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In the early hours of May 26th, 1637, in an area of Connecticut called Mystic, an entire village of Pequot Native Americans lay sleeping in their wigwams. All of a sudden, shots rang out. Men, women, and children scurried to find a means of defense. In only a few hours, hundreds of Pequot Native Americans would lay lifeless in pools of blood. But what led to this form of mass destruction and slaughter? What would cause anybody to take this horrendous action against another group of human beings? This attack on the Pequot by English settlers began a long chain reaction of violent incidents between Native Americans and English settlers. Although the relationship between these two groups started out peacefully, the differences between them quickly began to turn them against one another.
In the early 1600’s, there were many people coming to the New World from England in order to openly practice their religious beliefs. These pilgrims were known as the Puritans. They believed that they were “pure”. They quickly developed forts to permanently house their growing population. The land had already been cleared by the Native Americans who had previously inhabited that land but they had been wiped out by disease. They planted and farmed on this land, but soon, they needed more and spread out to nearby areas, building more and more permanent structures. But with this expansion, came the issue of Native Americans who populated the adjacent lands.
During that same time, the Native American population was suffering as the death toll rose dramatically due to epidemics of small pox, measles, chicken pox, and yellow fever which had been introduced by the Europeans when they settled in the New World. Because the Native Americans had never been exposed to these diseases, they had no immunity to them. Over ninety percent of the population died. One of the tribes which was affected the least was the Pequot. They quickly became the most powerful tribe in the Connecticut region. They then used this power to be the leading source of Native American trade with the Puritans. The English had a high demand for wampum and furs, while the Pequot wanted iron pots, pans, and tools. Thus started the regular communication and contact between the Pequot and the Puritans.
As the two cultures began seeing more of each other, the stark differences between their ways became an issue. While the English wore full length and very modest clothing, the Pequot wore loin cloths and dainty dresses. The Native American women did all the farming and were considered equal to men; therefore they could speak freely. The men did the hunting and about twenty percent of the farming production. On the other hand, the English women had very few duties and were considered inferior to men. The Puritan men did all the farming, hunting, and any other task that required strenuous physical labor. They viewed the Pequot men as lazy. Another key difference was how they viewed land. The Native Americans saw the land in a spiritual way and not as something you own; whereas the Puritans saw it as property and something you buy. The biggest difference, however, was in the religious views of the two cultures. The Puritans began to believe that the Pequot were “with the devil.” Therefore, they had the right to kill them because of Manifest Destiny, or the order given by God to kill “the devil.” This was just the excuse that they needed to gain access to the land and wipe out the tribe that stood to be the biggest threat to them.
The English Puritans originally sought a peaceful and profitable relationship with the Pequot and other surrounding Native American tribes; however, they soon became blinded by their prejudices and greed. That colony of Puritans are single handedly responsible for wiping out one third of the Pequot population and starting an era of violence and massive blood-shed between Native Americans and Caucasians; which led to a continuous conflict between the two cultures that still exists today. |
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