The Pilgrims had many days of Thanksgiving, which were somber prayer-filled days, as well as festivals to celebrate the harvest.  But one of their first Thanksgiving Proclamations was over the Pequot Massacre.

“In 1637, the Pequot War culminated in the burning of Fort Mystic by the English and their allies, killing hundreds of Pequot men, women, and children and almost wiping out the Pequot tribe. It was proclaimed by Governor John Winthrop in 1637:

The 12th of the 8th m. was ordered to bee kept a day of publicke thanksgiving to God for his great m’cies in subdewing the Pecoits, bringing the soldiers in safety, the successe of the conference, & good news from Germany.”

William Bradford wrote in Of Plymouth Plantation about the Pequot massacre:

“Those that scraped the fire were slaine with the sword; some hewed to peeces, others rune throw with their rapiers, so as they were quickly dispatchte, and very few escapted. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fyer, and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stincke and sente there of, but the victory seemed a sweete sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to inclose their enemise in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enimie.”

One of the main Pilgrim fathers, and a long-serving governor of Plymouth wrote that Pequot men, women, and children frying in the fire was a wonderful victory from God.  This story of ‘a day of publicke thanksgiving to God’ is actually really important to the white domination settling of America.

 “At the time of the Pequot War, Pequot strength was concentrated along the Pequot (now Thames) and Mystic Rivers in what is now southeastern Connecticut. Mystic, or Missituk, was the site of the major battle of the War. Under the leadership of Captain John Mason from Connecticut and Captain John Underhill from Massachusetts Bay Colony, English Puritan troops, with the help of Mohegan and Narragansett allies, burned the village and killed the estimated 400-700 Pequots inside.

The battle turned the tide against the Pequots and broke the tribe’s resistance. Many Pequots in other villages escaped and hid among other tribes, but most of them were eventually killed or captured and given as slaves to tribes friendly to the English. The English, supported by Uncas’ Mohegans, pursued the remaining Pequot resistors until all were either killed or captured and enslaved. After the War, the colonists enslaved survivors and outlawed the name “Pequot.“

The story of the Pequot War is an American story, a key element in our colonial history. As noted historian Alden T. Vaughan wrote in his book New England Frontier: Puritans and Indians 1620-1675:

“The effect of the Pequot War was profound. Overnight the balance of power had shifted from the populous but unorganized natives to the English colonies. Henceforth [until King Philip’s War] there was no combination of Indian tribes that could seriously threaten the English. The destruction of the Pequots cleared away the only major obstacle to Puritan expansion. And the thoroughness of that destruction made a deep impression on the other tribes.” 

A report of the time said, “Most courageously these Pequots behaved themselves.  But, seeing the fort was too hot for us, we devised a way how we might save ourselves and prejudice them.” -RK

So the Puritans torched the wigwams within the fort.

“What then took place – the incineration of hundreds of inhabitants and the shooting of hundreds more who tried to escape – was both a human horror and, again, an abrogation of the Narragansetts’ stipulation that women and children should not be harmed.” -RK

“Strangely, as the Puritan chroniclers and the nationalistic historians of later years retold the tale of the massacre, they chose to forget that the decision to put Fort Mystic to the torch had occurred not as a part of any master plan but as a matter of life-saving necessity.  They preferred to see the war as all of a piece, ordained.  But in fact the campaign had been launched by Boston and Hartford politicians for their own wild reasons, and the key episode at Fort Mystic had taken place as a kind of mistake, when the situation got out of hand.” -RK

“In the course of that summertime campaign in 1637, it seemed that something more savage than normal had seized the Puritan mind: a rush of vengeance, a passion for extermination; the kind of killing and enslaving associated with only the most barbaric of nations.  One might also say that that was the time when New Englanders permanently concluded they should conquer the land they perceived to be theirs.” –RK

“Now the myths of the totally right, totally exclusive, and totally invincible Puritans could claim the New England soul.  If the Pequot War itself did not twist New England toward native conquest, then the tribal memory of the war did.” -RK

What is our tribal memory of America?

Books/Resources

The Red King’s Rebellion: Racial Politics in New England 1675-1678 (RK)
Nickommoh! A Thanksgiving Celebration – Koller
The Pequot Tribe – Lassieur
The Pequots – Newman
Where the Great Hawk Flies – Ketchum
 

Part 1 – The First Thanksgiving and the Myth of America
Part 2 – The Myth of America – Columbus, Christ-Bearer
Part 3 – The Myth of America – Jamestown – The Wrong Story To Tell
Part 4 – Pilgrims – God’s Provision at the Expense of Other People
Part 5 – Myth of America – Biased History Lesson
Part 6 – The Mayflower Compact – for God and King and White America
 

This series is available as a 40 page pdf, giving an introductory look at settler colonialism as it relates to the founding of America.  Discusses Columbus, Jamestown, Pilgrims and Native Americans and includes 4 lessons to teach the topics to kids.
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