Lori Arnold

March 26, 2010

The Causes of King Philip’s War

            I have long been interested in early American history; however, aside from the Pilgrims, I knew little about pre-Revolutionary War history. After reading Mary Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration, I became intrigued by King Philip’s War. I vaguely remember reading about it as a child, but aside from this narrative I was unfamiliar with this war. I was especially curious about the causes surrounding the war. Prior to this war the Wampanoag Indians had very friendly relations with the British settlers in the New England area. What caused this relationship to deteriorate? Why were citizens so heavily involved in this war? What purpose did either side have for fighting this war? These are just a few of the questions that I had following the reading of A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration.

I did some research of history journals through the library databases and most of my resources came from the New England Quarterly. I found this journal to be quite helpful in my research because it is primarily concerned with the history of New England. I consulted three articles from the New England Quarterly and one article from The William and Mary Quarterly. Through evaluating my sources I discovered that historians disagree about the causes of King Philip’s War.

Apparently it is difficult to determine how this war truly started because the underlying motivations of the various actors are unclear. My first source, “Another Look at the Causes of King Philip’s War” by Philip Ranlet, said that the normal hypotheses about the causes of the war are incorrect, and that the underlying motivations on both sides were more complicated than a mere battle over land. The New England leaders and Wampanoag leaders were both concerned with maintaining peaceful relations between the two groups; however, the commoners of the two groups were primarily concerned with their personal interests.

A second source places the blame for this war upon the cultural invasion of the New World by the British colonists. Virginia Anderson, in “King Philip’s Herds: Indians, Colonists, and the Problem of Livestock in Early New England,” explains how the Indians struggled to accept livestock: “Moreover, the Indians, for whom most beasts were literally fair game, struggled with the very notion of property in animals. They assumed that one could own only dead animals, which hunters shared with their families” (p. 606). The British colonists were surprised to discover that the Indians did not keep domesticated animals for food and did not practice animal husbandry. The author goes to great length to explain why the adoption of domesticated animals would destroy the Natives' way of life and would conflict with their religion. This source postulates that land and cattle disputes instigated this war. The differences between the colonists and the Indians caused the Colonial leadership to create many laws regarding hunting and pasturing of domesticated livestock. It was quite challenging for the Indians to maneuver these complicated laws that resulted in many land and cattle disputes that ultimately resulted in King Philip’s War.

 While these sources differ in their opinions regarding the cause of the King Philip’s War, both of these sources agree that the leaders of the two groups differed in their opinions from their followers. Philip was a reluctant leader of the Wampanoag tribe. He trusted the New England leaders; however, he was concerned that the Indians’ way of life was slowly being destroyed.  According to Ranlet: “He realized that the power of the Indians was fast declining, that New England was becoming the domain of the English. If there was to be war, it had to be fought before the odds got worse and while there was still a chance for an Indian victory” (p. 98). My first source postulates that concern for the disintegrating way of life prompted Philip to become involved in fighting the Colonists. The second source seems to support this hypothesis, while not looking beneath the surface to the underlying motivations of both parties.

The New England colonists on the other hand, also differed from their leaders in their plans for the New World. New England leaders attempted to make laws that were just for both the Colonists and the Indians. However, they often struggled to mediate disputes between settlers on the edge of the wilderness and the Indians who hunted on their grounds. According to Morrison “In seventeenth century New England, Indians had access to legal redress of their grievances but the proceedings were seldom fair” (p. 363). While the colonists tried to give the Indians equal access to justice, they were frightened of the Indians encroaching on their territory. This caused the rural colonists to often overlook the laws and justice in favor of protecting their land and cattle.

Although my research for this post ended with the causes of King Philip’s War, there is still much to be learned about this fascinating and unfamiliar war between the Colonists and the Indians. In James Drake’s article, “Restraining Atrocity: The Conduct of King Philip’s War,” he speaks of the struggle to enact justice for the Indians while maintaining control of their lands: “Instead of dismissing the Indians as racially or culturally inferior, Puritans debated the extent to which the ‘laws of nations’ applied to them” (p. 36). Drake’s article addresses the view that the Colonists had of the Indians and how that view affected their treatment of them. The actions of King Philip’s War as they relate to the interactions between the Colonists and the Indians could be a topic of further research for a second post.

Works Cited

Anderson, Virginia DeJohn. “King Philip’s Herds: Indians, Colonists, and the Problem of Livestock in Early New England.” The William and Mary Quarterly Vol. 51.4 (1994): pp. 601-624. Print.

Drake, James. “Restraining Atrocity: The Conduct of King Philip’s War.” The New England Quarterly Vol. 70.1 (1997): pp. 33-56. Print.

Morrison, Kenneth M. “The Bias of Colonial Law: English Paranoia and the Abenaki Arena of King Philip’s War, 1675-1678.” The New England Quarterly Vol. 53.3 (1980): pp. 363-387. Print.

Ranlet, Philip. “Another Look at the Causes of King Philip’s War.” The New England Quarterly Vol. 61.1 (1988): pp. 79-100. Print.