King Philip's War: Colonial Expansion, Native Resistance, and the End of Indian Sovereignty

Witness to History

by Daniel R. Mandell

2010 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine King Philip's War was the most devastating conflict between Europeans and Native Americans in the 1600s. In this incisive account, award-winning author Daniel R. Mandell puts the war into its rich historical context. The war erupted in July 1675, after years of growing tension between Plymouth and the Wampanoag sachem Metacom, also known as Philip. Metacom’s warriors attacked nearby Swansea, and within months the bloody conflict spread west and erupted in Maine. Native forces ambushed militia detachments and burned towns, driving the colonists back toward Boston. But by late spring 1676, the tide had turned: the colonists fought more effectively and enlisted Native allies while from the west the feared Mohawks attacked Metacom’s forces. Thousands of Natives starved, fled the region, surrendered (often to be executed or sold into slavery), or, like Metacom, were hunted down and killed. Mandell explores how decades of colonial expansion and encroachments on Indian sovereignty caused the war and how Metacom sought to enlist the aid of other tribes against the colonists even as Plymouth pressured the Wampanoags to join them. He narrates the colonists’ many defeats and growing desperation; the severe shortages the Indians faced during the brutal winter; the collapse of Native unity; and the final hunt for Metacom. In the process, Mandell reveals the complex and shifting relationships among the Native tribes and colonists and explains why the war effectively ended sovereignty for Indians in New England.

This fast-paced history incorporates the most recent scholarship on the region and features nine new maps and a bibliographic essay about Native-Anglo relations.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2007

Reviews

[Susan Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little-Known War

A well-researched book about early New England colonists' war with Native Americans. It sheds interesting light on Pilgrims and their relations with their neighbors, both European and Native.

[David Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent narrative of one of the defining series of events that shaped early New England. Mandell has done excellent research in piecing together the story of King Phillip's War and in describing the events leading up to it. While the narrative flows smoothly and is particularly engaging, it is largely a tale of what happened without telling the reader how everything happened. Those of us familiar with the many accounts of battles in modern history, and even in European history of the time period, may be disappointed by the lack of detail.

Overall, this book has taught me more than any other book that I can recall in recent memory. The topic is definitely neglected in the popular consciousness.

[Zachary Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are many books on King Philip's War, many of which are much more well known this, but Daniel Mandell's book is the best. Why? First, the book isn't trying to make a methodological argument about the colonial period or Native Americans. It simply gives a straight forward narrative of what happened. Second, this book does not ignore the northern theater of the war with the Wabanakis.

If you want to learn about King Philip's War this is the first book you should read. The others are great, but this is the most direct history of the event.

[Alexandra Grieco · Rating 3 out of 5]

read this for school

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comprehensive but a slog of a read.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really solid piece of history which delves into the multifaceted and far reaching forumlative struggle of northeastern colonial history.

[Scriptor Ignotus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice little primer on one of the largest Indian wars in the history of North America.