The Lancaster Raid was the first in a series of five planned raids on English colonial towns during the winter of 1675-1676 as part of King Philip's War. Metacom, known by English colonists as King Philip, was a Wampanoag sachem who led and organized Wampanoag warriors during the war. Teaming up with Nipmuc and Narragansett warriors, the Wampanoag successfully raided the town of Lancaster, securing provisions and prisoners to help them carry on into their winter offensive. [1]
The Lancaster Raid was preceded by several years of mounting tension between English colonists in Lancaster and their Native American neighbors, particularly those in Nashaway. [1] This tension stemmed from the decline in the fur trade due to overhunting, the dramatic decrease in the native population and social disruption due to European endemic diseases, and the competition for resources as English livestock invaded Indian lands. In 1675, the Wampanoag sachem Metacom cited his grievances as, "English cheating, discrimination, and pressures to sell land, submit to Plymouth colony's authority, convert to Christianity, and consume alcohol". [2] To relieve tensions and ensure loyalty, Daniel Gookin, the superintendent of Christian Indians, traveled to Nipmuc villages to establish praying towns and convert the inhabitants to Christianity. However, the Nipmuc in Nashaway, unlike in many other towns, did not agree to become a praying town due to their intense distrust of the English and their missionaries. [1]
Tensions continued to escalate until August 1675, when the Nipmuc from Nashaway staged an attack on Lancaster colonists, led by their sachem Monoco. Seven inhabitants of Lancaster died during the attack. For better defense, Lancaster built several garrison houses, large structures in which many colonists would gather during times of military strife, protected by fourteen stationed soldiers. After this, the war continued to spread westward, with the varied Indians staging many attacks on different English towns. [1]
The Lancaster Raid, commonly represented as a surprise attack, was not entirely a surprise. In December 1675, Daniel Gookin and the other leaders of the Massachusetts Council recruited two Christian Nipmuc men, James Quannapohit and Job Kattenanit, to act as spies. [1] They were sent to gather information about other groups of Native Americans' loyalties and plans of attack against the English settlements. Traveling with the Nipmuc, the spies discovered that both the Narragansett and Nipmuc were planning to join Metacom's Wampanoag warriors to "burn and destroy the other frontier towns". The spies, Quannapohit and Kattenanit, were eventually found out and threatened by Metacom, so they fled. They split up, with Quannapohit the first to return to Cambridge on January 24, 1676, reporting to Gookin that the Nipmuc were planning an attack on Lancaster.
Despite Quannapohit's warning, the leaders of the Massachusetts Council did not take the threat seriously, and did little to prepare Lancaster for attack. [1] They likely did not trust Quannapohit's warning or had larger threats to consider at the time. Several men from Lancaster took the threat more seriously, and traveled to Boston to try to recruit more troops for Lancaster, but to no avail.
On February 9, Kattenanit reached Cambridge and also warned the Council of the threat, saying it was planned for the following day. Kattenanit reported that an attacking group of four hundred warriors had set out for Lancaster. By then, the Massachusetts Council ordered garrisons from other towns to aid Lancaster. But only Marlborough received word by the next morning, and their forces were unable to reach Lancaster until after the Indians had raided and set the town on fire.
The Lancaster Raid took place on February 10, 1676. [1] The Native American forces numbered 400, made up of Narragansett, Nipmuc, and Wampanoag warriors. As in the August 1675 attack, Monoco (Nipmuc at Nashaway), known as "One-Eyed John" by the English, led the raid. After they reached the town, the Indian forces burned the entry bridge, preventing access by outside English reinforcements could not easily enter. Once in town, they used torches to light houses on fire, including the garrisoned house of the village minister, Joseph Rowlandson. He had been one of the men who traveled to Boston seeking reinforcements, and had not yet returned. Most of the soldiers in the garrison survived the fire and were taken as prisoners. A few soldiers died in the fire, among at least fourteen Lancaster inhabitants lost. Twenty-three persons were taken captive, including women and children. [2] The arrival of Marlborough troops forced the Indians to withdraw with their new captives.
After the raid, the medicine man, Tantamous (Old Jethro), and ten other Nipmuc were falsely accused of the killings, allegedly due to their "singing, dancing, and having much powder and many bullets and slugs hid in their baskets." They were acquitted after the role of the sachem Monoco was discovered. In addition, Peter Jethro, Tantamous's son, aided the settlers by communicating with the captors of Mary Rowlandson to obtain her release. [3] [4]
Mary Rowlandson, the village minister's wife, survived the fire along with three of her children, one of whom shortly died. She was held as a prisoner for nearly three months, separately from her children, and was forced to travel with the raiding bands. [5]
After her release, she wrote a memoir of this period that was published in 1682. It is considered one of the genre of captivity narratives. She described herself as a servant to Quinnapin, a Narragansett sachem. Historians believe she likely was an adopted member of the household with an ambiguous status, and expected to work. [2] Although required to perform seamstress work and other chores, Mary was treated relatively kindly by Quinnapin and Metacom, likely because of her high status among colonial society and her high political and economic value as a hostage. [2]
She complained chiefly of abuse by Quinnapin's wife, Weetamoo, who demanded Mary's subservience. [5] Eventually many of the captives were ransomed and returned home, such as Rowlandson, Mrs. John Kettell, and others. [6]
The town of Lancaster was devastated after the raid. In addition to having buildings destroyed, the townspeople had lost their food stores to the raiders, in the middle of winter. They were vulnerable to another attack and dependent on receiving food supplies. [1] Many survivors left town by way of carts sent by the General Court in March 1676, and the town was mostly abandoned. [1]
1676 (MDCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar, the 1676th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 676th year of the 2nd millennium, the 76th year of the 17th century, and the 7th year of the 1670s decade. As of the start of 1676, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
Metacomet, also known as Pometacom, Metacom, and by his adopted English name King Philip, was sachem to the Wampanoag people and the second son of the sachem Massasoit. Metacom became sachem in 1662 when his brother Wamsutta died shortly after the death of their father. Wamsutta's widow Weetamoo, sachem of the Pocasset, was Metacom's ally and friend for the rest of his life. Metacom married Weetamoo's younger sister Wootonekanuske. It is unclear how many children they had or what happened to them. Wootonekanuske and one of their sons were sold to slavery in the West Indies following the defeat of the Native Americans in what became known as King Philip's War.
