King Philip's War Cause And Effect

King Philip’s War, also known as the Great Narragansett War, has been named “America’s most devastating conflict,” and “was a violent and bloody battle between the Wampanoag and English colonists” (Messina). “King Philp’s War settled who controlled Southern New England, and cleared the way for colonial expansion. It also set the tone for future relations between the Native American people and the United States” (“Metacom’s (King Philip’s) War). On January 29, 1695, John Sassamon, a Christian “praying” Indian who had been acting as an informer to the British, died at Assawampsett Lake. Although Sassamon’s exact cause of death is unknown, most likely, Sassamon was murdered by three members of King Philip’s tribe, under the orders of King Philip

himself.
Metacom was the sachem/chief of a Wampanoag band, and was the son of the great Indian leader Massasoit. In 1521, Massasoit greeted and aided the first colonists of New England at Plymouth. At an early age, English colonists gave Metacom the nickname of “King Philip” due to his arrogant behaviors, such that would normally be held by a king. After the death of Philip’s father Massasoit, relations between English settlers and Native Americans began to decrease. For example, after this time, land disputes increased, and Native Americans began to resent living under colonial laws. As a result of this, the English believed that Philip was the head of a unified Native American uprising. “Suspicious of Philip, the English colonists in 1671 questioned and fined him and demanded that the Wampanoag surrender their arms, which they did” (1675 – King Philip’s War).
Although the underlying cause of the war was the colonists’ desire for more land, the immediate cause was the trial and execution of three Native Americans in Philip’s tribe held by the colonists. In the June of 1675, three Wampanoag tribe members were brought to Plymouth to stand trial for the Murder of John Sassamon. Sassamon was a Christian Indian who had fought alongside the English in the Pequot War, studied at Harvard, and taught at John Eliot’s Indian village at Nemasket, near Middleborough, Massachusetts. In 1660, Sassamon returned to Mount Hope to become a counselor to Alexander (Wamsutta, Massasoit’s oldest son, brother of King Philip, sachem of the Pokanoket tribe), and in 1671 was with Philip at the signing of the Taunton Agreement. John Sassamon was one of the few men who was witness to the events presaging King Philip’s War, and was one of the few men who traveled easily between the Native American and English words (Schultz, 25).
Shortly before the hostilities broke out, Philip had dismissed Sassamon from his service, possibly out of distrust for his ties with the English, or over a disputed land transaction in which Sassamon had tried to deceive the sachem.

In January 1675, John Sassamon visited Governor John Winslow at his home in Marshfield, Massachusetts. Sassamon had come with the dismal warning that the Wampanoag had been planning to begin a war against the English colonists. He returned home, but was later found dead under the ice at Assawompsett Pond. At first, Sassamon’s death was deemed accidental, but by June a Christian Indian named Patuckson came forward and testified that he had seen three Wampanoag; Tobias (one of Philip’s counselors), Tobias’ son Wapapaquan, and Mattachunnamo, murder Sassamon. Although Patuckson owed a gambling debt to Tobias, the three were accused, according to Plymouth Colony records, of “laying violent hands on [John Sassamon] … and striking him, or twisting his necke, until hee was dead … [and] did cast his dead body through the hole of thee iyce” (Schultz, 26-27).
Schultz states that, “the accusations against these three men soon led to one of colonial America’s most infamous courtroom dramas” (27). Both Indians and English colonists sat upon the jury for the duration of this trial, with there being a jury of twelve Englishmen, supplemented by an auxiliary jury of perhaps four Indians. To this day, it is unknown how the deliberations worked but, is it clear the verdict was unanimous among white and Indian

representatives.
On the eighth of June, with ropes around their necks, the three Wampanoag “successively turned off the ladder at the gallows. (Schultz, 29) Tobias and Mattachunnamo died instantly, but Wapapaquan happened to “break or flip the rope,” hitting the ground to the amazement of many. At that point he was questioned again, and seeing no way to further harm his already dead father, undoubtedly felt he might save his own life by delivering the blame Puritan authorities so anxiously sought. Wapapaquan then enjoyed a month’s reprieve, after pointing the finger at Tobias and Mattachunnamo. However, his fate had been sealed, and he was shot dead.
To Philip and his people, along with many English, this trial was a miscarriage of justice and was proof that maintaining an amicable, respectful relationship between the natives and the English was impossible.
“Sassamon’s murder ignited the flame of tensions between Indians and whites that had been smoldering for 55 years over competing land claims (including disputes over the grazing of colonial livestock on hunting and fishing grounds), interracial insensitivities, and English cultural encroachment on Native America” (King Philp’s War | British- Native American Conflict).

Although King Philip did not psychically murder Sassamon, he most likely provoked his men to do so, as a result of Sassamon had been telling the English about Philip’s plan to attack the colonists. Although one may argue that Sassamon was murdered by the three members of the Wampanoag tribe, at their own choosing, there is far more evidence supporting the idea that King Philip himself wanted Sassamon dead. There was obviously a large amount of resentment between the two groups, which later resulted in the death of Sassamon, the death of Philip’s three men, and later, the death of about 3,000 Native Americans, including Philip himself.