Essay On The Pequot War

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THE PEQUOT WAR RECONSIDERED The English settlers of Connecticut and the Pequots fought what is now known as the Pequot Wars. One of the two commanders for the Englishmen was Captain John Underhill. After the war, he soon published his account of the hostilities between the Pequots and the English settlers, titled News from America. Another account of the war is made by William Bradford, a colonial leader of Plymouth, and can be found in History of Plymouth Plantation. One of the issues often discussed of the Pequot War is the level of violence that the English used against the Pequots, especially in the attack against their village, led by Captain Underhill and Captain John Mason. While both Underhill and Bradford describe the events similarly, Bradford fails to raise or answer the question of violence against the Pequots, while Captain Underhill raises the issue and attempts to answer to the charge. The Pequot War was fought in 1637. It involved the Pequot …show more content…

In what was the first serious armed conflict between indigenous people and settlers in New England, the powerful Pequot tribe that occupied and controlled the Connecticut Valley was "blotted out from under heaven", in the words of one Puritan. By the time the Davenport and Whitfield congregations settled New Haven and Guilford, there was no threat of Indian resistance. Success of the planters, like all of the settlers of The Great Migration, depended on the cooperation or acquiescence of the Indians. The events leading up to the war are recounted here. In 1632, the Dutch expanded their fur trade from the Hudson Valley into Connecticut Valley by establishing a fort, the House of Hope, near the site of present-day Hartford on the Connecticut River. The Dutch East India Company's agent, Jacob Van Cutler, purchased the land from the Pequots who, along with their tributaries, the Western Niantics, controlled the

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