King Philip's War was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between New England Indian tribes and New England colonists and their Indian allies. The war is named for Metacom, the Wampanoag chief who adopted the name Philip because of the friendly relations between his father Massasoit and the Mayflower Pilgrims. The war continued in the most northern reaches of New England until the signing of the Treaty of Casco Bay on April 12, 1678.
The Wampanoag, also rendered Wôpanâak, are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands based in southeastern Massachusetts and parts of eastern Rhode Island. Their territory includes the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
Mary Rowlandson, née White, later Mary Talcott, was a colonial American woman who was captured by Native Americans in 1676 during King Philip's War and held for 11 weeks before being ransomed. In 1682, six years after her ordeal, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson was published. This text is considered a formative American work in the literary genre of captivity narratives. It went through four printings in 1682 and garnered readership both in the New England colonies and in England, leading some to consider it the first American "bestseller".
Massasoit Sachem or Ousamequin was the sachem or leader of the Wampanoag confederacy. Massasoit means Great Sachem. Massasoit was not his name but a title. English colonists mistook Massasoit as his name and it stuck.
The Massachusett were a Native American tribe from the region in and around present-day Greater Boston in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name comes from the Massachusett language term for "At the Great Hill," referring to the Blue Hills overlooking Boston Harbor from the south.
Monoco was a 17th-century Nashaway sachem (chief), known among the New England Puritans as One-eyed John.
Weetamoo, also referred to as Weethao, Weetamoe, Wattimore, Namumpum, and Tatapanunum, was a Pocasset Wampanoag Native American Chief. She was the sunksqua, or female sachem, of Pocasset tribe, which occupied contemporary Tiverton, Rhode Island in 1620.
The Great Swamp Conflict was one of the most consequential episodes of what has come to be known as King Philip's War. The war pitted Indigenous communities throughout New England against the United Colonies of New England and their Native allies. On 19 December 1675, the United Colonies attacked a Narragansett stronghold located in a large swamp in what is now known as South Kingstown, Rhode Island. The clash at the Great Swamp was described as "one of the most brutal and lopsided military encounters in all of New England's history." Because Indigenous peoples throughout the Dawnland used swamps as areas of refuge during times of war, it is believed that many of the Narragansetts killed during the attack were non-combatants.
The Nashaway were a tribe of Algonquian Indians inhabiting the upstream portions of the Nashua River valley in what is now the northern half of Worcester County, Massachusetts, mainly in the vicinity of Sterling, Lancaster and other towns near Mount Wachusett, as well as southern New Hampshire. The meaning of Nashaway is "river with a pebbled bottom".
Wheeler's Surprise, and the ensuing Siege of Brookfield, was a battle between Nipmuc Indians under Muttawmp, and the English colonists of the Massachusetts Bay Colony under the command of Thomas Wheeler and Captain Edward Hutchinson, in August 1675 during King Philip's War. The battle consisted of an initial ambush by the Nipmucs on Wheeler's unsuspecting party, followed by an attack on Brookfield, Massachusetts, and the consequent besieging of the remains of the colonial force. While the place where the siege part of the battle took place has always been known, the location of the initial ambush was a subject of extensive controversy among historians in the late nineteenth century.
Muttawmp was a sachem of the Nipmuc Indians in the mid-17th century, originally based in Quaboag. He participated in King Philip's War, taking part in most of the major engagements as one of the most important chiefs who fought for Metacomet.
Matoonas was a sachem of the Nipmuc Indians in the middle of 17th century. He played a significant role in the Native American uprising known as King Philip's War.
The Battle of Bloody Brook was fought on September 28, 1675 between an indigenous war party primarily composed of Pocumtuc warriors and other local indigenous people from the central Connecticut River valley, and the English colonial militia of the New England Confederation and their Mohegan allies during King Philip's War.
The Sudbury Fight was a battle of King Philip's War, fought in what is today Sudbury and Wayland, Massachusetts, when approximately five hundred Wampanoag, Nipmuc, and Narragansett Native Americans raided the frontier settlement of Sudbury in Massachusetts Bay Colony. Disparate companies of English militiamen from nearby settlements marched to the town's defense, two of which were drawn into Native ambushes and suffered heavy losses. The battle was the last major Native American victory in King Philip's War before their final defeat in southern New England in August 1676.
Tantamous was a well-known Native American Nipmuc leader in seventeenth century Massachusetts. Tantamous was a powwow who lived near the Assabet River, later in Nobscot. Tantamous "...may have gotten his English name for his good advice."
Peter Jethro was an early Native American (Nipmuc) scribe, translator, minister, land proprietor, and Praying Indian affiliated for a period with John Eliot in the praying town of Natick, Massachusetts.
Quaiapen was a Narragansett-Niantic female sachem (saunkskwa) who was the last sachem captured or killed during King Philip’s War.
Quinnapin was a Narragansett leader during King Philip's War.