Glenn Beck
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
But this piece, like a rope in the saltwater, eventually frayed.
And when it fell apart, it did so in a tragic fashion.
Chief Massasoit died in 1661.
His firstborn and successor died the following year, so leadership then passed to Massasoit's second son, Medicom, whom the English called King Philip.
Medicom looked at the growing villages of Christian Indians, the land deals, and constantly arriving ships, and saw a future that he did not want.
Then, the spark.
A praying Indian named John Sassamon, educated, bilingual, reported to the Plymouth colonists that Medicom had planned war.
A few days later, Sassamon's body was discovered under the ice of a pond.
Plymouth tried and hanged three Wampanoags for the murder.
To many natives, the trial felt like English law crossing into their sovereignty.
To many colonists, it felt like justice.
To Chief Medicom,
It was a call to arms.
His alliance of tribes launched attacks designed to erase English towns entirely.
Every English settler in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut was to be killed.
No exceptions.
The plan was total war.
Starting in June 1675 and continuing for a year, raids torched the interior of Massachusetts.
Entire settlements were destroyed.
Many Christian Indians fought with the colonists against Metakon.