Metacomet

Philip, King of Mount Hope, 1772, by Paul Revere. Revere designed this pygmy like image to make King Philip look repulsive.^[1]

Metacomet (c. 1639-August 12, 1676), also known as King Philip or Metacom, was a war chief or sachem of the Wampanoag Indians and their leader in King Philip's War.

Biography

Metacomet was the 2nd son of Massasoit. He became a chief in 1662 when his brother Wamsutta (or King Alexander) died.

Wamsutta's widow Weetamoo (d. 1676), sachem of the Pocassets, was his ally and friend for the rest of her life. Metacom married Weetamoo's younger sister Wootonekanuske.

At first he sought to live in harmony with the colonists. As a sachem, he took the lead in much of his tribes' trade with the colonies. He adopted the European name of Philip, and bought his clothes in Boston, Massachusetts.

But the colonies continued to expand. To the west, the Iroquois Confederation continued expanding, pushing hostile tribes east, thereby encroaching on his territory.

Finally, in 1671 the colonial leaders of the Plymouth Colony forced major concessions from him. He surrendered much of his tribe's armament and ammunition, and agreed that they were subject to English law. The encroachment continued until actual hostilities broke out in 1675.

King Philip's War

The site of King Philip's death in Miery Swamp on Mount Hope

"King Philip's Seat," a meeting place on Mount Hope, Rhode Island

Main article: King Philip's War

Metacomet hurried to catch up with his warriors, to lead them in the uprising that would later bear his name. Mary Rowlandson, who was taken captive during a raid on Lancaster, Massachusetts, wrote about a meeting with Metacomet during her captivity.

When the war eventually turned against him, he took refuge in the great Assowamset Swamp in southern Rhode Island. Here he held out for a time, with his family and remaining followers.

Hunted by a group of rangers led by Captain Benjamin Church, he was fatally shot by Praying Indian John Alderman, on August 12, 1676, on Mount Hope in Bristol, Rhode Island. After his death, his wife and eight-year-old son were captured and sold as slaves in Bermuda, while his head was mounted on a pike at the entrance to Fort Plymouth where it remained for over two decades. His body was cut into quarters and hung in trees. Alderman was given one of the hands as a reward.

In fiction

In the short story The Devil and Daniel Webster Metacom is fictionally shown to have been killed by a blow to the head (he was actually shot in the heart) and is portrayed as a villain to the United States. Metacom appears in The Scarlet Letter.

Legacy

• Metacomet Mill in Fall River, Massachusetts, built in 1847 is currently the oldest remaining textile mill in the city.
• King Philip Mills in Fall River, Massachusetts, built 1871.
• The USS Metacomet, an 1863 United States Navy ship.
• The Metacomet Ridge, a 100-mile long mountain range in southern New England.
• The 51 mile Metacomet Trail in central Connecticut.
• The 110 mile Metacomet-Monadnock Trail in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.
• Metacomet Country Club, a golf course designed by Donald Ross.
• King Philip Regional High School in Wrentham, Massachusetts.
• Metacom Avenue, a major road running through Bristol and Warren, Rhode Island, and Metacomet Street in Walpole, Massachusetts.
• King Philip Mountain, a peak on Talcott Mountain, 3 miles west of Hartford, Connecticut
• King Phillip's Cave in Norton, Massachusetts, a cave said to have been used by the chief as a hiding place towards the end of his reign.^[2]
• Phillips Pond and Phillipswood Road in Sandown, New Hampshire.
• Metacomet Park in Medfield, Massachusetts.
• King Philip. From Metacomet. The clipper ship built in 1856 that is periodically seen on Ocean Beach in San Francisco, California. Upon semi-retirement, it was sold as a lumber carrier. Its anchor gave way and the ship drifted into a sand bar on Ocean Beach. As the tide went out, the King Philip settled into the sand where it was left. It is considered the best preserved wooden shipwreck on the West Coast of North America.
• King Philip Middle School in West Hartford, Connecticut.
• Multiple Metacomet street names surrounding the Metacomet Trail in Connecticut.
• King Philip Stockade is named after the chief, and is a section of Forest Park in Springfield, Massachusetts

Footnotes

References

• Bourne, Russel, The Red King's Rebellion, 1990, ISBN 0689120001

External links

• Cape Cod Times article: Native American Reconnection Festival in Bermuda.
• Cape Cod Times article: Finding a link that was never really lost.
• The Royal Gazette article: The struggle to honour Bermuda’s Native American heritage.
• Rootsweb: New England Indians. Bermuda Reconnection Festival 2002 Photo Album.
• Rootsweb: Edward Randolph on the Causes of the King Philip's War (1685).
• Rootsweb: St. David's (Bermuda) Indian Committee.
• Pokanoket/Wampanoag Constitution. With History.
• US History.com: King Philip's War, 1675-76.
• Ireland's Own: Native Blood: The Myth of Thanksgiving.

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