The Role Of Conflict In King Philip's War

King Philip's war was the most destructive conflict in American history, compared to the sizes of the populations involved. The New England colonists lost five percent of their population, while the Native Americans lost nearly forty percent of their populations. The war was the culmination of the tensions that had been building between the Native Americans and the English settlers since their first encounters during the establishment of Plymouth Plantation. The Natives were losing their traditional ways of life, and were becoming more and more dependent on English goods. They were constrained by the land deals that they had made, and were running out of land and resources. The conflict was ignited by the deaths of two prominent Natives at

the hands of the English. In the end, King Philip's War was caused by the underlying tensions between the colonists and natives, the pressure caused by increasing colonial land usage, and the deaths of Wamsutta and John Sassamon.
The tensions between the Natives and the settlers were often based on cultural or religious differences. These tensions set the long-term foundation for King Philip's War. One of the main goals of the English settlers was to convert the Natives to Christianity, which conflicted with the goals of the sachems. Namely, to maintain their power in the face of the growing English power. Mayflower describes Christianity as "a tremendously destabilizing influence," one that threatened the ability of sachems to maintain their prestige and control over their people and lands. As the English founded Praying Towns in places like Martha's Vineyard, they took subjects away from the sachems. Without subjects to pay tribute, the sachems had no way to maintain their status or power. The English influence over the Natives extended beyond spiritual matters. The Natives became increasingly dependent on English goods. In 1913, a mining operation in Rhode island found a Native burial site, dated to the middle of the seventeenth century. Many of the items in the graves were English-made, like muskets, kettles, or combs. Many of the Natives felt that English items contained a great spiritual force known as "manit." The Native dependence on English goods gave the English the advantage in any negotiations. The pressure on Native culture laid the ground for King Philip's War. With their power under attack from Christianity, it makes sense that Native sachems would see war against the English as the best way to reclaim their former status. Negotiation had proved to be a poor option, as the English had refused to accept Massasoit's wish that English missionaries would stop converting the Natives to Christianity. The Native dependence on English goods also hurt the possibility of negotiation, as the English had much more to bargain with.
What negotiation with the English had done was lead the Natives into a series of land deals where they gave more and more of their land away to the English.

The English had the goods that the Natives desired, but after the fur trade died down due to over-hunting, all the Natives had left to trade was their land. At first, the Natives sold their land without a full understanding of how the English viewed land ownership, due to their cultural differences. But as the English began buying more land and settling it, the English definition of land ownership became very clear. Despite this, the Natives, especially Massasoit, continued to sell their lands for very low prices. For example he sold lands near the Pokanoket village of Sowams for a mere 35 pounds in 1651. The sale of most of the Native land for such low prices put a strain on the Natives, who were watching their ancestral land be torn apart. As the English population increased, they acquired and settled more lands. By 1675, the English population in New England had reached fifty thousand, and the sale of Native land increased accordingly. In the ten years between 1665 and the outbreak of war in 1675, there were sixty-seven deeds registered for the sale of Native land. In addition, the English used less ethical methods to obtain the land. Josiah Winslow, who would become governor of Plymouth in 1673, used mortgaged Native land to effectively force the Natives off their land, whether they wanted to sell it or not. The

reduction of Native territory led to competition for resources, as approximately 20% of the land was farmable.
In the end, the spark that would ignite King Philips' war would be the deaths of several specific Natives, and Philip's poor treatment at the hands of the English.

First, the death of Alexander, King Philip's brother, in 1662. He was forced to go to Plymouth by Josiah Winslow, to stand before the court there. After spending a night at Winslow's house, Alexander died of a mysterious illness. Many Natives, including Philip, assumed that Alexander had been poisoned by Winslow. This served to reinforce Philip's hatred of the English. Later, in 1671, he met with officials in Plymouth, and was bullied into signing a treaty that would force him to give up all of his weapons, and pay a 100 pound fine.This gave Philip no choice but to prepare for war. In 1675, however, a Native named John Sassamon tried to warn Josiah Winslow of Philip's preparations for war. After he left , he was found dead in a frozen lake, and it was suspected he was murdered. One Native said he had seen three other Natives kill Sassamon. Tobias, and advisor of Philip's, Tobias's son, and a third man. They were all convicted of murder, despite there only being one witness, and English law requiring two. They were all executed, and the travesty of justice enraged the Natives who were gathering for the now inevitable

war.
The war was ignited by the abuse of the Natives at the hands of the English, but the foundation for the war was laid when the English ate up Native land, and when the two very different cultures were pushed together. The English left Philip with no choice but to declare war, if he wanted to maintain his power and rule as sachem. They pressured the Natives into fighting, as they bought more and more land. And their conversion of the Natives was seen by some as an aggressive act that destroyed the Native culture and the power of the Sachems. Like most anything that happens, King Philip's war was not merely caused by a single event. It had a series of long-term factors that fed into it, leading to the brutal war.