In 1675, the Wampanoag chief Metacom (known as Philip), rejected the alliance that his father Massasoit had forged with the New England colonists. Wampanoag and Narragansett raiding parties attacked villages throughout New England, and Governor Josiah Winslow marshaled 1,000 men, one of the largest colonial armies seen up to that time, to fight back. Tensions rose to a fever pitch, and in less than a year nearly half the towns in New England had been attacked, with over a dozen towns destroyed. Plymouth and Rhode Island's economies were in free-fall, and the Wampanoags and Narragansetts were all but wiped out. Hundreds lost their lives, and the war is widely considered one of the deadliest in Colonial history.
What did this war mean for American identity? And why is it almost forgotten today?
On April 13th the National Association of Scholars hosted this webinar discussion on the significance of King Philip's War in New England and in the later fight for American independence.
This webinar features Lt. Col. Jason Warren, a cybersecurity, defense, and information consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton’s defense business; Prof. Philip Ranlet, Associate Professor of History at Hunter College. He is also the author of The New York Loyalists and Enemies of the Bay Colony; and Mr. Michael Tougias, a New York Times Bestselling author and author of The Finest Hours, Ten Hours Until Dawn, and Fatal Forecast. The discussion was moderated by David Randall, Research Director at the National Association of Scholars.
