Unit Three Colonial Culture and Conflict The Colonial

Unit Three: Colonial Culture and Conflict The Colonial Wars

Colonial Conflict • The colonial period in American history was a time laced with conflict between Natives and Colonials, and Colonials against each other. • Both the Natives and the Colonials had to adapt to each others’ style of fighting, and what developed was a distinctly American form of warfare. • The conflicts and hardships the colonials faced help develop them as a unique people, we will later call Americans.

Types of Warfare • The two main styles of fighting during the colonial period were Gentleman’s Warfare and Guerilla Warfare. • Gentleman’s warfare was when two opposing armies lined up in straight lines and fired at one another, the army that held the field won the engagement. • Guerilla warfare was when small contingents tracked another group, striking quickly in ambush style and usually from cover.

Types of Warfare • The colonials also fought wars of annihilation (to kill off the whole army) and usually fought total wars (everything and everybody is considered as a combatant. • The Native Americans had to adapt quickly to this style of fighting making the natives more aggressive and violent. • As the colonial period progressed the conflicts between the Natives and the Colonials grew more gruesome and violent with each side fighting wars of vengeance (punishment inflicted in retaliation for an injury or offense).

Colonial Militias • In almost all of the American colonies men had to be part of a trainband (militia) to protect the colony from Indians or outside attack. • Once a month the militia had a mustered (to assemble) day to train and practice military formations and shooting. • If an outside threat attacked the colony or a group of Natives needed to be put down an expedition was organized with men signing contracts to fight for a set period of time. (When their time was up most men would go home, mission complete or not)

Colonial Weapons • The militiamen had to supply their own weapon which was either a Matchlock or Flintlock Musket. • The matchlock musket used a lit wick to ignite a pan of gun powder to shoot a projectile called grape shot (small metal ball). • The flintlock musket used a hammer with flint to create a spark to ignite the gunpowder to shoot the projectile. • Most colonials became proficient (skilled) in the use of bows and arrows and tomahawks.

Colonial Warfare Flintlock Musket 1. Matchlock Musket Powder was poured from the powder horn into a measure that held a predetermine d amount of powder. 2. The powder charge was then poured down the barrel of the gun. A patched lead ball was the placed on the muzzle of the gun and then shoved down the barrel until it rested on top of the powder charge. 3. A finer grade of powder was poured from a different powder horn into the pan of the rifle or musket, the hammer pulled back and the frizzen was closed. The weapon was the ready to be fired.

Tidewater wars • The settlers of Jamestown had lived in “relative peace” after the peace agreement between the settlers and Opechancanel. • After the death of Opechancanel, Opechancough became the Werowance (paramount chief) of the Powhatans and wanted to remove all English settlers form tidewater Virginia. • In 1622 Opechancough commanded a surprise attack on the Virginian settlements known as the Massacre of Good Friday killing ¼ of the Virginia population.

Tidewater wars • The Massacre of Good Friday sparked a series of wars known was the Tidewater Wars with the first being the First Anglo- Powhatan War. • After bitter fighting Opechancanough agreed to meet for a peace treaty with William Tucker and John Potts, but the settlers poisoned the Natives with Opechancanough escaping. • A truce was called that lasted for many years, but small attacks against the natives did not stop.

Tidewater wars • At age one hundred in 1644 Opechancough led another less successful raid on Virginian settlements called the Second Anglo-Powhatan War. • The settlers went into the frontiers, constructed forts, killed all Indians they encountered, and captured Opechancough who was taken to Jamestown shot and dismembered. • In the treaty of 1646 all member tribes of the Powhatan confederacy were made subjects of the king required to live in a specific area to separate them from the settlers.

Tidewater wars • Friction between the frontier colonists and the Powhatans led to small raids conducted by each. • Nathaniel Bacon a wealthy planter asked the Governor of Virginia, William Berkeley, to raise an expedition to put the Natives down but he refused. • In response to Berkeley, Bacon raised a small militia to “ask” the governor to reconsider, when he did not Bacon led the men in the burning of Jamestown taking over the government in an event called Bacon’s Rebellion. (first colonial led rebellion in colonies)

Tidewater wars • After the death of Bacon from dysentery (intestinal disorder) and being outnumbered the rebellion fell apart. • In 1784 the Treaty of Albany placed all former members of the Powhatan Confederacy on reserved lands (reservations) to “keep them safe” from future settlement of their former lands. • The reservation policy would become the dominant response to the “Indian problem” besides just killing them by the American government.

The Pequot Wars • In 1636 when Thomas Hooker moved his congregation to the Connecticut valley, he moved them directly in the middle of Pequot country where the Pequot were already in conflict with the surrounding Native tribes. • Due to the fear for the safety of Hooker’s people, the want for more land, and vengeance for the death of an important trader, John Oldham, on Block Island the Puritans launched a conflict known as the Pequot Wars.

The Pequot Wars • The Puritans (Massachusetts and Plymouth) allied with the Narragansett, Mohegan, and the colonials of the Chesapeake (Virginia) to attack the Pequot. • The Pequot Sachem (chief) Sassacus first attacked Hartford the capital of Connecticut killing many people. • In retaliation to the attack the people of Connecticut got together an expedition headed by John Mason to attack a village on the Mystic River, known as the Mystic Massacre killing all the natives starting total war.

The Pequot Wars • In 1638 after two years of fighting the Pequot signed the Treaty of Hartford, making all the Pequot still alive slaves, and were sold to sugar plantations in Bermuda and the West Indies. • The relations between Natives and colonials settled down until the new leader of the Wampanoag Confederacy, Metacom/Metacomet (King Philip) led a new war against the Puritans called King Philip's War.

King Philip’s War • Metocom was angered by the English attacks on natives, expansion into new lands, and the conversion of many Natives by Thomas Mayhew to Christianity, calling Christian Indian villages “praying towns”. • Metacom planned to combine the Natives of New England into one large alliance and kill all the English or push them out. • John Sassamon (Metacom’s advisor) tried to tell the Plymouth colonists about Metocom’s plan, but was killed, both sides blaming each other for his death and war started.

King Philip’s War • The war was only two years long, but developed bloody conflicts between the combatants. • At the Battle of Bloody Brook the colonial militia was attacked and easily defeated. • During the Great Swamp Fight at one of Metacom’s fortresses, an entire village of 300 natives were burned alive. • In response the Natives attacked Plymouth Plantation but were beaten back.

King Philip’s War • To show their anger the Natives tortured and mutilated nine men’s bodies and left them on display along a busy trade road at a site called Nine Men’s Misery. • An expedition led by Benjamin Church was commissioned to hunt and kill Metocom which they did, afterwards his body was drawn and quartered with his head placed on display in Plymouth. • King Philip’s War had a major effect with 7 out of 8 Natives dead, and 6 out of 13 New Englanders dead.

Tuscarora War • The Tuscarora War was fought in North Carolina between 1711 -1715 led by Chief Hancock because of English raids on his villages and enslavement of his people. • The other major chief in the area Chief Blunt allied his people with the English hunting down and killing Chief Hancock. • The remaining Tuscarora were placed on a reservation after a peace treaty in 1718.

The Yamasee War • The Yamasee War was fought in South Carolina (1715 -1717) between the Yamasee with the Ochose Creeks (Red Stick) and the English settlers. • The Yamasee and the Ochose went through the backcountry killing off as many settlers as they saw. • The larger part of the Natives armies were destroyed forcing the Yamasee to flee south joining the Seminoles (runaways) in Florida.