii.
On August 13, 1676, the day after Metacom’s execution, there was an attack on Richard Hammond’s trading post in Woolwich, Maine. On the 14th, unidentified Indigenous warriors attacked and destroyed an English fort at the Clark and Lake Trading Post in Arrowsic, Maine; on the 15th, at Great Barrington, MA, thirty-five Indigenous people were massacred and a number of others taken captive. On August 22, Captain Jeremiah Swain and his soldiers marched on Deerfield and other surrounding Indigenous villages, destroying crops. In Maine in September 1676, there were multiple disputes on Munjoy’s Island over sheep, resulting in the death of seven Englishmen. These are only a few of the continued engagements, most of which spread further north into modern Maine.
According to Maine History Online, the website of the Maine Historical Society, the Treaty of Casco Bay meant that the “Abenaki recognized English property rights but retained sovereignty over Maine, as symbolized by an annual land use tax for every English family. The treaty also stipulated closer government regulation of the fur trade.” It did not take long for the English to renege, refusing to abide by the terms of the agreement. This tax has been described as consisting of a “one peck of corn” per English family that was owed to the Abenaki. David W. Miller, The Forced Removal of American Indians from the Northeast: A History of Territorial Cessions and Relocations, 1620-1854, 31.
For more on this event, see Linford D. Fisher, “Dangerous Designes”: The 1676 Barbados Act to Prohibit New England Indian Slave Importation.” The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 71, no. 1 (January 2014): 99–124.
Among those captured by Waldron were Monoco, Muttawmp, Matoonas, and Tantamous.
Elizabeth Cazden, “Quakers in the History of King Philip’s War.” Rogers Free Library, Bristol, RI. April 23, 2025, https://sowamsearlyhistory.org/2025/04/30/quakers-in-the-history-of-king-philips-war-with-elizabeth-cazden/
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