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In the spring and summer of 1637, the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay, the English settlers on the Connecticut River, and their Indian allies, the Narragansetts and the eastern Niantics, would wage a war of annihilation against the Pequot tribe of southern Connecticut. It would be the most brutal fighting between Europeans and the Indians of North America since at least 1599 (when the Spanish massacred the Pueblo Indians of the Acoma mesa). It would also be the first time that Europeans set out to extinguish an Indian nation. As such, it would be, arguably, the greatest stain on the legacy of the Puritans of Massachusetts. This is the military history of that war, the causes and run-up having been covered in the last two episodes.
[Errata (5/21/2023): A very longstanding and attentive listener from New Mexico corrected my pronunciation of “Acoma” – the emphasis on the first syllable rather than the second. This is especially embarrassing because I believe he has had to correct me twice, the first time a year and a half ago.The same correspondent also points out the historical debate over the number of Indians who actually died at the Acoma massacre, and what the Spanish actually did to the feet of the captives. Perhaps the Spanish merely cut off their toes, rather than cutting the foot in half.]
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Selected references for this episode
Alfred A. Cave, The Pequot War
Charles Orr, History of the Pequot War: The Contemporary Accounts of Mason, Underhill, Vincent and Gardener
